Monthly Archives: February 2021

“Clarissa” Taught the Age Empathy

By Robin Bates | Published: February 28, 2021

A new book argues that epistolary novels, especially “Clarissa,” taught the 18th century empathy.

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Get Thee Behind Me, Power and Wealth

By Robin Bates | Published: February 27, 2021

In “Paradise Regained,” Jesus instructs Satan, as he instructs Peter in Matthew’s gospel, to get behind him.

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My White Queen Injury Experience

By Robin Bates | Published: February 25, 2021

My recent axe injury resembled the “Alice through the Looking Glass” scene where the White Queen cuts herself with a brooch.

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Cruz Is No Willie Stark or Richard III

By Robin Bates | Published: February 24, 2021

Ted Cruz? More Willie Stark crossed with Chevy Chase or Richard III played by Mr. Bean?

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Looking Back at a Year of Covid

By Robin Bates | Published: February 23, 2021

Wednesday Last July I collected all the essays I had written on Covid into a single post, with the first appearing almost exactly a year ago. This week, as we mark the once-inconceivable 500,000th official Covid death, I update that list. It has all been too tragic for words, but words are what we have. […]

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Hugo on a Nation Catching Its Breath

By Robin Bates | Published: February 22, 2021

In “Les Miserables,” Hugo says France needed a period of quiet following the rambunctious Napoleonic years. Sounds familiar.

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Will Trump Pay? Literature Is Unsure

By Robin Bates | Published: February 21, 2021

Will Trump escape all accountability? Literature weighs in.

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Pondering Our Ashness, Hoping for Easter

By Robin Bates | Published: February 20, 2021

Buggeman’s “Marked by Ashes” is a good poem to kick off the season of Lent.

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Texas GOP Tilts with Windmills

By Robin Bates | Published: February 18, 2021

As the Texas power grid implodes in the fact of arctic weather, the GOP pulls a Quixote and blames… windmills.

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