Monthly Archives: October 2020

One Faith, One Love, One Hope Restore

By Robin Bates | Published: October 10, 2020

Political divided Christian groups in America would do well to read John Greenleaf Whittier’s “Unity.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Poet Louise Glück, Nobel Laureate

By Robin Bates | Published: October 8, 2020

American poet Louise Glück, the latest Nobel literature laureate, explore existential questions in a personal way in “Mother and Child.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

Robinson: Love, Sympathy, Identification

By Robin Bates | Published: October 7, 2020

Marilynne Robinson’s fiction is, as she puts it, “an exercise in the capacity for imaginative love, or sympathy, or identification.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Viewing Trump from Afar

By Robin Bates | Published: October 6, 2020

Trump has been diminished by his run-in with Covid, reminding me of various characters who suddenly become small: Carroll’s Red Queen, Baum’s Wizard, and the usurper in Craik’s “Little Lame Prince.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Wittgenstein, a Philosophic Sam Spade

By Robin Bates | Published: October 5, 2020

Ludwig Wittgenstein was inspired and influenced by, of all things, hardboiled detective fiction. As improbable as that seems, there are good reasons.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments closed

Trump & Covid: Tragedy or Farce?

By Robin Bates | Published: October 4, 2020

Was the Rose Garden event for Trump’s new SCOTUS pick–which became a Covid superspreader event–a Shakespearean tragedy? How about a farce?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Milton on the Ten Commandments

By Robin Bates | Published: October 3, 2020

In Milton’s view of Moses, the law he receives is a temporary measure, ultimately to be superseded by divine grace.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Balzac Invented the 19th Century?!

By Robin Bates | Published: October 1, 2020

According to Peter Brooks, we should all revisit Balzac, who (according to Oscar Wilde) invented the 19th century.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments closed