As a student Pevsner had written rather piously in his diaries: "It takes earnestness to be a man and diligence to make a genius".
There's a line of Highland humor so dry it can be taken for earnestness, but -- and here's the beauty of it -- there's a streak of Highland seriousness so honest it can be mistaken for humor.
"Usually by Take 17 the earnestness is gone".
Blake Boldt of Engine 145 praised Swift, saying "Her infusion of individual lines with urgency ("Drop everything now," she insists) and earnestness ("Take away the pain," she pleads) are a tribute to her talent, not so much as a distinguished vocalist but as an excellent communicator.
Used more bluntly, however, these metaphors take on a deadening earnestness.
Such are the ironies in which Mills, at his most winning, likes to deal; rather than take sarcastic shots at earnestness, he stays with it and waits for the comic overreach.
Mere weeks ago, he was as close to a matinee idol as a House Budget Committee could hope to produce, his crush on Ayn Rand noted in passing but his wonky earnestness taken on faith.
The movie shifts from desert to urban, and the contrast takes on an earnestness when young Ugna, who is at the heart of the film, and his older brother, Dude, are sent to a nearby village to fetch a musician for the ritual.
(And it is this ritual that gives the film its title; if the reunion is successful, it is said, the mother camel will weep.) The movie shifts from desert to urban, and the contrast takes on an earnestness when young Ugna, who is at the heart of the film, and his older brother, Dude, are sent to a nearby village to fetch a musician for the ritual.
It'll be interesting to see how the show's brand of comedy can survive the injection of earnestness needed to take on "what's happening in our culture at large".
