Unnegligible

In Search of Heresy, by John W. Aldridge. 208 pp. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company $4.00

As a vocabulary virtuoso John W. Aldridge is a sort of poor man’s Russell Kirk. Intellectually and aesthetically poor, that is; his crowd probably has more money than Mr. Kirk’s. But he is accident-prone in stumbling on phrases which, intended for others, fit him. He attributes “meretriciousness” to David Riesman, who he says has received “the accolade of misquotation by the illiterately well-read.” Waiving consideration of David Riesman, meretricious is the word for this from Aldridge: “It seemed suddenly that all the old categories .. . simply ceased after the war to correspond to reality —if, indeed, there can be said to have been a reality after the war.” And for this: “When we speak of manners in the novel, I take it we have in mind something more than the merely fashionable and something less than the merely fastidious.” Perhaps, as less than merely would suggest, we have in mind nothing at all.

ME

About the Author

Medford Evans

Featured Tags

In Search of Heresy, by John W. Aldridge. 208 pp. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company $4.00

As a vocabulary virtuoso John W. Aldridge is a sort of poor man’s Russell Kirk. Intellectually and aesthetically poor, that is; his crowd probably has more money than Mr. Kirk’s. But he is accident-prone in stumbling on phrases which, intended for others, fit him. He attributes “meretriciousness” to David Riesman, who he says has received “the accolade of misquotation by the illiterately well-read.” Waiving consideration of David Riesman, meretricious is the word for this from Aldridge: “It seemed suddenly that all the old categories .. . simply ceased after the war to correspond to reality —if, indeed, there can be said to have been a reality after the war.” And for this: “When we speak of manners in the novel, I take it we have in mind something more than the merely fashionable and something less than the merely fastidious.” Perhaps, as less than merely would suggest, we have in mind nothing at all.