Word: wordplays
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Inoue's forest of comedy, fantasy, biography and satire remains untranslated in the West, largely because of his incessant wordplay. But the writer whom Japan's critics have called the "magician of language" plans five novels that will convey universal meanings and ideas. Says he: "I would like to make my ways of expression so transparent that anyone in the world can understand what I'm saying...
...columns on language in the Sunday Times Magazine and more than 100 other newspapers evoke more mail, much of it combative, than his weekday political "Essay." Says Safire: "When people notice I have made an error, their eyes light up." Enamored of puns, literary allusions, grand metaphors and other wordplay, Safire at his giddiest can let his love of sound undermine his efforts to make sense. An example: "Thus one who lobbies expertly for the rights of female derelicts might be called a shopping-bag-lady knifethrower." He is usually most effective when simplest, writing blunt, mock-macho prose. Recounting...
...crash once), weightlessness and enforced camaraderie; dogs become a symbol of nature in harmonious, trusting alliance with humanity; the telephone is used both as an instrument of impersonal communication and the conveyor of whispered intimacies. Although there is no story line, Anderson strings her ideas together with deft, homey wordplay in a series of vignettes whose precise meaning may be ambiguous but whose effect is not. "The genius of American English is inflection," she explains. "I place phrases in different spots so they can resonate differently and leave lots of room for people to make connections...
...rest of today's popular culture forgotten: Star Wars-types titles and the Battlestar Galactica theme begin this film and, within minutes, E.T. appears in a pay phone booth. Those not in the eighteen to thirty age bracket will miss these reverential spoofs, but the puns and wordplay should be universally accessible. Three officers, names Over, Under and Done, involve themselves in the obvious ranking problems: was Under Over, or was Under over Done? And there are boundless throw-away lines: Ted is praised as "the real boss, the top banana, the head cheese...
Clever but virulent wordplay abounded. "I don't wanna be your lover--I just wanna be your victim," Elvis sputtered in his souped-up homage to whacking-off that he not-so-subtly dubbed "The Beat." And he bragged in "Lipstick Vogue," "Sometimes I almost feel...just like a human bein...