Word: familiarity
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Rereading of the quoted paragraph makes manifest that no argument is held to and that nothing is established. Sound supplants sense; familiar cadences camouflage banality and intellectual inconsistency...
With her scrambling of familiar word groupings to break down associated ideas in the reader's mind, making a complete denial of the usual meaning, Gertrude Stein contributes intangibly in her "play" on Daniel Webster. Saroyan's "The Pool Game" proves that he can create an objective tableau which has artistic form. "Letters to Christopher," by Mcrle Hoyleman, are strangely captivating. Perhaps the best writing is found in Delmore Schwartz's two stories, of which "The Commencement Day Address" is admirable for its moral as well as verbal edge...
...Prescription for Romance," which completes the bill, is mildly amusing, but of necessity suffers from contrast with the main feature. Its theme is very familiar: villain absconds with company's funds; innocent girl shelters him; detective and girl fall in love; all ends happily. Nevertheless, the treatment is light and humorous, and Mischa Aue as a phoney count provides many a ridiculous sequence...
...Barit's action was certainly not the familiar automotive stunt of changing a few gadgets as an excuse for lowering a car's price. The Hudson 112 is a bona fide new car. Nonetheless motormen generally regarded it as primarily an attempt to snare a market which has balked at high prices. How successful it will be remains to be seen, but last week it had President Roosevelt's blessing...
...second half, more heavily documented, is slower going. Here, except for a brilliant account of U. S. town-building, Miriam Beard's contribution is to compare the achievements of Vanderbilt, Gould, Morgan, Rockefeller with those of Fugger, Colbert, or the Bickers of Holland; to measure familiar swindles and honest accomplishments against ancient examples. U. S. millionaires compare well in both respects with their predecessors. Squelched at first by the landed gentry, then by Southern aristocrats, U. S. businessmen wielded their power openly only for a brief period after the Civil War, until their corporations grew so vast that "like...