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{
"text": " The hull of the casemate ironclad CSS Jackson can be seen in the National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus , Georgia . \n"
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{
"text": " The new United States Navy Zumwalt @-@ class guided missile destroyer has been described as bearing resemblance to ironclads . \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = Little Gidding ( poem ) = \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": " Little Gidding is the fourth and final poem of T. S. Eliot 's Four Quartets , a series of poems that discuss time , perspective , humanity , and salvation . It was first published in September 1942 after being delayed for over a year because of the air @-@ raids on Great Britain during World War II and Eliot 's declining health . The title refers to a small Anglican community in Huntingdonshire , established by Nicholas Ferrar in the 17th century and scattered during the English Civil War . \n"
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"text": " The poem uses the combined image of fire and Pentecostal fire to emphasise the need for purification and purgation . According to the poet , humanity 's flawed understanding of life and turning away from God leads to a cycle of warfare , but this can be overcome by recognising the lessons of the past . Within the poem , the narrator meets a ghost that is a combination of various poets and literary figures . Little Gidding focuses on the unity of past , present , and future , and claims that understanding this unity is necessary for salvation . \n"
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = = Background = = \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": " Following the completion of the third Four Quartets poem , The Dry Salvages , Eliot 's health declined and he stayed in Shamley Green , Surrey while he recovered . During this time , Eliot started writing Little Gidding . The first draft was completed in July 1941 but he was dissatisfied with it . He believed the problems with the poem lay with his own inability to write , and that , precipitated by air raids on London , he had started the poem with too little preparation and had written it too quickly . After the first draft was written , he set the poem aside , and he left in September to lecture throughout Great Britain . \n"
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"text": " After months of not working on the poem , Eliot began to feel compelled to finish it ; it was not until August 1942 , however , that he started working on it again . In total , there were five drafts . The poem was finished by 19 September 1942 and published in the October New English Weekly . Little Gidding was intended to conclude the Four Quartets series , summarising Eliot 's views expressed in this series of poems . \n"
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"text": " Little Gidding was the home of an Anglican community established in 1626 by Nicholas Ferrar . The Ferrar household lived a Christian life according to High Church principles and the Book of Common Prayer . The religious community was dispersed during the English Civil War between Parliamentarians and Royalists but reformed , ending with the death of John Ferrar in 1657 . Eliot had visited the site in May 1936 . \n"
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"text": " Unlike the other locations mentioned in the titles of the Four Quartets poems , Eliot had no direct connection to the original Christian community . As such , the community is supposed to represent almost any religious community . \n"
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = = Poem = = \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": " Critics classify Little Gidding as a poem of fire with an emphasis on purgation and the Pentecostal fire . The beginning of the poem discusses time and winter , with attention paid to the arrival of summer . The images of snow , which provoke desires for a spiritual life , transition into an analysis of the four classical elements of fire , earth , air and water and how fire is the primary element of the four . Following this is a discussion on death and destruction , things unaccomplished , and regret for past events . \n"
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"text": " While using Dante 's terza rima style , the poem continues by describing the Battle of Britain . The image of warfare merges with the depiction of Pentecost , and the Holy Spirit is juxtaposed with the air @-@ raids on London . In the second section , a ghost , representing the poets of the past stuck between worlds , begins talking to the narrator of the poem . The ghost discusses change , art in general , and how humankind is flawed . The only way to overcome the problematic condition of humanity , according to the ghost , is to experience purgation through fire . The fire is described in a manner similar to Julian of Norwich 's writing about God 's love and discussed in relationship to the shirt of Nessus , a shirt that burns its wearer . Little Gidding continues by describing the eternalness of the present and how history exists in a pattern . The poem concludes by explaining how sacrifice is needed to allow an individual to die into life and be reborn , and that salvation should be the goal of humankind . \n"
