Word: shrill
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...presidential campaigners did not cover themselves with glory, neither did the nation's press. With Nixon cloistered in the White House and McGovern on the defensive and increasingly shrill, there was little cogent dialogue to report or analyze. Instead of seeking out substantive issues, the press too often devoted itself to a running story on polls and predictions. Since these differed merely on the magnitude of Nixon's forthcoming victory, the campaign coverage never worked up even a small measure of suspense. There was plenty of rancorous rhetoric. The New York Times's Tom Wicker lashed out bitterly at Nixon...
...regular feature in the liberal New Republic by John Osborne, continued its tradition of cool, objective observation of White House activity. No fan of Nixon's, Osborne nonetheless admired the effectiveness of the Republican campaign strategy: "It is McGovern, not Nixon, who has been driven to the harsh and shrill extremes that have been Nixon trademarks." Watching Nixon deflect questions on Watergate, Osborne grudgingly commended "a display of mixed gall and skill that I've never seen equaled." He also noted and deplored the effect on reporters of the "mesmerizing power of the presidency...
...campaign was unsuccessful. Pointing to a range of alleged scandals involving dairy farmers, wheel formers, ITT, and the bugging of the Democratic headquarters at Watergate, McGovern called the Nixon Administration "the most corrupt in American history." These criticisms seemed to backfire, however, as many voters objected to their shrill tone...
...shrill and self-assertive the voices of most novelists sound after listening to Giorgio Bassani tell a story. The former editor of the literary magazine Botteghe Oscure and the discoverer of Giuseppe (The Leopard) Lampedusa, Bassani is best known in the U.S. for his lambent novel The Garden of the Finzi-Continis from which the recent Vittoria De Sica film was made. Like Garden, this book is set in the author's native city of Ferrara during the 1930s. Also as in Garden, the narrator of Behind the Door is a wealthy, sensitive young...
...trouble with Chimera is that Barth has grown too ambitious too fast. He is trying all at once to create new narrative forms, to engage in political satire and to tell stories. But the form is not yet ready, the satire is shrill, and the stories suffer. Chimera is an attempt to join the mythic experiments of Lost in the Funhouse with the storytelling--extravagance of The Sot-Weed Factor, and Barth himself seems not to have realized how monumental a task that...