Word: clangings
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...problem with moral lectures by politicians is not just the clang effect. Once politicians cross the threshold and begin to preach, it becomes natural for the flock to demand of the preachers an accounting of their private lives, if only to see how the pulpit pounders live up to their own proclaimed standards. And that in turn legitimates our current obsession with what is euphemistically called character but is really a prurient interest in the private lives -- actually, the private vices -- of our leaders. Campaigns turn into spectacles of dueling peccadilloes and mutual muckraking. The end result of this orgy...
...Clang! Clang! Clang...
This joyride jumps back and forth through different scenes without any logical chronology. It is rapid and provocative, each scene change marked by the resounding clang of the frying pan and distorted recordings of the dialogue that have transpired on stage. The result is something very much like a current Reebok crosstrainer commercial, the kind of thing the play seems to mock. The 27 scene changes are clocked and set into motion with finesse, a credit to the lighting and set crew. However, these changes also pose a problem. Too abrupt and vague at times, they tend to jerk...
Last week, my professor discussed a French absurdist dramatist's lecture to the intellectual elite of his day. The playwright stood in front of the audience and began to clang a cowbell. The crowd chuckled appreciatively. He kept on clanging. The crowd began to shift nervously in their seats. He kept on clanging. The crowd began to pelt him with rotten meat...
...last the curtain fell again, with the disturbing clang of a prison door closing. Li Peng appeared on television for the first time since martial law was declared, receiving -- as if to underscore his legitimacy -- a covey of newly arrived ambassadors. The Premier declared that the soldiers would move into Beijing as soon as the city's residents understood the need to restore order. From all available signs, Deng Xiaoping had cast his lot with the hard- line faction headed by Li. The losers were a more reformist group led by party chief Zhao Ziyang. Diplomatic sources said that Zhao...