Word: naif
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...surface the two writers, separated by time and culture, seem wholly unrelated. The American is a sensual naif; the Anglo-Irishman is a sophisticated puritan. Twain is happy for small favors; Shaw is ungrateful for major rewards. Presented with the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, Shaw informs the Royal Swedish Academy that their award is a "lifebelt thrown to a swimmer who has already reached the shore in safety." Shaw's dramas brim with advocates of free thought and liberal policy, but his correspondence reveals him as a fool of the new totalitarians. Adolf Hitler is a "wonderful preacher...
...play does occasionally fall into the trap of exploiting stereotypes to get laughs. Owen is an ignorant, superstitious bigot, Charlie is an uptight Brit, and Betty is such a provincial naif, having never met a foreign-speaker before, that she shouts in Charlie's ear, as if increased volume would make English more comprehensible...
...with Muslim brethren, have decided to take off the gloves. Their wrath is directed at the Iranian government of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, whom the Saudis blame for last month's rioting in the holy city of Mecca in which 400 people were reported killed. In Jidda last week Prince Naif, the Saudi Interior Minister, held a rare press conference at which he charged that Iran had plotted a "conspiracy" in sending Shi'ite Muslim "criminal gangs" to Mecca to foment trouble against the Saudis...
...animals stand motionless in gold-white grasses -- zebras and impala, Thomson's gazelles and Cape buffalo and hartebeests and waterbuck and giraffes, and wildebeests by the thousands, all fixed in art naif, in a smiting equatorial light. They stand in the shadowless clarity of creation...
...battery! Is that serious? He: I don't know about assault, but for battery they charge you and put you in a dry cell). The attractive, high-spirited cast avoids the twin pitfalls of archaeologist awe and camp condescension. And Lawson is a deadpan delight, a sad-clown naif in the spirit of Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon. Whether scurrying for his snooty brothers' clothes while muttering an ironic "With pleasure!" or double-talking his way into the princess's ball as an Amazonian adventurer, Lawson radiates working-class star quality. He is the best reason...