Word: dulling
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...reads, others maybe he gives away Robin Hood-style to his friends. Anyway, moralism being what it is, this guy may have worked out a rational connection between his politics and his book-stealing, but he may just as well not have--who's going to be so dull and bourgeois as to berate him for this petty redistribution of property...
...dull or bourgeois, Hills wants to argue against this kind of behavior, in a useful and up-to-date way. Lying, cheating, stealing--especially when personal gain is involved--these are the vices he has in mind when he talks about immorality. (There is a chapter on adultery, too, but this seems to be mainly a digression for the sake of entertainment.) And he wants to lay down absolute principles of morality, without any of the sponginess of relativism that complicate these things...
...just do it (leave your car window intact, pay for your books, etc)? Virtue costs money, to be sure; but the part that really bothers Hills--what makes how to be good a question he can sink his teeth into--is that he's convinced virtue is deadly dull...
...unifying doctrine, as with surrealism, nor even a strong common practice, such as the cubists found. "One can talk about the impressionist school," the Dutchman Van Dongen later remarked, "because they held certain principles. For us there was nothing like that; we merely thought their colors were a bit dull...
...totally alone. Suddenly, as the doors slid shut, a trio of leather-jacketed, acne-scarred youth darted onto the train. The stench of beer and sweat and corruption filled my nostrils. As one of the toughs sprawled insolently across a seat, another flicked his switchblade open and shut in dull, menacing repetition...