Word: westernness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...build plants in China and circumvent the country's nettlesome trade barriers. In doing so, however, U.S. firms may find themselves marooned on a capitalist frontier where a version of intellectual property rights has yet to be invented and where newly unleashed entrepreneurs openly imitate the products of Western firms on their territory...
...subvert the great works for extraliterary purposes, i.e., anything smacking of social engineering, are barbarians; and further still, that these barbarians are not at the gates but are largely in charge of American education and the nation's debased institutions of public discourse. His The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages (Harcourt Brace; 578 pages; $29.95) is thus, in part, a dire prophecy of the end of civilization as we know it: "I realize that the Balkanization of literary studies is irreversible...
...this score, the Common Reader is likely to be overwhelmed by The Western Canon. At the end of his book Bloom ticks off more than 3,000 works by some 850 authors, ranging from Gilgamesh (anonymous) to Angels in America (Tony Kushner), that merit an educated person's attention. Good grief. Even if each work could be read in a day -- and most can't -- boning up on the Western Canon as set forth by Bloom would take nearly 10 years uninterrupted by any of ^ the mundane details of life, such as jobs, friends and loved ones, and most meals...
...controversy and sales, particularly when Bloom gets around to handing out pass-fail grades to 20th century writers (see box). But for all the prepublication hype it has aroused, Bloom's back-of-the-book grab bag of ancient and modern writers forms the least interesting part of The Western Canon...
After all, Zdrok still represents Playboy's--and, implicity, Western society's--image of beauty: blonde, busty and a Barbie-doll waist. Her 5'9", 120-pound frame isn't exactly doing much to encourage healthier notions of the female body, either...