Discussion 5 - Las Vegas by Tom Wolfe

Wolfe’s article gives a straightforward introduction to the signal figures of the early 60’s in Vegas from the show girls to the gamblers. He looks at the emergence of intriguing art forms & styles of life from the bright fluorescent lights of the signs to the underlying architectural symbol of them that have nothing to do with the ‘elite’ culture of the past. We see through Wolfe’s eye the new world’s most stupendous manifestation of the back-lit plastic city of Las Vegas. Wolfe’s style is all go & wow and breathy expectancy and he makes his crazy mannerisms look easy. His work is hypnotic allowing his readers follow on into a world of bright, shiny verbal imagery.

Wolfe sets Vegas out as the city it is, ‘a city that never sleeps’ from the gambling to entertainment, from art to drugs. The image portrayed in ones mind is a place of insomnia where people almost go insane with the 24/7 life style of Vegas from the noise of the craps table to the slot machines ringing. More than 3-4 days here would possible not be healthy for one sanity. However in Dave Hickey ‘Air Guitar’, he underlines the very place as home. He states that many would not feel at home here at first yet when they touch the essence of Vegas it could possible become home more than any the other place in the world. He sets Vegas as a place where anything can happen. He believes Las Vegas is the most honest place in America where one can evoke Art. Is this true? Perhaps it is as in the slight moment of the rolling dices one holds the anxiety and hope of anything is possible.