Good evening, everyone and welcome. We are delighted to have you with us to share thoughts on the uses and abuses of the englishlanguage. The right words will be the subject of the conversation between mr. Buckley and his longtime editor. After the program, he will be happy to take a few questions and sign copies of your book. Hes edited 22 of his books. He worked many years as public editor and currently editor at large at random house inc. And he will now introduce start buckley. Thank you. [laughter] the book is called buckley, the right word. After i read the subtitle, the evening is over called about uses of language and about vocabulary, uses, style and speaking, fiction, diction and dictionaries, reviews of interviews, electric on online eloquence and journalism and more. He should have been edited. [laughter] any lengthy information about buckley will be unnecessary and dumb. If you dont know who he is, i dont know why youre here. Violating the iron rule of those who introduce speakers by saying they need no introduction, ill go right to the interview. Buckley, what the world possessed you to do this book . What possessed me to do this book, they were committed to cultivating it. Eight, ten years, we ought to do a book focused on language. On the use of language but also how it can be spoken and used in writing introductions and obituaries and interviews so i was so bored by this. Whether hes happy he did, i dont know. I hope we are certainly happy with the result, it took an awful lot of time and what he came up with this a book of praise of language. One of his biographies, he said i dont believe in corporate punishment. Each child who doesnt appreciate the language would be flawed. [laughter] i have a son, back with this was not a problem but i think the beauty of language is something about which universal enthusiasm, im grateful for the time, for bringing this. You say you hate to write, what you make of this . I dont think thats so odd, is it . People dig ditches so to the extent there being paid by that, thats good, isnt it . Some people, including me, shooting achingly excruciatingly painful because you are using an entire nervous apparatus so if n essay or book review, youre bringing up a lot of stuff sitting around reading a book or essay about people. A good friend, george told me, is this a day in which i have to write a column . The answer is yes, linux exactly the opposite reaction. I dont understand why people should be surprised if you face thats something that painful to do, you should be surprised acquired the skills to do it quickly. If you dont like to change diapers, does it make sense so asking another question. [laughter] sleeping or reading or writing, some people do that and thats what i do. Id like to have written, he likes to sit down and say okay, i worked hard all afternoon and i wrote part of my book and it gives you retrospectively satisfaction so i think, do you suppose they all like to fade . Didnt think to ask that question. I feel good for having what you think . I think painters like to paint overtime. Or maybe they like what appeals to them but not the portrait of the princess. I painted a little bit, i am terrible at it but absolutely love it and it never occurred to me that maybe painters have the same sense of labor, the proce process, the pains of it that writers have. I cant take time to read that. You try. [laughter] your use of rare or difficult words, it puts you in a position to have two defend yourself against this outrage. Explain yourself in less than 20 words. I cant do that in less than 20 words but a review of my book by jackson, i think of him as more of a critic columnist and hes written a book on language, but he has this war against unusual words. Stickley sending out unusual words he used over the course of a year, a horrific demonstration, crawling up on his knees and surrendering but he forgot about so the purpose of journalism is communication and to the extent that one risks lack of communication when there isnt distrust and the possibilities. Years ago i said, their writing the recipe for rattlesnake, id be sad theres no ambiguity in the instructions i gave. Nothing unusual. If you got a newspaper 20 or 25 pages, it ought to be little better in which people can communicate. Sometimes that means using unusual words. A sense of what youre trying to communicate is lost by that. Its extremely hard to establish. I cant anything written here because that word exists, i can understand what youre saying. When it runs into a slightly unusual word, the context being there or i lifted up made points in one of my exchanges, every word that exists, it exists because they said theres a first need for it. But otherwise didnt serve the purpose so therefore, this word on its way ultimately into its dictionary. If its on its way there, it must have been a curiosity. If you hear a monk play on the piano and they play an unusual record, they dont say dont use an unusual cord. So i i try very hard not to use words with those purposes, i hate to not use the word, a word but just right for the situation. Soon. Sometimes its a matter of i think theres that, to. 28000 words, 40 of the words shakespeare used, he used only once. He found it was just right then, in that sense, i think a devotion for the music of language satisfied appetites which ought to be discouraged if the New York Times New York Post said you may not use any word outside of the 11000 words we authorize, i think there would be resentment by our readers who thought they werent allowed in on the musical language. Is it erratic . Patrick said its okay to select a word for rhythm. There are some situations in which i use the word ironic, the word peaceful. Why did you use that word instead of peaceful . It has an extra syllable. He understood the rhythmic requirement and he used simmons synonyms for those purposes. Its an unusual word so i he should worry is unusual words in those circumstances. You spoke fantastic. It