Monthly Archives: August 2018

The Highland Hills Forever I Love

By Robin Bates | Published: August 21, 2018

As we move into the school year and summer vacation recedes in the distance, we remember Burns’s Highlands (or our version of them).

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "My Heart's in the Highlands", Robert Burns | Comments closed

Brecht on Speaking Truth to Power

By Robin Bates | Published: August 20, 2018

Monday A Bertolt Brecht poem came to mind when Retired Navy Admiral William H. McRaven came to the defense of former CIA Director John Brennan, stripped of his security clearance by a Donald Trump angry at his criticisms. Vox has the story of what happened: The man who led the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Burning of the Books", 1984, Bertolt Brecht, Donald Trump, George Orwell, John Brennan, Rudy Giuliani, William H. McRaven | Comments closed

Hearts Seized by What Is Possible

By Robin Bates | Published: August 19, 2018

Chard DeNiord grapples sensitively and intelligently with the meaning of transubstantiation.

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Aretha Put a Spell on Us

By Robin Bates | Published: August 17, 2018

Looking for a poem that captures Aretha Franklin’s power and self-confidence, I chose Lucille Clifton’s “homage to my hips.”

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What Lit Is Good For–A Debate

By Robin Bates | Published: August 16, 2018

Thursday Tim Parks has written a provocative essay for The New York Review of Books, asking, Is literature wise? In the sense, does it help us to live? And if not, what exactly is it good for? If you follow this blog, you already know my answers: –Yes, literature is wiser than we are (and […]