Word: blatherers
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TAKE A GIRL LIKE You, by Kingsley Amis (320 pp.; Harcourt, Brace; $3.95), recalls that before novelists ruined a good dodge by inventing realism, a writer could blather pleasantly for three volumes on nothing more substantial than "She shouldn't, but will she?" Now everyone assumes that she will, but should she? The question is of grave concern to young women, their parents, psychiatrists and friends, but it is not a very good theme for an entire novel. A snickering approach inevitably blasphemes against Freud, and a serious treatment defames Boccaccio. In this somewhat disappointing book, Kingsley (Lucky...
That Certain Something, by Arlene Francis (Messner; $3). Blather about how to be absolutely fascinating, including a chapter called "Charm Begins at Home-and Keeps on Going," another called "Twenty Short Cuts to Charm" (non-authors like to number their nonsense), and a questionnaire called a Charmometer, which asks such questions as "Do you plan one small thing each day to make your life more pleasant...
Once Upon a Dream, a Personal Chat with all Teenagers (Bobbs-Merrill; $2-95), by Patti Page. Blather on how to be absolutely fascinating, although young. Singer Page's chapter on early marriage begins, "Please, Dear Hearts and Gentle People, not yet-not till you think it over. Do you know the statistics on adolescent marriages?'' There is no advice on how old one should be before attempting a book...
...pointing out that TV cameras are forced to the back of the rbom in British conventions, said he thought the cameras injure the freedom of the U.S. press, killing off "the valid idea of off-the-record remarks," as politicians eagerly seek TV exposure and then produce floods of "blather and gobbledygook...
Great literature, secular and religious, is often the basis for blather...