Monthly Archives: January 2012

Vs. Obama, Would Mitt Change Movies?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 20, 2012

To run successfully against Obama, Mitt Romney may need to flipflop from Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street” to Edward Lewis in “Pretty Woman.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Capitalism, Film, Mitt Romney, Presidential primary, Pretty Woman | Comments closed

The Translator’s Impossible Dilemma

By Robin Bates | Published: January 19, 2012

A translator of literature must choose between poetry and accuracy. It’s almost impossible to have both.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Emma Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, Ivan Cankar, translation, Ward of Our Lady of Mercy | Comments closed

Sons Must Kill Their Fathers, Alas

By Robin Bates | Published: January 18, 2012

There’s is no easy way for son’s to find their identities apart from their fathers, but they have no choice but to try.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Denis Diderot, fathers and sons, Henry IV, Homer, Odyssey, Shakespeare, Stendahl, The Scarlet and the Black | Comments closed

Following Shipwreck, Replay of Lord Jim?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 17, 2012

Joseph Conrad’s novel “Lord Jim” came to mind when I heard reports that the captain of the shipwrecked cruise ship Costa Concordia may have abandoned the ship before all the passengers were off.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Costa Concordia shipwreck, Cowardice, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim | Comments closed

MLK: A Diamond Molded by Pressure

By Robin Bates | Published: January 16, 2012

Nikki Giovanni’s “In the Spirit of Martin” talks about Martin Luther King and others in the Civil Rights Movement as having been molded by the immense pressure into crystalline diamonds.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "In the Spirit of Martin", Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Nikki Giovanni | Comments closed

Syria’s Massacre of the Innocents

By Robin Bates | Published: January 15, 2012

Updating Herod’s slaughter of the innocents, Scott Bates imagines a soldier who takes a principled stand and refuses to participate.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Witness", Arab Spring, Scott Bates, Syria, violence | Comments closed

Tintin to the Rescue

By Robin Bates | Published: January 13, 2012

The new film “Tintin” takes me back to my childhood, when my brothers and I scoured Paris book shops to assemble a complete set of what were early graphic novels.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Childhood, Tintin | Comments closed

The Classics, Guides to Our Best Selves

By Robin Bates | Published: January 12, 2012

Wayne Booth describes the classics as friends in the deepest and most productive sense of the word.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Company We Keep, Ethical Criticism, Literary Theory, Wayne Booth | Comments closed

The Reader’s Role in Literature

By Robin Bates | Published: January 11, 2012

Reader Response Theory focuses on the reader’s involvement in literature, opening up avenues untouched by formalist criticism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Hans Robert Jauss, Literary Criticism, Norman Holland, Reader Response Theory, Stanley Fish, Wolfgang Iser | Comments closed