Poe’s “Black Cat” has a special attraction for college students–and for good reason.
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Facing Our Inner Black Cat
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Anger, Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe, Repression, unconscious Comments closed
Our Mothers, Our Teachers
Michael Psello’s famous encomium on his mother in the 12th century inspires this talk about mothers and teaching.
The End of Every Fan’s Desire
Orioles manager Buck Showalter lived his childhood in “To Kill a Mockingbird” and brings to mind an old Franklin Adams baseball poem.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Ballad of Baseball Burdens", Baltimore Orioles, Baseball, Buck Showalter, Franklin Adams Pierce, Sports Comments closed
Blossoms Storm out of the Darkness
A perfect May poem from Mary Oliver.
Art Is the Path to Liberation
Nick Brown, a very bright philosophy and English double major, reflects on how to live a worthwhile life. An aesthetic approach to life is at the core of his argument.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Ode on a Grecian Urn", Albert Camus, Art, As You Like It, Dogen, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, existentialism, Fear and Trembling, John Keats, Karl Marx, liberation, Macbeth, Myth of Sisyphus, Soren Kierkegaard, Zen Buddhism Comments closed
Eating and Drinking the Precious Words
An Emily Dickinson poem that will remind my graduating seniors to keep reading.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "He ate and drank the precious words", Emily Dickinson, reading Comments closed
Vonnegut’s Sci Fi Says the Unsayable
Yesterday I spent all day—from 9 am to 6 pm with occasional breaks—listening to our English majors present their senior projects. That I was energized rather than drained by the experience testifies to the strength of the talks. In today’s post I report on my student Chris Hammond’s essay on Kurt Vonnegut’s use of science […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Cat's Cradle, Dresden firebombing, Kurt Vonnegut, PTSD, science fiction, Sirens of Titan, Slaughterhouse Five, World War II Comments closed
Awaiting Godot in the Age of Cable News
Stephen Colbert realizes that only Beckett’s theater of the absurd will do justice to breathless media coverage of the latest crisis (whatever it is).
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged CNN, Malaysian Flight 370, Samuel Beckett, Stephen Colbert, theater of the absurd, Waiting for Godot Comments closed
