Word: verbalism
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Collier's verbal monkeyshines are so adroit as to make the reader forget the paradox that while man may be like a monkey, a monkey is not like a man. It is all prime fun among the primates, and calls to mind the verse of a British poet in which an ape reflects on the Darwinian version of the Fall...
...situations are seldom better than the lines, being funny mainly when the action is slapstick--a plant suddenly sprouting in joyful abundance all over the stage is the most bearable example. But the author occasionally leaps out of his verbal rut to pierce a pet political balloon very neatly: "Senator Cotton Joe Somethingorother is in the hospital." "Disease serious?" "Senility." "Then how can he be chairman of our committee?" Seniority." But originality is not rampant even here. Nowhere in the play is the humor more than mildly reminiscent of author John Patrick's lighthearted previous creation, Teahouse of the August...
...thought which provides an understanding of his intellectual method. In his remarks about religion, Wilson is concerned by the fact that there is no longer any valid correlative for the time-honored distinction between human and animal has led to a degeneration of meaning in the word "soul." These verbal failures lead in turn to the confusion and failure of thought about religious concepts...
...recall the maxim his religious mother taught him. "Go to church and believe in God?" he guessed desperately. "Live by the golden rule and keep goin'," prompted Edwards firmly. "Keep goin'," repeated Dempsey. He kept goin'. Only once, with obvious inadvertence, did he throw a verbal counterpunch. "Now they say you were a hobo," droned Edwards, "but you were never really a hobo, were you?" Dempsey groped, then murmured gently: "I think I was a hobo." The audience howled, and Edwards grinned through clenched teeth...
...Brennan's predecessor and mentor Frank Leahy-screaming for the scalp of young (28) Coach Terry Brennan. But Notre Dame's president, the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., silenced the pack by giving Brennan a timely vote of confidence: "Coach Brennan was engaged in 1954 on a verbal agreement for three years . . . we are now re-engaging him for next year...