Word: frazers
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...Frazer demolished the Rousseauist notion that primitive man was blithe and free. Harassed by taboos at every hand, besieged by demons, snarled in ritual, the savage was far more vexed than civilized man with traffic lights, time clocks, income taxes. And Frazer revealed that the customs and rituals of civilization are forest-rooted, that vestiges of magic are everywhere...
...Golden Bough was abridged to one inexpensive volume. Gilbert Murray, famed classical scholar at Oxford, "with a thrill of alarm" hailed it as "a dangerous book." Said he: "Frazer tends to destroy [Christianity] by merely showing how old it is. ... The most mystical Christian doctrines . . . appear as commonplaces of savage superstition, sometimes revolting, sometimes in their way sublime. ..." Others were less upset. Wrote John Peale Bishop of The Golden Bough: "By extending [Christianity's] existence into the dark backward and abyss of time, it has gained not only the respectability of age, but another authenticity...
...Frazer himself thought that his books contained "a melancholy record of human error and folly." One thing he was sure of: "the permanent existence of ... a solid layer of savagery beneath the surface of society. ... We move on a thin crust which may at any moment be rent by the subterranean forces slumbering below. From time to time a hollow murmur underground or a sudden spurt of flame into the air tells of what is going on beneath our feet...
...couple of days after his phone call, Reporter Frazer, accompanied by another Canadian censor, went to visit a convoy ship shortly before its sailing time. The censor, preparing to descend to the pilot boat, looked for Reporter Frazer. He was missing. The ship was searched. Still no Frazer. The ship sailed. Safely at sea, Reporter Frazer appeared as a stowaway. He had figured that British naval authorities would laugh off his stunt as a smart newspaper scoop, play ball with him in order to cash in on the romantic publicity. Instead the Canadian Navy got sore at him, still sorer...
...with a sound verbal spanking, Reporter Frazer was booked by British authorities for speedy return on the next eastbound convoy ship...