Word: absurdities
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Martin also gamely tries to add depth to Picasso by exploring such universal themes as love, inspiration and the beauty of science. Unfortunately, sometimes the shift from the ridiculous to the sublime can be jarring, as the play occasionally moves from absurd humor to would-be-profound statements in a single line, interrupting the flow of the play. Several times, a string of non-stop jokes is followed by a crisis of realization which feels strained and unnatural. Martin, does, however, make some good points, and his effort to address more thought-provoking issues does broaden the scope...
...while this incident does indeed smack of the absurd, it also reveals an important insight into our educational system and into our public service systems, in general. This nameless 15-year-old girl has shown us, in a most unusual and simple way, just how big the cracks in our bureaucracy are, and how people can fall through without anyone knowing that they have been lost. Vander Weele, the chief of investigations, understood this and commented, not on the abnormalities of the situation, but on the broader awareness that it has fostered: "There are a lot of forgotten children...
...decision to cast Leigh is a big risk with big payoffs. Most famous for playing hookers and addicts in films like Last Exit to Brooklyn and Georgia, Leigh's participation in a costume drama is an almost absurd proposition...
...work will most likely be amused, but more confused, by the book, and even Vonnegut veterans may be caught off guard if they are expecting anything resembling a conventional story. The kind of wildly imaginative plotline that characterized his earlier and best-known satirical novels (such as the absurd, apocalyptic masterpiece, Cat's Cradle makes no appearance here. Fimequake is not so much wildly imaginative as wildly cantankerous, not so much a great read as a great rant...
...ravages of time and countless packs of Pall Malls. By refusing to take much of anything too seriously, the book manages to avoid drowning in its own Vonnegutia or becoming The World According To Kurt (or, even worse, some sort of humanist Dianetics). Popping up all over the book, absurd little litanies such as "something the cat drug in" (what people, especially scientists, like to make each other feel like) or "a dog's breakfast" (Kilgore Trout's expression for the human brain) establish a familiarity that helps the reader adjust to the author's inexhaustible outrage at the evils...