Monthly Archives: September 2015

Clifton, Abortion, & Respecting Women

Shock strategies by anti-abortionists may work on Congress but are less likely to work on women. As the body poems of Lucille Clifton demonstrate, women already know much more about their bodies than Congressmen do.

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Trump & GOP Tax Plans: All Humbug

Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush have all presented tax plans that claim to be populist even as they mainly benefit the wealthy. The Wizard of Oz would feel right at home in their company.

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Tolstoy and Climate Change Denial

The denial of the citizens of Moscow as Napoleon approaches the city, described by Tolstoy in “War in Peace,” resembles climate change denialism.

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Germany vs. Greece, a Greek Tragedy

Novelist Tim McCarthy argues that the economic collision between Germany and Greece reenacts a number of the classic Greek tragedies, most notably “Oedipus” and “The Oresteia.” But Athena may not intervene in this instance.

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Jane Eyre: 1st Discipline, Then Love

To find love, Jane must first undergo a stern, self-denying discipline. Then she must let go of the discipline and follow her heart. She turns to a challenging passage from the Book of Mark to set off on that journey.

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Yogi’s Yogi-isms: “Sheer Poetry”

Along with his Hall of Fame baseball career, Yogi Berra can be credited with adding to our list of rhetorical devices.

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Pope Francis as Shaw’s St. Joan

Christianity is all very well in its place, but when Pope Francis comes to America counseling a dismantling of capitalism, he gets the same response that Joan of Arc does in “St. Joan.”

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Lit Classics, Our Most Valuable Friends

Wayne Booth compares our relationship with books to our relationships with friends. Just as we can judge whether a friendship is good for us, so can we do so with a literary work.

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The Abortion Debate & Doll’s House

Our society’s impasse over abortion is like the impasse in Ibsen’s “Doll’s House” between Thorvald and Nora: he insists on moral absolutes, she resents being infantilized.

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