Word: abyss
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...that has been part of their peculiar national "innocence" and residual Puritan sense of themselves as the new elect of God. Without such grace or rationale, without the comfort of their demonstrable virtue and uniqueness, Americans feel themselves sliding toward triviality, and beyond that, toward an abyss that might swal low the whole experiment like a black hole. "Either America is the hope of the world," one dogmatically friendly French man wrote 20 years ago, "or it is nothing...
...dares, never allowing the desperate actions to have physical consequences. The play does not resolve its problems because many of the problems are unresolvable, and Innaurato is too honest to fake it without telling us so. The fantastic ending, which allows the protagonist to fly out of the abyss he dug himself, sends us out happy, and does not invalidate the preceding darker moments. They remain suspended--like Francis and Bunny on their respective ledges--inviting our return when the play--and the fun--has ended...
...Greek tragedies move through pitch points of passion, moments when men look into the abyss of self-revelation. In Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, which begins this cycle, there are three pitch points. The first comes as Agamemnon reasons with his daughter about the need for her death. Shrapnel sensitively conveys the deep inner anguish of a man torn between duty to his country and love for his child. As Clytemnestra, Suzman moves through a parabola of feelings, marking her again as one of the finest actresses on the English-speaking stage. And as Buxton reaches the heartbreaking conclusion that...
...Western protests over the internal exile of Nobel Peace Prizewinner Andrei Sakharov, the Literary Gazette responded by blaming the famed dissident's downfall on the West. Addressing Sakharov's supporters, the paper said: "By gratifying his inordinate vanity, you yourselves pushed him into the abyss of lies and slander into which he has fallen...
...sniveling Dutch embassy employee--it is about ten people too late. Sobhraj--who has escaped from prisons and tight situations like a super criminal--proves mortal. Having tred the fine line between sanity and psychosis for the better part of his life, he finally slips into a murderous abyss...