Word: foolishness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...exasperating, "The Empire Builders" is a fascinating drama in the Absurd tradition: which means that it mingles farce and tragedy, fantasy and reality, in a dramaturgic jumble; that its people are fools, doomed to play clown roles in the face of impending disaster; that it is myterious, mystifying, enignatic, foolish, funny--all at the same time...
...mother, the daughter and the maid of this family: people who would seem to be normal in many ways, for they sit and stare part of the time at a huge television screen where a hilariously silly soap opera goes on and on, interrupted by equally hilarious and equally foolish commercials. But they move a lot, and for reasons not clear...
Until this concluding scene, which is gravely serious as the man faces looming extinction, much of the action and many of the lines of "The Empire Builders" are foolish but amusing: foolish as the father tells long-winded stories, or acts out some of his memories of the past; or prattles with a foolish neighbor, meanwhile kicking the schmurz from time to time...
...play is intended as a parable, a fable, perhaps, of man trying to escape death, fearing it, moving always ahead of it in panic: foolish as he tries to escape, even more foolish as he tries to rationalize his behavior ultimately pathetic as he tries to brave it out, knowing there...
...peace"-though Russia of late has shown no inclination whatever to insert the key in the lock. Exactly what inducements Nixon might offer at the bargaining table are unstated. It could hardly be otherwise. Even if the status of the war next year could be predicted, it would be foolish, his aides point out, to get locked into a bargaining position now. "I don't have all the answers," Nixon told a breakfast reception in Oshkosh. "But I do know the questions, and I do know it is possible to do a better job than we have...