Monthly Archives: September 2020

The Woman Who Refused to Be Still

Dickinson’s “They shut me up in prose” captures the narratives that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had to fight through–and help other women to break down.

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Who Has Begotten the Drops of Dew?

To celebrate Rosh Hashanah, I share this Anthony Hecht poem about his son Adam, who needs the reassurance that God’s Adam once needed.

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Kushner: Cheshire Cat Explains Trump

Jared Kushner has compared the Trump administration to “Alice in Wonderland.” A Washington Post satirist teases out parallels he probably didn’t have in mind.

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To Teach Empathy, Turn to Lit

Literature is a powerful way to teach empathy–but do so, literature must be taught in different ways than many teachers do.

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Battling Our Inner Darkness

Terry Pratchett’s “Thud!” deals with violence–both the violence we are witnessing around us and the violent thoughts these call up within ourselves. It helps explain police brutality.

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Tennis Fiction and Osaka’s Brilliance

Literary fiction that mentions tennis can raise our appreciation of the game, including the play of figures like Naomi Osaka. Nabokov, Roth, and Wallace have all written about tennis.

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Apocalyptic Fire Ravages the Nation

For literary equivalents of the west coast fires, look to “The Aeneid” and to Vasily Grossman’s “Life and Fate.”

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Emily Bronte on Forgiveness

Jesus’s warning to those who refuse to forgive finds powerful articulation in “Wuthering Heights.”

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Poem for Remembering 9-11

WisÅ‚awa Szymborska’s poem about the “falling man” is one of the most memorable commemorations of 9-11.

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