Word: machina
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...just 16 years old, who supports his careworn mother and stands up to a stepfather of "intemperate habits," not to mention an assortment of other bullies. Young Frank finally rescues a rich man's child from kidnapers, thus earning himself the gratitude of that good old deus ex machina known as the Benefactor, without whom no Alger novel is complete. But before everybody rolls over in another fit of giggles at the naive old 19th century, certain facts should be noted...
...under a suspended requirement to withdraw from the College...She is not, therefore acceptable..." But it's too late; the reference to Blustein has forced his hand So in the last major paragraph of the very last letter, the entire convoluted relationship collapses into a denouement of Dunlop-ex-machina: "Finally, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has expressed serious concern over recent events at Harvard and elsewhere...
...that is now called culture, education, civilization," Nietzsche prophesied, "will one day have to appear before the incorruptible judge, Dionysus,"-the Greek god of ecstasy, intoxication and madness, the deus ex machina of all the highs. Nietzsche even imagined the scene: "How cadaverous and ghostly the 'sanity' " of all the obsolescent rationalists will appear as "the intense throng of Dionysiac revelers sweeps past them." That day, in all its mixed exhilaration and despair, seems near...
...wings, and never seen, is a devil ex machina, Simmo, a man who strip-mines simple souls like Bentley. Buzo tells us that the meek do not in herit the earth, and that the power-brutes who do pocket only cinders...
...pure law-and-order. Harry succeeds in tracking down the killer, only to see him slip away under the cloak of snivelling libertarianism. The district attorney, backed by an intellectual judge from Berkeley, informs Harry that the criminal's rights were violated. This inverted bit of deus ex machina gives Scorpio time to terrorize a busload of children and sends Harry off again on the righteous pursuit of his maniac...