Monthly Archives: May 2010

Finding Resolve in the Face of Brokenness

By Robin Bates | Published: May 13, 2010

As oil continues to gush unabated into the Gulf of Mexico and as blame (never self blame) gushes from the mouths of company executives in Congressional hearings, we start to see more clearly the results of Dick Cheney’s attacks on oil company regulation. We are at a strange juncture with nature. On the one hand, I […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Better Austen than Bronte on the Court

By Robin Bates | Published: May 12, 2010

An interesting New York Times column by David Brooks has me doing some more thinking on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s enjoyment of Pride and Prejudice.  Here is some of what he wrote: About a decade ago, one began to notice a profusion of Organization Kids at elite college campuses. These were bright students who […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Elena Kagan, Lover of Pride and Prejudice

By Robin Bates | Published: May 11, 2010

Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett      Elena Kagan, current nominee for the U. S. Supreme Court, is a “literature lover” who used to reread Pride and Prejudice every year.  So we are informed by a fascinating New York Times profile.  Does this tell us anything about what kind of justice she will be? I wrote last year […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Are Dystopian Novels Useful?

By Robin Bates | Published: May 10, 2010

The new Arizona immigration law, which authorizes police to engage in racial profiling (even while claiming not to), has me thinking back to Almanac of the Dead, a 1991 novel by Pueblo writer Leslie Marmon Silko.  This imaginary recreation of a 21st-century future predicted this would happen. I don’t like Almanac the way I like Silko’s […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Motherhood, an Astounding Ministry

By Robin Bates | Published: May 9, 2010

Annunciation, Philippe de Champaigne (1644)     Spiritual Sunday Here’s a poem by Denise Levertov for Mother’s Day.  I dedicate it to my own mother and to the mother that I’m married to.  I also dedicate is to Maurine Holbert-Hogaboom, at whose funeral I read it ten days ago.  It was one of her favorites. Levertov imagines […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Take Me Out to the Luxury Boxes

By Robin Bates | Published: May 8, 2010

Sports Saturday We’ve long had an active poetry series at St. Mary’s, and periodically a wonderful new voice will swim into my consciousness.  Bruce Cohen from the University of Connecticut is the latest.  Cohen has a wonderfully wandering surrealistic style.  Often, as in the poem below, he gives us a narrative that is easy to […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

Fiery Speech in a World of Shadows

By Robin Bates | Published: May 7, 2010

Film Friday I owe my love of film to my father, who for years ran the “Cinema Guild” at the University of the South/Sewanee. When I wrote two weeks ago about Meet Me in St. Louis, my father talked about seeing the film as a G. I. in Europe.  “We saw the film as directed […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Literature and Student Life Stories

By Robin Bates | Published: May 6, 2010

This post will have to be quick because it’s been a busy week.  I’ve been involved in marathon grading sessions, attended a full day of senior project presentations (including one that I mentored on Hans Christian Andersen), met with multiple students who are revising essays, and have just returned from a session where students read […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments closed

This Fragile Earth, Our Island Home

By Robin Bates | Published: May 5, 2010

On Monday I talked about how Silko says that, if we are to end our destructive (and ultimately self-destructive) assaults upon the earth, we must come into spiritual alignment with it.  I’m aware that appealing to Native American religions is sure to draw jeers from certain sectors of the political right, especially the Rush Limbaughs […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments closed