Bonfire of the Vanities
I was not a big fan of Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities”, nor of the movie adaptation, but we do have a hell of an insider’s book on the making of the film. I will field some excerpts from it.
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Tom Wolfe found the title for his novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities” in the story of Girolamo Savonarola, the fifteenth-century Florentine monk whose crusade against secular temptation won him a huge cult following. The zealous Savonarola convinced his followers that, in return for the privilege of living in Florence, God’s chosen city, they had a moral duty to cleanse themselves of earthly distractions. Conducting a house-to-house search, Savonarola’s most devoted followers, mostly adolescent boys, would collect the early manifestations of spiritual decline - jewels, gold, pictures, sculptures, playing cards, musical instruments, perfumes, powders, wigs, and books - and then burn these forbidden items, known as the “vanities,” in a bonfire in the town square.
-- Julie Salamon, “The Devil’s Candy: The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco”
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Savonarola’s success would become his undoing, perhaps glorying too much in his ministry, and winning enemies, until he himself winds up in the fire, burning in his own vanity. As for the movie, its massive failure at the box office can be seen as a modern bonfire of the vanities in its own right.
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Tom Wolfe found the title for his novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities” in the story of Girolamo Savonarola, the fifteenth-century Florentine monk whose crusade against secular temptation won him a huge cult following. The zealous Savonarola convinced his followers that, in return for the privilege of living in Florence, God’s chosen city, they had a moral duty to cleanse themselves of earthly distractions. Conducting a house-to-house search, Savonarola’s most devoted followers, mostly adolescent boys, would collect the early manifestations of spiritual decline - jewels, gold, pictures, sculptures, playing cards, musical instruments, perfumes, powders, wigs, and books - and then burn these forbidden items, known as the “vanities,” in a bonfire in the town square.
-- Julie Salamon, “The Devil’s Candy: The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Savonarola’s success would become his undoing, perhaps glorying too much in his ministry, and winning enemies, until he himself winds up in the fire, burning in his own vanity. As for the movie, its massive failure at the box office can be seen as a modern bonfire of the vanities in its own right.