The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

farewell to arms, a
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know, the ‘Famous for fi fteen minutes’ type” (Shaun
Hutson, Heathen, 1993).
farewell to arms, a A truce, a retreat from confl
ict. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the novel A Farewell to Arms
(1929) by Ernest Hemingway, which was based on
the author’s experiences as an ambulance driver in
World War I. <strong>The</strong> novel itself relates the disillusionment
of an American medical offi cer serving
with the Italians and his subsequent desertion
from the army. His own farewell to arms took the form
of a drunken party with his teammates after his last
game with the side.
far, far better thing, a See it is a far, far better
thing that i do.
far from the madding crowd Away from the hustle
and bustle of modern life. Most people assume
the allusion is to the Thomas Hardy novel Far
From the Madding Crowd (1874), although Hardy
himself borrowed the phrase ultimately from
Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
(1751): “Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble
strife, / <strong>The</strong>ir sober wishes never learned to
stray; / Along the cool sequestered vale of life /
<strong>The</strong>y kept the noiseless tenor of their way.” “During
the next ecstatic ten minutes, with my hand
pressed against my wildly beating heart, I planned
my wedding dress, selected with care and discrimination
my trousseau, furnished the roseembowered
cottage far from the madding
crowd—and wondered why Father did not send
for me” (Eleanor H. Porter, Mary Marie, 1920).
fascism (fashizbm) Right-wing authori tarianism.
<strong>The</strong> Fascist movement founded by Benito
Mussolini in 1919 took its name from the fasces
that were carried before the se nior magistrates of
ancient Rome as a symbol of their authority. <strong>The</strong>se
comprised a bundle of rods tied with a red thong,
from which an ax projected. <strong>The</strong> fasces were subsequently
adopted as a symbol by Mussolini’s Fascists,
who sought to make links between their
movement and the glories of ancient Rome, and
the term soon came to be applied more widely to
other right- wing totalitarian organizations, po litical
parties, policies, and regimes, including Nazi
Germany. <strong>The</strong> rise of fascism and communism in the
20th century was the greatest disfi guring phenomenon
in international affairs.
fasten your seatbelts Prepare for troubled times
ahead. Originally an instruction to passengers on
aircraft to secure their seatbelts before takeoff or
landing or when fl ying into turbulence, the phrase
featured memorably in the 1950 fi lm All About Eve,
in which Bette Davis delivers the line “Fasten your
seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night!” in anticipation
of a blazing row she is about to have with
an upstart actress seeking to steal her role. If you’re
planning to go in there now before she’s had a chance to
calm down you’d better fasten your seatbelt.
fast lane <strong>The</strong> most direct route to success, fame,
wealth, etc. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the lane on a highway
or expressway that is reserved for vehicles
overtaking slower traffi c. <strong>The</strong> phrase is often
encountered in the expression life in the fast
lane. “For them there was nothing tame about
not living in the fast lane; nothing sanctimonious
about unconsciously keeping clear of the edge of
the cliff ” (Hugh Barty- King, <strong>The</strong> Worst Poverty,
1991).
fatal attraction An obsessive or dangerous relationship.
<strong>The</strong> allusion is to the 1987 fi lm thriller
Fatal Attraction, in which a deranged Glenn Close