Word: joylessness
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...have been a nonentity and herself, emotionally stunted. She brought her children up by a Victorian Dr. Spock that would have been enough to curdle any child's blood, let alone the extraordinarily sensitive, intelligent children that were hers. Edward Dickinson, Emily's father, was a severe and joyless Puritan, more interested in politics than his family, a conflict which he could never resolve...
...Today's lingering inflation hangs on?and on and on. It is a particularly joyless affliction. Instead of expanding fast, businessmen are holding down their capital budgets and laying off workers. Instead of spending and investing, the public is saving at record rates and staying out of the stock market. For one of the rare times in U.S. history, almost everyone feels less well off than he was several years...
...acidulous cartoons and Nichols' previous work, they are men with considerable powers of observation. But in Carnal Knowledge, their vision is scan deep. Save at the beginning, men and women address one another and are treated as mere organs. Coupling is viewed with righteous distaste. Sex, though essentially joyless as practiced by these characters, must be followed by punishment. The film does glitter with explicit wit, but far too often it is reduced to attitudes posing as people, glimpses pretending to be insights...
...possible to spend any prolonged period visiting public school classrooms without being appalled by the mutilation visible everywhere-mutilation of spontaneity, of joy in learning, of sense of self. Because adults take the schools so much for granted, they fail to appreciate what grim, joyless places most American schools are . . . what contempt they unconsciously display for children...
Unequal Time. Amongst mannerisms and quirks, Nicholson rides uneasily. As he plays him, Robert is a hollow man who can grab but not touch; in his joyless sex scenes and sudden tantrums, the failed prodigy is pathetically credible. But his attempts at humor make him look a bit like a third Smothers brother, and Nicholson's now familiar laconic manner and smile often appear to be a handy substitute for acting...