Word: defectiveness
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...personality of Charlie Chan is fairly well known; he is more human and more credible than Mr. Holmes, less precious in deduction than Mr. Vance, but has one serious dramatic defect. That is his Oriental origin, which calls into play all the ridiculous flummery which passes on the domestic stage for a Chinese accent, which was almost the ruin of Mr. Colton's Shanghai Gesture and which will survive until Mr. Nathan at last hoots it into ignominy...
...method is modern, cinematic, "stream-of-consciousness." Poet of involved psychological states, he is usually not at his best in the comparative bluntness of prose. And in modern poetry, which has come far from Robbie Burns, gutlessness may be an advantage; in novels, however, it is still a defect. Conrad Aiken's prose-people are shadowy, unsubstantial; but in the hero of Great Circle he has concentrated such emotion that the other characters seem temporarily real enough. Written with more ability than most U. S. prosemen can command, with more care than most would be bothered to employ, Author...
...latent reasoning powers in a subject which is altogether concrete. A student planning to enter any branch of engineering or physics will never regret the knowledge of elementary mechanics that may be gained in this course. Instruction is sometimes uninspiring, but the training and subject matter compensate for this defect...
Nothing in the bill prevented employers from slashing wages to compensate for the new workers which the Senate was trying to force them to hire. The measure's critics loudly pointed out this defect, predicted a dire slump in already deflated wages or else a sharp jump in manufacturing sales prices. For the Black Bill to be completely effective nothing less drastic than a minimum wage provision was required and this the Senate did not yet dare to vote...
...Machiavellianism" and "The New Bourgeoisie," it often resolves itself into summary, and nothing more. The biographical vignettes, of Disraeli, Wilde and others are striking and original, but in several instances questionable; and there is occasionally a suspicious naivete in the point of view. This may well be a defect of the stylist and not the historian. The writing of the book certainly is marred by a sort of false urbanity and lacks the flair for effortless insinuation such as Lytton Strachey displayed in treating of the same period. Despite these minor shortcomings, Mr. Wingfield-Stratford has probably written, the most...