Word: pointless
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...enthusiastically touted as a spur of creativity. Where could such an outlandish failure of socialist statism find a new intellectual home? Where else, but the place that has always shown itself a safe-haven for bureaucratic absurdities. As though it has not done enough in preserving the tradition of pointless paperwork, generous sinecures, proliferating committees, sub-committees, and ad hoc working groups, Harvard has now decided it should adopt the animus of Mr. Khrushchev's greatest folly...
Strangely, Schreiber is obsessed with demonstrating the obvious irrationality of statements that he considers so obviously irrational as to require no demonstration. Schreiber reiterates endlessly and neurotically that it "is pointless...to refute their comments"; that "Mansfield's assault does not merit forceful rebuttal"; that these conservatives' statement "neither deserve nor require...angry or concerted response"; that to "bother to demonstrate the ridiculousness and hypocrisy of Wasinger's blather...is to fall into the trap of debating unsupportable absurdities"; and that "these attacks...do not deserve rational refutation...
Altman based the film's nine interweaving narratives on his (mis)reading of Carver's ouevre, taking a set of poignant midwestern vignettes and turning them into a heavy-handed Hydra living out its pointless existence under the scorching sun of Los Angeles, the city where dreams die, or whatever. Setting "Short Cuts" in L.A., with all its metaphorical baggage, was a huge mistake on Altman's part, though only one of many. The main one was probably in trying to translate Carver's fragile stories to the screen in the first place...
...further detail the plot's laundry list of contrivances and deceptive turns would be pointless, if not impossible. They come fast and furious, and, like the highs and lows of a roller coaster, they are exhiliratingly enjoyable despite their random nature. The play's development is always one step ahead of the audience, and the race to keep up does get tiresome towards the latter half of the second act. Fortunately however, Levin, keen to an audience's limited capacity to watch and process a bullet-paced thriller, allows for extensive monologues in which characters, like members of a Greek...
...pointless, then--and maybe even counterproductive--to refute their comments, as one might attempt to refute an argument. How does one debate an assertion that homosexuality is "shameful" and "vile"? Certainly not with logic--logic cannot refute epithets. The dialogue can only degenerate into a childish "is too-is not" sparring match. Debate devoid of reasoning cannot possibly enhance intellectual discussion at Harvard or contribute in any valuable way to John Stuart Mill's marketplace of ideas...