It may be April Fools’ Day, but there are Republicans who are advocating a version of Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal.” For real.
Monthly Archives: March 2020
Iago, White Supremacist
To understand Iago’s motivations, think status anxiety–the fear of losing cultural and social dominance over “the Other.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Fascism, Othello, racism, status anxiety, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Valley of Dry Bounds, a Waste Land
Spiritual Sunday As we are in the Lenten season, the liturgy has of reading one of the strangest passages in the Bible, that being Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones. I repost today an essay from April 6, 2016 on T. S. Eliot’s allusion to the imagery. Given how desolate many of us are feeling these […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Ezekiel, T. S. Eliot, valley of the dry bones, Waste Land Comments closed
The Green Knight on Handling Death
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is one of the most profound works I know for dealing with death.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged COVID19, death, grieving, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Comments closed
The Courage to Face the Darkness
In “IT” Stephen King shows how Americans close their eyes to horrific truths. Certain Americans have been closing their eyes to COVID19, showing King to know what he’s talking about.
Illness in 19th Century Lit
19th century literature is filled with images of illness. Reading it should make us grateful to the advances in medical science.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Bleak House, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, epidemics, fathers and sons, Francis Hodgson Burnett, George Eliot, Illness, Ivan Turgenev, Jane Eyre, Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, Middlemarch, North and South, pandemics, Secret Garden Comments closed
GOP Bailout: Nothing If Not Consistent
GOP obsession with lining the pockets of the wealthy, now on display in their COVID bailout package, reminds me of the Baron in Voltaire’s “Candide.”
It’s a Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
For those of us living in the lull before the COVID-19 storm, Swift’s “Description of a City Shower” captures what we’re experiencing–and about to experience.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Description of a City Shower", COVID19, Jonathan Swift, pandemics Comments closed
