Word: mortality
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...belief that the vigil represented a relaxation of the border separating the world of the spirit from the human sphere. All Hallows' became associated with witches, elves, fairies and all their manifestations (e.g. black cats); it was thought to be a time of unprecedented, frightening spiritual interference in mortal lives...
Foale did what he always hoped he would do in this situation: he forced himself to stand absolutely still. If the station's wound was a mortal one, the atmosphere inside would gush out of the ship, and Foale's ears would pop suddenly and painfully. If that happened, the pain would probably be one of the last things he would ever feel, as rapid depressurization would kill the crew almost instantly...
Walker has written that the play "explores the terrain of the ineffable." The god whose cult it concerns is beyond mortal understanding: Dionysos is automorphic, xenophoric, acrobatic, dark, sexual and fierce all at once--a gleeful irreverent demanding reverence. So Euripides focuses on our experience instead: the human response to divinity...
...mythical feel of the novel is not without its problems, however. Lim often intersperses Han's dream sequences with the more direct prose of the remainder of the novel, presumably because these visions help to chronicle Han's transition, even within her lifetime, from a mortal to a goddess. This technique also results in a great deal of befuddlement for the reader; the line between a stylistic intent and a confused style becomes unclear. Events may occur rather believably in one chapter, before being contradicted when reality is revealed in the next...
...Conlon points out that we are clearly deficient in our attention to the less obvious threats that every cop faces on a daily basis. Police are plagued with a suicide rate well above the national average, and the invisible damage to the psyche of people who must run towards mortal danger on a daily basis, under the restraint of a myriad of rules stacked against them, is immeasurable. These considerations do not excuse those who break under the pressure and resort to illegal cruelty, but they should inform our reaction to such episodes with a greater sensitivity to their complexities...