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = = Themes = = \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": " In terms of renewal , Eliot believed that suffering was needed for all of society before new life could begin . The original Little Gidding community was built for living on monastic lines , but the community was damaged and dispersed by Puritan forces during the English Civil War in 1646 . The church , the centre of the community , was restored in 1714 and again in 1853 . The image of religious renewal is combined with the image of the London air @-@ raids and the constant fighting and destruction within the world . This compound image is used to discuss the connection of holy places with the Holy Spirit , Pentecost , communion with the dead , and the repetition of history . The theme is also internal to Eliot 's own poems ; the image of the rose garden at the end Little Gidding is the image that begins Burnt Norton and the journey is made circular . Also , the depiction of time within the poem is similar to the way time operates within The Family Reunion . \n"
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"text": " Like the other poems making up the Four Quartets , Little Gidding deals with the past , present , and future , and humanity 's place within them as each generation is seemingly united . In the second section , there is a ghost who is the compilation of various poets , including Dante , Swift , Yeats , and others . When the ghost joins the poet , the narrator states \" Knowing myself yet being someone other \" . This suggests that the different times merge at the same time that the different personalities begin to merge , allowing a communication and connection with the dead . Later , in the fourth section , humanity is given a choice between the Holy Spirit or the bombing of London ; redemption or destruction . God 's love allows humankind to be redeemed and escape the living hell through purgation by fire . The end of the poem describes how Eliot has attempted to help the world as a poet . He parallels his work in language with working on the soul or working on society . \n"
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"text": " The ghost , a combination of many literary figures , was originally addressed in the poem as \" Ser Brunetto \" before being revised as an ambiguous \" you \" . \" Ser Brunetto \" was Dante 's way of addressing Brunetto Latini , a former mentor whom he meets in Hell to which he has been condemned for sodomy . Eliot , in a letter to John Hayward dated 27 August 1942 , explained why he changed the wording : \n"
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"text": " I think you will recognise that it was necessary to get rid of Brunetto for two reasons . The first is that the visionary figure has now become somewhat more definite and will no doubt be identified by some readers with Yeats though I do not mean anything so precise as that . However , I do not wish to take the responsibility of putting Yeats or anybody else into Hell and I do not want to impute to him the particular vice which took Brunetto there . Secondly , although the reference to that Canto is intended to be explicit , I wish the effect of the whole to be Purgatorial which is more appropriate . That brings us to the reference to swimming in fire which you will remember at the end of Purgatorio 26 where the poets are found . \n"
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"text": " The theme of swimming through flames is connected to the depiction of Guido Guinizelli , a poet that influenced Dante , seeking such a state in Purgatorio XXVI . However , the depiction of swimming was transformed into an image of dancing , an act that appears throughout Yeats 's poetry , within purgatorial flames . The critic Dominic Manganiello suggests that , in combining the image of dancing with purgation , Eliot merges Dante 's and Yeats 's poetic themes . \n"
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = = Reception = = \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": " Critics such as Malcolm Cowley and Delmore Schwartz describe mixed emotions about the religiosity of the poem . Cowley emphasised the mystical nature of the poem and how its themes were closer to Buddhism than Anglicanism while mentioning his appreciation of many of the passages . Schwartz also mentioned the Buddhist images and his admiration for many of the lines in Little Gidding . F. B. Pinion believed that the fourth section of the poem costs \" Eliot more trouble and vexation than any passage of the same length he ever wrote , and is his greatest achievement in the Four Quartets . \" E. M. Forster did not like Eliot 's emphasis on pain and responded to the poem : \" Of course there 's pain on and off through each individual 's life ... You can 't shirk it and so on . But why should it be endorsed by the schoolmaster and sanctified by the priest until the fire and the rose are one when so much of it is caused by disease and bullies ? It is here that Eliot becomes unsatisfactory as a seer . \" Writing in 2003 , Roger Scruton wrote that in \" Little Gidding \" Eliot achieved \" that for which he envies Dante — namely , a poetry of belief , in which belief and words are one , and in which the thought cannot be prized free from the controlled and beautiful language \" . \n"
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{
"text": ""
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. = \n"
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. is a 1981 literary and philosophical novella by George Steiner , in which Jewish Nazi hunters find a fictional Adolf Hitler ( A.H. ) alive in the Amazon jungle thirty years after the end of World War II . The book generated considerable controversy after its publication because in it , Steiner , who is Jewish , allows Hitler to defend himself when he is put on trial in the jungle by his captors . There Hitler maintains that Israel owes its existence to the Holocaust and that he is the \" benefactor of the Jews \" . \n"
