self-exculpation

This tension between the desire to know and the consciousness that such knowledge will never be possible also exists, it seems to me, in the novel's epistolary structure: each character writes (in friendship, anger, self-exculpation, and so on) to another, extending a hand (to borrow the novel's favorite image) in friendship or rage, but there is never a moment of reciprocal recognition.

A Monster's Notes 2010

This tension between the desire to know and the consciousness that such knowledge will never be possible also exists, it seems to me, in the novel's epistolary structure: each character writes (in friendship, anger, self-exculpation, and so on) to another, extending a hand (to borrow the novel's favorite image) in friendship or rage, but there is never a moment of reciprocal recognition.

The Little Professor: 2010

What I find refreshing listening to Darling is the absence of the Brown-type bluster: his words are not studded with attempts at self-exculpation or coded jibes at the Tories, unlike Brown.

Darling's less optimistic forecast 2009

What I find refreshing listening to Darling is the absence of the Brown-type bluster: his words are not studded with attempts at self-exculpation or coded jibes at the Tories, unlike Brown.

Darling's less optimistic forecast 2009

But anyway, that is to miss the point of the exercise -- which is to use the presence of international leaders in London as stage props in Mr. Brown's narrative of self-exculpation.

I've Come to Bury Brown 2009

What I find refreshing listening to Darling is the absence of the Brown-type bluster: his words are not studded with attempts at self-exculpation or coded jibes at the Tories, unlike Brown.

Gordon Brown, Charlie Whelan and Me 2009

For example -- and by way of at least partial self-exculpation -- please allow me to share with you this lovely native legend as related, in lilting song and languid gesture, by La Noonan in her role as the incomparable Hula Queen of Waikiki:

Ellis Weiner: Swoonin' With Noonan 2008

And, not least, of course, our need for self-exculpation.

An Epic of the Everglades Dirda, Michael 2008

This Mary Cheney, in her book of tortured self-exculpation, actually surprises us with a moment of unexpected candor:

Bill Robinson: There's Something About Mary Cheney 2008

One would as soon listen to a child reciting not very accurately and at endless length the deals and tricks of some game of cards it has played, or imagines it has played, as read their memoirs — packed as they too often are with self-exculpation, personal resentments and malice.

The Shape of Things to Come Herbert George 2006