Word: idioms
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...fact as psychologically complex and possible as those of any novel. If they are considered simplistic, bare chains of events (Lancelot loves Gwenyver but she's married to his lord, Arthur), its's because modern readers and rewriters faced with the intricacy of Middle English have simplified the idiom to an extreme, ignored the subtleties in style and reduced the work to the lowest common denominator of its plot. In this shape, King Arthur is kid stuff...
Part of the problem in appreciating contemporary music undoubtedly stems from a lack of familiarity. A listener can't really connect a modern piece with an idiom of style in the same way that even an unknown Romantic or Classical composition can be identified as Romantic or Classical. For one thing, most people don't have a background or vocabulary of contemporary music to relate to contemporary music that they are hearing for the first time. And there is no real contemporary style; trends in modern music are scdivergent that familiarity with one school may be of little help...
...point for inquiry into the metaphysics of Beckett's later works, as well as Joyce's, but has remained only in the hands of critics, since it is long out of print. It possibly offers even more as an introduction to Beckett's ability to combine heightened abstraction and idiom in a comic synthesis (even in serious criticism). The essay begins: "The danger is in the neatness of identifications. The conception of Philosophy and Philology as a pair of nigger minstrels out of the Teatro dei Piccoli is soothing, like the contemplation of a carefully folded hamsandwich...
Overall, Ford was pushed more often into defensive positions. The three reporters, including a notably haughty Joseph Kraft, hurled some of their fastest pitches at the President-although other questions (about the propriety of constitutional amendments, the "urban intentions" of the candidates) were, in the trade idiom, real softballs. Carter exploited the challenger's advantage of attacking the incumbent's record. Both candidates probably reinforced their supporters' choice. Loosening his grip on the podium, Ford used hand gestures and head movements more freely than in the past. Carter's softer, yet still coolly assertive tone...
Carter's resort to undeaconlike idiom was perhaps best explained in a subsequent Sunday New York Times Magazine article by Norman Mailer-in which Carter used a still raunchier expression. Quoting Carter as saying, "I don't care if people say " Mailer wrote, "And he actually said the famous four-letter word that the Times has not printed in the 125 years of its publishing life." (For what else the Times and other papers did not publish, see PRESS.) Analyzed Mailer: "It was said from duty, from the quiet decent demands of duty...