The Right Stuff

Recommended, fun read.

The Right Stuff is a period piece about the rise of astronauts and how they were shaped by mass media, government bureaucracy, and their own internal code of what it meant to have ’the right stuff’. Wolfe takes the perspective of ‘part anthropologist, part satirist, part historian’ as another reviewer puts it, and it felt like exactly the right tone.

I found it fascinating in two ways:

First was the almost raw exploration of the male psyche, taking risks, insisting on extreme, perhaps foolhardy levels of ownership and control, flying and drinking, drinking and driving. In many ways it was the non-fiction equivalent of top gun, exploring similar themes.

Second, the pervasive influence of mass media, told through the author’s sarcastic tone was a delight. Having lived through intense media interest at Facebook, I was intrigued by what a positive media press storm could look like, and Wolfe did a great job synthesizing perspectives so that it felt right.