Word: consciousnesses
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Dates: during 1970-1970
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...different from the type of personalities we read about, but just the plain and simple fact of the situation, that a writer should be guiding us through a critical evaluation- however obliquely that criticism might be made- seemed to suggest our own superiority. It certainly contributed to our self-consciousness. And as long as we were conscious of our foibles, we were somehow free of their effects. And somehow less ridiculous that the writer's victims- who could only read about themselves after their initial gaffes had been committed and then frozen into print. For all its renegade appeal...
There are moments like these in the stories when Oates is simply too clever, too conscious of being a writer. More often, her tyranny relaxes into an awesome demonstration of control. One of the most remarkable stories in the collection is a series of "Unmailed, Unwritten Letters," conceived by a young woman to be sent to her parents, husband, and lover, also his wife and daughter, a genius who at six wrote "tidy, little poems like Blake's." The sense of desperateness and guilt that these letters evoke taints the final fragment to her lover with an almost ghoulish bitterness...
...DINNER for two can fall comfortably under $4.00. But the customer assortment last Friday night was by no means a date crowd. It included mostly college girls spending a shop-and-study day in Cambridge and one rather self-conscious graduate student sitting alone. The noon lunch hour seems to fill the room not with professors but with their secretaries or just plain Christmas shoppers. You can always tell how badly a restaurant wants the shopper-secretary clientele by the care the chef takes with the salad bowl. As You Like It offers
Compensation came high. The patients were rarely without conscious and unconscious fears of death and mutilation; fantasies of going blind often kept them awake at night, and terror of possible castration haunted them. As important as their fears were the actual injuries they suffered. All of Nicholi's patients were accident-prone. Most of them had experienced at least one serious motorcycle accident. Yet none were ready or willing to give up their bikes...
...play. As the busiest actor on stage, Carden is called upon to handle battles, brawls, and bedroom scenes and does so winningly with his usual blend of physical energy and ingenuous geniality. He provides the driving force that sets the other three musketeers-Michael Smith as the clothes-conscious Porthos, George Sheanshang as Arannis the aesthete, and Casey Clark as brooding Athos-into action...