The Oklahoma tornado recalls literature’s most famous tornado in “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”
Monthly Archives: May 2013
Oklahoma Tornado Recalls Dorothy’s
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged L. Frank Baum, tornado, weather disaster, Wonderful Wizard of Oz Comments closed
Returning Home to Aging Parents
Marilynne’s Robinson’s novel “Home” captures some of my own experience returning home.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Aging, Great American Dream, Home: A Novel, homecoming, Marilynne Robinson, parents, Philip Roth Comments closed
Poems Teach Us to Be Wise
Two young student athletes in my Intro to Literature took important lessons from “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and a Wendell Berry poem.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Thirty Years Later", Coming of Age, Education, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wendell Berry Comments closed
Look into Thine Heart and Write
Longfellow reenacts the Pentecost in this reflection up his changing relationship to nature.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Prelude", Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nature, Pentecost Comments closed
Comeuppance Fantasy about the Rich
Depressed by the stock market soaring while the economy limps along? Here’s a Great Depression revenge fantasy.
To Know Gatsby Is to Know America
“The Great Gatsby” is about fantasizing. Baz Luhrmann’s new film appears to understand this well.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged American Dream, F. Scott Fitzgerald, fantasizing, Great Gatsby Comments closed
Antigone Would Bury Boston Bomber
Sophocles and Homer present compelling cases for granting full funeral rights to the Boston Marathon bomber.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Ajax, Antigone, Boston Marathon bombing, funerals, Homer, Iliad, Odyssey, Sophocles, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Terrorism Comments closed
Listen Carefully–The Books Are Whispering
I gave a talk last night to Leonardtown, Maryland’s Friends of the Library about—surprise!–“How Literature Can Change Your Life.” It was a busy day, what with writing the talk and turning in final grades and going to one last committee meeting and attending a retirement party (for which I wrote a bit of doggerel) and […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "In the Library", "My First Memory (of Librarians), Charles Simic, libraries, Nikki Giovanni, William Stafford Comments closed
