1. When the Nation published my tribute to Terry Teachout this week they used this photo of The Vile Body, a salon Teachout formed in late 1980s, which revived all sorts of memories of the cult of Waugh & the failed attempt to create an American cultural aristocracy. 
2. When we think of cultural Reaganism, what usually comes to mind is the populist pop stuff: Family Ties, Rambo, Red Dawn etc. But there was a niche high end counterpart in the Waugh Revival. Tellingly, when PBS aired Masterpiece Theatre they got William F. Buckley to introduce
3. The Wauvian moment in 1980s had many roots: popularity of the BBC adaptation of Masterpiece Theatre, longstanding anglophilia in elite circles bolstered now Thatcher/Reagan relationship, desire for alternative canon to fight cultural liberalism.
4. The Vile Body as a social club was an attempt to give the Wauvian moment some sort of institutional solidity. Reportedly the name was suggested by filmmaker Whit Stillman, whose superb Metropolitan is a melancholy, wistful testament to Wauvian aspirations.
5. The Wauvian moment failed, with Metropolitan being the one lasting legacy (it's a great movie! watch it). Not for lack of talent since it included many fine writers: Teachout himself, Walter Olson, Donna Rifkind, Richard Brookhiser, Bruce Bawer.
6. The Wauvian moment failed not for lack of talent but for the simple reason that you can't will a cultural aristocracy into existence. What does it mean to Wauvian without the bordering schools, the landed aristocracy, a capital finance capital intertwined with that culture?
7. Aspirational Wauvianism started to fracture in 1990s for all sorts of reasons: marriage equality divided the gay conservatives from religious right, Catholic right's new alliance with white evangelicals meant greater cultural populism, new silicon valley $$ was futurist.
8. I mean the rich are always predominately philistine but Waugh could count on enough of them (and wannbes) sharing his traditionalism to make it viable. Now silicon valley plutocrats pay millions for ugly ape NFTs.
9. For more on Terry Teachout & his cultural projects, many more successful than the Wauvian moment, see here: jeetheer.substack.com/p/remembering-…
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