Word: phantasmagoria
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the 'ideas' with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria - which is our actual experience...
...garish designs and obstreperous Pap art: frontier scenes, Hawaii schlock, seascapes, erotic mush. Even one-the specimen, say, that flashes nude girls in and out of view with Op-artful magic-can pop the eyeballs. When large numbers heave into sight, zooming along the road in a spaced-out phantasmagoria of a caravan, they can set the innocent motorist to gaping and muttering, "What is going on here...
...Deco phantasmagoria of mirrors, sweeping staircases, balconies and nooks, in a style evocative of old French Line ships. "Do your own thing," say the owners, "and communicate...
CLAES OLDENBURG is not just a sculptor, he is a magician. Ordinary objects, under his hands, metamorphose into vital and eloquent forms; he can create an Ovidian phantasmagoria from a cigarette butt, or animate a movie camera. His art works imaginative miracles with the stuff of everyday existence. Typewriter erasers are infused with life, clothespins garbed in symbolism. He's the type of person who could change your water into wine...
...obviously correct. The atmosphere in Washington is a weatherman's nightmare: It changes all the time. Right now we witness another phantasmagoria of events in Washington, and we are tempted to insist on knowing who did what to whom when and why. More facts come in, and they confuse us. We will never know, we complain, expecting to judge men's guilt with the omnipotence of the Old Testament God. We probably will never know the answers to those questions. But we should ask other questions. The truths of history go beyond the guilt and innocence of individual...