Elegance, as the Countess defines it, is "the art of being astonishing without creating astonishment".
In former times the idea of the actor as motivated by a desire to create astonishment and wonder was sometimes seen as the basis of all theatre.
The size of the endowment losses in elite universities this year, both in percentage and dollar terms, has created some astonishment and shock that, in light of the gains these same endowments enjoyed over the past decade, is itself rather astonishing.
Creating astonishment in onlookers is essential.
Then, filling the silence my astonishment created, he added with an eye to his friends, "Do an imitation of an Iraqi for me: put your arms up and say, 'Please don't kill me.' " Although I've thought of dozens of snappy comebacks since, my reaction then was not fight but flight -- at Concorde speed.
Cubism was invented by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque at the same time modern physics was being created: its crystalline structures and opaque surfaces suggest the astonishment of a reality whose every microcosmic particle is sublimely complex.
For me, the feeling was, approximately: Astonishment at the dawning realization that this woman was being created in real time, directly from my own mind, per my deepest longings.
(Brecht described this as "stripping an event of its self-evident, familiar, obvious quality and creating a sense of astonishment and curiosity about [it]".) Wood laughs off the comparison but agrees their techniques aren't dissimilar.
Within a year, 300,000 player accounts had been created, far exceeding Johnson and Nite's expectations; Johnson has referred to the game's success as "a never ending series of astonishments".
This fact creates a certain amount of astonishment in a society that never expected to witness this kind of emigration phenomenon among its young, educated citizens.
Words can do little to convey the visual astonishment this space opera creates.
