Word: luridly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Three decades ago, the Roman Catholic Church quietly admitted what critics had been saying for centuries: Magdalene's standard image as a reformed prostitute is not supported by the text of the Bible. Freed of this lurid, limiting premise and employing varying ratios of scholarship and whimsy, academics and enthusiasts have posited various other Magdalenes: a rich and honored patron of Jesus, an Apostle in her own right, the mother of the Messiah's child and even his prophetic successor. The wealth of possibilities has inspired a wave of literature, both academic and popular, including Margaret George's 2002 best...
Like a lot of popular nonfiction, Heaven belongs to the school of the lurid glimpse, giving readers an anthropological peep at a genuine subculture. But Krakauer never succeeds in getting inside his villains' heads--they're just a pair of holy robots obeying the evil software of their deity--and his main theme, that "there is a dark side to religious devotion," isn't exactly breaking news in 2003. If nothing else, the book is a bracing reminder that Americans aren't special. We're as capable of breeding violent religious fanatics as anybody else. --By Lev Grossman
This article included enough lurid details of the brothers' atrocities for a prime-time TV soap opera or a month's worth of tabloid news. We know now that they were abusive, predatory, murderous criminals, but the oddly glamorized relish with which you chronicled their deeds has the scent of misguided Hollywood idolatry. DEAN LAMANNA Venice, Calif...
...Local people believe Umphang is where heaven and earth meet," added Chai. And indeed I thought I was quite possibly nearing nirvana, lulled by the mellifluous babble of water over timeworn boulders and the warm kiss of the sun through river mist. Damselflies in lurid shades of aqua and puce hovered lazily beside us. Kingfishers flashed amid copious vines and sprawling creepers. Tiny, white beaches?perfect and inviting? nestled under fluttering carpets of white and yellow butterflies. Scenes like this demanded another superlative: there surely was no more tranquil spot on earth. Farther downstream, though, the Mae Klong flexes...
...Mary Magdalene in Mel Gibson's Jesus film, The Passion. But why wait? Tears, a smart, sturdy war film with a lot of heart and a little cleavage, opens this week. And in the art houses there's more, much more of Bellucci in Gaspar Noe's defiantly lurid Irreversible, in which, for nine minutes, her character endures the most brutal rape scene in movie history...