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THE EIFFEL TOWER AND OTHER MYTHOLOGIES

Another crop of "mythologies"—structuralist patterns inside daffy life—from Barthes, pieces that are as close as he ever comes to occasional writing. He considers the Eiffel Tower and finds it "an object which one sees, a glance which is seen; it is a complete verb, both active and passive. . . more the crystallizer than the true object." Anywhere you look in Paris there it is; yet, from its top, "it gives us the world to be read. . . it separates and groups"—and thus, since all panorama is "intellectualist," every visitor is made a structuralist. All well enough and true, but it's Barthes' problem (along with that of translator Howard, who tortures Barthes' jargon into "oneiric," "rugosity," "utensility") that we sense him always lounging fiercely upon the Procrustean bed. Even when he's making simple sense—describing how a flood "reconstructs" our perceptions of topology or how the bourgeoisie (whipping-boys throughout) believe "anything which risks substituting an explanation for a retort to be null and void"—the combative, often snide mentalism of his stance, plus the laboring of the obvious (he discovers that Billy-Graham religion is anti-intellectual), so insistently waffles that it begins to seem merely a trick; the abstract shapes of Barthes' innate structures definitely kneel down to ordinary life—and that's off-putting. Minor, dated work to begin with (some go back 20 years), these pieces make even less of an impact as an export.

Pub Date: Sept. 21, 1979

ISBN: 0520209826

Page Count: 164

Publisher: Hill and Wang/Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1979

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NUTCRACKER

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

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THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...

Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").

Pub Date: May 15, 1972

ISBN: 0205632645

Page Count: 105

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

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