[inaudible conversations] one of the things from the very beginning and you are very loyal. It is my great pleasure to have my old friend tom wolfe here for breakfast. [applause] i decided the one thing that hadnt been touched that i began to hear but it was a total abstraction. But i couldnt get a picture of it. We heard about corruption in big time collegiate sports. I was curious how this affected the athletes themselves. And what they were like we heard of Political Correctness because they are much more apt to be talking to professors than to students. I discovered right away that students are eager to talk to an older person of what they are doing. No danger to be identified by name or looks as a matter of fact. They could not tell me enough. If a group of boys and girls end up in the same place with a small dance floor and he goes over and they said something very smooth like i bet youre tired of being mistaken for britney spears. [laughter] and to reviewers said i was so oldfashioned if anybody thought she was still hot had to be way behind the times. They call me septuagenarian now because of my occupation. [laughter] but he only touches the outside of the knee. And then say would you like to dance . Now turn a half minutes has gone by. They go out on the dance floor. Ten years ago it was called longbottom. Remember dirty dancing . Today it is known as grinding. [laughter] the girl and the boy lock and to begin grinding and they grind and they grind and they grind. Most cuts are about three minutes. So now five and a half minutes have gone by and then that guy in this case is g1 a ride back to campus . So that is code for whose bad do we go to . Yours or mine. To me it is an extremely important subject because colleges have replaced those ethical values and morality. And to me it is a big subject i try to portray the eyes of an innocent girl. Just a couple of questions. So the question is the book is entitled im but who or what did i intend the character to represent . And then in and the great metropolis and then you see it through her eyes. That was my original idea and then a girl who has been raised by very strict mother and the evangelical christian. And shes very strict and domineering. And to be a laidoff unemployed factory worker. And then that includes chewing tobacco the shes not a part of any of that but then this university that i called dupont to make a plausible example and then another guy up to the room. Or a coed bathroom and what that is really like and when girls use to have modesty to strengthen her cells and they do that with i am Charlotte Simmons. By the end of the book she doesnt know who she is. At the end of the four years they have no idea who they are and that was the purpose. [applause] he didnt admit it freely. Maybe they didnt tell you that very often. [laughter]. [inaudible] its wonderful to see if they have you. The [inaudible] i enjoyed most of doing the research after about four or five hours. Tom wolfe started as a journalist and has made reporting a part of his latest novel. He traded his suit for a blue blazer and a sound for the institutes of higher learning. The result is a satire of campus as a mythical ivy league campus. His new book is titled i am Charlotte Simmons and features the first female protagonist. A naive scholarship the roof from a mountain town, tom wolfe joins me in the studio to talk about her and her adventures on campus, and perhaps gave an answer as he wrote this book. When you made the decision to go into various colleges campuses, were you specifically focusing in your mind on sexuality or was it i want to find out what life is like on College Campuses today. Guest there were certain things i heard about College Campuses that intrigued me. One was reports that there was a lot more sex on campuses, and dorms. I said to myself why hasnt anybody written about this. Its very odd. There were a lot of reports about what was called binge drinking. A certain amount of drugs, all that didnt prove to be strong on the campus. They exist. Then the story is about Political Correctness and treat me and also the fact colleges now, the places where changes and new ethics are the created. As a leading indicator. Host go ahead. Guest this is a chapter in which Charlotte Simmons goes off to a magnificent university in the mideast, is writing home to her parents who dropped her off and headed back to the mountains and so shes writing a beautiful letter home. My best friend so far is from cincinnati, ohio, who lives on my floor. We met when we were having a hard time sleeping if we decide to go to the first floor and read it for a while. Shes an energetic person, not shy at all. If she wants to meet somebody, she types up and says hello. Not to say that she was down meeting that tina because she had been run out of her roomma roommate. I sleep very well and the problem is my roommate goes to bed very late. Starts to write three, four or 5 a. M. Instead, 2 a. M. And sometimes wakes me up. She slumped back in the chair and stared out the window into the darkness. This, she figured, was it a. This was the point she either cried out or didnt cry out. Only you can help me. Who else do i have who else will listen to me, why wont it returned to the dead of the night. She brings players into the bed bed 4 feet from my bed. Girls with 1500 sat is crying out im going to go out and get laid. Im talking about the girls, right in front of you, mom, what am i to do. Bushe stiffened up and swallowed it all. One little mention of sex and the wrath of god would hold her back into the whole county at home like a high. Simmons has dropped out of dupont. Poor thing is that its immoral. You truly have captured something that i have the feeling that not just younger women, but young men and older men and women will most definitely recognize. Reading from his brandnew book, titled, i am Charlotte Simmons. I think we will start with the email for tom wolfe. This is from florida. Shes had a just completed reading i am Charlotte Simmons. I was particularly intrigued with your contrast of what charlotte was in learning in her quarters and the basis for animalistic behavior versus those behaviors demonstrated by the higher order in an institution of higher learning, and the behaviors were at the same. My question, how did you educate yourself in those areas, and is this contrast of academic popculture your typical approach to writing . Guest iwriting . Guest it is the ultimate darwinism. Neuroscience says we are now finding a mechanical up in your brain that gives you the sense of smell and taste and feelings of danger and its all the end result is it is creating the impression that we are machines and not your belief that you have a self thats your own and there is an ie insight if you, much less as a sole, they always put quotations, is disappearing as the result of narrow science. And i thought it was the perfect way to analyze into the clean as i could see what was happening and if she comes into contact with people and customs. Shes never had to deal with that before. The last part of the western, ive never done that through this extent of bringing you together and i mentioned it before but i tried to really immerse herself and the reader in the latest. Because they ultimately are very depressing. Host its appropriate they should be entitled in pleasure with. Thanks for listening. I am diane available in paperback, hardcover and ebook from enochm publicaffairs presents biographies of every president inspired by conversations with historians about the leadership skills that make for a successful presidency. In this Election Year as americans decide who should lead the country, this collection offers perspectives into the lives and events that forged each president style. To learn more about the books featured historians, visit cspan. Org the president s available in paperback, hardcover and they both come out wherever books are sold. You are watching booktv. As we take a look at the late novelists, tom wolfe. A fax from 2006 the Richmond Virginia native shared his observations about his travels throughout the south. Guest its great to be back in a special honor to be invited to introduce tom wolfe, and a huge burden because how does one introduce tom wolfe. One reads the economies. There was an article on literary realism and im going to approach you a little bit of that as a way of introduction. For years, tom wolf had been in the establishment for the best of the around comes around country. America positive with fantastic stories and yet its writers ensconced in their right