Monthly Archives: January 2016

Trump: The Man Who Wasn’t There

By Robin Bates | Published: January 31, 2016

Many thought that the GOP debate this past week was won by Donald Trump. Think of him as the man who wasn’t there but who refused to go away.

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God’s Patience Is His Promise

By Robin Bates | Published: January 30, 2016

This simple Lucille Clifton poem expresses a quiet confidence in God’s love.

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How Smollett Would React to Flint Water

By Robin Bates | Published: January 28, 2016

Matthew Bramble in Tobias Smollett’s “Humphry Clinker” unloads about the supposedly medicinal water of Bath. Just think how he would react to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

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Literature and Climate Change

By Robin Bates | Published: January 27, 2016

Thoughts about the genre label “cli-fi” and an annotated list of past posts about literature and climate change.

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GOP Christians Summon Witch/Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: January 26, 2016

A conservative Christian blogger argues that Christians supporting Trump are like Nikabrik in “Prince Caspian” wanting to conjure up the White Witch to save Narnia.

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A Talk with a Cli-Fi Activist

By Robin Bates | Published: January 25, 2016

Dan Bloom, inventor of the term cli-fi for climate fiction, tirelessly advocates for such fiction, regarding it as indispensable in the struggle to save the human race. I interview him in today’s blog.

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Blizzard Jonas: How the Wind Doth Ramm!

By Robin Bates | Published: January 24, 2016

In “Ancient Music” Ezra Pound voices what all those who were hit hard by the weekend’s Jonas Blizzard were thinking–and often saying.

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Monarchs & Ezekiel’s Burning Coals of Fire

By Robin Bates | Published: January 23, 2016

Barbara Kingsolver’s “Flight Behavior” shows us Baptists farmers, not normally friends of environmentalists, turning to religious language to save the environment.

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Sarah Palin as Daisy Buchanan

By Robin Bates | Published: January 21, 2016

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, speaking for moderate Republicans who are being driven from the party, sees himself as Jay Gatsby jilted by Daisy. Sarah Palin was once his Daisy and Donald Trump could be compared to Tom Buchanan.

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