ellauri107.html on line 484: Finkelstein asserted that five dollars was not too great a sum, not for a really high-class lighter which was suitably nickeled and provided with connections of the very best quality. “I always say—and believe me, I base it on a pretty fairly extensive mercantile experience—the best is the cheapest in the long run. Of course if a fellow wants to be a Jew about it, he can get cheap junk, but in the long RUN, the cheapest thing is—the best you can get! Now you take here just th' other day: I got a new top for my old boat and some upholstery, and I paid out a hundred and twenty-six fifty, and of course a lot of fellows would say that was too much—Lord, if the Old Folks—they live in one of these hick towns up-state and they simply can't get onto the way a city fellow's mind works, and then, of course, they're Jews, and they'd lie right down and die if they knew Sid had anted up a hundred and twenty-six bones. But I don't figure I was stuck, George, not a bit. Machine looks brand new now—not that it's so darned old, of course; had it less 'n three years, but I give it hard service; never drive less 'n a hundred miles on Sunday and, uh—Oh, I don't really think you got stuck, George. In the LONG run, the best is, you might say, it's unquestionably the cheapest.”
ellauri198.html on line 144: Not all reviewers agree that Warren’s work deserves such unqualified praise. Though Warren tackles unquestionably important themes, his treatment of those themes borders on the bombastic. Warren becomes ridiculous on occasion, whenever we lapse from total conviction. His philosophical musings are “sometimes truly awkward and sometimes pseudo-profound.” Warren thus joins a central American tradition of speakers—Emerson, Thoreau, Henry Adams, Norman Mailer—who are not only the salesmen but the advertisers of their own snake oil.”
ellauri198.html on line 824: He was equally firm in adhering to his self-image as an artist. This conviction led many to accuse him of elitism, but conscious and undaunted image building also unquestionably contributed to his greatness.
ellauri222.html on line 325: The foremost theme in The Adventures of Augie March is the search for identity. Unsure of what he wants from life, Augie is pulled along into the schemes of friends and strangers, trying on different identities and learning about the world through jobs ranging from union organizer to eagle trainer to book thief. His path seems random, but as Augie notes, quoting the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, “a man’s character is his fate.” As Augie goes through life, knocking on various doors, these doors of fate open up for him as if by random, but the knocks are unquestionably his own. In the end of the novel, Augie defines his identity as a “Columbus of those near-at-hand,” whose purpose in life is to knock some eggs. Augie notes that “various jobs” are the Rosetta stone, or key, to his entire life. Americans define themselves by their work (having no roots, family or land to stick to), and Augie is a sort of vagabond, trying on different identities as he goes along. Unwilling to limit himself by specializing in any one area, Augie drifts from job to job. He becomes a handbill-distributor, a paperboy, a Woolworth’s stocker, a newsstand clerk, a trinket-seller, a Christmas helper at a department store, a flower delivery boy, a butler, a clerk at fine department stores, a paint salesman, a dog groomer, a book thief, a coal yard worker, a housing inspector, a union organizer, an eagle-trainer, a gambler, a literary researcher, a business machine salesman, a merchant marine, and ultimately an importer-exporter working in wartime Europe. Augie’s job changing is emblematic of the social mobility that is so quintessentially American. Augie is the American Everyman, continually reinventing himself, like Donald Duck. Olemme kaikki oman onnemme Akuja, joopa joo. Yrmf, olet tainnut mainita. You are telling me!
xxx/ellauri086.html on line 903: "The Philosophy of Composition" is Edgar Allan Poe's theory about how good writers write when they write well. He concludes that length, "unity of effect" and a logical method are important considerations for good writing. He also makes the assertion that "the death... of a beautiful woman" is "unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world". Poe uses the composition of his own poem "The Raven" as an example. The essay first appeared in the April 1846 issue of Graham's Magazine. It is uncertain if it is an authentic portrayal of Poe's own method.
xxx/ellauri086.html on line 919: The essay states Poe's conviction that a work of fiction should be written only after the author has decided how it is to end and which emotional response, or "effect", he wishes to create, commonly known as the "unity of effect". Once this effect has been determined, the writer should decide all other matters pertaining to the composition of the work, including tone, theme, setting, characters, conflict, and plot. In this case, Poe logically decides on "the death... of a beautiful woman" as it "is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover." Some commentators have taken this to imply that pure poetry can only be attained by the eradication of female beauty. Biographers and critics have often suggested that Poe's obsession with this theme stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his life, including his mother Eliza Poe, his foster mother Frances Allan and, later, his wife Virginia.
xxx/ellauri380.html on line 442: But in Solzhenitsyn's case, it's not racial! It has nothing to do with blood. He's certainly not a racist; the question is fundamentally religious and cultural. He bears some resemblance to Dostoyevsky, who was a fervent Christian and patriot and a rabid anti-Semite. Solzhenitsyn is unquestionably in the grip of the Russian extreme right's view of the Revolution, which is that it was the doing of Jews.
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