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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000003136698 | P95 S53 1995 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Eloquence is vanishing from society, so claims Thomas Shachtman. Today's new commentators employ a lexicon of 5000 words, down from 10,000 in 1963, sound bites have taken the place of speeches, crudeness has replaced wit, and movie heroes shoot first and ask questions later. But the crisis of articulate expression is much deeper than we realise, for we have also lost our ability to respond to other points of view - to argue - without coming swiftly to blows.
Author Notes
Tom Shachtman has written twenty-five books, including the best-selling "The Gilded Leaf" (with Patrick Reynolds), as well as documentaries for all of the major television networks.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews 3
Publisher's Weekly Review
Shachtman's (Skyscraper Dreams) latest seems to start out as an intriguing study of the fate of conversation and Socratic dialogue in America. But the study of such an elusive topic would require a great deal of supposition, and apparently Shachtman prefers to deal with facts. After reviewing studies on how we learn to speak, standard English and on the culpability of schools in declining literacy, he makes it clear that his primary interest is political discourse. With television news more closely approximating entertainment and election campaigns approximating advertising, Shachtman worries that Americans are in danger of losing their voice in the democracyand, what's worsenot really knowing they've lost it. Little of this will seem new: informed readers are aware of changes in network news coverage; of the low intellectual caliber of talk shows; of the decline in literacy in schools; and of the spin-doctoring and sound-biting of political communication. Shachtman offers suggestions for increasing general articulateness (and, in doing so, raising the level of discourse), but most are commonsensical, and some are naïve: does anyone really believe that ``Oprah Winfrey might hire a vocabularist to cook up some delectable words for her talk show''? Probably not. The book will confirm readers' worst suspicions, but it gives them little new to think about. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Two reasoned attacks on the thing coincident with society's stupefaction--television. Minow coined the term vast wasteland in a 1961 speech but wishes that his plea for effecting a public interest in programming were better remembered. That competitive private interest rules the TV spectrum today, since the FCC he formerly chaired eliminated most content requirements in the mid-eighties, provokes Minow and LaMay's castigations of network rationalizations for what they broadcast. The authors settle into a lawyerly approach to the current situation, hinging on the Communications Act of 1934 and the interests that have sought to tighten or loosen it. These multibillion-dollar interests, they maintain, hide unduly behind the concept of free speech. The matter requires, in their view, re-regulation of the airwaves, and they offer draft legislation in an appendix. Forceful advocacy from a well-known figure. People talk more and say less, and that summarizes Shachtman's wide-ranging analysis of the verbal ineptitude that television so obviously fosters. But he doesn't saddle the tube with sole responsibility for ineloquence. It more abets than causes the crisis, which emanates from deeper problems, such as the mass appetite for witless entertainment in talk shows, sitcoms, or action movies. Trenchant examples of disjointed, muddled speech overlay the scholarly linguistic theories that Shachtman explains, making this a rich warning about the ever-growing impoverishment of public rhetoric. --Gilbert Taylor
Choice Review
Shachtman provides a vigorous, convincing discussion of how the US is on its way to becoming an inarticulate society, where leaders in entertainment, news media, and politics are pressured to appeal to the masses. The author blames this crisis in eloquence on both the culture and on parents and schools, and he claims that inarticulateness is undermining our democratic system. Chapters cover the learning and sociology of language, opposing oral culture and literate culture. The author discusses how education has been replaced by a mass culture with low goals and how politics has weakened and distorted language. The book ends hopefully, advocating a national program to counter inarticulateness involving the educational system, parents, producers of culture, and government. Incentives such as taxes will reassert participation in the democracy and make the US survive as an articulate society. Extensive notes and bibliography. All collections. C. M. Leder; emeritus, Mott Community College
