And a fondness for the Gothic. ArOOOOOH!

Bare asses on broadcast? Was that NYPD Blue? Seems like that was a long time ago, and they only got away with it because they were "quality." These day, MTV tries to do soft-core teen porn, and loses advertisers. The Simpsons writers are seldom wrong. If this could be done, Murdoch would have done it. Pantywaist…

True, Miller. I think they share some tastes and sensibilities.

Atwood started out as a poet
And she was better known as a poet until The Handmaid's Tale. She always uses prose style in her poetry - never meter or rhyme.

Well, yeah. It must also be seen as meaningful that he went back to Port Ticonderoga to die, in the boat of his father-in-law. There's not much in the book about the Griffin's family history, but they are treated as new rich, even as compared to the failing Chases. The acquisition of the Chase family was supposed to…

Rowan, if you mean would Richard commit suicide solely because he thought Laura was "unfaithful" to him, as revealed in "her" book, I don't think so. Though I agree that he had a fucked-up obsession with her. I thought the trigger was the end of his political career. After the publication of the book, press…

On p. 275 Alex defines his place within the underground he's hiding in - "A fellow-traveller who didn't travel far or fast enough." He's not a communist party member. He was a labor organizer who was accused of arson. He's being helped by communists and other leftists, but he doesn't trust the communists and they…

Did you read the rest of the book, Metaphor Junkie? Because it seems that you only skimmed so a point. At this point in the story, Laura is trying to find an alternative to joining her in-laws. Being an other would be better. Read on.

The reason Laura committed suicide is left nebulous. Yes, as you say, Farmer John, Iris has formed a theory of a complete reason. Yet, as you say, Scrawler, she doubts her own theory. I think Iris never wanted to know exactly what her sister's relationship with Alex was, and as he did, rejected her relationship…

I don't agree with you about the book, Farmer John, though I agree with most of your other comments (for some internet reason, your comment wasn't visible when I posted). I don't think Iris saw any value other than personal in her book when she gave it up. She may have also thought she was cleverly giving away its…

Maybe the connection to the other themes is in trying to find the differences between sacrifices and betrayals. Personal guilt is not supposed to attach to true sacrifice. It's what the gods/the economy/duty require. But things change, or at least the view of them does. Alex is trying to convince the world that…

Sacrifice
There is literal human sacrifice in Sakiel-Norn. Laura tries to sacrifice herself in the river to buy back her dead mother. The WWI dead, including Iris' uncles, are seen as sacrifices. Iris sees her marriage to Richard as a sort of sacrifice. While in hiding, Alex worries that the comrades will give him…

I think that it's left open whether or not the manuscript survives. We don't know Myra well, because Iris doesn't. Her mother Reenie might well have burned it. Iris suspects that if her father left any final message, Reenie burned that. If Myra wants for Iris' and her family's and local history to stay the way it…

Damn, I'm going to ask for more attention to my point, because I think so many others could enjoy the visuals the way I have. Let's say that I suffered a similar injury some 30-odd years ago, when I was a teenager, and didn't get it stitched, just taped the cut together. So the scar was ugly for a while, but not…

Lance Crouther and flavawheel. I assume you mean PootIE Tang. Many love it, some can even spell it. Pity is due to the runny kine, indeed.

@Built for Greed - I'm pretty sure that's a scar or complex of scars, rather than a distended vein. That injury is common among those impaired by substances, and is caused by landing chin-first on a hard surface from a height.

Chaplin was addressing an audience in what would become the Allied nations in which a lot of conservative solid citizens thought that Hitler was a guy with some good ideas and a lot on the ball. Baron Cohen is apparently preparing to fearlessly shoot fish in a barrel again. Anyway, House of Saddam was hilarious in…

Oops, sorry. Thought I was on the "midichlorians" thread.

Back on the topic of the thread, however late - http://en.wikipedia.org/wik….

I hope
it's about conspiracy theories and not his personal and career struggles at that time, because what do they have to do with his assassination?