Word: abstractions
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Freedom & Equality. He placed his principles against such theories as those of the left-wing English scholar, Edward Hallett Carr, who wrote: "Equality in the abstract is purely formal... Even equality before the law may be a mockery when the law is framed by members of a privileged class. Freedom itself can be equally formal. Freedom to choose or refuse a job is unreal if freedom to refuse is merely tantamount to freedom to starve." It is a powerful and seductive line...
...yardsticks were developed by educators who wanted to improve on McGuffey. Gunning simply measures the number of words per sentence (a good average for newspaper stories: 16-20), the number of abstract words per 100 words, etc. He has no concern with felicity of phrase, or the worth of what a man is trying to say. Last week, after surveying editorials in half a dozen big U.S. papers, Gunning told what he found: "Most editorial writers seem to confuse dignity with pomposity. Their marathon sentences, foggy words and abstractions put their pieces completely out of reach...
...most prominent of his contributions to the Copley exhibition is "Road to the Factory," which he terms "an abstract painting with social significance." It depicts a crowded tenament district, with a road in the background leading into the smoke-belching mouth of a steel mill...
Individual performances within the twisted framework of the plot were comparatively satisfactory. Gino Cervi as Mozart looked and acted the abstract conception of the composer, and Luigi Pavese as his father was adequately Deutsch. Italian actresses, unfortunately, do not seem to fill the bill of love interest: Conchita Montenegro as Aloysia would be enough to frighten Eric von Stroheim...
...something favorable to some special interest or to the general interest. With our new semantic awareness, we have become conscious that a man who says he's "a liberal" is not necessarily one in his actions. We are becoming conscious of the notion that "freedom" is not a thing abstract and absolute, but a word that has many actual uses...