Only one word?

1. "'Hypercharged' Is the Only Word for This Supreme Court" — headline for a NYT interview.

2. "The only word for this is 'transplendent'" — the Shelley Duvall character in "Annie Hall."

ADDED: This rhetoric is really a form of hyperbole. Surely there are other words... or what's a thesaurus for? I do think this device can be used well, but it can also be pretty silly. You can back yourself into a corner with a promise you can't keep, as in the perennially hilarious:

3. "America is a nation that can be defined in a single word: [????]" — Joe Biden.

"Duvall dancing at Studio 54. She lived the life of a celebrity in the 1970s and 1980s, dating Paul Simon and Ringo Starr...."

"The film critic Pauline Kael called her the 'female Buster Keaton.' On casting Duvall in 'The Shining,' Stanley Kubrick told her, 'I like the way you cry.'... Sitting between Paul Simon and James Taylor, Duvall greets Arnold Schwarzenegger at a screening in 1977."

From the captions at "Shelley Duvall: A Life in Pictures/With her gossamer frame and toothy smile, she was one of the biggest film stars of the 1970s" (NYT)(free-access link).

Goodbye to Shelley Duvall.

"Shelley Duvall, Star of ‘The Shining’ and ‘Nashville,’ Dies at 75/Her lithesome features and quirky screen presence made her a popular figure in 1970s movies, particularly Robert Altman’s" (NYT)(free-access link).

Transplendent!

"'I was a star; I had leading roles,' she said, solemnly shaking her head."

"She had parked in the town square for a takeout lunch — chicken salad, quiche and sweetened iced coffee, finished off with a drag of a Parliament. She lowered her voice. 'People think it’s just aging, but it’s not. It’s violence.' Prompted to explain 'violence,' Ms. Duvall responded with a question: 'How would you feel if people were really nice, and then, suddenly, on a dime' — she snapped her fingers — 'they turn on you? You would never believe it unless it happens to you. That’s why you get hurt, because you can’t really believe it’s true.'"

From "Shelley Duvall Vanished From Hollywood. She’s Been Here the Whole Time. After two decades, the actress known for her roles in era defining films like 'The Shining' and 'Nashville' has returned to acting. But what happened to her?" (NYT).

I'm blogging this because of the striking, strange use of the word "violence." Just 2 weeks ago, on this blog, I got involved in the meaning of that word.

Here's the post, "Another look at that Berkeley dinner party violence." Excerpt: "'Violence' can also mean 'Vehemence or intensity of emotion, behaviour, or language.'"

Have you seen "Room 237" — the movie about what people think about the movie "The Shining"?

It was released for streaming — watch it here — at the same time that it opened in theaters. We watched last night. It will be quite fun for you, I think, if you've seen the movie "The Shining" — even if you're not obsessed with the movie — if you're interested in the way a work of art can draw people in and open up the doors of perception. With the revered genius director Kubrick cramming visual details in every shot, a viewer's mind can run wild with theories. The viewers' response to the movie parallels the Jack Nicholson character's response to the hotel. How crazy are these people? What do those cans of Calumet Baking Powder really mean?



Was Kubrick deliberately nudging you to think that the movie is really about the genocide of the Native Americans? Start looking for the other clues. It's amazing. It's a maze. You could get lost in there.

Was Kubrick trying to drive Stephen King crazy, like by making Jack's Volkswagen Beetle yellow instead of red and then later showing a crushed red Beetle under that semi in the snow?

Kubrick does these dissolves between scenes that have some interesting superimposed images — liked the peaked hotel roof and the ladder in the lobby — and the movie has several instances of characters walking backward — Shelley Duvall retreating up the stairs and swinging a baseball bat at Jack and the little boy retracing his steps in the snow to escape — and there's the backwards writing — "redrum" — so maybe Kubrick would like us to project the movie backwards and forwards simultaneously on one screen? Think what you could learn! All the secrets!

Well, I learned that Kubrick likes symmetry and puts things smack in the middle of the screen, which increases the likelihood of interesting combinations if you project backwards over forwards, but these people who obsess about the movie think Kubrick was trying to say something important. And what a coincidence! The message is about that person's central obsession — the slaughter of the Indians, the Holocaust, sex...