Word: absurd
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...dreams and growing regrets, of crotchets and quirks, affection and annoyance, gossip and eavesdropping, small skeletons in large closets. It fails to be drab because, at 70, its people are still kicking their heels, raising their voices, cocking their ears. They talk ridiculous bromides, but with passion ; they make absurd gestures, but with feeling. They are for the most part real, and for the most part funny...
...little hats of last July, those impertinent hats of peacetime, those portents of happiness, unstable, tiny, poised comically over the nose, had suddenly become absurd...
...citizens who are grouchy, timid or asocial because their ears are dull." If you mean that 20,000,000 people, about one in every six, in this country have sufficient hearing loss to constitute a problem in their daily affairs, the statement is absurd on the face of it. Look about you at your acquaintances. How many are bothered by a hearing loss? If there were 20,000,-ooo you would see them everywhere...
...above all, every one, even those with the thickest brains, can see that the division between the economy of peace and the economy of war is simply absurd...
...Along with these impressive grace notes are other devices, beginning with the price, calculated to put the stuff over with the people. Two sizes of type are employed: large type for essentials, small type for skipping (some of the best things in the book). At the end appears an absurd and appealing glossary, defining 18 non-English terms used in the text, including bourgeoisie, élan, bizarreries...