Pensamiento - Literatura

II. Form and Content

§3. Theme and focus. In an interview (Wolfe, interview) the author explains that TRS is about "the status structure of the military flying fraternity and the psychology that emanates from that status structure". In his Foreword to TRS (xiv) he mentions his purpose is finding out what moves military pilots to accept willingly a likely death. From reading the Epilogue and the book itself, two secondary themes can be mentioned: exposing corporate media reporting and the Mercury space program. However, as we will see, structurally and ideologically, the focus of the book, almost a theme in itself, is admiration -epic chanting in a modern form-to those men having the right stuff , humanity's uppermost representants of heroism and courage.

§4. Story-telling and scene reconstruction . Wolfe uses the scene-by-scene lay-out of realistic story-telling to draw readers in: story-telling focuses on people, describes the way they encounter and participate in events and this elicits curiosity in readers. Scenes are organized around the notion of drama, which means they build a climax, they lead readers to a certain response and not so much to certain questions. Like classical myths, epic oral poetry or childhood stories have done throughout the centuries, story-telling in TRS is used to lead readers to a common place in by default ideological situations. The by default mentality-the mentality which allows those in power to maintain a status quo-left to its unconscious workings, easily builds unanimous emotional and psychological responses. It is easy to touch the emotional chords that power has always worked hard to touch. This is actually what many bards and buffoons, working for the people in power, have done for centuries. Scenes also enjoy a greater telleability than that of the pyramidal content presentation found in conventional reporting: readers can remember and reproduce a story better than a news item with factual information because in stories the information is organized according to how people experience events and not following more abstract modes of content organization.

§5. Structure, time, space and themes . TRS has a Foreword, 15 chapters and an Epilogue. The Foreword and the Epilogue are used by the writer as tools to build credibility for his persona , pushing for his work as a valid source of information on actual events, trying to incline readers to trust that narration, instead of focusing on helping readers to work out their own interpretative truth, as New Journalists allegedly set to do. The Foreword is mainly concerned with presenting the author as non-ideological and someone with a distinct voice, an entertaining narrator with some peculiar curiosity. The Epilogue is meant to give a non-ideological update on events. In dramatic terms, however, i.e. for the emotional purpose of the book, the Epilogue especially is irrelevant: Yeager's heroic image in the last chapter is what remains in the readers' minds, in place of all possible analysis. No factual information or explanation can beat the impact of the celebrated archetype.

§6. Chapter titles are mainly thematic and give information on scene organization. Mostly, the themes are stated taking into consideration the military pilots' point of view and slang. This also illustrates the emotional-ideological alliance on the part of the author. Chapter V and XII have titles in Wolfe's own words, for they present his own thesis, his personal contribution to the whole of the narration. Here is a table. In bold, the key chapters in the dramatic structure; in bold and italics, Wolfe's thesis in book. For chapters XII to XV, see §12.

Table 1. Structure & Titles in TRS

§7. Thematic organization follows the chronological time organization for events around the Mercury Project-from 1959 to 1962-and also includes information on military pilots' achievements in the 1940s and 1950s.

Structure and Ideological Focus

§8. Key Chapters/Exposition: Hero-Chanting. The beginning, chapters I-III, and the end of the book, chapter XV, deal with the material Wolfe wishes to promote ideologically. These chapters are the core message, the content which obliterates any other information (including that in Foreword and Epilogue) both because of its place in structure and because the climax is built around them: military pilots, death, manhood, the pilots' brotherhood and also what moves them to the values and attitudes which sustain their career, having the right stuff and not being left behind .

§9. The first three chapters present all the relevant information on the right stuff . Also, they are the only chapters making use of cliffhanger endings, a resource for anticipation and eliciting interest in readers or viewers. (Often used in TV series.) The last chapter appears as a contrast to the eleven preceding chapters, bringing readers back to the beginning, to "rescue" the figure of the true anonymous hero and counter thus the official climax in chapter X, connoting this is the true climax, the true source of meaning in the story. The irrational world of combat and test pilots is represented in a hierarchical status pyramid-a Babilonian ziggurat. The pilots live and die to keep climbing this pyramid and reach its summit. The uppermost position is occupied by the bravest and most efficient military pilots-Yeager, the pilot who "shattered the myth of the sound barrier" ( NASA Timeline ). The lower positions are occupied by those who died or could not perform successfully, according to military psychology, because they did not have the right stuff. The military-power holders in charge of sanctified violence-never make mistakes, they are never wrong; it is the pawns who lack skill or guts to succeed in their (death) missions.

§10. This amazingly primitive train of thought is focused throughout the book psychologically and emotionally from the uncritical place of the prevailing mentality which sustains our world order, which does not easily lead to rational interpretation but more to a kind of uncritical witnessing. Eventually, the outcoming focus will be bluntly achieved by means of the role played by chapter XV in the total structure, with hero-chanting condensed in Yeager's last climatic image, a symbol of courage (in manhood), an ideological message easy to understand and remember for its forceful prevailance in human history, existing to arise readers emotionally, not to make them think about events after presenting some facts and insight.

§11. The Mercury Chapters: Complication. Chapters IV-XIV follow the timeline of the Mercury space program. Chapters IV-IX are mostly on rat racing , especially by pilots (to be chosen as astronauts), and on the power of the media to contribute to myth-construction, but they include the fundamental chapter V, "In Single Combat," where Wolfe presents his admiration in the format of a learned thesis on why there are men whose courage makes every human on earth cry. Chapters X-XIV deal with the first manned-flights to space, chronologically, and with how astronauts come to occupy the highest position in the pilots' ziggurat. Chapter XII is the first dramatic climax, which brings us back to Wolfe's thesis on the single-combat hero.

§12. The Four Last Chapters: Resolution and Climaxes. Table 1 highlights the last chapters because they pose the resolution of different issues: chapter XII, "The Tears," poses the resolution of what it means to be an astronaut and the corresponding public historic climax, what actually happened and moved people. "The Operational Stuff," chapter XIII, and "The Club," chapter XIV, solve an underlying fundamental problem with the position astronauts are in, in comparison to military pilots: through the operational approach, they recover their legitimate nexus with the military, with the Brotherhood. It is true they are pictured in a Club, which conflicts with Low Rent military spirit-they have become vulnerable to material glamour, but then, who wouldn't? , meaning they are human . Nevertheless, it is clearly stated they belong to the flying ziggurat (see §53 & §56). The need to keep showing some degradation involved in being an astronaut is compensated by their feats, which also risk death, and this degradation is mostly functional-a resource for contrast with the final chapter. "The High Desert," chapter XV, poses the second and main climax for all: for the readers, for the pilots in general and for Wolfe. A picture of the hero to last in people's minds because it follows the ancient archetype of the patriarchal hero while offering its modern expression in the prototype of the US American hero-war and technology version in contrast to the preceding cowboy version.

 

Next: Part III. Narratologic Matters

Please, quote the author and the site: michelle renyé, at mujerpalabra.net.
Another quotation style: michelle. "Wolfe's The Right Stuff. Some Comments on Formal Issues & the Timely Chanting of Military Heroism. An Essay on a Best-Seller". Mujer Palabra. 2005. Path: Pensamiento. Date of Access <https://www.mujerpalabra.net>.