As we receive news that the Antarctic ice sheet is less stable than we thought and that we could be facing catastrophic sea level rise in the next century, China Miéville’s nightmare vision of a polluted city in “Perdido Street Station” is a wake-up call.
Monthly Archives: March 2016
Oh the Ice Will Split and the Cities Be Hit
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged China Miéville, climate change, hydrocarbons, Perdido Street Station, pollution Comments closed
Limbaugh’s Clinton-Ratched Comparison
Rightwing radio host Rush Limbaugh regularly compares Hillary Clinton to Nurse Ratched in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and, in so doing, can be said to have paved the way for misogynist Donald Trump. If it’s Trump vs. Clinton in the general election, things will get ugly.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged 2016 presidential race, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ken Kesey, misogyny, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, politics, Rush Limbaugh Comments closed
The Terrible Beauty of Political Fanatics
While many are celebrating the centenary of Ireland’s Easter uprising, Yeats’s famous poem on the rebellion offers us cautions about how to respond to such acts of rebellion today.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Easter 1916", Arab Spring, Easter uprising, Ireland, ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood, William Butler Yeats Comments closed
Praise that Would Undermine Trump
Ben Jonson describes malicious praise as praise that undermines while appearing to lift up. Maybe the GOP establishment should start praising Donald Trump.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "To the Memory of My Beloved the Author William Shakespeare", Ben Jonson, Donald Trump, electoral politics, Republican primaries Comments closed
Why Literary Psychopaths Fascinate Us
My student, an English-psychology double major, is exploring if the depiction of psychopathic killers in dramas like “Psycho,” “Silence of the Lambs,” “Dexter” and “Gone Girl” is accurate–and, more interestingly, what are fascination with such stories tells us about ourselves.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged antisocial personality disorder, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Ed Gein, Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl, Jeff Lindsay, Psycho, psychopathy, Robert Bloch, Silence of the Lambs, slasher lit, sociopathy, Ted Bundy, Thomas Harris Comments closed
A White Cross Streaming across the Sky
Today’s Easter poem is Mary Oliver’s “The Swan,” in which everything suddenly becomes clear.
How Kipling’s Kaa Would Fight ISIS
ISIS resembles the Monkey People in Kipling’s “Jungle Book” in the way it craves attention. It is defeated by Kaa, but the authoritarian python brings his own set of problems, a fascist reaction to anarchy.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged authoritarianism, fasicism, Jungle Book ISIS, Rudyard Kipling, terrorism Donald Trump Comments closed
Invoking Tintin to Mourn the Killings
As horror is unleashed in Belgium, people are turning to the country’s most beloved story creation, Hergés Tintin, to cope.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Hergé, Terrorism, terrorist attacks, terrorist attacks in Brussels, Tintin au Tibet Comments closed
