'Havernization'

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.-One of the things I always forget about American society when I'm away from it, so that it quickly gets forced on my consciousness when I come back, is the degree to which it's a society based upon phatic communion.

Phatic usage, you'll recall, is speech that seeks to share or reveal feelings or to establish an atmosphere of sociability rather than communicate ideas; lovers are phatic.

On my present visit, the reminder came particularly sharply because I've just come from a trip to Eastern Europe, and Eastern Europe is very unphatic, indeed. This you notice when you're flying; in Poland, or Bulgaria, or wherever, when your plane lands, the stewardess's announcement is couched in the language of Socialist Realism. She says something like: "Remain strapped in your seat until the plane stops and the pilot says you can move. Then get up, leave the plane in orderly fashion, and better not leave anything behind."

That, of course, is not the American way. Here, the hostess, for "stewardess" is definitely not the right word, does more than issue instructions; she states feelings. So she says: "We hope you found the flight fantastic, and don't forget: We are the airline that gave you 62 channels to choose from. Now fly us again, and have a nice day."

In both East and West, the plane may be overbooked, take off late, and send your baggage to another destination; in both, the stewardess's ankles may be swelling, and her temper short. But where, in nonphatic cultures, language is used to throw you unsmiling and naked into gross, diurnal reality, and even to sour it a little with gall and wormwood, in the States pleasant sugar is added. In fact, you can be sure that, whatever the reality, the discourse will be just a little better.

As a result of my instructive transit from one kind of society to the other, I've taken the trouble to develop a small provisional concept of how this phatic process works. I'll call it "Havernization." I was led to the notion when my hostess on an internal flight, aphasic, jet-lagged, her ankles swollen, lost her bearings and her final nouns. "Come back again," she said, "and havernize..."

This gave the subtext of a recurrent verbal procedure that I've since noticed repeatedly. It goes: "(I, we) hope you enjoyed your (meal, room, flight, hang-gliding practice, conversation with me, love affair) and havernize (day, evening, weekend, drink, marriage, divorce)." In the formula, as the hostess sensed, the nouns are irrelevant, the function here being the phatic one of casting a sacramental glow over the gross limits of self, and the dull banality of the real.

There are, of course, many variants. In a restaurant, the waitress, after serving a not notably good steak au poivre, took the trouble to come by and invest it with magic. "Isn't it wonderful here?" she asked.

And in my motel room there is one of those questionnaires that you fill out and leave at the desk, where they destroy it. "Your room was as clean and orderly as your own home, right?" it asks; and, "Maybe this wasn't the most fantastic experience of your whole life, but it came close, right?"

In fact, these things were not quite right. My own home, as any of my intimates will tell you, is a sort of untidy dump, right? And how shall I compare a perfectly pleasant but standard motel room to my esthetic reaction to the Sistine Chapel, or my first sexual encounter?

Yet, the steak and the room both seemed nicer after all that. It's no bad thing to see a word taking its rightful place, and serving not to describe reality but to invent it.

That is "Havernization." But it would not be right to suggest it is solely an American phenomenon. Indeed, the importance of the concept is that we may profitably apply it to a change that is taking place on a global basis, with the possible exception of Eastern Europe.

In Dusseldorf, in Tehran, in Tokyo, beef, however dry, is described as "succulent," on menus where in some cases the art of description has vastly overtaken the art of cooking. Hotels everywhere describe their hospitality, even in cases where they cannot provide it. After all, the great value of wearing a SMILE badge is that it leaves your face free to scowl.

"Havernization" increases as the world grows more abstract, more anonymous, as transactions get more fleeting, as substance gets less solid, and it does make life feel better. There may be despair behind the modern universe, but we hope you enjoyed it. And "havernize...", right?

Published in September 29, 1977

By Malcolm Bradbury

On The New York Times On The Web

http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/01/specials/bradbury-havernization.html

Other interesting articles written by Bradbury: [Next] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

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