Word: utilitarian
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...delegation was amazed by the utilitarian aspect of modern U.S. design and the generous use of steel and glass in U.S. buildings. Said one: "A child's dream of a Christmas tree come true." But the travelers had no chance to put up Christmas trees of their own. Last week the Kremlin called for the complete reorganization of the building industry, ripped into Soviet architects for "neglecting the need to create conveniences for the population." Deprived of their Stalin prizes, the architects were accused of building "utterly unjustified tower superstructures, decorative colonnades and porticoes . . . as a result of which...
...breathe it out. He explains how many hours he spends studying and how many sweating. Every two weeks for three months he climbed down from the B-29 into his rocket ship. Each time the flight was called off. Finally he began to toss a utilitarian Dixie container, betraying his nervousness, over the side. But perspiration and micturition were rewarded...
Except for the war-period, when the Russians reintroduced folklore into their literature to arouse national patriotism, this basic Socialist Realism, with its tedious patterns of thought, has persisted. The basic philosophy of the Soviet Union is utilitarian--a realistic novel is easiest to read, safest for propaganda, and therefore the best. The Soviet Union is afraid of thinking in contradiction to the regime. A James Joyce or Franz Kafka would be unknown in Russia today--he'd be too hard to read, besides being called "intellectual-bourgeois...
This simple utilitarian principle is carried over into the other arts also. Music should be simple enough so that it may be whistled; painting must be realistic; likewise sculpture and movies. As government controls industry, it also controls the output of books. It makes sure there is no "Ulysses" being published by using a very strict censorship...
...center of a huge bull pen where they can look right across the desks at their assistants. At Philadelphia's Smith Kline & French Laboratories, the chairman of the board, department heads and general employees all look at the same green-painted walls, rugless floors and utilitarian furniture...