Pensamiento - Literatura

V. Wolfe the Reporter versus Reporters & Myth-Building

§32. Let me introduce here a reflection upon Wolfe as a journalist in TRS and his criticism to the corporate media. Wolfe's exposing the corporate media is superficial, not structural. He mostly uses institutional media reporting for contrast, similarly to what he does with astronauts in the pair astronauts/pilots (see §33, §43). He uses the media to show how they seek the wrong sources and make the wrong questions, and how he, Wolfe, the New Journalist, does not. However, the fact is that the difference between both types of reporting is only formal: corporate media move according to junctural power needs-they identify the political issue at stake at the moment; Wolfe resorts to structural support to power needs-he identifies the feeling that has sustained people in power for centuries. The book seems to focus on the power of the media in myth-building (in spite of what is stated in the Epilogue) and Wolfe uses the media not to question the power structures that move them and their nature, but to enhance his own contribution as a reporter.

§33. Although Wolfe is satirizing the construction of modern myths by institutional media reporting, he is actually contributing to the construction of "the true myth," a myth which is rooted in Ancient times. He is taking up the same function he criticizes in others (see also §43): he presents military pilots as actual pilots (not monkeys in capsules), as people running actual high risk of death ("burned beyond recognition" probabilities), and all the more valuable because they do not profit from the glory of seeing the masses acclaim their feats (no ritual of glory for the true single-combat hero, no retouched heaven, no balconies for these angels ). Astronauts, though used for contrast to promote pilots, are heroes themselves: they belong to the flying ziggurat, they also risk dying for a cause; they are not treated like politicians and the corporate media by Wolfe. The hardships they have to bear, mostly presented as humiliating, are a result of the military not being in power to decide, of "civilians" being in charge as well as a result of others being in the power to influence the presentation of events (like politicians through the corporate media). At the end of the book there is a reminder: "It was John Glenn who had realized . Project Mercury was like a new branch of the armed services, despite its civilian coloration. It would have simplified matters tremendously if NASA had given everybody formal rankings . [P]eople . would have known where they actually stood. . It would have greatly simplified matters for the wives as well" (314; ch. XIV).

Next: Part VI. Comment on Contents by Chapters

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>.