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"text": " The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. was a 1983 finalist in the PEN / Faulkner Award for Fiction . It was adapted for the theatre by British playwright Christopher Hampton and was staged in London in April 1982 with Alec McCowen playing the part of Adolf Hitler . It was also staged in Hartford , Connecticut in the United States in 1983 and starred John Cullum as Hitler . \n"
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = = Plot summary = = \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": " From his base in Tel Aviv , Holocaust survivor Emmanuel Lieber directs a group of Jewish Nazi hunters in search of Adolf Hitler . Lieber believes that the former Führer is still alive , and following rumours and hearsay , he tracks Hitler 's movements through South America , until after months of wading through swamps in the Amazon jungle , the search party finds the 90 @-@ year @-@ old alive in a clearing . Lieber flies to San Cristóbal where he awaits the group 's return with their captive . But getting the old man out of the jungle alive is more difficult than getting in , and their progress is further hampered by heavy thunderstorms . \n"
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"text": " Meanwhile , broken and incoherent radio messages between Lieber and the search party are intercepted by intelligence agents tracking their progress , and rumours begin to spread across the world of Hitler 's capture . Debates flare up over his impending trial , where it will be held and under whose jurisdiction . Orosso is identified as the nearest airfield to the last known location of the search party , and aircraft begin arriving at the hitherto unknown town . But when the search party loses radio contact with Lieber , they must make a decision : do they sit out the storms and deliver their captive to Lieber later , or do they try Hitler in the jungle before their prize is snatched from them by the world at large , who they know will be waiting ? Their decision is the latter , and against Lieber 's advice ( \" You must not let him speak ... his tongue is like no other \" ) they prepare for a trial with a judge , prosecution and defence attorneys selected from the members of the search party . Teku , a local Indian tracker , is asked to observe the trial as an independent witness . \n"
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"text": " The attention Hitler is receiving , however , renews his strength , and when the trial begins , he brushes aside his \" defence attorney \" and begins a long speech in four parts in his own defence : \n"
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"text": " Firstly , Hitler claims he took his doctrines from the Jews and copied the notion of the master race from the Chosen people and their need to separate themselves from the \" unclean \" . \" My racism is a parody of yours , a hungry imitation . \" \n"
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"text": " Hitler justifies the Final Solution by maintaining that the Jews ' God , purer than any other , enslaves its subjects , continually demanding more than they can give and \" blackmailing \" them with ideals that cannot be attained . The \" virus of utopia \" had to be stopped . \n"
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"text": " Hitler states that he was not the originator of evil . \" [ Stalin ] had perfected genocide when I was still a nameless scribbler in Munich . \" Further , Hitler asserts that the number of lives lost due to his actions are dwarfed by various world atrocities , including those in Russia , China and Africa . \n"
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"text": " Lastly , Hitler maintains that the Reich begat Israel and suggests that he is the Messiah \" whose infamous deeds were allowed by God in order to bring His people home . \" He closes by asking , \" Should you not honour me who have made ... Zion a reality ? \" \n"
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"text": " At the end of his speech , Teku is the first to react and jumps up shouting \" Proven \" , only to be drowned out by the appearance of a helicopter over the clearing . \n"
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = = Main characters = = \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": " Emmanuel Lieber – Jewish Holocaust survivor and director of the search party to find Hitler ; after crawling out of a death pit in Bialka he never took the time to mend and embarked on a life @-@ consuming obsession to bring those responsible for the genocide to justice . \n"
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{
"text": " Search party ( all Jewish with family ties to the Holocaust , except for John Asher ) \n"
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"text": " Simeon – search party leader and \" presiding judge \" at Hitler 's trial ; he is Lieber 's confidant and torn between leading the party into \" unmapped quicksand and green bogs \" and turning his back on the \" quiet mania of Lieber 's conviction \" . \n"
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"text": " Gideon Benasseraf – falls ill and dies before the trial begins ; during one of his fever @-@ induced ramblings he suggests that Hitler is Jewish ; he had sought out Lieber after being released from a sanatorium and spending three years recuperating in Paris where the care @-@ free living consumed him with guilt . \n"
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"text": " Elie Barach – Orthodox Jew and \" prosecution attorney \" at the trial ; he is the moral compass of the group , but his convictions are disturbed by Gideon Benasseraf 's fever @-@ induced assertions that Hitler is Jewish and ends up believing that Hitler may be the second Messiah . \n"
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"text": " Isaac Amsel – an 18 @-@ year @-@ old boy and witness at the trial ; he is the son of Isaac Amsel senior , former member of the search party killed earlier in a skirmish in São Paulo ; he joined the party to avenge his father 's death . \n"
