ellauri077.html on line 458: About Existentialist Engagement in Wallace, Eggers and Foer. The novels of David Foster Wallace, Dave Eggers and Jonathan Safran Foer are increasingly regarded as representing a new trend, an 'aesthetic sea change' in contemporary American fiction. 'Post-postmodernism' and 'New Sincerity' are just two of the labels that have been attached to this trend. But what do these labels mean? What characterizes and connects these novels?
ellauri158.html on line 53: What Clarke argues is that the Newtonian natural system and the findings that stem from it are incompatible with the “blind necessity” that characterizes both the Epicurean and Spinozistic world picture, precisely because this system implies the existence of an immaterial and wise Creator. What the fuck? It is a deterministic system par excellence. Ach, tarkoitatte alkuehtoja. Vanha antroposentrinen jumalatodistus: jos jumala ei olis säätänyt kaikkea näin hyvin, ei olis meitäkään. Tää ei voi olla sattumaa! Maailmamme ei voi olla 1 ziljoonasta sokeasta yrityxestä! Vai voiko se? This lottery is unfair, huutaa Shirley Jackson kiukkuisena, kun kivet lentävät. Shirley putkahti esille albumissa 133 ja putkahtaa uudelleen esille albumissa 270.
ellauri222.html on line 365: One of the major themes of the novel is the human tendency toward dishonesty. Augie is not a particularly honest character. He cheats, he steals, and lies quite frequently. Dishonesty characterizes many of the other characters in the novel, including Grandma, Einhorn, Mimi (who lies to doctors that she thinks her pregnancy abnormal), Stella, Agnes, and Mintouchian. The only characters who do not lie or cheat are the simple-minded Mama and Georgie. Lying appears necessary for people to survive in a Machiavellian world. As Mintouchian puts it: “I’m a great admirer of our species. I stand in awe of the genius of the race. But a large part of this genius is devoted to lying and seeming what you are not.” The ethics of the American Jew. The book starts with a lie: I am an American, Chicago born."
xxx/ellauri168.html on line 306: Chalmers argues for an "explanatory gap" from the objective to the subjective, and criticizes physicalist explanations of mental experience, making him a dualist. Chalmers characterizes his view as "naturalistic dualism": naturalistic because he believes mental states supervene "naturally" on physical systems (such as brains); dualist because he believes mental states are ontologically distinct from and not reducible to physical systems. He has also characterized his view by more traditional formulations such as property dualism.
xxx/ellauri187.html on line 121: Freedman's Rilke, oddly enough, dwells on the dark underside of contemporary American life. Behind the mingled, multicolored yarn of his passions, obsessions, powerful yearnings, and self-interest--all wisely balanced in Donald Prater's majestic and definitive 1986 biography--Freedman sees only self-interest. Rilke is "hucksterish." His carefully cultivated literary success Freedman characterizes as a "relentless career." He refers to Rilke's "careerist standards." The places Rilke settles in for a time are not homes but Rilke's "bases."
xxx/ellauri218.html on line 230: The aptly named Fresh Kills landfill opened in 1948 as a temporary landfill, but by 1955 it had become the largest landfill in the world, and it remained so until its closure in 2001. At the peak of its operation, in 1986, Fresh Kills received 29,000 tons of residential waste per day, playing a key part in the New York City waste management system. From 1991 until its closing it was the only landfill to accept New York City's residential waste. It consists of four mounds which range in height from 90 to about 225 feet (30 to about 70 m) and hold about 150 million tons of solid waste. The archaeologist Martin Jones characterizes it as "among the largest man-made structures in the history of the world."
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