Word: dionysian
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...untypical. Nevertheless, the essay delineates the fundamental esthetic polarity (between Poe's and Emerson's poetics) through which Gelpi approaches all American poetry and which--when phrased as compellingly as in the following example--justifies even a restricted reading of Emerson: If for Emerson the poet was a Dionysian god, voicing instinctively the organic order of Nature under the spell of the divine frenzy, the poet was for Poe an Apollonian god extending his masterful hand over the confusion of nature through the shaping acts of language...
This musical is a cross between a Dionysian revel and an old-fashioned revival meeting. The religion that Hair preaches, and often screeches, is flower power, pot and protest. Its music is pop-rock, and its dialogue is mostly graffiti. Hair is lavish in dispraise of all things American, except presumably liberty. The play itself borders on license by presenting a scene in which half a dozen members of the cast, male and female, face the audience in the nude. This tableau is such a dimly lit still life that it will leave most playgoers open-mouthed with yawns...
...Dionysian Yelps. It would be hard to exaggerate how far removed Updike is from this view of the world as lunatic comedy. He dares to hope for both the reality of God and the sanity of society, and he sees sex not as a target but as a sanctuary. Scenes that other writers would play as burlesque, Updike plays straight, no matter how absurd they are. In Couples, for example, Piet and Foxy have huddled in an upstairs bathroom during the Kennedy night party. Her breasts are milk-laden after the birth of her baby. "Nurse me!," begs Piet. Foxy...
This earnestness in the face of farce is of a piece with Updike's general reverence toward sex. His contemporaries invade the ground with wild Dionysian yelps, mocking both the taboos that would make it forbidden and the lust that drives men to it. Updike can be honest about it, and his descriptions of the sight, taste and texture of women's bodies can be perfect little madrigals...
...Thank you for setting us straight on Leopold Stokowski [June 3]. His genius has been far more profitable to the musical world than his few past antics have been abusive. Presently, all we are asked to contend with are his Dionysian method of conducting (which is, for many, a more valuable visual aid than some are willing to admit) and certain liberties he may take with an orchestral score. Those who may feel they are not supposed to like such things need to remember what Brahms once said to Conductor Arthur Nikisch after Nikisch's fiery interpretation...