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"text": " John Asher – half @-@ Jewish and reluctant \" defence attorney \" at the trial ; fascinated by the capture of Bormann and the rumours circulating that Hitler may be alive , he had approached Nazi hunter Wiesenthal who directed him to Lieber ; despite being an \" outsider \" ( no ties to the Holocaust ) Lieber assigned him to the search party because of his military training and his clear @-@ headedness ( \" no metaphysical lusts , no cravings for retribution \" ) . \n"
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"text": " Teku – local Indian tracker and independent witness at the trial ; previously the search party 's guide who had abandoned them when they insisted on entering uncharted regions of the jungle , he continued tracking them from a distance before revealing himself . \n"
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"text": " Adolf Hitler – now 90 years old , the former leader of the Third Reich had not died in the Führerbunker in Berlin , but escaped to South America and hid in the Amazon jungle . \n"
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = = Background and publication = = \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": " George Steiner , literary critic for The New Yorker and The New York Times , had written about the Holocaust in some of his previous books , including Anno Domini ( 1964 ) , Language and Silence ( 1967 ) and In Bluebeard 's Castle ( 1971 ) . Many of the ideas Steiner expresses in The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. were reworked from these earlier works . Steiner told New York Times editor D. J. R. Bruckner that this book arose out of his lifelong work on language . \" Central to everything I am and believe and have written is my astonishment ... that you can use human speech both to bless , to love , to build , to forgive and also to torture , to hate , to destroy and to annihilate . \" \n"
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"text": " Commenting on the controversy the book generated , Steiner admitted to literary journalist and critic Ron Rosenbaum ( author of Explaining Hitler ) that he too was disturbed by it , adding that his fictional Hitler had gotten the better of him , \" golem- or Frankenstein @-@ like \" . He said that it felt like the book \" wrote me \" . Steiner also pointed out that the novella is not only about his thoughts on the Holocaust , but also about the horrific events that took place in countries like Cambodia , Vietnam , El Salvador and Burundi : \" My feeling is that one has to grapple with the abyss if one can . \" \n"
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"text": " Steiner wrote The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. in 1975 and 1976 in Geneva , Switzerland , and the 120 @-@ page work originally appeared in the Spring 1979 issue of the United States literary magazine , The Kenyon Review . It also appeared in the Spring 1980 issue of Granta , the British literary magazine . Its first publication in book form , with minor revisions by Steiner , was in May 1981 by Faber and Faber in the United Kingdom — and as requested by Steiner , it was a paperback original . The first United States edition was published in hardcover in April 1982 by Simon & Schuster . \n"
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = = Adaptations = = \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": " The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. was adapted for the theatre in 1982 by British playwright Christopher Hampton . It was staged in April 1982 at London 's Mermaid Theatre under the direction of John Dexter with Alec McCowen playing the part of Adolf Hitler . McCowen won the 1982 Evening Standard Theatre Award for best actor for this performance . In 1983 the production moved to the United States where it played at the Hartford Stage Company in Hartford , Connecticut , directed by Mark Lamos and starring John Cullum as Hitler . \n"
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"text": " This book is the only work of fiction by Steiner to have been adapted for the stage . \n"
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = = Reception = = \n"
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{
"text": ""
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"text": " Reaction to The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. was mixed . Anthony Burgess in The Observer called it \" astonishing \" , Christopher Booker of The Daily Telegraph described it as a \" powerful piece \" , and English author A. S. Byatt said it was a \" masterpiece \" . In Explaining Hitler , Ron Rosenbaum called The Portage \" A Frankenstein story \" , referring to Steiner 's fictive Hitler has having taken on a life of its own . Writing in Time magazine , Otto Friedrich described the book \" a philosophic fantasy of remarkable intensity \" , adding that by not refuting Hitler 's speech , Steiner deviates from the horrors of traditional Holocaust literature and ends the book \" on a note of bleak ambiguity \" . \n"
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"text": " Morris Dickstein of The New York Times was more critical of the book , calling it \" a misconceived and badly executed novel , a sideshow distraction from the serious business of thinking through the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi era . \" He described it as \" wearisome \" that is \" suffocate [ d ] \" by too much \" fine writing \" ( belles @-@ lettres ) . He also complained that the characters are lifeless , and while they each have detailed histories , they are only \" verbal figments \" that do not separate them from one another . Finally Dickstein noted that because almost all the points of Hitler 's speech are drawn from some of Steiner 's earlier works , he \" unwittingly creates sympathy for Hitler by making him old and pathetic yet also lucid and brilliant — at once absurdly harmless and unconvincingly dangerous . \" \n"
