Word: miasma
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Unfortunately, there is very little in this compilation to rival "1959." Instead, there is a miasma of literary criticism and historical analysis: in both genres, Gordimer chooses summary over insight. In References: The Codes of Culture making fun of the title would be shooting fish in a barrel we come to the hardly surprising realization that There is no generic reader, out there; in Our Century, Gordimer is a long distance from shocking us with the information that The mushroom cloud still hangs over us, and the unbearably trite corollary question: will it be there as a bequest...
...Unfortunately, there is very little in this compilation to rival 1959. Instead, there is a miasma of literary criticism and historical analysis: in both genres, Gordimer chooses summary over insight. In References: The Codes of Culturemaking fun of the title would be shooting fish in a barrel we come to the hardly surprising realization that There is no generic reader, out there; in Our Century, Gordimer is a long distance from shocking us with the information that The mushroom cloud still hangs over us, and the unbearably trite corollary question: will it be there as a bequest...
...course of his slim book--For Common Things runs to 207 pages--Purdy spends altogether too much time on what he openly admits are his pet issues: the miasma of confusion that is eastern European public life after 1989, and the ecological disaster of strip-mining in West Virginia. And Purdy admits, too, that his notions of the direction in which public life should move are highly derivative--although his chapter on the pervasive effects of irony and its corrosion of popular culture is original, very sophisticated, and compelling. But if you can cut through the occasional tediousness, what...
...unfailingly his tricksterism gets him through--a lechering Bugs Bunny who, at the end of this ghastly cartoon, flourishes a cigar instead of a carrot. (Henry Hyde, having taken over the Elmer Fudd role from Ken Starr, slumps off, looking perplexed.) I tell myself to get beyond this miasma--to think of the future. I will get over it...but not for a while. I try to think about forgiveness but am brought short by the knowledge that it requires repentance, and Clinton is congenitally unrepentant. Fish gotta swim; birds gotta...
...mind that this love is real." The lines are a bit trite. It's almost trite of me to say they're trite they're so trite. And Nelson's voice needs a bit more coaching (perhaps from Toni Braxton?) before he launches himself into another love-stricken psychological miasma. The brothers' remake of "I'll Make Love to You," is torture as well. The uncouth vocals added to the wondrous jazz music would make Babyface cringe. Yet overall, if you ignore the background vocals, the Braxton Brothers' Steppin' Out is a truly engaging debut album, which clearly shows that...