Postscript
Problem areas
P. J. Kavanagh
We are a wordy culture; sometimes it seems a shame to add to the hubbub, silence being preferable; but silence is underpaid. We talk and write and broad- cast inexhaustibly, the air is full of noises and, presumably because we are afearecl' we are always trying
out new ones; or
rather, we take old words from the shelf and put them in slightly new contexts, to see
if they will pass for the latest thing. ,
The rage recently was' perception ' meaning opinion, understanding: "What -is, your perception of the Middle East crisis? 'That depends on the Syrian perception the proposals.' Suddenly the word wn.s everywhere; on any news programme it/ came winging in from the four quarters a, the globe, ten times in an hour. I suppose It has some kind of philosophical, `mennitig of meaning' glossiness to it but the epidemic gave the game away: once again wnv clothes. stale percePts ifl , There is another word in a new conte?, t that has come, I fear, to stay, and it is odeuY depressing. I mean 'area', as in 'rural area'i meaning country, or countryside. It is' suppose, Town-Hall-Speak and therefnre past eradicating because no one in that area changes a formulation once it has become accepted, for at least a generation. PerhaEs I find the usage dismal because of T. Eliot's memorably patronising lines:
`I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids
Sprouting despondently at area gates.' Hui I don't thin-lc it's that — (now dared he!); I have always found the kind of areas he is talking about rather romantic. Nor do I believe I am alone in finding this formulation drab: it is hard to imagine advertisers recommending a can of peas as rural-area-fresh'. The most striking lower- ing of vitality I experienced on hearing that expression was its use by the wife of a driver in the Monte Carlo Rally. She quite looked forward to the trip — 'we have never been to the South of France area'. . . . For Years the words 'South of France', 'the Riviera', 'the Cote d'Azur', have thrilled Me, rightly or wrongly. Why did the words 'the South of France area' make me want to Weep?
Another word that is a problem is problems', as in 'weather problems', `traf- fic problems'. It was therefore a revelation to learn, from Channel 4, that the word, us- ed that way, has filtered in from corn- Puterology. Professor Weizenbaum (Com- PUter Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) thought it insidious, because the word 'problem' suggested the word 'solution', which raised false hopes. Pro- fessor
nce, Donald Michie (Machine In-
tellige Edinburgh University) took a different view, appeared to believe that Artificial Intelligence could change our Perception of problems in all sorts of areas. I am a Weizenbaum-man but that is not the Point. The point is that the lengthy, impor- tant discussion took place on Channel 4. And this seems a good time, when (if I read the omens correctly) a new Spectator TV critic is about to settle into place, to si- dle in .quickly and put in a good word for C, flannel 4. It has been disgracefully treated L'f,Y journalists. Whenever I switch it on I ‘;sind something interesting, or unusual. Where else could I have seen an ancient No0 Coward film called The Scoundrel? I shouldn't think even Coward knew a copy existed. Sometimes it is too good for its °,wn good. A hilarious send-up of chat- snows called For 4 Tonight was so subtly have the real thing, the host — can he really have been called 'Tony Royale'? — so deliciously, delicately awful that I suspect 400 many thought it was the real thing, but add; anyway, it has disappeared. Channel 4 „news is what TV news should be. Peter s. issons's face is like a battered suitcase that had been parked in the lobbies of all the fhr°11t-line hotels in the hot-spots of the World; and the items are given space, rele- vant People are properly questioned, you !eel Sissons cares about the answers, is not Just a pretty (battered) face. Jeremy Isaacs as insistent that Channel 4 was to be dif- kerent, was not just to be an ITV 2, and he has Succeeded; it is different, praise be, but "0 has come forward to say so? It was Panned, and no one has retracted. Why, W , "en we catch 'new' words like measles, do Ze so dislike real attempts at the new? , I-,s rerha– our perceptions are blunted and we nave problems in that area — 'on a perma- nent basis'.
Previous page
