Monthly Archives: September 2018

Bronte on Eye Plucking, Hand Severing

One of Jesus’s most graphic images serves Jane Eyre in a moment of supreme testing.

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Kavanaugh-Pentheus vs. Angry Women

Euripides’s “Bacchae” gives us good insights into Kavanaugh’s alcohol consumption and his relation with women.

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Cassandra vs. the Judiciary Committee

Thursday I posted the following essay last December when I looked back over the year and concluded that, other than the chaos accompanying Donald Trump, the most significant development of 2017 was the rise of the #MeToo movement. I rerun it today because, once again, the question before us is whether to “believe the woman.” […]

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In Honor of a Nonagenarian

My mother turned 93 yesterday so I share this moving R. S. Thomas poem on visiting a woman turning 90.

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Lit vs. Fabricated Reality

What are serious authors to do when they care confronted with fabricated realities? Author Kakutani reflects on life under Trumpism.

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Aeneas, Kavanaugh, and Female Fury

As American female anger keeps rising, esp. with regard to Brett Kavanaugh, it’s worth looking at the vivid depictions in Virgil’s “Aeneid.

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The Mystery in Mary’s Singing

William Bronk’s poem about Mary seeks to find the mystery of poetry in the Magnificat.

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Henry Fielding Explains Witness Flipping

Fielding shows a classic case of a witness flipping on his boss in “Tom Jones.” As a magistrate, he knows what he’s talking about.

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Smollett: Country Water over City Water

My mother is finding a necessary switch from lake water to city water psychologically difficult. Smollett’s “Humphry Clinker” helps me understand why.

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