Word: genericizing
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...victim of its own, centuries-long hype: so much has been claimed for it, much of it contradictory, that our literal-minded age overloads and calls the whole thing a wash. Or perhaps America has finally got heaven just right. Plain. Unvarnished. Stripped of harps and halos. The current generic heaven still delivers when people need it most, say some unsentimental observers--at the death of a loved one. Why bother with it any other time...
...other hand, if you really tried, you could similarly empathize with people who weren't your clone. We've all felt an adolescent's nervousness, and we've all felt youthfully eager, because these feelings are part of the generic human mind, grounded in the genes that define our species. It's just that we don't effortlessly transmute this common experience into empathy except in special cases--with offspring or siblings or close friends. And presumably with clones...
...other words, not many surprises turn up in Necessary Madness (Putnam; 212 pages; $21.95), a generic weeper with a happy ending. But the novel has enjoyed brisk prepublication chatter, impressive sales of foreign rights and a movie deal thanks to an interesting fact about its author: Jenn Crowell, now a college sophomore, was 17 when she finished the manuscript...
...crowd was looking for generic power chord fodder in Goldfinger's performance, then its anticipation was satisfied. The band's ska roots were watered down to the point that the ska-based guitar rhythm would pop up every so often, as if it remained a vestigial part of the band by failing to make a musical statement. Consequently, the noisy uniformity of the music washed away the lyrics into inaudible oblivion. Unbelievably, however, the audience continued to eat up the performance as they threw themselves at each other and jumped along to the drum rhythms...
...trend than a fluke. This cop thriller bears a surface similarity to the early Eddie hits 48 HRS. and Beverly Hills Cop, but it's lame and lazy, inefficient even as the sort of action machine Hollywood can tool up in its sleep. The mandatory car chase is woefully generic; it disregards the laws of physics without raising more than vagrant musings in the viewer. Why, for example, would a cable-car-ful of passengers be too timid to apprehend the lone bad guy while he's busy wrestling with the hero...