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"text": " In another review in The New York Times John Leonard wrote that while the book has its strong points , \" some wit , a catholic disdain , multiplicity of character and a South American swamp @-@ life that terrifies \" , its weaknesses are that \" the characters are really ideas , ... the symbols clash and there are too many echoes of better books by Kafka and Proust \" . But Leonard 's biggest criticism of the book was Hitler 's speech , which he called \" obscene \" , and Steiner 's decision to end the book at that point , which Leonard said \" not only denies the power of art to arrange and transcend , but ... makes me sick to my stomach . \" \n"
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"text": " Writing in the American literary magazine Salmagundi , Alvin H. Rosenfeld called The Portage a \" breakthrough work \" that \" astonishes \" . He was struck by the book 's interplay between the landscape of swamp and jungle , and the \" landscape of speech \" — the former being \" brilliantly registered \" with its \" immense feeling of physicality \" , and the latter , \" even more dramatic \" in the way it exposes \" the dark underside of words \" and how its use and misuse reveals the true nature of a person . He was particularly impressed by the depiction of Nazi hunter Emmanuel Lieber and his role as representative of the Jewish consciousness . Rosenfeld noted that while Holocaust literature often either soars to \" expostulation and apostrophe \" , or sinks to \" a dwindling sob of elegiac lament \" , Steiner 's Lieber \" mediates between these two extremes , ... simultaneously records and mourns , coldly enumerates yet carries an immense affect \" . What did concern the reviewer , however , was the way Steiner used ideas from his earlier works , that he had put them \" virtually verbatim \" into Hitler 's mouth , creating the impression that \" Steiner 's understanding of Hitler were identical with the latter 's self @-@ understanding \" . Rosenfeld also questioned why the book had to end with Hitler 's speech . He said that Steiner 's fictive Hitler plays \" the devil 's game of language subversion \" , making \" madness [ sound ] like music \" , something the real Hitler had perfected . By stopping at this point , Rosenfeld felt that Steiner \" succumb [ s ] , rhetorically , to the seductive eloquence of negation \" , which undermines his own \" high standards of moral intelligence \" . But overall Rosenfeld said The Portage \" must be counted among the most vigorous attempts to portray the presence and meaning of Hitler \" , forcing us to confront him \" in a way hardly seen before in fiction \" . \n"
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"text": " The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. was a finalist in the 1983 PEN / Faulkner Award for Fiction . \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": " = = Controversy = = \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": " The book generated considerable controversy because of its apparent \" admiration for Hitler \" . The controversy grew further when the faithful stage adaptation ( \" too faithful \" , according to Steiner ) was performed in the United Kingdom and the United States . \n"
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"text": " Hitler 's speech at the end of the book disturbed many readers and critics . Steiner not only lets Hitler justify his past , he allows him the ( almost ) last word before the outside world invades . The fact that Steiner is Jewish made this speech in particular even more contentious . One critic , while acknowledging that Steiner always saw Hitler as \" the incarnation of unprecedented and unparalleled evil \" , felt that there was no clear distinction in the book between Steiner 's own views and those of his fictional Hitler , even going so far as to accuse Steiner , who rejects Jewish nationalism and is a critic of Israel 's treatment of the Palestinians , of anti @-@ Semitism . \n"
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"text": " In contrast , a Time magazine article at the time felt that Steiner 's intention for the Hitler speech was to use it to explore his previously stated belief \" that Hitler wielded language as an almost supernatural force \" , drawing attention to Nazi hunter Emmanuel Lieber 's warning from the book regarding Hitler : \" There shall come a man who ... will know the grammar of hell and teach it to others . He will know the sounds of madness and loathing and make them seem music . \" \n"
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"text": " Steiner responded to criticism that Hitler 's speech in this book is unchallenged by saying that it had been done before : for example Satan 's speech in Milton 's Paradise Lost ( 1667 ) , and The Grand Inquisitor 's speech in Dostoyevsky 's The Brothers Karamazov ( 1880 ) . He also reminded the reader that Hitler 's speech is balanced out earlier in the book by Lieber 's long monologue on the horrors of the Holocaust . Finally , Steiner said that his Hitler ( A. H. ) is \" a fictive figure \" , and that it is not he who has the last word , but Teku , the Indian tracker , who shouts \" Proven \" . Teku is also the Hebrew word used to indicate that \" there are issues here beyond our wisdom to answer or decide . \" \n"
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = Temnospondyli = \n"
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"text": ""
