Tag Archives: King Lear

Trump & Covid: Tragedy or Farce?

By Robin Bates | Published: October 4, 2020

Was the Rose Garden event for Trump’s new SCOTUS pick–which became a Covid superspreader event–a Shakespearean tragedy? How about a farce?

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged COVID-19, Donald Trump, Game of Thrones, George Martin, Hamlet, Macbeth, Masque of the Red Death, Richard III, Sophocles, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Mary Trump, Smiley on Nightmare Families

By Robin Bates | Published: July 13, 2020

To see another family as dysfunctional as the one Mary Trump describes in her recent book, look to Jane Smiley’s “Thousand Acres.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, family dysfunction, Jane Smiley, Mary Trump, Thousand Acres, Too Much and Never Enough, Trump family, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Trump and Lear, Addicted to Praise

By Robin Bates | Published: June 22, 2020

Trump, like Lear, needs sycophantic followers to salvage his ego. His Tulsa rally shook him because few of them showed up.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alls Well That Ends Well, Donald Trump, Tulsa rally, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Trump as Low-Rent Lear

By Robin Bates | Published: June 10, 2020

I agree with George Will that Trump is like the narcissistic King Lear and his GOP enablers like T.S. Eliot’s Hollow Men

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Hollow Men", Donald Trump, George Will, GOP, T. S. Eliot, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Literature’s Unique Spiritual Insights

By Robin Bates | Published: February 15, 2020

An extended reflection upon the relationship between religion and literature.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Collar", "Egrets", "Flower", Brothers Karamazov, Flannery O'Connor, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Herbert, Good Man Is Hard to Find, John Milton, literature and religion, Mary Oliver, Paradise Lost, Religion, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

The GOP, through the Looking Glass

By Robin Bates | Published: January 28, 2020

Cartoonist Tom Toles has a very smart Alice-through-the-Looking-Glass take on Trump and the GOP.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alice through the Looking Glass, Donald Trump, GOP, Lewis Carroll, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

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.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Vanity of Human Wishes", "Sailing to Byzantium", "Tithonous", Aging, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Aristotle, As You Like It, Ecclesiastes, Geoffrey Chaucer, Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift, Merchant's Tale, old age, Plato, Rasselas, Samuel Johnson, Ulysses, William Butler Yeats, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Go High When Trump Goes Low?

By Robin Bates | Published: August 19, 2019

Tuesday Given that a recession would doom Donald Trump’s already shaky reelection chances, how will he behave if the economy suddenly tanks? On Nicole Wallace’s NBC program last week, the Rev. Al Sharpton said that Democrats must be prepared to deal with a man who has no boundaries and will do anything to win. Of […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Al Gore, Barack Obama, Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Donald Trump, electoral politics, Go Set a Watchman, GOP, Harper Lee, Othello, To Kill a Mockingbird | Comments closed

Cataract Surgery: See Better, Lear

By Robin Bates | Published: April 24, 2019

Thursday I am undergoing a second cataract surgery today and so am reposting the essay I wrote following my first (successful) surgery. I don’t expect to re-experience the same mixed feelings that I described two years ago, but dramas that feature sharp objects poked into people’s eyes still seem relevant. This essay is not for […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Black Leopard Red Wolf, cataract surgery, Marlon James, Oedipus, Sophocles, William Shakespeare | Comments closed