THE QUALITY OF GOOD TALK

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 274, 15 August 1936, Page 25

THE QUALITY OF GOOD TALK

Conversational Analysis “Good Talk,” by Esme WingfieldStratford. (London: Lovat Dickson). Words, millions of them, have been uttered every second of every day since our forefathers first got down from their trees and wanted a means of expressing themselves. There have been bad words and good words, words that meant nothing, and words that were pregnant with beauty and significance. Of all these there i.s no actual record, merely alleged sayings from which we can only make our own sound pictures and trust to their being something like the real thing. This elusive quality of the spoken word is dealt with in a very entertaining and capable manner by Miss Wingfield-Stratford in her book, "Good Talk.” Her treatment of the .subject takes us back to a probable beginning of talk, and follows its development as man progressed through the ages until he learned to write, and there we have the first records of what he talked about, but not of what he said, for “the life of a conversation is more than the words.” In that statement the author has revealed the whole secret of the impossibility of capturing the charm of the spoken word and presenting it in permanent form, for no matter how accurate the report of a conversation. there is always the presence of the speaker denied to us, and the presence of the speaker is essential for a full appreciation of talk. To talk well the speaker must be the master of his words, not a slave to them. “There can be no question of art unless there is a free use of its material,” and to have one's use of words restricted by popular prejudice and convention is hardly conducive to bright or intelligent conversation. We adapt our materials to our needs, and one would not think of speaking in the language of books in ordinary oral intercourse any more than one would use glass for a means of expression if one were a wood-carver. It is only the ability to use the right words and to talk about the right thing at the right time that makes in any way possible the achievement of “good talk.” The author surmises the Golden Age of conversation to have been before the written word came into being, but, be that as it may, her suggestion that the Silver Age was the period of intellectual supremacy in Greece, is certainly a statement that is not likely to be disputed. The Greeks considered the spoken word superior to writing as a medium to transmit truth and beauty, and their own adaption of this principle seems to have been its conclusive proof, for the civilisation of the Greeks was one that was essentially alive intellectually, “of so intense and pulsating a vitality as to be almost beyond our conception,” and the main means of expression of such a period was entrusted to the spoken word.

Good talk has not the elevated atmosphere of conversation, but savours more of beer and good fellowship, and for good talk the presence of the speaker is perhaps even more essential than for conversation. It is this fact that has made the recording of good talk an impossibility. No writer has even been able to catch the life of a word spoken in jolly company and pin it to paper. It is the analysis of its charm such at attempt necessitates that is the cause of the writer’s downfall.

The rise and fall in standards of conversation, its influence on life and its different uses, are traced through the ages from the courts of Egypt to the London of Dr. Johnson with a neverfailing interest. The final chapters of the book deplore the lack of good talk to-day and attributing. it largely to “the enslavement of the mind to its own body.” They give some good advice to those who would endeavour to be that rare thing, a good conversationalist. It is a book to read if only because of its insight into the essentials of good talk, and an appreciation of the fact, that “you. cannot learn to talk without first learning to live.”