Word: moralistes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...celebrated and interminable essay on Genet, Jean-Paul Sartre philosophizes to the effect that by aligning himself with the forces of evil Genet affirms the existence of the good, which makes him a moralist of a kind. But the Sartrean paradox does not altogether explain the demonic intensity and energy of Genet's writing. The source may be found in another French aphorist, Baudelaire, who said that "Everyman who does not accept the conditions of life sells his soul." As a corollary, he who accepts the conditions of life-as Genet accepts the worst life can dish out-presumably...
...that Jesus himself imposed no detailed code of behavior, but rather gave a general injunction that man should live according to the highest standards and seek perfection through love. He likewise feels that the conventional Catholic approach to natural law is too abstract and impersonal. The traditional natural-law moralist would call lying a sin because it perverts the purpose of speech, which is communication. Simons' general-welfare theory suggests a more plausible reason, similar to the thinking of Protestants who reject natural law: that "mankind would be gravely harmed if telling lies were generally committed...
There is no inkling in this production that Ben Jonson is not simply Shakespeare writ small. Shakespeare is like the sea; he accepts and purifies all things. But Jonson is like the tide: a cool comic moralist who spews upon the shore line all the debris of vice-infected humanity. In The Alchemist and Volpone, Jonson was a giant of comedy. Directing for the crude buffoonery characteristic of the Bard's low-comedy scenes, Irving turns him into a Shakespearean dwarf...
...FIXER, by Bernard Malamud. A severe moralist, Malamud pits a helpless man against guilty authority in this poignant account of a Jew condemned to die for a crime he did not commit...
...with large, warm rocks on her stomach, then is marinated in giant tubfuls of broth, and finally is sealed, screeching, into a body-length hot-water bag to test another old wives' tale. More than 400 years after it was penned by the cynical Renaissance moralist, Niccolo Machiavelli, this ribald comedy classic still looks exuberantly out of bounds...