Word: screed
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Shapiro's screed is occasionally diverted by memories of adulteries past ("Sin, too, requires time"), but his principal obsessions are the idols of contemporary society: novels, psychiatry, sociology, pornography, politics, and worldliness in general. In his view, humanity's chance for redemption lies in unquestioning faith. That alone can reconcile the hopes of humanity and the violence of history. Shapiro takes a circuitous route to arrive at Dante's dictum: "In his will is our peace...
...segment. Morrow plays a bigoted businessman who learns the True Meaning of Racial Injustice when transported to Nazi-occupied France, a Klan lynching and a G.I. patrol in Viet Nam. Landis, who also contributes the engaging prologue to Twilight Zone, would have been well advised to junk his screechy screed. Even with the helicopter sequence mercifully cut, the story hardly looks worth shooting, let alone dying...
...important ends manage to stay untied. But along the way, Farmer offers his audience a wide-screed adventure that never fails to provoke, amuse and educate. Students of religion will find an impressive comprehension of the Judaic, Christian and Islamic ideas of the after life. History buffs should be diverted by the author's ability to mix notables, from Baron von Richthofen to U.S. Grant, like grains of sand in an hourglass. The greatest beneficiaries should be science fiction fans. For too long they have filled their shelves with charmless fantasies and technical jargon that talks to itself...