Taken literally, Norman Mailer's Armies of the Night and Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test may seem very similar. Both focus on a major author of the 1960s and his experience of the historical events of the time, set in the style of New Journalism. When examined more closely, however, it becomes apparent that these novels represent two very different sides of New Journalism: Armies of the Night, an autobiography with personal and political motivations, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, a sociological piece that seeks to capture the essence of his arguments rather than absolute facts. By looking at the form and style in which the novels were written and the motives behind Mailer's Armies of the Night and Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, it is revealed how these novels represent the two main directions that New Journalism can take. the main differences between traditional journalism and new journalism as “(1) the journalist's relationship with the people and events he describes reflects new attitudes and values; and (2) the form and style of news are radically transformed through the use of fictional devices borrowed from short stories and novels” (22). These two differences from standard journalism are addressed in very different ways by Mailer and Wolfe in their respective novels. The journalist's relationship to the people and events he describes will be addressed later in this article under Mailer's and Wolfe's respective motivations for writing their novels. Armies of the Night and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test each represent a different side of the transformation of form and style needed in New Journalism. Mailer's novel does this through the use of the author's first hand...... middle of paper...... chose solid facts, Wolfe's intangible fundamental nature, but both were able to express an intimate knowledge of their topics. Works CitedDickstein, Morris. Eden's Gate: American Culture in the 1960s. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard UP, 1997. Print.Hellmann, John. Fables of fact: the new journalism as new fiction. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1981. Print.Hollowell, John. Fact and fiction: the new journalism and the non-fiction novel. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1977. Print.Johnson, Michael L. The New Journalism: The Underground Press, Nonfiction Artists, and Changes in the Established Media. Lawrence: University of Kansas, 1971. Print.Norman, Mailer. The armies of the night: history as a novel, the novel as history. New York: Plume, 1995. Print.Wolfe, Tom. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. New York: Bantam Books, 1999. Print.