Monthly Archives: May 2015

“Is My Son Mad?” Mary Asks

By Robin Bates | Published: May 10, 2015

In Thomas Hardy’s version of Mary, she’s a mother wondering whether her son is mad.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Evening in Galilee", Childhood, Jesus, Mary, Thomas Hardy | Comments closed

A “Greatest Generation” Vet Reflects

By Robin Bates | Published: May 9, 2015

In the reminiscence about his World War II experiences, my father finds it difficult to capture what it was really like

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Scott Bates, V.E. Day, Veterans, war, World War II | Comments closed

Lear: Finding Love in Adversity

By Robin Bates | Published: May 8, 2015

Both “Doctor Faustus” and “King Lear” teach us the silver lining in adversity, “Faustus” in a negative way, “Lear” in a positive.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Adversity, Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, hell, King Lear, love, spiritual love, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Why Baltimore Blacks Are Down and Out

By Robin Bates | Published: May 7, 2015

Black poverty in Baltimore has racial causes that are invisible to most people. Dickens would understand.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Baltimore, black underclass, Charles Dickens, Hard Times, poverty, race relations, white working class | Comments closed

Chaucer’s Squire Meets Tennyson’s May Queen

By Robin Bates | Published: May 6, 2015

Love is in the May air. As I look at the College students hand in hand, I think of the men as Chaucerian squires, the women as Tennysonian May queens.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "May Queen", "May", Alfred Lord Tennyson, Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, maypole dances | Comments closed

What Happens to a Dream Deferred?

By Robin Bates | Published: May 5, 2015

Langston Hughes puts his finger on Baltimore’s black anger in “Justice” and “Harlem.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Harlem", Baltimore, Baltimore protests, Freddy Gray, Justice, Langston Hughes, Marilyn Mosby | Comments closed

Political Consultants Should Read Lit

By Robin Bates | Published: May 4, 2015

Which literary works would you recommend to a political consultant to stay in touch with his or her soul and avoid becoming lost in the dark side? How about Hawthorne, Melville, Shakespeare, Pinter, and Terrence McNally?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Antony and Cleopatra, Confidence Man, Harold Pinter, Herman Melville, King Lear, Macbeth, Moby Dick, Nathaniel Hawthorne, political consultants, politics, Scarlet Letter, Terrence McNally, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Jesus as the New Dionysus

By Robin Bates | Published: May 3, 2015

Parallels between Dionysus and Christ are clearly drawn in Michael Cacoyannis’s translation of “The Bacchae.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Bacchae, eucharist, Euripides, wine | Comments closed

Whitman, Melville & Abolitionism

By Robin Bates | Published: May 1, 2015

Walt Whitman and Herman Melville’s revolutionary visions of egalitarian societies shaped how Abolitionists thought about America’s potential.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Abolition Movement, Civil War, Herman Melville, Leaves of Grass, Moby Dick, slavery, Walt Whitman | Comments closed