If you are a teacher swamped by end-of-term essays, Frost’s “Woodpile” has some good advice for you.
Monthly Archives: December 2017
Recovering from the Semester
After an exhausting semester, I feel like Tennyson’s Arthur after his final battle. I’m spending my winter break with my wife and my mother in Sewanee, Tennessee, my version of Avalon.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Morte d'Arthur", Alfred Lord Tennyson, essay grading, teaching Comments closed
Trump, Pale Ravener of Horrible Meat
Melville is famous for exploiting and then casting off advisors. Perhaps they resemble the pilot fish in Herman Melville’s “The Maldive Shark.”
Walking Down the Saddest City Lane
In which I read Robert Frost’s “I Have Been Acquainted with the Night” as an Advent poem.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "I have been one acquainted with the night", Advent, Depression, Robert Frost Comments closed
Gawain, Trump and Shame
Trump and Sir Gawain respond in opposite ways to shame: Trump counterattacks by acting shamelessly while Gawain lets it tie him into knots.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged chivalric code, chivalry, civility, Donald Trump, Edgar Allan Poe, shame, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Trumpism Comments closed
Trump & GOP as Shakespearean Drama
To see the decline of the GOP as a Shakespeare drama, one must draw on “Macbeth,” “Hamlet,,” “Henry IV,” and “King Lear.” And throw in Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Dpnald Trump, GOP, Hamlet, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, King Lear, Macbeth, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Atwood’s Novels in the News
Atwood’s unsettling predictions registered two hits this past week: a GOP Congressman pressuring assistants to be surrogate mothers and recent reports of pigs engineered to carry human organs.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged gene splicing, genetic engineering, Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, organ transplants, Oryx and Crake, pigoons, Trent Franks, Year of the Flood Comments closed
Left Behind Evangelicals and Jerusalem
Trump’s disastrous Jerusalem decision may well trace back to the “Left Behind” series, which is popular with his diehard Christian base.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Ayn Rand, Dispensationalist millennialism, Donald Trump, end times, Jerry B. Jenkins, Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Left Behind, Rapture, Tim LaHaye Comments closed
Robert Mueller as a Savior Ent?
The Russian trolls that interfered with the 2016 election resemble the Orcs attacking Helm’s Deep in “Lord of the Rings.” Do we have a version of the Ents in Robert Mueller to save us?
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged 2016 election, Donald Trump, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Russian hacking, Vladimir Putin Comments closed
