In Biden’s speech yesterday about withdrawing from Afghanistan, I half expected to hear him quote from “The Great Gatsby.”
Monthly Archives: August 2021
Letting Others Clean Up Afghan Mess
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Afghan withdrawal, Afghanistan War, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby Comments closed
How Novels Aided the World War I Effort
During World War I, librarians sought to supported wounded men with fiction. Some preferred love stories to action adventure fiction.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged bibliotherapy, Edgar Rice Burroughs, librarians, World War I, Zane Grey Comments closed
Summer’s Over, Back to School
The end of the Pooh books mourns the end of summer and the return to school.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "End of Summer", "Tables Turned", A. A. Milne, back to school, House on Pooh Corner, William Wordsworth Comments closed
A Christian Attack on Toxic Masculinity
In “Sir Charles Grandison,” Richardson attacks toxic masculinity in ways that feel very modern.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Clarissa, dueling, Henry Fielding, Jane Austen, Joseph Andrews, Northanger Abbey, Pamela, Samuel Richardson, Shamela, Sir Charles Grandison, Tom Jones, toxic masculinity Comments closed
Aslan as Eco Warrior
Lewis’s Aslan is a bold creative stroke that opens up environmental possibilities for Christianity.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged animal rights, C. S. Lewis, climate change, Environmentalism, Imagination, John Gatta, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Magician's Nephew, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, theology Comments closed
Anti-Maskers Seized by a Fury from Hell
Anti-Maskers appear to have been infused by Allecto, the black fury from hell described in “Aeneid.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Aeneid, anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, COVID-19, Trumpism, Virgil Comments closed
Dr. Watson Returns from Afghanistan
Dr. Watson is also a former Afghanistan War vet, with certain similarities to our own vets. The messy end of America’s involvement also recalls Kaye’s “Far Pavilions.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Birds of Afghanistan", Afghan withdrawal, Afghanistan, Arthur Conan Doyle, Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye, Scott Bates, Study in Scarlet Comments closed
Frozen in the Ice of Indifference
The difference between politicians who care and those who don’t is the difference between Dante’s Purgatory and Inferno.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Afghan withdrawal, American presidency, Dante, Donald Trump, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inferno, Joe Biden, Purgatorio Comments closed
An Endless Game, an Endless War
The Afghan War has been like the endless baseball game in Kinsella’s “Iowa Baseball Confederation.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries", A.E. Housman, Afghan War, Iowa Baseball Confederacy, W.P. Kinsella Comments closed
