As I watch the brutal repression currently underway in Syria, I am reminded of Syrian-American poet Mohja Kahf’s poem about her family fleeing to America from Assad’s father in 1971.
Monthly Archives: July 2011
Refugees Dropped in a Fantastic Terrain
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Roc", Arab Spring, Immigration, Mohja Kahf, politics, refugees, Syria Comments closed
Forgive Me for Eating Your Plums
In my experience, no two people respond to William Carlos Williams’s “This Is Just to Say” in the same way. More than most short poems, it seems to function as a Rorschach test, with reactions telling us more about the reader than the poem itself.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "This Is Just to Say", analysis, Food, Plums, Relationships, Sigmund Freud, William Carlos Williams Comments closed
Kiki Ostrenga as Sister Carrie
Columnist David Brooks recently turned to Theodore Dreiser’s 1900 novel “Sister Carrie” in an attempt to make sense of the strange and disturbing case of 13-year-old internet celebrity Kiki Ostrenga.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged adolescence, Daniel Defoe, Internet, Kiki Ostrenga, Lolita, Moll Flanders, Sister Carrie, Theodor Dreiser, Vladimir Nabakov Comments closed
Jerusalem in a Green and Pleasant Land
William Blake’s “Jerusalem” has been used for both religious and patriotic purposes. One must negotiate the relationship between religion and politics very closely since God can get bent to serve narrow agendas, and this poem is frequently misinterpreted.
Spain’s Tiger Burning Less Bright
Did the god that made the elegant strokes of Roger Federer also make the bruising style of Nadal? Like William Blake gazing at the lamb and the tiger in “Tyger, Tyger,” we can only shake our heads bemused.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Tyger, Homer, Novak Djokovic, Odyssey, Rafael Nadal, Sports, tennis, William Blake, Wimbledon Comments closed
U.K. Tabloid Voicemail Scandal as Film Noir
According to Jack Shafer of “Slate,” the U.K. tabloid phone hacking scandal has all the elements of a classic noir, especially “The Big Sleep” and “The Maltese Falcon.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Big Sleep, eavesdropping, Journalism, Maltese Falcon, phone hacking scandal, politics Comments closed
Rightwing Rewrites Reality
Today’s Republican right are practitioners of the Humpty Dumpty approach to communication: “I said it very loud and clear. I went and shouted in his ear.” Like Lewis Carroll’s Humpty, they also believe that they can make reality, as Humpty makes words, mean whatever they want it to mean.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Alice through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll, politics, Rasselas, Republican Party, Samuel Johnson, Tea Party Comments closed
Rasselas, a Bloglodyte’s Salvation
As a blogger, I sometimes spend excessive amounts of time in solitary contemplation. Samuel Johnson warns of the dangers of such a skewed perspective in his philosophic narrative “Rasselas.”
Blueberry Muffins and Rites of Passage
Writing about her mother’s blueberry muffins in her “Books that Cook” class, student Melanie Kokolios came to understand in a new way her own passage into adulthood.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Food, Melanie Kokolios, mother-daughter relationships Comments closed
