Word: brilliant
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, he has been intelligent but not brilliant, thorough but not imaginative, moderate but not innovative...
...four times at bat, but his fielding was rather poor. In the sixth inning his fumble and poor throw to first allowed Payne to reach second, and in the eighth by muffing Corbett's throw he failed to put Trenchard out. Winslow's fielding was remarkably good. Besides a brilliant unassisted double play in the eighth inning he made three put outs and two assists. His only error in failing to field Mackenzies hot grounder was an excusable one. The outfield had little to do, Wiggins having two put outs and O'Malley one; however, the batting of Wiggin...
...imaginary, but generally far less plausible, world of the critic, who then proceeds to examine these displaced characters as if they were 'real people.'" He refused to deal in such "dreadful things as trends," or offer traditional chatter about themes and schools of literature. Instead, he performed brilliant, instant autopsies on each book, taking it apart and flinging the pieces on the table, then reassembling them so that students for the first time grasped how a book is constructed. Once summing up the Soviet novel of social realism, he acted out the vibrant love story of two jackhammer operators...
...first fruit of that freedom was Pale Fire. Spectacularly unread, it made no concessions to popular tastes while proving that a genius can write a brilliant novel consisting of a 999-line poem and scholarly comment on it. The book is a wintry, touching parable concerning two of Nabokov's persistent themes?the feeling of being unloved and the horror of willfully inflicted pain. Pale Fire elicited the high-water mark of Nabokov's critical acceptance. Perhaps the most perfect tribute came from Mary McCarthy, a critic rarely given to generosity or overstatemeat: this work, "half poem, half prose...
Nabokov finally takes hold and orders, mirabile dictu, a Swiss red. Vera accepts, graceful in this as in everything. With finely drawn, strong features, alabaster skin, brilliant white hair, exquisite hands, she is a natural beauty. Their dinner conversation thrives on little disagreements, contrapuntal, and often not really resolved. In one exchange, Vera begins by explaining the mating ritual of the crested grebe, a grubby little bird which frequents the lake. They never touch, she says, waggling a delicate finger, but wiggle one foot back and forth. "No, no, no, no, no," says Vladimir, who has let this...