surprises some people when they learn english is not your first language or even the second. Why is that . What was it . I was brought up in different circumstances, ten children and the oldest five were french and youngest five, spanish. My father lived in mexico and by the time i was born, is living in paris and switzerland and he was bilingual and we spoke to each other spanish and when i went to school and friends, it wasnt until i was seven and learned that i was exposed to english. Its not that unusual in america, tons of people arrived at six or seven and never had spoken word of english. I sat yesterday with my students in composition and we had lunch and on my right is this lovely girl by whom i told about moscow and i thought about this market. Caviar, this mexican came up with two pans and they were full of this awful pink but she arrived at six speaking not word of english. He called and his friends and said i have to decide whether to continue to write in french or english. Guess what im saying, in america, the assumption is the native language, this one is the only one at home and i dont think thats true. Especially when one is very young, its extremely easy to learn and become fluent in another language. When i think of buckley, having english as a second language. You have written 11 novels, the cia, lachlan oakes, did you think youre going to be a cia a agent . Its not easy last couple days to defend the cia. About 30 years ago, began publishing, we were defending the mission but not defending the cia. We ran a paragraph that read the attempt at assassinating succumbed yesterday, had earmarked the cia mission, it was on that. The cia screwed up terribly. I wrote a piece for playboy in which i inserted the importance, if somebody blows up the next, it makes sense to hope somebody says who they are. In terms of the cold war, it was extremely important is also true they are demoralized as a result of rigid aims. I was in mexico, was a agent. I think i would say i didnt kill anybody if it makes you feel any better. [laughter] after a while, somebody whos clever and so perfect, youd suspect most are cia. Have you written any books, been accused many times, this book contains examples, this is dandridges dangerous for a novelist. Im not sure what your. Are but i hope its a rule about which ive known studiously correct, a voice praised a book, it makes no difference who wrote it, its an obligation, but sam is referring to, some people who review my books begin by saying son of a, lets get down to it. It does hurt. When klein wrote his book, a wonderful terrific idea, it wouldnt be easy to do, especially if you have tics that are not observable. Somebody in the room says zero hi, how are you doing . So theres a sense of which im told it would be difficult but i think its true it is the barrier to be known for particular views that are hated by the review and asking the reviewer to rank your book as though it was written by somebody who didnt have previous. Been through this before, whats the most potent review youve ever written . Potent in what sense . Affective. About a year ago, the chapel hill press wrote a book about a salient adventure, they did run about every three weeks but i ill read a couple pages of it. I was absolutely bored, it was horrific. As a father and son who took a sailboat around cape horn and automated the chronicles, they were telling about the trip. It is exclusively exquisitely written. So i sent an email to the lady of the New York Times. And then three weeks later informed they would run all 2700 on the cover. The last cover the New York Times ran and it didnt propel the book into the bestseller. The this is a book about a father and his son who traveled. Then the book that will be read with delight, when it came back with a couple of changes, 100 years from now was reduced to a year or two. [laughter] i could see that the as kind of a disaster [inaudible] it became his primary companion. He came up to me when i was writing my journal and said what are you doing . Writing in my journal. Am i in it . You are but you wont be again. This is the New York Times version, you wont be if you misbehave. [laughter] [inaudible] it would be better if we brought the audience in this point. [inaudible] i had a problem with the fact both because he ended up with a dont think because the average person reading this book wouldnt say that is the position on this or that political synthesis. Therefore however persuasive he was inside of those come he didnt in my judgment, put a political cosmos. One of the things ive grown to admire that you hear is your ability to carry out its logical conclusion and then it starts to get scary or bigger than i can handle the well pullback. How do you break through that barrier . On a try not to. She admires the ability to carry a fought through to a logical conclusion but sometimes, things go beyond back to the point that its almost scary. Theres nothing scarier than the bible because it tells you the consequences of certain kinds of behavior in the book im finishing u this about the catholic faith in him if i recall the oldest sister. She was entirely prepared to [inaudible] they were fishing around said he said why dont you eat meat on friday. I said because i will go to he hell. He said i suppose you believe the assumption about the virgin mary. I said not only do i believe it, but in the moment it happened [inaudible] the consequences of the disciplines to answer your question dont i find them sometimes scary, yes, absolute absolutely. But no more scary than the fact that if you come out here in a certain risk and if you cross the road to flou with blog trafu from a certain risk. And if you believe this new uncertain risks. I didnt think of this director. [inaudible] if it is unspoken it shouldnt surprise you when it is spoken. What do you think of the level of political discourse like the president ial campaign both parties spent billions . What fascinates me about the politics everyone we ran into this how awful they are. I would like to run into somebody that says i thought it was terrific. Not my neighbor, not your neighbor, i think some machine is turning out what they want to hear in just this way so you tune in to and when you find it it becomes terribly disappointing. The average american is a little above average. I like that. Its different from the position that you can never go broke overestimating what you are saying is you regret the level of the political discourse. Yesmen. What you think of Graham Greene as a novelist . And what do you think of his personality . Spinnaker dude you like Graham Greene and are you interested in his personality i havent met him and inserted but i didnt because i dont think he was an easy man to like the. There was passion, energy, he was aroused on a number of points. 