Word: vapidly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...entertaining and engrossing as Star Wars was, its themes had virtually nothing to do with contemporary reality. It represented a world of absolutes, where good and evil fought it out for control of the galaxy. Its hero, the vapid Luke Sykwalker, relied on "The Force"--some ESTian kind of energy source--instead of on his own abilities. It is no wonder that the more self-assured rogue, Han Solo (Harrison Ford), emerged as the true hero of the Star Wars saga. But even he was too good to be true...
Despite his occasionally limiting editorializing, Trow does provide here a fine piece of the kind of journalism which shows how vapid some of the powerful and famous actually are. In a way, it is a fun spectacle. Phonies slither around and ooze grease so much that the essay borders on parody. The only celebrity to come out with any integrity is, interestingly, Keith Richards. Predictably frazzled at parties, Richards walks around suggesting ideas like an end to exorbitant concert ticket prices by having the oil companies pick up the tab. The oil companies have a lot of money, he reasons...
...McKellen, late of Amadeus and the Royal Shakespeare company, struggles in vain to play the part of the genius, falling several deciles short of the score. His Lawrence is less the Martyr of British Censorship than he is martyred by Alan Plater's offensive and vapid screenplay. At the mercy of lines such as."We writers, we're supposed to be brave," or "Better peoplethan me have been crucified," he tempts us to ask why tuberculosis could not have claimed him sooner and so spare us the pain...
Love and Freindship is short (some 30 printed pages) and hilariously to the point. It consists of a series of letters from Laura to the daughter of a childhood "freind." Laura pours out the story of her unhappy past and makes herself ridiculous with nearly every vapid word she utters. She complains: "A sensibility too tremblingly alive to every affliction of my Freinds, my Acquaintance and particularly to every affliction of my own, was my only fault, if a fault it could be called...
Many British plays of the past two decades are variations on the same theme -the trauma of the Empire's decline and the perplexing frustration of adapting to new modes of thought. Unfortunately, Rose is vapid. One cannot stir a tempest in a thimble. Davies' Rose is a teacher in a Midlands elementary school who is busily donning her New Woman persona on the threshold of middle age. She insists, perhaps understandably, on being called Ms. Strong, instead of Mrs. Fidgett. This flusters Headmistress Smale (Beverly May) and the older staff, as do her theories of education, which...