I grapple today about why it is essential to read lit. And what happens to us when we don’t.
Monthly Archives: April 2015
Why Read Lit? Let Me Count the Reasons
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Blossom", Asphodel, ethical reading, Great House, Hero with a Thousand Faces, John Milton, Joseph Campbell, Mary Oliver, Nicole Krauss, Paradise Lost, reading, William Carlos Williams Comments closed
The Quiet Mystery Returns
In “Primary Wonder” Denise Levertov wonders at the quiet mystery” that “there is anything, anything at all.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Primary Wonder", daily problems, Denise Levertov, divine mystery Comments closed
In Praise of the Liberal Arts
NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof recently sang the praises of the liberal arts and talked about the vital importance of literature.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Ernest Hemingway, Homer, Iliad, Jhumpa Lahiri, Khaled Hosseini, Liberal arts education, Odyssey, Old Man and the Sea, Toni Morrison Comments closed
Saving Princesses from the Marriage Plot
Long the target of feminist critiques, the princess story might have some progressive aspects.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Brave, Charles Perrault, Cinderella, Ella Enchanted, fairy tales, Feminism, Frozen, Gail Carson Levine Comments closed
Mourning the Death of “Captain” Lincoln
“Oh Captain! My Captain,” mourning the death of Lincoln 150 years ago today, was Whitman’s most popular poem.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Oh Captain My Captain", Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln's assassination, Walt Whitman Comments closed
How to View Prejudice in the Classics
How to handle instances of prejudice in the classics? Let the values battles fly.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged D. H. Lawrence, Dion Boucicault, Heidi, Johanna Spyri, John Milton, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Octoroon, Paradise Lost, Prejudice, Rabelais, racism, Sexism, To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf Comments closed
How Fantasy Saves Our Souls
Great fantasy can always be seen as oppositional, pushing against prevailing modes of thought and opening up portals into new human possibilities.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Age of Reason, Bacchae, Don Quixote, Enlightenment, Euripides, fantasy, Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Miguel de Cervantes, Scientific Revolution, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Tracks Comments closed
Touching the Wounded God
Malcolm Guite’s “Sonnet for St. Thomas the Apostle” celebrates the urge to touch God.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged doubting Thomas, Malcolm Guite, Resurrection, St. Thomas Comments closed
The River’s Blood Turned to Stone
This Scott Bates fable captures the tragedy of California’s drought.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "The River the Sun and the Water Lily", California drought, climate change, global warming, Scott Bates Comments closed
