Word: mussolini
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...contrast to Hitler or Mussolini, Tojo's countrymen place no special blame on him for the start of Japan's most catastrophic military adventure. If an opinion poll were taken today in Japan, most people, if they remembered him at all, would probably regard him with either neutral or sympathetic feelings. As one recent Japanese textbook improbably insisted, Japan was left with no other choice except to go to war with the Allies, and Tojo was simply the man who pushed the button...
...someone over 30, "rapping" just means knocking on wood; so steer away from contemporary jargon, a semantic roadblock that can easily alienate those who don't understand it. N.B.: lay off the word "fascist" unless you're describing Mussolini...
...Mussolini of the Soul. West's first novel, a fiercely funny series of skits and snits called The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931), states his intricate satiric credo: "I must laugh at myself, and if the laugh is 'bitter,' I must laugh at the laugh. I always find it necessary to burlesque the mystery of feeling at its source." West's second book, a tiny, blasphemous masterpiece called Miss Lonelyhearts (1933), is an almost insanely intense travesty of Christ's ministry and passion that describes the Calvary of a male reporter who writes...
...more he acts like Christ, the more cruelly he is razzed by his diabolical editor ("Leper licker," Shrike calls him. "Still more swollen Mussolini of the soul"). Thinking to help, Miss Lonelyhearts arranges to meet one of his correspondents, a woman with a crippled husband. She rapes him. In the last scene, "his identification with God complete," Miss Lonelyhearts tries to envelop in cosmic pity the crippled husband-who seems to stand for long-suffering humanity. Terrified, the cripple shoots him dead...
Colonial Power. During the Spanish Civil War, Salazar backed Franco against the Republicans. In World War II, he remained nominally neutral but sympathized with Hitler and Mussolini. After it became clear that the Axis powers were losing, he shrewdly granted the U.S. and Britain the right to build bases in the Azores. It was an investment that paid off in a postwar seat in NATO for Portugal...