Tag Archives: Jonathan Swift

It’s a Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

By Robin Bates | Published: March 22, 2020

For those of us living in the lull before the COVID-19 storm, Swift’s “Description of a City Shower” captures what we’re experiencing–and about to experience.

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Jigsaw Order Out of Chaos

By Robin Bates | Published: January 15, 2020

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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Is Old Age Becoming Overrated?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 26, 2019

A “New Yorker” article on aging turns to literature to debunk the notion that aging is a good thing.

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Reluctance to Go to School

By Robin Bates | Published: August 16, 2019

Friday School has already opened in some states (Tennessee) and has yet to open in others (Maryland) so I’ve split the difference by choosing today to honor the occasion. Jonathan Swift’s mention of a laggard schoolbody in “A Description of the Morning” has always fascinated me. “Description of the Morning” gives an account of the […]

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Gulliver in Trumpland

By Robin Bates | Published: June 24, 2019

Tuesday So now Donald Trump, after ramping up war talk with Iran, is magnanimously claiming to be a moderate by calling off his airstrike. Killing 150 Iranians, he tells us, would be a disproportionate response to the downing of an American drone. This time he’s right. Less excusable is that he got us into the […]

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Swift on the Separation of Powers

By Robin Bates | Published: May 14, 2019

Wednesday As Donald Trump seeks to neuter Congress while at the same time welcoming autocrats to the White House, we find ourselves praying that Democrats, NeverTrumpers, and others who love our Constitution can successfully push back. It’s a battle we see dramatized in Gulliver’s account of the flying island. The executive power in this instance […]

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Why Tyrants Hate Laughter

By Robin Bates | Published: April 8, 2019

Tuesday In a recent essay on Arthur Koestler’s theory of comedy, the New York Review of Books’ Liesl Schillinger cites a passage from Koestler’s Darkness at Noon to explain Donald Trump’s attacks on Saturday Night Live. In his fictional account of Stalin’s show trials, Koestler shows that authoritarian personalities lack a sense of humor. Loyal […]

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Onward He Came, & April Was His Name

By Robin Bates | Published: March 31, 2019

Monday – April Fools Day For reasons I can’t explain, 18th century Britain was into April Fools Day. Jonathan Swift in particular loved the occasion and produced some of the great literary pranks in history. (See the links below.) Today, however, I present the work of one William Combe, who in 1777 wrote The First […]

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John Wilmot Sums Up Current GOP

By Robin Bates | Published: February 27, 2019

Thursday One of the interchanges in Trump fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony before the House Investigation Committee yesterday jumped out at me because it had such an 18th century flavor to it. Kentucky Republican James Comer, seeking to undermine Cohen, challenged him with the following: Comer: “You called Trump a cheat. What would you call yourself?” […]

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