When Mr. Brown merely pleases, it can seem a little disappointing.
In his impatience to get to matters of the mind, Kureishi is determined to avoid the merely pleasing.
This seems to me the best of Britishness: imaginative critique and the belief that art has a role in society beyond merely pleasing the rich.
As difficult women, both Prada and Schiaparelli defy the facile, the obvious, the craven, and the merely pleasing in fashion, and indeed, the most compelling aspect of the show is its examination of their penchant for "ugly chic" — clothes that refuse to conform to received ideas about beauty or sex appeal.
Does the State Department truly have evidence that Cuba belongs so high on the rogues list, or is it merely pleasing the Cuban exiles in Florida, where Jeb Bush is running for re-election?The answer seems to be that it has evidence enough.
Similarly, in talking about the success of his two productions, which could not be more dissimilar -- Cole Porter's light confection "Kiss Me, Kate and Michael Fraynn's weighty new play about nuclear physics, "Copenhagen" -- Mr. Blakemore, who turns 72 next month, sounded merely pleased that the shows managed to find their way to Broadway within months of each other.
But please don't attack people who didn't ask to be put in the limelight, merely want to get on with their lives.
But please, please, please.
But it's a different experience setting out not merely to please but to delight a child with a cake that only you can make, one that can find you rolling up your sleeves and becoming a cake wrangler, determined to make that firehouse, caterpillar or Pokémon concoction.
His books seem not merely to please but to cast a spell over readers who are receptive to them, which tends to dull their critical faculties; whereas others remain mysteriously unmoved and ask what all the fuss is about.