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"text": " Temnospondyli ( from Greek τέμνειν ( temnein , \" to cut \" ) and σπόνδυλος ( spondylos , \" vertebra \" ) ) is a diverse subclass of extinct small to giant tetrapods — often considered primitive amphibians — that flourished worldwide during the Carboniferous , Permian , and Triassic periods . A few species continued into the Cretaceous . Fossils have been found on every continent . During about 210 million years of evolutionary history , they adapted to a wide range of habitats , including fresh water , terrestrial , and even coastal marine environments . Their life history is well understood , with fossils known from the larval stage , metamorphosis , and maturity . Most temnospondyls were semiaquatic , although some were almost fully terrestrial , returning to the water only to breed . These temnospondyls were some of the first vertebrates fully adapted to life on land . Although temnospondyls are considered amphibians , many had characteristics , such as scales , claws , and armour @-@ like bony plates , that distinguish them from modern amphibians . \n"
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"text": " Temnospondyls have been known since the early 19th century , and were initially thought to be reptiles . They were described at various times as batrachians , stegocephalians , and labyrinthodonts , although these names are now rarely used . Animals now grouped in Temnospondyli were spread out among several amphibian groups until the early 20th century , when they were found to belong to a distinct taxon based on the structure of their vertebrae . Temnospondyli means \" cut vertebrae \" , as each vertebra is divided into several parts . \n"
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{
"text": " Experts disagree over whether temnospondyls were ancestral to modern amphibians ( frogs , salamanders , and caecilians ) , or whether the whole group died out without leaving any descendants . Different hypotheses have placed modern amphibians as the descendants of temnospondyls , another group of early tetrapods called lepospondyls , or even as descendants of both groups ( with caecilians evolving from lepospondyls and frogs and salamanders evolving from temnospondyls ) . Recent studies place a family of temnospondyls called the amphibamids as the closest relatives of modern amphibians . Similarities in teeth , skulls , and hearing structures link the two groups . \n"
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"text": ""
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{
"text": " = = Description = = \n"
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"text": " Many temnospondyls are much larger than living amphibians , and superficially resemble crocodiles . Others are smaller and resemble salamanders . Most have broad , flat heads that are either blunt ( brevirostrine ) or elongated ( longirostrine ) . The skulls are rounded or triangular in shape when viewed from above , and are usually covered in pits and ridges . The rugged surfaces of bones may have supported blood vessels , which could transfer carbon dioxide to the bones to neutralize acidic build up in the blood ( early semiaquatic tetrapods would have had difficulty expelling carbon dioxide from their bodies while on land , and these dermal bones may have been an early solution to the problem ) . Many temnospondyls also have canal @-@ like grooves in their skulls called sensory sulci . The sulci , which usually run around the nostrils and eye sockets , are part of a lateral line system used to detect vibrations in water . As semiaquatic animals , most temnospondyls have small limbs with four toes on each front foot and five on each hind foot . Terrestrial temnospondyls have larger , thicker limbs , and some even have claws . One unusual terrestrial temnospondyl , Fayella , has relatively long limbs for its body , and probably lived as an active runner able to chase prey . \n"
}
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{
"text": " Homologues of most of the bones of temnospondyls are also seen in other early tetrapods , aside from a few bones in the skull , such as interfrontals , internasals , and interparietals , that have developed in some temnospondyl taxa . Most temnospondyls have tabular horns in the backs of their skulls , rounded projections of bone separated from the rest of the skull by indentations called otic notches ; in some temnospondyls , such as Zatrachys , they are pointed and very prominent . Among the most distinguishing features of temnospondyls are the interpterygoid vacuities , two large holes in the back of the palate . Another pair of holes , choanae , are present in front of these vacuities , and connect the nasal passage with the mouth . Temnospondyls often have teeth on their palates , as well as in their jaws . Some of these teeth are so large , they are referred to as tusks . In some temnospondyls , such as Nigerpeton , tusks in the lower jaw pierce the palate and emerge through openings in the top of the skull . \n"
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"text": " Very little is known of the soft tissue of temnospondyls . A block of sandstone , described in 2007 from the Early Carboniferous Mauch Chunk Formation of Pennsylvania , included impressions of the bodies of three temnospondyls . These impressions show , when alive , they had smooth skin , robust limbs with webbed feet , and a ridge of skin on their undersides . Trackways referable to small temnospondyls have also been found in Carboniferous and Permian rocks . The trackways , called batrachichni , are usually found in strata deposited around freshwater environments , suggesting the animals had some ties to the water . \n"
}
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