When I was growing up, the adventure books that I read influenced how I regarded and interacted with nature.
Monthly Archives: August 2016
Novels with Waterfalls and Secret Caves
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Tables Turned", caves, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lucy Fitch Perkins, Nature, Rob Roy, Scotch Twins, Sir Water Scott, Two Towers, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Trollope & Trump’s Congressional Enablers
By continuing their support for Donald Trump, GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are choosing their party and their careers over country. In doing so, they resemble Anthony Trollope’s Sir Timothy Beeswax, Conservative leader in the Palliser novels..
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Anthony Trollope, Congress, Donald Trump, Duke's Children, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan Comments closed
On Trump’s Cheap Nuclear Bomb Talk
With Donald Trump talking so casually about the use of nuclear bombs, it is important to remind ourselves how horrific they are. This power Carolyn Forché poem opens our eyes.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Garden of Shukkei-En", Atom bomb, bombing, Carolyn Forché, Donald Trump, Hiroshima, Nakasaki, nuclear warfare, warfare Comments closed
Literature as a Public Event
In my Theories of the Reader senior seminar, I will have my students study a literary work that became a public event. In today’s post I list a number of possibilities.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged censorship, English Teacher, Lily King, literature as an event, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy Comments closed
Palestinian Poet Compared to Hitler
Israel’s rightwing defense minister recently compared Palestine’s national poet to Hitler. A close look at a poem by Mahoud Darwish helps us understand why.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "On This Land", Avigdor Lieberman, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mahmoud Darwish, Palestine Comments closed
And on Her Stomach Was a Scar!
When my wife shows me her scars yesterday from a successful gall bladder operation, I was wafted by to one of my favorite childhood stories: Ludwig Bemelmans’s “Madeline.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged gall bladder removal, Ludwig Bemelmans, Madeline, surgery Comments closed
Is Trump Running a Red Queen Race?
Turning to Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass,” political scientist Jonathan Bernstein says that Donald Trump is in a “Red Queen Race,” forced to be ever more outrageous just to keep the spotlight on himself.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged 2016 presidential election, Alice through the Looking Glass, Donald Trump, Lewis Carroll, red queen race Comments closed
Butler’s 1998 Sci-Fi Novel Predicted Trump
Black sci-fi author Octavia Butler predicted Donald Trump through her depiction of a rightwing demagogue in her 1998 novel “Parable of the Talents.” Her figure even promises to “make America great again.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, dystopian futures, Octavia Butler, Parable of the Talents, sci-fi Comments closed
