Great to be back and a special honor to be invited to introduce tom wolfe and a huge burden because how does one introduce tom wolfe . One read the economist, of course. Two weeks ago was a wonderful article on literary realism and i will quote as a way of introduction. For use tom wolfe has been lambasting the establishment for ignoring the best story around, their own country. America positively titillate with fantastic stories and get its writers ensconced in their manhattan lofts and residentss cant be bothered to look further than the ends of their noses. This week, a moment in American Literature, he wrote in one of his manifestoes on behalf of literary realism we need a battalion, a brigade of zolofts to head into the wild bizarre, heart stopping country of ours, reclaim it as literary property. The trouble turning yourself into an american is you expose yourself to being trump by reality, better sort of critics are forever lambasting tom wolfe for going over the top, using cartoon characters to exaggerate the evils of modern society but the truth is the opposite. Tom wolfes satire pales to insignificance compared with the hog stomping reality that he tries to capture. Tom wolfe was born and raised in richmond, virginia, educated at washington and lee and Yale University and started his journalistic career at springfield, Massachusetts Union newspaper. As latin american correspondent for the Washington Post he earned the newspaper guilds for a news prize for his coverage of the cuban revolution. In 1962 he moved to the New York Herald tribune where he and energy near breslin were the two Staff Writers assigned to the someday supplement which became new york magazine. The newspaper strike of 196263 afford him the opportunity to travel to Southern California to write an article on hot rod and custom car culture for esquire. Stumped for nagel for the article he sent his nose to his editor who published verbatim, described as, quote, a long spontaneous letter dispensing with traditional journalistic conventions and describing the whole scene and thus was born the new journalism. The rest they say is history, this and other essays were collected in the book, the candy colored tangerine, making the best talked about journalist in america. Numbering his dailies days as a daily newspaper correspondent. Two books published the same day in 1968, the electric koolaid acid test solidified his reputation as the observer and document are of contemporary American Experience was 1970s the flak catchers 1975, the painted world 1976, mad men clutter, the me generation was coined. Other tom wolfe contributions to the american mexican include radical chic, trophy wife and the right stuff. Turning his attention to the American Space program the right stuff was published in 1979, modern architecture from car house the car house to 1981, required reading architectural and Cultural Studies programs around the world. Taking a page from the serial list of the nineteenth century, the bonfire of the vanities portraying new york money culture of the 1980s made its appearance in Rolling Stone during 19841985 as tom wolfe ventured into satirical fiction, published in book form in 1987 and remained on the bestseller list for over a year. The man in full published in 1998, tom wolfe uses an atlanta Real Estate Developer and 23yearold manual labor to paint a panorama of American Life in the 21st century. In his period in tom wolfes life a serious connection with Duke University began. His sister helen is in the audience with us, graduated from the Balance Program some years before, 1998 tom and sheilas daughter alexandra entered the freshman class at Duke University and tom wolfe participated in the very first mom and dad read program in october of 1998. It was a stunning freshman class with the daughters of robert kreis and tom wolfe. Alexander introduced her father at the event and let the crowd know that tom wolfe had started a man in school when she was 7 years old and how pleased she was it was finally completed. [laughter] tom wolfe was a gracious dad speaking at the Library Dinner posing for a plastic duke reads poster and serving as Commencement Speaker and all the while doing research for a new book at an institution of Higher Education which assured me on several occasions is not duke. I took him with me to a faculty meeting, spent time learning and observing duke basketball and all the time like a train reporter observing and to throw us off guard he spent a semester in residence at Stanford University to complete the research on his novel i am charlotte simmons. It is my pleasure to introduce tom wolfe who is going to talk about whats sourthern today . Tom wolfe. [applause] thank you, ladies and gentlemen. It is great to be back at duke. My topic is david mentioned is whats new in the south, great material in the south. First of all, i am not advertising spring. I will put that down. Although i like it. First of all, i have not seen the new sounds of the south recorded anywhere or described in print. For example many of you had the same experience i have, you check into a hotel in mississippi, early in the morning you are awakened by a whack whack whack whack whack, this is the kitchen help breaking open tubes of frozen biscuits for the kids. I kind of like that. The other is the end of june, the end of may or summer you go to the airport and rent a car and turn on the ignition and you are blown back about four feet because whoever left the air conditioner on high, that is another sound of the south. Another one i particularly like, some beautiful place like Thomas Jefferson at the university of virginia which is so steeped in the memories of this nation, means so much to the educational course of this nation and is a priceless piece of architecture as if it was designed by leonardo or michelangelo and as your whole