Monthly Archives: October 2017

Literature’s Revolutionary Power

By Robin Bates | Published: October 10, 2017

The concept of “unleashing,” used to explain much of today’s upheaval, can also be applied to literature that changes lives.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Cass Sunstein, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Rigby, Ezra Klein, Jane Eyre, unleashing | Comments closed

Las Vegas: Our Killers, Ourselves

By Robin Bates | Published: October 9, 2017

As a white man, the Las Vegas shooter could not be fitted into an easy right wing Other narrative. “Beowulf” shows how monsters generally look like us.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Beowulf, destructive anger, Donald Trump, Muslim ban, racism, Stephen Paddock | Comments closed

Visit Puerto Rico with Wings of Healing

By Robin Bates | Published: October 8, 2017

Read through hurricane-weary eyes, Coleridge’s “Dejection: An Ode” promises soulful hope.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Dejection: An Ode", Hurricane Maria, hurricanes, Intimations of Immortality, Puerto Rico, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

If Fielding Had Written about Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: October 6, 2017

Henry Fielding would have had a field day writing about America’s president.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Donald Trump, Henry Fielding, Historical Register for the Year 1736, Jonathan Wild the Great, Tom Jones | Comments closed

Wordsworth and a Depressed Philosopher

By Robin Bates | Published: October 5, 2017

When utilitarian John Stuart Mill’s philosophy led him into despair, Wordsworth’s poetry saved him.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Mock on, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Depression, Englightenment, Giver, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Lois Lowry, Tintern Abbey, Ursula K. LeGuin, utilitarianism, William Blake, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

Assertive Women Drive Lear, Trump Mad

By Robin Bates | Published: October 4, 2017

Lear is driven mad by his assertive daughters. Are strong women like the San Juan mayor also sending Trump around the bend?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged assertive women, Carmen Yulin Cruz, Donald Trump, Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

The NRA, Preying on Anxious White Men

By Robin Bates | Published: October 3, 2017

The NRA is implicated in the ease by which the Las Vegas shooter acquired an arsenal of automatic weapons. This Scott Bates poem calls the organization out.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Ballad of the National Rifle Association", gun violence, Las Vegas shooting, NRA, Scott Bates | Comments closed

While the President Golfed…

By Robin Bates | Published: October 2, 2017

Sarah Cleghorn’s famous poem “The Golf Links” captures our president, who golfs while Puerto Rico starves.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Golf Links", CHIP, Donald Trump, Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico, Sarah Cleghorn | Comments closed

May We Sail without Giving into Our Fears

By Robin Bates | Published: October 1, 2017

A Noah’s Ark poem by the great Syrian poet Adonis can be applied to the Puerto Rico rescue effort, especially as certain people on the right attempt to inject race into the affair.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "New Noah", Adonis, analysis, Donald Trump, evangelicals, flooding, Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico, racism | Comments closed