Word: janus
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...manifestations, Epstein (English/Northwestern) examines the ways in which people who pursue lives of invidious comparison may judge you (and surely find you wanting) in matters of employment, education, income, affiliations, intellectual interests, spouse(s), ethnicity, favored comestibles, politics, celebrity, dogs and not least progeny. Of course, a snob is Janus-faced. Note the contortions necessary to look up to the paragons who are above contempt while simultaneously looking down on the dopes beneath consideration...By a snob, of snobs, and for snobs; a nice example of the art of the essay...
...hard to think of Ian Brady as an author. Half of the duo responsible for the notorious Moors Murders, a series of child slayings in 1960s Britain, Brady made his name as a killer. And the dust jacket of his book, The Gates of Janus: Serial Killing and its Analysis (Feral House; 305 pages) publicizes him as a murderer, not a writer...
...Gates of Janus is presented in two parts. The first contains Brady's take on man's disposition as it relates to crime. To Brady's way of thinking, a killer may lurk within us all: therefore, responding to a murderous impulse may simply be being honest to oneself. In the second part, Brady analyzes the perpetrators of 11 serial killings, including American Ted Bundy, executed in 1989 for murdering three women and suspected of slaying over 30 more, and "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe, imprisoned for murdering 13 women in northern England...
Those looking for remorse from Brady for his own crimes will not discover it in The Gates of Janus. Nor will they find many insights in his lengthy double-speak. Perhaps the real surprise about this book, first published late last year, is that it has sold enough copies to warrant a reprint. Brady holds that the "serial killer is ... your alter ego, that facet of character you strive so hard to conceal and repress." He may believe it; but readers of this ugly, unpersuasive book certainly...
...while studying at the Sorbonne as a Fulbright scholar, brought a distinctly international flavor to the Brattle during a time when most Americans had seen very few non-Hollywood films. Harvey and Haliday helped rekindle interest in American classics that had long been forgotten. They also established the important Janus Films, Inc., the main distributor of avant-garde films in the U.S. until 1966, when it was forced to close after too many directors were snatched up by Hollywood. Harvey and Haliday brilliantly juxtaposed old Hollywood classics and new foreign films to create a well-rounded repertoire that was both...