[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia (en:wp) as cultural reference point

[David Gerard]

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/reviews/observer/story/0,,1868812,00.html

A review of a quasi-operatic piece about Libya's Col. Gadaffi, done by
the English National Opera and the Asian Dub Foundation. How's this
paragraph strike you:

    "Accentuate that word 'attempt', for the piece signally fails to
answer the questions it raises. The many conflicting sides to the
intriguing figure of Gaddafi are serially presented, uniform by
uniform - liberator, ideologue, religious zealot, mass murderer,
whacko - but the end-product fails to take a position. The first half
is an inert Wikipedia guide to the Libyan leader, a dictator painted
by numbers, and the more animated second a confused morass of
suggestive set-pieces, sending us back into the night to sort it out
over dinner."

I'm struck that en:wp apparently has enough of a perceptible style
that it can serve as a reference point for dullness in an opera
review. The pain of neutrality!


- d.