Word: pedanticism
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Certainly Simon's free-market approach reflects Shultz's philosophy. But unlike the sometimes pedantic and doctrinaire Shultz, Simon has shown a refreshing tendency to change his mind in response to argument. Shultz fought to the end against even considering gasoline rationing. Simon has drawn up a comprehensive...
Also making a major appearance, as he did in a famous feud with Vladimir Nabokov, is Wilson the noble crank. Here he makes a dyspeptic but delightful attack on the cumbersome, pedantic paraphernalia assembled by the Modern Language Association (the college literature teachers' "union") to edit and publish classic...
ALAN SEVERANCE, whose name, through some pedantic trickery of language means "Harmony Interbreaker," is the protagonist/antagonist. He embodies Berryman's own tremendous ego and frightful delusions. Outwardly self-contained, he helps the hopeless alcoholics in his ward by dominating group therapy and confronting their inadequacies. But he rarely reaches into...
What Berryman, i.e. Severance, does is to hide his emotions behind a powerful intellect (a charge often levelled against Berryman in his poems). Severance is cold and aloof, ever-curious to communicate, a witty though egotistical entertainer. But he is unable to relate to others on a basic human level...
Basically, the argument between the two men deals with how they should react to their unexplained imprisonment. Mr. I refuses to make any choices, insisting that only in this way can he remain entirely free: "The potential of my freedom has remained unchanged. I have not made a choice, I...