15 or 20 years ago somebody said what is the single word in the english language which you most dislike to which he replied america. He sort of celebrated castro in some of his books. He had the interesting coalition in his aesthetic political commitments. On the one hand kind of a devotion to the Catholic Church and a kind of complementary iconoclasm. Okay, if i understand you dispose however to abide by them i will make up for it by sending every other sort of political. There was someone who knew him very well and is a hard man to live with. One of his books from the New York Times which he forgot about and sort of rediscovered its ten or 15 years later. It was never a significant book of his that he wrote some great folks. They say if you mention god in a Group Gathering in new york [inaudible] if you mention in the second time you dont get it back. [laughter] [inaudible] it is the right word for [inaudible] mostly you are guided by the idiomatic presumptions. The guy that said i had a wonderful time yesterday, cut it out. Or i got my mercedes yesterday directly from the factory. [laughter] on the other hand, if to the pronunciation of a word that belongs primarily to the word rather than its privatization is another ignorance or indifference to. I fell in love when i was eight and she was seven. [laughter] she told me she had just come back and visited london and loved [inaudible] since she was only eight [inaudible] people who mangled the pronunciation in that sense are either ignorant or indifferent to the better way to handle it. [inaudible] churchill . Churchill was such a theatrical person. At prep school, i heard a speech he gave to announce that the americans had landed a and the orders that would repeat that was a minutes long [inaudible] apparently some percentage of people of north africa surrendered. Rather than to have to continue to listen to this. [laughter] later i know he was invited. This is a comprehensive understanding of the intellectual talent one has to assume a this was intentional. You want to say we are very much english and understand it to be a globalist enterprise which is far more effective than the speech that came out by his marvelous friends. The idea to the extreme by drinking french wine. Destroying the whole culture. This man. What is a woman whose book you are dying to review . The reason i find that in all a question is because there isnt anyone i am dying to review, but women writers are so triumphantly successful i cant think of any woman writer whose book i bought and want to review because it was written by a woman. Sam was talking to me earlier today about a woman writer whose book is currently editing and he spoke about it so persuasively that when it comes up for review i will have to. Spencer who is writing a memoir its quite wonderful but i wont take your time to sell it here. I will be back in the morning. [laughter] the gentleman in the back. [inaudible] will [laughter] very popular with the republicans and he was a very eloquent and decisive member of the republican left. In fact he left the Republican Party and became a democrat which i urge you to do for years earlier. [laughter] and then kind of a machine democrat. The conservative alternative view of the municipal parties ought to be spoken about by somebody. It was inconceivable that i would win. 13 is dangerously close to being successful. If i ran again my motto would be voting by invitation only. [laughter] after that campaign became immortal when somebody said what would you do if you win and you said demand a recount. [laughter] my Campaign Manager didnt like that. [laughter] questions. [inaudible] but i defined the word genius i wouldnt define it anything novel. I used the word a little bit loosely as somebody with an extraordinary gift. I know some who say you must not use the word expect they three times per century. Okay, shakespeare [inaudible] if you are more generous you could say wild you are not shakespeare but i will call you a genius because of the singularity of your talent. In a way i think gorman is a genius. I would say it was genius. [inaudible] with shes asking for a comment on the bill moyers series. I didnt see it. Hes so ecumenical. To dissipate and then to the christianity i dont have that ecumenical impulse but if you applied it to music or color or poetry, the reason some people are not is because they buy into their version of the singularity of superordinate over others. It is todays list such efforts bill moyers and others made. To simply acknowledge the differences but i try to do a and which i desired zero curiosity. Ali dismissed . Thank you, everyone for coming. [applause] [inaudible] you are watching booktv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Tonight we are spending the evening with late author and columnist, william f. Buckley junior, founder of the National Review magazine, host of the firing Line Television program and had a longrunning newspaper column. Up next, from 1997, mr. Buckley reflected on his feet in his autobiography near by god. [inaudible conversations]
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