Word: backdrop
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...pomp and circumstance worthy of his impressive titles, a bespectacled Nepalese named Mahendra was last week crowned King of Kings, Five Times Godly, Valorous Warrior and Divine Emperor. With the towering Himalayas as a backdrop, and money no object, it was the subcontinent's party of the year. Everybody was anxious to make the coronation a thumping success. Distrusting the manners of their local waiters, the Nepalese had imported 130 skilled servitors from India to minister to the distinguished guests. The best chef in town was sprung from jail (where he was serving a sentence for bootlegging) to supervise...
...lighting shifts used, generally successfully, for added dramatic effect. But the increased over-all polish makes any rough spots, although not serious, all the more obvious. For example, the chorus' white gym shoes appear out of place in contrast with fine costuming and striking make-up; and the backdrop, ugly rather than unobtrusive, distracts from the clever arrangement of levels for the players to move...
...other excellent novels, Aymé's sharply observed background is a backdrop against which quite ordinary people play out parts they never asked for. Things happen, they get involved, and voila! A cool customer. Author Aymé himself never gets involved. He looks on with malice, with wit, and with a nice sense of just how much his characters can do about things and to what extent they are helpless victims. All this and a style that is as supple as it is lucid makes him one of the best satirists now writing...
Within the year, the newlyweds invite Mira for a visit to their big-city home. In due time she meets Richard again. With India's sun-scorched earth and evergreen-crowned peaks for a backdrop, their illicit love affair is a many-splendored dream. They wake up to the man-made India riven by hate. In a tragedy of errors, Kit and Premala are murdered by nationalist extremists, and as the episode ramifies, Mira and Richard find that not even their love can break through the sociocultural barrier...
Evidently Prescott thought it was necessary to give this backdrop to his "point of view." However a reader may feel about the autobiographical material, when Prescott talks about his job, The Five Dollar Gold Piece gains a good deal of stature. When one thinks that men of Prescott's profession are the most important link between literature and a people increasingly prone to sit in front of their television sets, the beliefs and opinions of such men become crucially significant...