Word: rote
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...drama, and it follows a threefold pattern. The source of the first is his fondness for vaudeville, a predilection he shares with Samuel Beckett, a playwright Pinter vastly admires. The second is the inquisitorial mode: a character is grilled, mocked and menaced. The third is the puncturing of rote responses to reveal emotional vacuity. When Lamb asks Miss Cutts how she gets on with Roote, she replies, "Oh, such a charming person. So genuine." When he later asks her what Gibbs is like, she parrots: "Oh, he's a charming person. So genuine...
Bands like REO manage to outsell Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, the Who by swapping individuality for corporate style: heavy guitar chords and sappy strings, music by rote, lyrics by reflex. Says one major record executive: "In the 1960s, commercialism and the heart of rock were pretty much the same. In 1982 the commercial center and the soul of the music are different. It's no accident that these bland, faceless groups with no defined image, no personality, no boldness have the largest-selling albums. They're the easiest to sell...
...feud is unequivocally over. All is forgiven. Forgotten? Not just yet. "Why, we're plain old Hatfields and McCoys," says one of the latter in a shrugging, boiler-plate disclaimer, "good friends and neighbors . . ." Yet after a reminiscence has meandered a while, and the truce reaffirmed again, the rote kindliness can give way to neat bursts of partisanship. In bits and pieces, a little blame is assigned, victory claimed. The legacy is not erased, just quiet and manageable. Modern Hatfields and McCoys do not quite know whether to be proud or embarrassed by their inglorious family histories, and most...
Although by now the planning and mechanics of dinners have become almost rote, they have not been without an occasional mishap. Once, when the controversial sociobiologist E.O. Wilson came for an evening, the chef forgot to show up, and the whole party had to move to a nearby Indian restaurant for the meal. One honored guest, who was too drunk to get to Mitchell's house on his own, finished off a bottle of sherry before dinner and then asked for another. And finally, an ardent speaker making a point leaned into the table a little too forcefully...
...teacher who writes, Engel has lived on a plot of middle ground somewhere between his two professions. He has lived near Harvard for many years now, but never fully in it. By writing and living outside the University, he has taught as much by example as by rote...