But he was also a gleeful pinprick to its pomposities.
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They spent decades taking on the powerful, baring their misdeeds, piercing their pomposities — raking the muck in one way or another.
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His narratives used irony and humour to entertain as well as inform. He examined history from odd angles, exposing what he considered to be the pomposities of various historical characters. He was famed for "Taylorisms": witty, epigrammatic, and sometimes cryptic remarks that were meant to expose what he considered to be the absurdities and paradoxes of modern international relations. An example is in his television piece Mussolini (1970), in which he said the dictator "kept up with his work – by doing none"; or, about Metternich's political philosophies: "Most men could do better while shaving".
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1840) demonstrate Gounod's ability to cope with large-scale Romantic verse. The songs of Gounod's middle and later years are in the main judged less impressive. Johnson compares Gounod with Mendelssohn in terms of artistic decline, suggesting that their celebrity as establishment figures led them to adopt a style "suitable for the pomposities of gigantic music festivals." Nevertheless, Johnson observes that some of the songs written during Gounod's stay in England in the 1870s are excellent of their kind, such as "Oh happy home" (words by Edward Maitland, 1872), "If thou art sleeping, maiden" (Longfellow, 1872 or 1873) and "The Worker" (Frederic Weatherly, 1873).
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A third, "Variations for Flute and Electronic Sounds" (1964, featuring John Heiss on flute) was recorded and released in 1965 on a Turnabout Records "Electronic Music" compilation. Other known, but unreleased student compositions include "Episodes for Piano and Tape" (1964), "Pomposities for Narrator and Tape" (1965), and "Noah" (1965), a 2-hour opera blending electronics with an orchestra. Carlos' first commercial release was Moog 900 Series – Electronic Music Systems (1967), an introduction to the technical aspects of the Moog synthesizer released as a nine-minute single-sided mono LP and narrated by Ed Stokes. Part of her compensation for making the recording was in Moog equipment.
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Jason Keller of Now also gave it two stars out of five and said the Mars Volta "sound like a band becoming a bit too comfortable in their niche". Dave Simpson of The Guardian gave the album only one star out of five and said, "The 'songs' (a relative concept on planet Mars Volta) sound as though they are competing to unleash as many prog-rock cliches as possible: portentous guitar riffs and twiddly bits are interspersed with all manner of atonal wind instruments and sonic pomposities." Dave Hughes of Slant Magazine also gave the album a score of one star out of five and said that it sadly "takes sound and fury, signifying nothing, to new depths".
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Gabriel's theatrics were unpalatable to some of the mainstream rock audience, resulting in a cult following rather than that of a mainstream rock band. At their commercial peak in the 1980s, the music of Genesis faced the accusation of being "flabbergastingly insignificant" by leading American music critic Robert Hilburn, and it has been described as "barely distinguishable" from Collins's solo work. According to Rolling Stones Erik Hedegaard, Collins in particular was blamed by those who accused the band of selling out. Retrospectively, The New Rolling Stone Album Guide critic J. D. Considine documented how the band had been "largely ignored" by the music press and public in their earliest years, before being "derided as middlebrow throwbacks still in thrall to the pomposities of art rock" in the late 1970s and then dismissed as "easy-listening lightweights" in the 1980s.
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As well as highlighting the pomposities and hypocrisies of the age, the book also tackles issues sometimes considered taboo, including female education, cross-dressing and female adultery. The essays are written in the first person, from the point of view of a fictional male narrator. Gomeldon writes: :"I am Son to a Man, more rich than willing to part with his Money—and of a lady whose high Birth and genteel Accomplishments, inclined her much to lay out what Money she could..." The narrator goes on to describe his (fictional) father: :"...not one of the Children resembled himself, and it was continually remarked, that one Child was like one Gentleman, another Child like another Gentleman: As for myself, I was reckoned like a whole Regiment; and what was very singular, this very Regiment had been quartered in our Neighbourood the Year I was born." A recurring theme is the need for men to improve themselves to be fit companions for women.
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