Word: lessing
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...However, from the historical tone of the prologue to the modest conclusion of the novel ("This book is dedicated to humanity"), Houellebecq constantly reminds his reader that he has bigger fish to fry than individual characters. Set in the more enlightened near future, The Elementary Particles aims for no less than a complete mapping-out of Western society's downward trajectory in the second half of the 20th century...
...their age. Both dracins endure lonely and occasionally brutal childhoods that leave them unlovable and incapable of loving by the time they reach adulthood. Michel, a brilliant molecular biologist, gradually withdraws from human contact. Unable to experience emotion, he finds solace instead in his work, which culminates in no less than a Kuhnian shift in paradigm. Bruno, who is neither particularly dashing nor particularly well-endowed (the latter being of even more importance in this new age of increasing debauche), eases his pain by masturbating in public, exposing himself to students, and when lucky, participating in orgies...
...himself with basketball skills to match. It takes some time, of course, for their relationship to progress through the steps of the student-mentor story formula: they spar at first, but gradually grow more comfortable with each other, talking, writing and dishing out pseudo-profound remarks that are far less interesting than the screenwriter must have thought. More than anything, their friendship appears to be based on simply spending time together, yammering about this and that without actually talking about anything at all compelling. Though Forrester is declared a great writer, whatever he says is unbearably trite. In one scene...
Forrester’s abject uncomplexity is less Connery’s fault than it is that of the film’s poor script, the first sold by radio film critic Mike Rich. Yet Connery does much on his own to make the role irritatingly undistinguished. Forrester’s path of emotional evolution in the film seems forced, each of its extremes a protest against the brusque and wry tendencies that Connery has honed for so long. Thus, when Forrester rails against his life’s misfortunes, his attitude seems unreal, an instrument of the plot. When...
...partly the result of Texans seeing themselves as a state apart. As one political analyst told CNN Tuesday night, "Texas Democrats are like Texas Republicans wearing a thin layer of paint." Leadership in both parties bow equally deeply to the twin deities of conservatism: Tax cuts and less government. And certainly Bush's confabs with Speaker Laney, long considered a key broker of bipartisan support for Bush's proposals, have not prepared him for debates with Dick Gephardt or Trent Lott, congressional leaders who are making conciliatory noises now - but who are also known for their fierce partisanship...