(verb) to verify or prove to be true in pleading a cause / (verb) to allege or assert in pleading / (verb) to declare positively
Wallace's narratives aver that a self-licensed ignorance of one's situation/condition can all too readily be transformed into a kind of moral oblivion
on Oblivion
The audience, which leaned romantic, grumbled at the pessimism. The speakers demurred. That’s just how it is, they averred. We just have to do all of them.