The Way We Talk Now

THE WAY WE TALK NOW is a collection of commentaries linguist Geoffrey Nunberg contributed to NPR's "Fresh Air" show from 1989 to 2000. The topic is language, how we use it and sometimes abuse it, and each essay, written to be read aloud under 5 minutes, contains wit, information and opinion. In his preface, he seems rather apologetic explaining that the flow of prose is tailored to how we listen rather than how we read, but on the page it is quite fluent, warm as a human voice and possessed of a visual rhythm.

The collection is divided into thematic sections: topical influences, word histories, political input, reading/writing, the language of business and technology. Within each category, the essays are arranged in the chronological order in which they aired, which works though occasionally there is a dizzy feeling, going from Y2K and the 2000 election at the end of one section and then starting back with the administration of George Herbert Bush in the next. As he zig zags back and forth across the last decade of the last century, his overall commentary emerges as a valuable zeitgeist index of the times, catching our language in a manifest destiny mode as the internet moved in with the ammunition we never saw coming. As such, his information is not so much dated but historically connected to a specific point in the past that has been swept over by what has transpired since late January of 2001.

I really like Nunberg's voice and ideas. It is obvious that he loves what he does. It is amusing to see which words, however annoyingly introduced, have stuck and which rather quickly fell by the wayside. He ends the book with a very witty poem, written on the eve of 2000 invoking the language that grew out of the late 20th century, sometimes in the hope it would not cross the threshold into the next millennium.

I hadn't previously read any of Nunberg's works.
His style is that of a friend reflecting with you over a late night armagnac.

The book is diverse, very interesting and many times thought-provoking

Much recommended.

Language is how we interact and bring meaning to the world-all those things which we value we also name. This is what makes Geoffrey Nunberg's work as a linguistics professor at Stanford so interesting and it is just that fascinating field of study which he shares with us in this book. I was first introduced to Nunberg through his work on NRP's Fresh Air and this book's short essay format nicely parallel's the commentaries that he has produced there.

Casting a wide net Nunberg looks at a wide range of subjects in this book, from political speech to language of business. He not only is a keen observer of how these areas of speech are changing but also is able to penetrate to what those changes really mean about our society all with an intelligent wit.

While in the end I think I still prefer his expertly delivered NRP pieces they always leave me wanting more-and his written work is just that!

Thanks to my habitual avoidance of radio/TV I'm completely unfamiliar with Mr. Nunberg's radio show. Instead I use the resulting "spare" time to pursue many esoteric intrests such as the history of words and phrases. Although I had doubts about a book based on an NPR program, several positive reviews convinced me "The Way We Talk Now" would add to my store of knowledge. After reading this book, I'm certain my abstention is to be commended.

The book would appeal to regular listeners of his show (and a certain class of pseudo-intellectuals in general), but I found his chatty style tiring and I didn't learn anything that I couldn't easily find elsewhere. Only a concern for accidentally damaging some young child's mind stopped me from tossing it out before I was finished. Certainly I wasn't expecting a formal, eurdite work, but his book wasn't even particularly entertaining, let alone informative on its purported subject.

The occasional gem amongst the many clods of dirt wasn't worth the toil. If you enjoy dated stories about the .com years, or many snore-inducing personal stories, this is the book you've been looking for all these years. Otherwise... the works of William F. Buckley Jr. are significantly more informative (and funnier too). And please don't settle for political discourse posing as wit; for the real stuff you could do worse than Chesterton or Wodehouse.

_The Way We Talk Now_ is one of those rare masterpieces that appeals to both the scholar and the layman. In this compilation of radio essays on a variety of subjects, Geoffrey Nunberg looks at the American culture and its institutions - and the way we verbalize in regard to, and as a result of, them - with an eye that is as incisive as it is witty.

Indeed, for a linguist of such repute, Nunberg is engaging and warm, and his essays are as enthralling as they are enlightening. In fact, for those individuals who have always seen the study of linguistics as a highly specialized field of study appreciated only by intellectuals who are as boring as their reading, this will be an enormously pleasant shock.

More than a collection of entertaining essays, however, the value of The Way We Talk Now lies in Nunberg's constant and unrelenting prodding and encouragement of the reader to look at himself within our cultural and institutional contexts - via the medium of verbal self-expression. Whether discussing the flap over inner city dialects being taught in school, the moral and aesthetic qualities imparted to the English language by purists, the camaraderie of radio call-in talk shows, or the evolving perception of cults within our society, Nunberg relentlessly brings the reader to examine his own communication. Invariably, the realizations that accompany this self-analysis - both voluntary and involuntary - are as enlightening as they are surprising.

Profound without being incomprehensible, simple without being shallow, packing its weight in engaging scholarly content, and a springboard for continued self-analysis and more effective self-expression, this jewel of humor and insight is both a credit to Nunberg's skill and a welcome breath of fresh air. Above all, this is a book to be read as much for learning as for enjoyment.

- Benjamin Gene Gardner