Word: victorian
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Gilligan has been criticized for what Pulit zer Prize-winning author Susan Faludi, in her recent book, Backlash, calls "Victorian echoes...
...first you're seduced by the sweeping ocean views, cute Victorian houses, picturesque tangerine bridges and storybook bed-and-breakfasts. But on closer inspection, the sheer volume of scented candles, glass-blown swans and seashell ashtrays sends the mind reeling. Banners that boast I LEFT MY HEART should rightly read MY WALLET, since San Francisco's real raison d'etre is separating tourists from their money. This too-too-precious chilly, hilly city is determined to stupefy you with caramel corn, sourdough bread, chocolate cable cars and painting-by-numbers that goes by the name of sidewalk...
...entire culture, for that matter, is derivative. The cramped, dark Victorian houses (going for $2 million) are borrowed from the English, the ivory (mostly opaque plastic) figurines from the Chinese, and the vineyards from northern Italy. There's no homegrown movie business; in fact the town has missed the video age, focused instead on grainy foreign films, which seem to be unreeling in every theater. Although the smug intelligentsia of Stanford and Berkeley blanch at the mention of her name, the area's best-selling author is Danielle Steel. To be sure, Los Angeles is no stranger to mass-market...
Possession chronicles the relationship of two British scholars who discover a mysterious connection between the Victorian poets they are studying. As the scholars race to unearth their subjects' romance, they themselves fall in love. Byatt intersperses the double romance with fabricated Victorian poetry, mock Post Modern Language Association (PMLA) papers and academic satire...
Adams's "Self-Portrait in Victorian Mirror" (1933) is downright bizarre. Adams depicts a deliberately contrived quasi-symmetry. He places his face on the lens of the camera and against a background created by the mirror of the title. This effect jars both the eye and the mind--particularly the former in light of Adams's odd, transfixed expression. Again, the viewer wonders at the implicit contrast to Adams's pristine landscapes. When viewing these photographs, one might also consider how Adams addresses issues like the onslaught of industry and the alienation of the artist...