Monthly Archives: August 2011

Tiger Woods Needs Krishna as Caddy

By Robin Bates | Published: August 13, 2011

Like the hero of “The Bhagavad Gita,” Tiger Woods has lost his way in the self. A truly epic drama would be whether he can relocate his “perfect swing.” By which I mean his authentic self.

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Obama as a Kurosawa Figure

By Robin Bates | Published: August 12, 2011

Seen in the most positive light, Obama has chosen to be a mountain rather than an attack dog. The movie scene that comes to mind is Kurosawa’s shadow warrior trying to be a “mountain” in “Kagemusha.”

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The Thread between Mother and Daughter

By Robin Bates | Published: August 11, 2011

The mother in Janice Mirikitani’s poem feels joined to her daughter by the red thread she uses to sew her wedding slippers.

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Life Imitates Aristophanes in Colombia

By Robin Bates | Published: August 10, 2011

In Aristophanes’ great anti-war comedy, the women of Greece, led by Lysistrata, stage a sex strike, which gives them the leverage they need to end the Peloponnesian War. Currently there is a sex strike underway in a remote village in Columbia.

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One of Literature’s Sexiest Eating Scenes

By Robin Bates | Published: August 9, 2011

Homer gains Fielding’s admiration by his ability to move seamlessly between epic grandeur and “the shameless dog of the belly.” Perhaps it is Homer’s dexterity that gives Fielding the idea for his own contribution to “Great Eating Scenes in Literature.”

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Rick Perry, a Modern Day Elmer Gantry

By Robin Bates | Published: August 8, 2011

It’s not that either Sinclair Lewis’s Elmer Gantry or Texas Governor Rick Perry are religious hypocrites. It’s just that they conflate their religious beliefs with their earthly desires.

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Ramadan – The Self Lightens

By Robin Bates | Published: August 7, 2011

Poet Nomi Stone, while studying an ancient Jewish community in Tunisia, also attempted to understand the Muslim neighbors. “Many Scientists Convert to Islam” describes her exploration of Ramadan.

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A Poetic Game of Throw and Catch

By Robin Bates | Published: August 6, 2011

In his poem, Robert Francis compares the interaction between poet and reader to two boys playing throw and catch.

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Mr. Obama vs. Washington Reality

By Robin Bates | Published: August 5, 2011

Did President Obama get rolled in the recent budget negotiations? The possibility that he did brings to mind a film about another naive politician, Frank Capra’s 1939 “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

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