soul is engaged with a beautiful vista. That is the least. And i never understood, those are all sound of the south. And in the audience, in southern literature, good stuff. It is time after all these years to knock it off, it has all been done to death and you realize we have only just begun uncle zeke. I just heard from a witness, this afternoon the following took place in the 1940s in scotland county. There was an attempt by the Cattlemen Association in North Carolina, in the general stores, to be reliable source waiting for the cattlemen to come around or reminiscing on the subject of world war ii which was going strong, 1943, the war was raging and it seems to me we are going about the whole thing the wrong way. There is this one man, hitler causing all the trouble. If hitler was gone, didnt have to send over expeditionary forces. How are you going to do that, get in a boat and get me over there and i will take care of it and how do you want to do it . Go around his house probably. I will wait until it is nightfall. I will hide behind hide there all night, comes in the morning in then im going to let him have it. Now. I just love that story, the slight lack of knowledge of modern security waves. And leave these 2 common sense, and let someone with common sense. That is real 7, and i was in last august, i dont know if you have been there, a nascar race around a half a mile half a mile is very short distance for cars going over 200 miles and out. The stand at the bristol 500 are pitched at a very steep angle so that they can see as they do twice a year, 165,000 people, the biggest sporting event in america, not sure how many southerners in that particular event. Would have died and gone to heaven if he had seen the bristol 500. For a start, 165,000 i dont want to be a good old boy or good old girl, 165,000, they all arrive on a wednesday. This is something from the medieval tournament of the tenth or eleventh century, so far mock battles killed as many as a real battle and people would arise a week before hell raising celebrations. At the bristol 500 i saw all these lines up for a mile, rvs, people having the time of their lives. At the airport here came the vips. The vips went out to a huge Landing Strip most passengers never see, where helicopters are parked and imagine mussolini losing now, the good old boys and good old girls, but here comes the neckties and suits, i have nothing against neckties and suits, they are all mostly people who have never been to a nascar event before, probably expect to see Something Like the indianapolis 500. They are dressed up to the throat which i think men should be. Mail flesh i think every male over the age of 35 should cover up as much of himself as he can is possible to have a sizable build after the age of 35 but nothing you can do about your skin. My children make fun of me, but i think i am doing not the country, the neighborhood of favor when i wear a tank top to the beach. I would like to urge all men who are here to wear a tank top to the beach. Have pity on people, they dont want to see the flesh. I am getting a little bit off the subject. That doesnt count against my time, does it . All the vips get into the helicopters and start taking off like a gigantic sleek grasshopper, they all look like praying mantises, tearing through the airport all around and then they come down over the track. The track is built like a megaphone and you are sitting on the inside of the megaphone on a steep pitch so you can see without a more gentle slope. You can see it. In the stands, you feel as if you stood up and land on the track, it is that steep. You can imagine the noise with 25 racing cars in the crowd that comes up out of that megaphone and there is a terrible moment in the helicopter when you realize the overpowering sound of the helicopter has just been nullified by the sound coming up from the megaphone of the stand and people coming in by helicopter wrote to skyboxes. I love the skybox. It successfully removes you from the event. There are no sounds. The people in the skyboxes really just want to see each other anyway. It is so elaborate and there are so many drinks it is a world unto itself. Meantime the real fans are there in the stands and this incredible noise goes right through your rib cage, your ribs actually rattled, it moves the head on your hair, something i never experienced before but what i really wanted to mention is the people who spoke prior to the race. This will show you something about the south today. What is the south today . When i tell you the head of the National Rifle association, no longer charleston heston, he is not a celebrity, just president of the National Rifle association, he spoke for a long long time, not an inflammatory remark, rousing remark, to applaud him. That was a show of support. Then and invocation was given. Dont hold me to that. To look with favor on these drivers, who risk their lives for our edification and these fans make it possible. Do what they do to show us what can be done. Lord, we ask this of thee in the name of your only son, christ jesus. That may seem like nothing to you but that invocation in San Francisco, where i live, arrested for i hate crime and it sounded so strange. I was nonchalant about the term little boys, it is not completely accurate but does touch upon something material for writers whether they live in the south or they dont. Can do with the role of the scotch irish of American Life, and i take my page from james webb, author of the book a born fighter. The secretary of the navy under ronald reagan, had been the most decorated marine in vietnam. He then wrote four novels the first of which was the best novel about the war in vietnam, james webb, and annapolis graduate, going to be a leader and fighter and his scotch irish. He explained things i never knew, the scotch irish had been