James McBride This evening our Leonardtown Library Book Discussion group discusses James McBride’s Song Yet Sung, a fine book that I will address in an upcoming post. Today I want to talk about the occasion. Readers from all over Maryland are reading this book as part of a “One Maryland One Book” program sponsored by […]
Monthly Archives: September 2009
Literature as a Leadership Handbook
Joseph Conrad I have just begun reading a book that is very much in tune with this website: Joseph L. Badaracco’s Questions of Character: Illuminating the Heart of Leadership through Literature, published by Harvard Business School Press (2006). I report here on the introduction. The author talks about assigning Joseph Conrad’s “Secret Sharer” to a […]
Discussing Literature without Teachers
My son Toby My son Toby, who is with us for two more days before he leaves for the University of California-Davis English Ph.D program, gave a lecture to the St. Mary’s College Tolkien society on Friday. I am the club’s advisor but it was first time I had attended a meeting for several […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Gerald Graff, J. R. R. Tolkien, literary societies, Literary Theory: An Introduction, Lord of the Rings, Professing Literature, reading groups, teaching literature, Terry Eagleton Comments closed
Empty Sex in an Empty World
John Wilmot, by Jacob Huysmans (1675) I’m have just finished teaching Lord Rochester and, as always, it has been an adventure. I sometimes think I get more embarrassed than the students by his explicit sexual language. My women students (they’re all women in this class) are more tolerant of his diatribes against their gender than I […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Against Constancy, Andrew Marvell, Fragment of Seneca Translated, John Wilmot, materialism, To His Coy Mistress Comments closed
I Was a Secret Holden Caulfield
I contrasted Lord of the Rings with J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye the other day. It’s not a contrast that anyone other than I would make, and it’s all based on the fact that I loved the one and hated the other. In my post today I explore my dislike of the Salinger […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged adolescence, Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings Comments closed
Fantasy As a Roundabout Road to Truth
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn I didn’t do entire justice in Monday’s post to the Tolkien essay of my son Toby. In correcting that here, I also open up a more complicated vision of fantasy in general, as well as Tolkien’s fantasy specifically. I was wondering if Tolkien had retreated into fantasy as a refuge from […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged fantasy, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mists of Avalon, Tobias Bates, war Comments closed
Fantasy: Help or Hindrance?
My friend Alan Paskow, who is struggling with cancer, queried me about my post on Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman,” wondering whether the poem wasn’t just an insubstantial fantasy. I’ve been writing about The Lord of the Rings as a fantasy perhaps indulged in by a World War I veteran who wasn’t willing to face up […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged adolescence, Catcher in the Rye, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, fantasy, J. D. Salinger, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings Comments closed
Tolkien’s Ring and World War I
Otto Dix, Trench Warfare (1932) I have gained some new insights into The Lord of the Rings since my son Toby wrote an essay about it for the University of Pittsburgh’s graduate English program. Toby informs me that there are a number of debates around the book, especially whether it should be considered great literature. The […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Alfred Hitchcock, All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Tobias Bates, war Comments closed
