Word: venal
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...title, “Beatrice and Virgil” refers to Dante’s sublime and venal guides through Paradise and Hell in the “Divine Comedy.” Martel evidently hopes to draw a parallel between Dante’s experiences in the afterlife with the sometimes-agonizing human experience of life on Earth. Beyond that obvious reference, “Beatrice and Virgil” is full of literary allusions. Martel borrows heavily from the mood of manic stasis in Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot...
...also likely to use any leverage to push for the introduction of a proportional-voting system and a right for constituents to recall MPs who break the rules. The second of those, at least, should prove uncontroversial in a country that regards its political classes as even more venal than its bankers. But Clegg's modernizing zeal, and the language he uses, could scare the horses. "I almost sound Marxist saying this, but I really think when you have a political architecture and set of institutions which is so out of whack with how people are actually behaving and acting...
...need to know (or kick back to) a local machine boss to get a cash-for-work spot - "If the government were running this, I probably wouldn't have this job," says Sentelis Doassalit, 30 - and that the pay goes directly to their hands and not through a venal, lethargic Haitian bureaucracy...
...weeks ago was, remarkably, the first ever by a French head of state.) As a result, the international community needs to give the country more comprehensive help than it's offered in the past. But such aid should not be delivered without an acknowledgment by Haiti's ultra-venal political and economic élite that the benighted way of doing things has got to end. Even Haiti's Prime Minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, conceded to TIME recently that reform "has to be a part of Haiti's rebuilding process...
What is fascinating is the impact of previous writing successes on these pages. In one heartbreakingly venal passage, Powell thrills at Damian's audacity in pretending to be Eric for an eager reader who recognizes her on the street. The honesty of the admission doesn't cleanse the implied disrespect for those - from the real Eric to her fans - who adore her. Powell was also sentenced to sequel, although her amply demonstrated lack of humility suggests she was happier to comply than Gilbert. But when she runs out of story - the Fleisher's internship complete - she copies earlier Gilbert, setting...