Word: tropes
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Nellyville (Nelly's ever-so-humble nickname for St. Louis, Mo.) provides little reason to think its creator is up to any more than that. Songs like Pimp Juice aren't about pimping; they just invoke the trope because, sadly, that's how lazy mainstream rap has got in 2002. Actually, the message of Pimp Juice is uplifting--"Your pimp juice is anything that attracts the opposite sex/It could be money, fame or straight intellect"--as long as you don't mind being compared to a flesh peddler. Ah, well. Sensitive types won't take much comfort from...
...there a more potent cultural trope than a Southern accent? Just a few long vowels, and much of the rest of America is swept up by mystique, fascinated by the ancient hurt we imagine lurking behind the lips of the speaker...
...daily TV images of the plight of ordinary Palestinians under Israeli occupation. Both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have made the Palestinian cause the centerpiece of their propaganda efforts, painting their own battles with America as a response to U.S. support for Israel. It's a popular trope on the Arab streets, where Washington is already perceived as responsible for all Israeli actions...
...scruff of its neck, moralizes it, defeats a corrupt and malicious business conglomerate and makes no small fortune for herself and others. At the film’s start, Brockovich is combing the classifieds to no particular avail—an image that becomes an important visual trope. Then, after incurring debilitating injuries from a car accident, Brockovich seeks the legal expertise of small claims attorney Ed Masry (Albert Finny), who fails her outright. Holding Masry personally responsible for her condition, Brockovich filibusters her way into a clerical position at Masry’s law firm. While there, she uncovers...
...strategy of a top manager Sturm artfully mixes Jewish mythology with the mythology of baseball as a way of exploring the myth of America. It's a big subject, and not an easy one. You can tell when the baseball-as-America metaphor gets used as an easy trope by a literal player-hater. But "The Golem's Mighty Swing," has the beauty, universality, thoughtfulness, and sweep of baseball at its best...