As the novel unfolds and the details of Alison's appalling childhood are slowly revealed, the juxtaposition of banal detail, black humour and the charm of the central character with the horrors that lie beneath is more and more pronounced.
Beyond that, the software features the banal, boxy, black-and-blue tropes shared by most sci-fi interfaces, complete with arbitrary charts and numbers all over.
The paintings of Marius Bercea, a Romanian artist, seem very indebted to Mr. Tuymans, particularly works like "Ethical Ideal Cabinet," from 2009, which suggests some kind of sinister goings-on at the voting station or party office, or the banal tourism of "Black Sea Tan," from 2009.
With his paintbrush, Marshall sought to normalize the banal elements of black life that are nearly always overlooked by art, film, and cultural representation.
Yes, the hero is still wearing a cowl and yes, it's likely the game's present-day storyline will probably remain impenetrably banal, but at its core, Black Flag seems to offer the prospect of high adventure on an epic scale.
But Slabbinck's skillful manipulations of perspective and proportion, and juxtapositions of color and black and white, turn banal source material into scenes of whimsical confusion.
Sammy Slabbinck's manipulations of perspective and proportion, and juxtapositions of color and black and white, turn banal source material into scenes of whimsical confusion.
That's particularly true because, for Mr. Gibney, the juiciest parts of this story weren't the explicit, sometimes banal details, like Mr. Spitzer's famous black socks.
There he painted about seventy identical-size canvases in black and white from multifarious, banal postcards and snapshots, emulating a style of works by Gerhard Richter.
Letts's considerable compassion finds an outlet here in a timeworn cliché — middle-aged white dude learns about love and fatherhood from the unknowable young black male — and ends up seeming banal.
