Word: oddness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Thomas C. Munro (Letters, March 18) wanted to parody the position he holds, he hardly could have done a better job than writing, "the purpose of the English department is to help you increase your pleasure in reading." This claim seems odd under any circumstances, but one can imagine situations where it would sound downright perverse: "I'm taking a class on holocaust literature so I can get more pleasure out of reading those books...
Perhaps Munro's reading has never strayed beyond the odd John Grisham novel, in which case his analysis might be justified. However, Grisham is not normally taught in English departments, and with good reason. Literature is one of the oldest means we have of making sense of experience, and it exists not to entertain us, but to help us understand ourselves and the world we inhabit...
Perhaps Munro's reading has never strayed beyond the odd John Grisham novel, in which case his analysis might be justified. However, Grisham is not normally taught in English departments, and with good reason. Literature is one of the oldest means we have of making sense of experience, and it exists not to entertain us, but to help us understand ourselves and the world we inhabit...
...Thomas C. Munro (Letters, March 18) wanted to parody the position he holds, he hardly could have done a better job than writing, "the purpose of the English department is to help you increase your pleasure in reading." This claim seems odd under any circumstances, but one can imagine situations where it would sound downright perverse: "I'm taking a class on holocaust literature so I can get more pleasure out of reading those books...
...believe we acted swiftly," insists National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. "I reject the notion there was any dragging of feet." That also sounded a bit odd, coming from an official who was first briefed on the likelihood of espionage at Los Alamos three years ago. Nor was this the first case of Chinese snooping at U.S. weapons labs. During the 1970s and again in the '80s, Taiwanese-born American scientists delivered to China the secrets of, first, the neutron bomb and then laser technology...