Since the Rupert Murdoch scandal broke, a number of commentators have compared the media magnate to Charles Foster Kane of Orson Welles’s 1941 classic. The parallel casts light on one of Murdoch’s most galling claims: that he is anti-elitist.
Monthly Archives: July 2011
Shelley and Non-Violent Resistance
Blogger Austin Allen credits Shelley’s poem “Masque” with setting in motion the idea of non-violent resistance that we are currently seeing employed throughout the Arab world.
Queen of the Animals Quiz
In “Song for the Queen of the Animals,” Scott Bates celebrates the female life force while presenting the reader with a literary puzzle.
It Is Your Own Lush Self You Hunger For
In her Garden of Eden poems, Lucille Clifton sees heaven as a stifling morality that both Eve and Satan are trying to break through. Apples in this drama are symbols of female sensuality.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "eve's version", "satan understanding at last", apples, fruit, Garden of Eden, Lucille Clifton, Sensuality Comments closed
Walt Whitman as Suicide Prevention
At a time when he was feeling depressed and suicidal, Michael Bourne discovered that Walt Whitman could get him to step beyond his “endless, self-constructed maze of Self.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Depression, Leaves of Grass, Mental Illness, Walt Whitman Comments closed
Religion and Self Love
In “Gospel Song,” Scott Bates sees self-interest entering into the motivations of even the holiest of men—King David, Daniel, Jesus and Moses.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Daniel, Francois de la Rouchefoucauld, Jesus, King David, Moses, Religion, Scott Bates Comments closed
Cinderella vs. Jane Eyre in Soccer Final
In tomorrow’s World Cup finals, Japan is Cinderella going up against America’s Jane Eyre.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Albert Camus, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Any Given Sunday, Charles Baudelaire, Charlotte Bronte, Cinderella, Dead Poets Society, Guillaume Apollinaire, Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, Jean de la Fontaine, Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach, Sense and Sensibility, Soccer, Sports, Taming of the Shrew, Villette, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Dreaming of Paris
“Midnight in Paris” may be a celebration of Paris’s past, but ultimately Woody Allen’s film becomes a celebration of its present as well. We are living in a golden age right now.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Cities, Midnight in Paris, Nostalgia, Paris, Woody Allen Comments closed
