Monthly Archives: October 2016

#TrumpBookReports (in 140 characters)

By Robin Bates | Published: October 20, 2016

For laughs, check out #TrumpBookReport on twitter. I’ve gathered some of the best renditions of Trump reviewing the classics.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, twitter, twitter book reports | Comments closed

Reconnecting with My Dead Son

By Robin Bates | Published: October 19, 2016

Thursday I had a shock of recognition while teaching Stephen King’s IT in my American Fantasy class yesterday. The approach to life that saves the day for the protagonist is the approach that got my eldest son killed 16 years ago. Yet I don’t think King is wrong. In fact, I was comforted once I saw the […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "We Are Seven", Bicycling, death and dying, Intimations of Immortality, It, Stephen King, Tintern Abbey, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

In Defense of The Merchant of Venice

By Robin Bates | Published: October 18, 2016

Percy Shelley believes that great art transcends the prejudices of its time, even when it is cloaked in them. If he is right, then “Merchant of Venice” is less of a problem play than many people consider it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged anti-Semitism, Defence of Poetry, Merchant of Venice, Othello, Percy Shelley, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Nobel Laureate Wrote Archetypal Ballads

By Robin Bates | Published: October 17, 2016

Among Nobel laureate Bob Dylan’s notable accomplishments is the ability to write archetypal ballads like “Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts", ballads, Bob Dylan, Donald Trump, Nobel prize | Comments closed

Why We Fear Clowns

By Robin Bates | Published: October 16, 2016

The recent outbreak of criminal clowns can be explained by combining Freud’s essay on the uncanny and Stephen King’s IT.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged clowns, Donald Trump, It, Stephen King, Trumpism, violence | Comments closed

The Eternal Doesn’t Want To Be Bent by Us

By Robin Bates | Published: October 15, 2016

Rilke draws on the story of Jacob and the Angel in his poem “The Man Watching.” We grow, he writes, by “being defeated, decisively, by constantly greater beings.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Man Watching", Bible, Depression, Genesis, Jacob and the angel, Rainer Maria Rilke | Comments closed

Trump & Mac the Knife, 2 Escape Artists

By Robin Bates | Published: October 13, 2016

Donald Trump’s apparent ability to escape unscathed from gaffes and revelations that would sink any other campaign invites comparison with Mac the Knife, John Gay’s glamorous escape artist from “Beggar’s Opera.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 2016 presidential election, Beggar's Opera, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, John Gay, sexual assault, Trump sex scandal | Comments closed

Kill All the Lawyers? Nope, We Need Them

By Robin Bates | Published: October 12, 2016

A district judge reflects upon what lawyers and judges can learn from Shakespeare, including “Othello,” “Merchant of Venice, “Hamlet,” “King Lear,” most of the history plays, and others.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Antony and Cleopatra, civility, Hamlet, Henry IV Part 2, Henry IV Part I, Henry VI Part 2, Henry VI Part 3, Julius Caesar, King Lear, lawyers, legal system, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Othello, Richard II, Richard III, trust, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Ahab Obsession and the Clintons

By Robin Bates | Published: October 11, 2016

The right wing’s obsession with the Clinton has prompted one pundit to invoke Ahab’s obsession with Moby Dick.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump, Herman Melville, Moby Dick | Comments closed