Word: babeling
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...Books: A Babel of sounds and furies from William Gaddis...
...almost entirely from dialogue, the novels of William Gaddis are like those scenes in a Robert Altman movie where everyone talks over everyone else while each tongue is tripping on itself. For A Frolic of His Own (Poseidon Press; 586 pages; $25), Gaddis practically rebuilds the Tower of Babel from the sounds and furies of the late 20th century. Drunken soliloquies, air-brained chatter and large, heavy blocks of legal gibberish are piled atop one another. One character is haunted by the thought that "reality may not exist at all except in the words in which it presents itself" -- which...
...dangers this internationalism presents are evident: not for nothing did the Tower of Babel collapse. As national borders fall, tribal alliances, and new manmade divisions, rise up, and the world learns every day terrible new meanings of the word Balkanization. And while some places are wired for international transmission, others (think of Iran or North Korea or Burma) remain as isolated as ever, widening the gap between the haves and the have- nots, or what Alvin Toffler has called the "fast" and the "slow" worlds. Tokyo has more telephones than the whole continent of Africa...
...youths gave the Pope a roaring welcome at Mile High Stadium as he entered in his Popemobile. The celebration choked downtown Denver streets with waves of T shirt-clad teenagers (LIFE IS SHORT, PRAY HARD, read one shirt; I GOT A MILE HIGH WITH THE POPE, said another). A Babel of hymns reverberated through the city. Still, for all their energy, the celebrators maintained a remarkable display of decorum and politeness...
RELIGION: A Babel of Bibles...