He is humorous, for one thing, which is rare in this solemn shadow world of closed mouths and gritted teeth.
The Welsh artist Bedwyr Williams is a natural comedian, a one-off in a solemn art world that is too busy for humour.
During the ceremony, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who accepted the surrender on behalf of the United Nations, said, "It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past".
The essays here capture every angle of this world, both solemn and comic.
They were carrying large books with solemn titles: "The Medieval World," "Montcalm and Wolfe," "The Jesuit Relations".
The committee is wrong to call for the UK to break its solemn promise to the world's poor".
He also called Social Security a solemn commitment to the World War II generation and accused Vice President Al Gore of using "scare tactics" in criticizing his plans.
Her aesthetic is that of concrete art, isolated images placed in a grid; her intent is a silent rebuke, a solemn challenge to a world that, even now, is turning again to nuclear power to solve its problems.
"It's the Chinese people's solemn pledge to the world to host a successful Olympic Games," Wang Pingjiu, a staff member of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, was quoted as saying in an article in the People's Daily Online.
But unlike others attending solemn ceremonies around the world, the 105-year-old has first-hand memories of the events 100 years ago in which he lost his mother and most of his family.
