Tom Wolfe tries to throw Noam Chomsky on the bonfire
Wolfe, the acclaimed New Journalist, and Chomsky, the most influential living linguist, tussle over Wolfe’s slim new volume about the origins of language and Chomsky’s long-standing political activism
After satirising everything from “radical chic” to 20th century architecture, Tom Wolfe is now mining the mystery of language and the reputation of the most influential linguist of our time, Noam Chomsky.
Chomsky, in turn, has some thoughts about Wolfe, the celebrated New Journalist and author of such classics as The Bonfire of the Vanities and The Right Stuff.
In his new book, The Kingdom of Speech, Wolfe examines how scholars have attempted to discern the roots of verbal communication. He reviews the debates between Charles Darwin, who likened speech to the “sounds uttered by birds”, and other 19th century evolutionists. He notes how modern understanding centres on Chomsky’s revolutionary theory that humans have an innate knowledge of language.
Wolfe duly acknowledges Chomsky’s breakthrough, but sees a man so used to dominance in his field that he scorns or evades those who challenge his research. He also suggests his stature as a linguist is tied to his years as an activist and left-wing thinker. He cites Chomsky’s 1967 publication “The Responsibility of Intellectuals”, a landmark essay in The New York Review of Books that assailed the Vietnam war and accused intellectuals of failing “to speak the truth and to expose lies”.