Word: circusing
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...like the ectomorphic Smiley, The Honourable Schoolboy resists shrinkage. Its events are febrile, its local color relentless and sometimes overlong. This often obscures suspense and the Le Carré trademark: a fine irony that smashes beautiful political theories with hard facts. That irony is apparent in the very word Circus (see box), center of British intelligence. Once a roiling three-ring operation, the place now resembles a shabby, peeling carnival depleted of funds and dignity...
Derided as the "captain of a wrecked ship," Smiley tries to find a coup so stunning it will restore the Circus' reputation?and funding. From the outset, he has one obsessive target: Karla, head of Soviet agent operations, whose spectral face stares down from its frame in Smiley's office. The relationship of the opposing spymasters, playing international chess for men's souls, is worth a book in itself. Karla is an evil genius who once instructed his mole to seduce Smiley's wife?to make the Briton doubt his motives for suspecting Haydon. Smiley's pure, patriotic zeal...
...Tightrope Act: As in the circus, this requires great balance, an umbrella, or parasol, in hand. The consequences of failure can be considerable. You have just entered Emerson 101, or some other hall with closely packed desks, ten minutes late. There is an empty seat four rows down and seven seats in. You have one minute to get there without dropping your dripping umbrella, raincoat, backpack or books from the Coop into the laps of students in your...
...most part exquisitely crafted and touchable and do not disturb one in the way that the human figures do. However, like the Chagall graphics, they are seldom merely decorative. They, too, have an air of fantasy about them. But it is a variety quite different from the circus bustle of the Chagalls. On leaving the two exhibits one could be struck by the ephemeral quality of the prints in contrast with the timeless carvings...
Ignoring the issue of the general strength or weakness of the male characters, it is still difficult to understand why Swados has included many of the show's comic sketches. The Flying Pastrami Brothers are an amusing comment on the overly proud and pompous trapeze artists of the circus, but they add nothing significant to Swados' ideas about attitudes towards life. The routine between a ventriloquist and his dummy is not even funny, stoien as it is from a common vaudeville...