Word: familiarity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Whereas Platoon had news value, Born on the Fourth of July tells a familiar story; it wants to teach us what we already know. The movie's uniqueness is in its tone. Stone plays director as if he were at a cathedral organ with all the stops out. Each scene, whether it means to elegize or horrify, is unrelenting, unmodulated, rabid with its own righteousness. And yet, frequently, the crazy machine works because of its voluptuous imagery. When Ron is wounded in Viet Nam, he collapses backward, and from his mouth a stream of blood spurts like the fountain...
Both a departure and a summing up, Keep the Change is described by McGuane as a "happy superimposition of results on intentions." Loyal readers will find themselves on familiar terrain -- the bone-dry wit, terse dialogue, lyrical descriptions of nature and hovering suggestion of violence are pure McGuane. But the measured tone and relatively upbeat ending of the book are a far cry from the pyrotechnical flash of his earlier works like The Bushwacked Piano or Ninety-Two in the Shade. Not all McGuane fans have stayed for the ride. "There are readers who abandoned me over the feeling that...
Readers not familiar with Sinyavsky's style or the content of his life may have difficulty with the half-submerged facts. He was born into an affluent family in 1925. His father, who appears in the book as a brilliant though ineffectual figure out of a Chekhov play, was a revolutionary but not a Bolshevik. He was individualistic and something of an eccentric pragmatist. While waiting to be drafted during World War I, he practiced writing with his left hand in case he lost his right...
True, he recycles the familiar perception of Disneyland as a benign totalitarian community and echoes criticism of the Reform Judaism of his youth as an apology for being a Jew. But Mamet has a fresher approach to the politics of image and empty rhetoric. He equates Ronald Reagan's feeble explanations of the Iran arms-for-hostages deal with the answers of parents whose fogginess hides an implied threat: "If you want to remain a child, if you want to enjoy the privilege of life without fear, do not judge...
People also put carbon into the air when they heat homes with oil or natural gas, or use electricity that comes from burning fossil fuels. Household conservation tips should be familiar: close off unused rooms, seal up cracks and openings, and insulate roofs. Look at the energy-efficiency rating when buying appliances. And one more idea that few people know about: replace ordinary incandescent light bulbs with "compact-fluorescent" models sold by major light-bulb manufacturers. They can give off the light of a 60-watt bulb while using only 15 watts of electricity. These fluorescent bulbs cost at least...