the backbone of American Fighting forces ever since the revolution. In the civil war, both sides, both armies, the union army of the north and the Confederate Army had in the core of their ranks scotch irish. The scotch irish are people from scotland who then went to ireland, protestants, left ireland and many came to the united states. Many were poor and but inexpensive land in the appalachians and all these years, they have remained those who were born fighting and they have fought anybody who has been in the armed services, southerners everywhere in the armed forces, that is scotch irish. The scotch irishs original source of country music. The scotch irish who also, usually when people are talking about rednecks. Redneck is a term, and anachronistic term about which people forget the origins sort of like barking up the wrong tree. I cant tell you how many people have no idea that comes from raccoon hunting, barking up the wrong tree or a tough road, one gods earth ever hold a rope in the last 25 years . These metaphors, these metaphors will hold on, will hold on tight. Excuse me. Now that you know it is there i will put it up here. And the scotch irish had a crucial influence not only on armed forces but also on the 2004 president ial election and i dont think this has ever been brought out before. It got down to the crucial state like the 2000 election, the crucial state was florida. In 2004 it was the state of ohio. The early returns were coming in from the big cities, cleveland and toledo. It was a runaway for john kerry in cleveland and toledo and the Industrial Town along the great lakes. A little bit later, in came the tally from southern ohio and it was as if an irresistible tornado had rushed through the entire lower part of ohio including the city of cincinnati. If the city of cincinnati had been somehow removed from the tally where george bush had a plurality of 150,000 votes the election would have gone to john kerry. That happens to be the swath of ohio that was settled by the scotch irish. Not only that, one of the main reasons according to surveys after the election. One of the main reasons the scotch irish voted against john kerry was that he was for gun control. You would think gun control is one issue, but the scotch irish are not alone in this. That one issue if you were scotch irish was an attack not on guns, but on your self, your people, your way of life because you were born fighting the constitution guarantees you your rifles and you are going to have them, not going to take that lying down. Another example of to me the new south or rather an old part of the new south, modern technology and the leadingedge of technology in the world is summed up in a single figure, chuck yeager. Chuck yeager was from the hollows of West Virginia in the mountains and he told me once so far up in the hollows they had to pipe in daylight. His father worked in the gas field as a driller. His older brother worked in a gas fields as a driller and chuck yeager worked in the gas field as a driller except the Second World War came along. It was a program called the flying sergeants because the air force did not have enough trained pilots because the standard requirements were College Education and so forth. Yeager became part of the flying sergeants program. On his first story, he shot down two german fighter planes. On his third he was shot down, was smuggled out of Southern France and into spain by the french underground, was told that having gone through this experience he was not to fly in combat again. Went to Dwight Eisenhower and said i will fly in combat and youve got that much spirit about it go fly. He did. He shot down, the total tally was 13 and a half killed including two german jet fighters he shot down. After the war, he was sent to edgars Edwards Air Force base as a test pilot and people there couldnt really understand him. He was a wily looked very much like sam shepard who played him in the movie, dark hair, strange locutions a lot of people in the air force didnt understand. He would say help like anybody else. It was hoped. I disagree with something, he would say i dont hold with that. Were actually elizabethan phrases from up in the mountains, up in the hollows. He also took umbrage at anything he did or said he had a way of looking at you that communicated, i got this from many people who were with him, communicated this message, look at me one more time and you will have four more holes in your nose people did not trifle with chuck yeager. Finally, because the civilian test pilots were going to fly the x one experimental rocket plane faster than the speed of sound, asks for too much money. They asked yeager to take the crucial flight in the x one to break the sound barrier. They asked him how much he would require to do that. He says i get 283 a month as a captain, thats good enough for me. He went out and broke the sound barrier in october of 1947, the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound and many of yeagers exploits were not in flight test but in rescuing pilots who had their windshields covered with ice which is a common problem. I talked with one of those pilots and he said he had flown a rocket flight and came down, windshield covered with ice, couldnt see a thing. You are out of power once you reach apogee, no power. He says yeager came up beside of his wing and started telling them how to move the plane. Just like you are an old fishing buddy, tell me what kind of floor to put out for that route. He was socalled so calm, he couldnt believe there was anything really wrong. He just did what yeager told him and landed safely. Yeager would to one of his patented signature maneuvers, fly over at 100 feet over rogers dry lake and do a complete rollover and cross down in the desert. Yeager became such a legend within the flying fraternity that pretty soon yo