Word: straightforwardness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Beach basically did not believe in talking about his emotions, at least not in any straightforward way. He could make elliptical references to them; he could tell antecdotes permitting multiple interpretations and giving some idea of his feelings; but he was not going to sit down and talk about how he felt. When she suggested that maybe it would be a good idea to lay their cards out on the table, to come up front, Beach said he thought there were somethings better left unsaid...
Similarly, the presentation of the chants themselves suffered in a secular context. The chants were sung in too straightforward a manner without enough lift and flow. They are such a personal expression that pushing them out for an audience's sake robs them of their delicate beauty. The chants were sung as well as could be expected in the circumstances...
...belonged, just a little, to both sides. Salem Possessed's poignant portrayal of Parris--whose attacks on moneygrubbing were in large part efforts to purge himself of a grievous and integral sin--demonstrates the ambivalence at the heart of Salem, and New England as a whole, and makes traditional, straightforward dichotomies between victims and accusers seem embarrassingly naive...
...short memoirs written by each of them, centering around their loves and power struggles to control the troupe. Directed toward the reader as stage-whispered confessions of behind-the-scenes intrigues, these memoirs are at first appealing in their simplicity and gossipy perceptions, but soon melt into each other. Straightforward once-upon-a-time rhythms become monotonous, especially since Prose does not shift tones of voice. She introduces few variations--in speech patterns, humor, or sarcasm, for example--to distinguish the players' musings...
...unicorn cycles, praise is an impertinence. They vary in conceptual density. The Cluny Lady with the Unicorn set is a relatively straightforward metaphor of the five senses, so that the mythic beast gazes at itself in a mirror to signify Sight. By contrast, the Cloisters' unicorn hunt is a highly complicated and frequently obscure allegory of the passion of Christ, mixed with references to courtly and profane love. But in each, a way of seeing reality that was both freshly direct and symbolic is embedded in a matrix of almost unbelievable formal beauty. Detail by detail, this...