Word: abstractions
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Oates' point seems to be that when grand existential problems are embodied in real people, they take the form of mental disease. Philosophical dilemmas are noble in the abstract, but in reality they twist people into hideous shapes. Night-Side seems to be an indictment of philosophers on behalf of ordinary people. But in that case, why doesn't Oates show any sympathy for all these ordinary, tortured people? Although she describes her characters with inhuman intelligence. Oates never shows the slightest hint of compassion for them. Her identification of existential despair and mental illness is not so much...
When told that she was one of the roots of abstract art, Georgia O'Keeffe laughed: "Well, I must be one of the old roots." O'Keeffe turned 90 last week and has not slowed down. "It seems as if we have an awful lot to do, too much to do," she fretted. But to celebrate her new nonagenarian status, O'Keeffe took a minivacation from her home and studio in Abiquiu, N. Mex., and ventured east. After posing in front of one of her paintings in Washington's National Gallery, she spent her birthday strolling...
...instant salvation. On a slightly deeper level, the movie is warning us to beware celebrities bearing false prophecies. Because of the absorption in self and craft that their work requires, performers-be they actors or athletes-can be easy converts, and therefore untrustworthy in their wayward enthusiasms for abstract realms. On the more positive side, the picture suggests that if salvation is to be had, it lies in that pragmatic resistance to the con that has traditionally characterized the American spirit and is so charmingly exemplified by Reynolds...
After 30 years of reading about UFOs, says Trumbull, audiences have "a very abstract, mind's-eye view of what they expect to see in a flying saucer. It's a very religious kind of thing. For a film maker, it's like trying to show Jesus Christ or God. It's very hard to meet people's expectations...
Tosteson says he believes students and faculty feel uncomfortable thinking about these more abstract aspects of medical education. He admits that building character is a "slightly romantic" side of the school's efforts. He notes, however, that some of the best experiences in medical education occur when students and faculty work closely and learn together, as they must in order to develop this quality in doctors. He complains that the biggest problem in developing effective teaching is the size of the Medical School, which has expanded greatly over the past three decades...