Friday I found myself enjoying a recent news report about animals striking back. First an elephant killed a South African rhino poacher before he could do any damage and then the man’s body was eaten by lions. As someone tweeted, the animals had each other’s backs. D. H. Lawrence vents our rage against such poachers […]
Monthly Archives: April 2019
Sophie’s Choice at the Border
Wednesday So Kirstjen Nielsen, the face of child separation, kids in cages, and tear-gassed immigrants, has been fired for being too soft. Now the president and white nationalist Steve Miller (and yes, you can be a Jewish white nationalist) want to present immigrants seeking asylum with a Sophie’s choice: Under a binary choice policy, which […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged family separation policy, Kirstjen Nielsen, Sophie's Choice, Trump's immigrant policy, William Styron Comments closed
Why Tyrants Hate Laughter
Tuesday In a recent essay on Arthur Koestler’s theory of comedy, the New York Review of Books’ Liesl Schillinger cites a passage from Koestler’s Darkness at Noon to explain Donald Trump’s attacks on Saturday Night Live. In his fictional account of Stalin’s show trials, Koestler shows that authoritarian personalities lack a sense of humor. Loyal […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift", Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon, Jonathan Swift, Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes Comments closed
Stacey Abrams and “Silas Marner”
Monday Although I’ve promised not to write about Democratic presidential candidates until the debates, I’ve made one exception: anyone who mentions literature will get coverage. So far I’ve mentioned Sherrod Brown’s love of Tolstoy (although Brown has since decided not to run) and Pete Buttigieg’s love of James Joyce (Buttigieg has not yet declared but […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged African American women, entitlement, George Eliot, Silas Marner, Stacey Abrams Comments closed
We Have Here the Stuff of Paradise
Spiritual Sunday Spring has broken all over southern Tennessee, giving me the occasion to run Edwin Markham’s wonderful “Earth Is Enough.” His view, I believe, is similar to what Jesus meant by heaven on earth. We are to find heaven in ourselves and heaven in our surroundings, not wait until we die. To focus overmuch […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Earth Is Enough", Book of Common Prayer, Edwin Markham, John Milton, Nature, Paradise Lost Comments closed
Frogs Everywhere Shouting Their Desire
Friday Warm weather looks like it is finally here for good in southern Tennessee, and the frogs are out in force. My biology students inform me, whenever I teach Mary Oliver’s “Blossom,” that all the peeping and croaking is designed to attract a mate. Well aware of this, Oliver appears to have written her poem […]
How Vonnegut Faced His Demons
Thursday To honor the 50th anniversary of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, I am reposting an essay about how Vonnegut used science fiction to come to terms with the Battle of the Bulge and the Dresden bombing, both of which he experienced first-hand. I owe the ideas to student Chris Hammond, who devoted his senior project […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Battle of the Bulge, Cat's Cradle, Firebombing of Dresden, Kurt Vonnegut, PTSD, Sirens of Titan, Slaughterhouse Five, World War II Comments closed
Teach Your Children Well
Wednesday My sister-in-law Joyce Bates, beloved by her Clarksville third-graders, recently posted an inspiring quotation by L. R. Knost about how to raise kids. After reading it, I thought of the blind beggar in the Spanish picaresque novel Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), who ascribes to just the opposite philosophy. The author of such books as […]
