What binds Burgess's marvellously realised dystopian vision into material and moral coherence is the underlying narrative, with its ancient and familiar tropes of trial by ordeal, visits to the underworld, a magic sword, physical doubleness and the quest for spiritual wholeness.
What could be the underlying mechanism?
"The underlying narrative is, 'Don't trust anyone.'" The weaponization of information is not some project devised by a Kremlin policy expert but is an integral part of Russian military doctrine — what some senior military figures call a "decisive" battlefront.
He said part of the underlying narrative was Mr. de Villepin's fight for political survival and his attempt at reinvention as a political force on the right to counter Mr. Sarkozy.
We might prefer one candidate over another, but the underlying narrative was the same.
"We expect the underlying narrative that current high inflation is temporary to remain intact," said Mr. Hayes at Barclays.
Throughout the 2016 campaign, the underlying narrative surrounding Donald Trump's juggernaut has been that the billionaire reality-TV star somehow has a mysterious connection to the working class.
But did it really make much of a difference to the underlying narrative?
"That's the underlying issue".
Versatility was the underlying message.
