Word: cryptical
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Little can be gleaned about the author himself from the cryptic "biographical" information on the dustcover, which sounds much like the drunken fiction inside. But if his background is unclear, Erofeev's literary heritage is not: his prose is in the great Russian grotesque tradition, hearkening back to Gogol by way of such earlier Soviet satirists as Bulgakov, Zamyatin, and Zoshchenko. There are also traces of authors as diverse as the Symbolist Andrei Bely (in some of the bizarre urban imagery). Rabelais, and J.D. Salinger (whose Catcher in the Rye was widely circulated in the Soviet Union...
PERHAPS BECAUSE of Miller's self-imposed time frame of one night, the almost deadening string of personal revelations may have been unavoidable. But less explanation exists for heavy-handed and calculatingly cryptic soliloquies that includes: "Marion hasn't been the same since the baby died." "I don't think I'm the man I wanted to be." "I wanted my father to respect me" (tears flowing), or, "I'm extremely popular...
...drag. Bill Murray as Dorsey's bemused play wright of a roommate gives a witty performance with his occasional wry comments. Murray remains detached throughout the movie as his character tries to humor Dorsey. Rumor has it that Murray improvised his lines, but regardless of their origin his cryptic remarks are an interesting foil to his usual role as a blatantly funny...
Though today's tag lines--most of which are written by a Chicago advertising firm--are of a more traditional, fortune cookie vein ("People with clenched fists cannot shake hands"), they persist. Those who read them ought not to shun the cryptic messages, but should "be thankful for the opportunity to be thankful...
...among the faculty and students who were at the University during the 13 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis recall the Soviets' singling out Harvard in official propaganda. Most recollect a campus just as confused and frightened as the rest of the country by the blur of cryptic news reports: U.S. blockade, 80 million potential American victims, rockets in Turkey, the threat to Berlin...