Tag Archives: Alexander Pope

The Gender Battle in Pope’s Card Game

In which I share a talk I am giving on the card game played in “Rape of the Lock.”

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Good Company, Rich Conversations

As we visit with old friends in Slovenia, I think of how Jane Austen’s Anne Elliot values “good company.”

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Rightwing Educators & Pope’s Dunces

Rightwing parent groups and legislators want authoritarian teachers who teach their truth. They want Bentley from Pope’s “Dunciad.”

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Eternally Damned after Reading a Book

In which I compare Austen’s Marianne and Willoughby to Dante’s Paulo and Francesca.

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Does Lightweight Lit Do Damage?

I look at how thinkers over the centuries have viewed so-called popular or lightweight literature.

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Despite Trump, the Rivers Kept Speaking

Jane Hirshfield’s “Fifth Day,” written five days into the Trump administration, capture the president’s war against science and the environment.

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Jigsaw Order Out of Chaos

As one who specializes in 18th century British lit, I’m fascinated with how jigsaw puzzles represent order arising from chaos.

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Are We Overanalyzing Trump?

Monday My son gave me a tough-love talk about my writing at a wedding reception this past Saturday afternoon. We were in Iowa together for my wife’s nephew and Darien took a few moments to express doubts about book he is helping me self-publish. While he is a big supporter of the blog, he worries […]

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Do Endings Reveal Meaning of Life?

Monday My wife Julia alerted me to an intriguing although somewhat frustrating article in Atlantic about the end of time. Drawing on Frank Kermode’s 1967 The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction, Megan Garber wrestles with an issue recently raised by The Washington Post: how do we live with constant reminders […]

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