The fact that his labors are more often than not, fortified by beer, to steel him to the unpleasant task of destruction, underline Hanta's futile attempts to disengage himself from the physical, material act of cultural destruction through drug-inducted dissociation. (2) Hanta records, particularly during the first part of the book, in excruciating detail the masses and masses of words he has rendered for the scrap heap, and his solitary existence and life of labor that is compelled by a domineering government. He lives and works in a material world of cultural destruction, but a world so horrible, he does all he can to shut it out -- and one of his tools is to read, read, read, and ingest material deemed to be wrong.
The paradox is that as much as Hanta destroys, he can still appreciate that for "fifteen generations" his people have dwelled in a cultured land, noted for its refinement, yet the tyranny of all-encompassing ideology has reduced the high culture of words to a waste product. Only through small, human interventions such as reading, even a material and physical intervention done in private, does the culture of words survive and transcend its status as pure waste. Through the reading of one man, the words are no longer a mere physical excreta reduced to what can be compacted by the pushing of Hanta's fingers on red and green buttons -- they remain a culture, even if only a private culture of Hanta's imaginary life.
Hanta is continually, throughout the book, haunted by the specter of culture, like the eyes of the "infant Jesus." (42) Although Hanta professes he has lost his Christian as well as his communist faith, he clearly does retain a faith in the written word, despite his protestations. He would not read if he did not have some belief in the integrity of his people to love and live...
Sunburned Country is typical warm, humorous and engaging Bill Bryson fare. Bryson is one of those rare travel writers that can almost literally pull you from the comfort of your couch, and into the place that they describe. Unlike other books that often read like an itinerary of hotels, sights, and restaurants, In A Sunburned County will seemingly transport you to the sunny island itself. Bryson's affection for Australia is
Fences (Wilson, 1986) August Wilson, one of America's preeminent black playwrights presents the mercurial nature of one, Troy Maxson. Not much effort is needed before the real and metaphorical fences become evident. Delving deeper into Troy's character unearths the fence that distinguishes his "makeup": vacillation between a sober, responsible person from one that is self-destructive. Troy Maxson, a son of a share-cropper, leaves the deep-south, escaping from his father's brutality.
Tom Shulich ("ColtishHum") A comparative study on the theme of fascination with and repulsion from Otherness in Song of Kali by Dan Simmons and in the City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre ABSRACT In this chapter, I examine similarities and differences between The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre (1985) and Song of Kali by Dan Simmons (1985) with regard to the themes of the Western journalistic observer of the Oriental Other, and
Scholastic: 1993 Curious young astronomers who ask, "what are stars made of?" And "Why do astronauts float in space?" will find answers here. A brief survey of the universe in a question and answers format. Reading level: Ages 4-8 Paperback: 28 pages ISBN: 0439465834 Tayleur, K. Excuses! Survive and Succeed by David Montimore Baxter. (Mankato, MN) Stone Arch Books: 2007 Young David Mortimore Baxter, who knows how to stay out of trouble, shares excuses for
He wants to honor his dead wife, so he takes the dog along with him just as she did. This is perhaps the only gesture the father makes toward the dog. Throughout the poem, it appears as if the father is indifferent to the dog, if anything at all. The paradox we encounter in the poem is if a dog can actually suffer from grief with the ultimate question resting
Do you disagree with any of Pope's opinions or pronouncements in the Heroic Couplets or "An Essay on Man"? Pope is critical of individuals who "cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjust," suggesting that the unhappiest people are people who blame God, rather than themselves for all of their troubles, or who curse God because their lives are imperfect. The need to accept life's imperfections while still working to enact positive changes
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