That is what the New and Old Testaments demand of us.
"It is to encourage people to come in by making them the safer spots that the homeless have a right to demand of us".
Only imagining is the one thing that no blockbuster, buff with digital muscle, would ever demand of us, and we are duly treated to the sight of London's Tower Bridge and other global landmarks being swept aside.
Judging by his list for Nichols, what Wilson would demand of us if he were writing today is a theatre that deals overtly with the country's great themes: sex, race, and social class.
"The contemporary authors we most wish to read and most wish to admire for their literary qualities," Trilling said, "demand of us a great agility and ingenuity in coping with their antagonism to our social and political ideals".
The question on the table is this: "How much renunciation of desire does society demand of us, versus the degree of gratification it provides?" Clearly, the adulterer's answer, following a long line of venerable social critics, would be, "Too much".
