Word: selfing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...basic human vitality that is lacking in “American Pastoral.” Moreover, a simple exchange in dialogue in which the father asks his son if he is cold is saturated with more genuine inner life than one of Zuckerman’s page long self-examination...
...even mention grieving for his father. During the dinner scene, Roth juxtaposes paragraphs in which the Swede relates inane family anecdotes against extended interior monologues tracking Zuckerman’s overwrought reactions to the disappointing way the meal develops. The chapter concludes with the narrator’s self-questioning rant, “Why the appetite to know this guy?... You’re craving depths that don’t exist. This guy is the embodiment of nothing...
...dinner conversation dramatizes Roth’s self-destructive tension between the inner and outer life, which paralyzes the novel. Ironically, Zuckerman himself lacks a self-sufficient inner life and must search for the nonexistent inner life of the Swede to justify his own mental existence. While the Swede hopes to resolve the troubles of his inner life with the accomplishments of the outer life, the remaining characters are cut off from meaningful action...
...frankly, all that different from what you might see at a regular art museum. Compare “Out of Joint,” an expressionistic portrait of a seated mustachioed man set against a mustard and teal colored background, to an Egon Schiele self-portrait, for example, and you might have a hard time guessing which one lives at the MOBA and the other at the Met. Leafing through the comment book, I saw that many visitors, like me, couldn’t help but compare the art on display to “good art?...
...thing as a universal museum. I think every museum from small to large is really a local institution,” she said. Broadening the scope of the discussion, Burgard presented a more critical and incisive assessment. He condemned what he saw as a “protracted and self conscious attempt to fix a uniform American cultural identity” within museums...