Word: essays
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...eaten, while the snail grows correspondingly in size." At the end, the jellyfish are once again tiny parasites, and the whole cycle begins anew. Which one is the predator, then, and which one the prey? This underwater dance lends Thomas' new book its title and occupies the first essay; its implications echo through all that follows. Life may not be a matter of eat or be eaten; it may boil down to eating and being eaten...
Such imaginative leaps are typical throughout The Medusa and the Snail. Though the book is about science, its form is a demonstration of art. In fact, a Thomas essay blooms organically in much the same manner as a romantic ode or sonnet. A receptive mind encounters something in nature; the object out there is gradually drawn into the thinking subject; reflection occurs, hypotheses are put forward and tested, a pulse of excitement becomes audible; suddenly, everything coalesces, time stands still for a moment, an image is born out of matter and spirit. If Wordsworth had gone to medical school...
...shown regularly in the U.S. Consequently, he seems more of a name than a presence in American art. In England, his reputation is, if anything, exaggerated in the other direction. He is widely regarded as a reincarnation of America's cultural expatriates of the 1920s. When the catalogue essay for his present show of 50 drawings and a few paintings at New York City's Marlborough Gallery compares him with Idaho-born Ezra Pound in London-"the Yankee outsider who has the energy to float a circus, and the courage to initiate its polemics"-it reflects this startling...
...zeal to communicate an obscure but not inherently tedious theory of religion overwhelms him, and he does not live up to his chosen role of myth-maker. Bloom clothes his doctrinal argument in a flimsy mantle of epic fantasy. He would probably have done better to write an essay than this dreary mess...
...Your Essay on foreign aid overlooks the damage to U.S. industry and labor. Thousands of Americans are out of jobs because many of the countries that received aid in the past and many that are still receiving it are underselling our suppliers in such items as electronics, textiles, clothing, steel, copper, shoes and automobiles. Foreign aid is an indirect subsidy to our competitors...