Word: paradox
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Possessing an eye for the paradox of incongruity, Boyle places some well known figures from both literature and real life into out-of-context situations in his stories ("Robert Jordan in Nicaragua," "I Dated Jane Austen," "Hard Sell"). Yet somehow out of a situation which initially seems as gimmicky as Dennis Rodman comes dazzling observations on life. In "I Dated Jane Austen", the fraility of dating is shown in a stunning expose of the narrator's exploits with the famous 19th century author. The Ayatollah Khomeini is the subject of an image makeover in "Hard Sell...
...someone love animals--cats, dogs, beasts of the field--and then shoot to death an animal as elegant as a deer or a dove? To answer the question, begin with the paradox of Teddy Roosevelt: America's greatest conservationist, creator of the national park system--and archtype Bambi killer. Roosevelt blazed away at all the animals of creation...
Roosevelt integrated the paradox of hunting--killing as part of a love of nature and of life. We, a century later, have separated it out and, being morally literal-minded, feel obliged to take a stand on one side of the paradox or the other...
...learned from hunting. Many plants and animals die daily to keep us fed, and hunting brings us into that process." Like many hunters, he teaches his son, 12, not to shoot anything he doesn't mean to eat. The hunting question always comes back to the Teddy Roosevelt paradox: Can we love animals and eat them? Can we love them and kill them...
...intelligent in print. In these comic essays (most from the New Yorker), the voice is often that of the old stand-up Steve: a fellow less cool, less together--and thus funnier--than he thinks he is. Martin takes inspiration from prescription bottles, the Schrodinger's cat paradox and Marlon Brando on Larry King Live. The little gems come at a hefty price--87[cents] each ($1.17 in Canada!)--but are worth it for their expectation-defying musings on philosophers, paparazzi and the word underpants. This is high-wire humor, as pure as the drivel snow...