Word: parallelism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...HAVE TO SCRATCH very hard at the wrinkled brown skin of the summer's most adored cultural hero to find the skeleton of an old superstar. Even the advertising campaign for "E. T." hints coyly at a Significant Parallel for sharp-eyed moviegoers to discern: that now-famous elongated finger stretching down from the heavens to point at a human finger reaching up from the earth. Remind you of any famous creation scenes on chapel ceilings? One wonders: since E. T. 's last-minute Easter-like recovery conveniently leaves the door open for a sequel, can we expect...
...seven major levels, plus several minor ones. The best-preserved is the second, completed in 1390, a date derived from a plaque inscribed with carvings from the 52-year Aztec calendar. Even the bases of the shrines to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc remain intact, including a strikingly modern motif of parallel lines that may represent rain. By contrast, the large Coyolxauhqui stone was made about a century later, during the reign of Moctezuma I, grandfather of Cortés' victim...
...sufferer can be reinfected in different parts of the body, or may receive a different strain of the disease. "I probably wouldn't see another person with herpes," says a thirtyish New Yorker. "I know that sounds awful, but I can't risk re-exposure and a possible parallel case...
Then of course there are Falstaff and his companions, whom Shakespeare put in the play not for comic relief but as a parallel to, and a commentary on, the main-history plot. In Shakespeare's lifetime, Falstaff was spoken of more than any other character, and the work circulated in a half dozen editions, always with a reference to the "humorous conceits" of Falstaff in the subtitle. Since then the role has been written about more than any other except Hamlet, and so tempting has it been for players that even women have acted the part professionally...
...antiself has a shadowy, ideal life of its own. It is always blessed (the antiself is the Grecian Urn of our personality) and yet it subtly matures as it runs a course parallel to our actual aging. The Hindu might think that the antiself is a premonition of the soul's next life. Perhaps. But in the last moment of this life, self and antiself may coalesce. It should be their parting duet to mutter together: "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia." -By Lance Morrow