The Word

The most modern of literary conventions, of fairly recent approval, permits sexual play or sexual passion to be described in lavish detail, in four-letter as well as polysyllabic words, in fiction. But a certain reticence and circumlocution, for obvious reasons, is still demanded in the public prints, on radio and on television. Last week British Critic Kenneth Tynan, who doubles as literary director of Britain's National Theater, decided to test that convention and found it still intact.

It happened on a BBC panel show, aired well past prime time, where the question of sexual explicitness in the theater was under discussion. With bland insouciance, the moderator asked: "Would you go so far as to allow a play to be put on at the National Theater in which sexual intercourse took place on the stage?" Tynan took a deep breath, peered soberly into the camera, and said: "Certainly." Then, using the most familiar English four-letter colloquialism for the act of love, he allowed that there are "very few rational people in this world to whom the word is particularly revolting."

Tynan might be right. Certainly millions of English-speaking people use it every day as verb, noun and adjective, as an expletive, an oath, and even a term of endearment. But, as Tynan quickly learned from the uproar that followed his pronouncement, there is still a considerable gap between private usage and public sensibility. The novel may reflect life, but life does not yet completely imitate fiction.

And life has men who can still maintain a humorous perspective. Asked for the government's view of the "outrage," Prime Minister Harold Wilson replied: "Sir, four-letter words have not appeared nor will they in any of my performances on television."

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