Monthly Archives: March 2022

Milton Explains QAnon Fantasizing

By Robin Bates | Published: March 21, 2022

Milton’s Satan whispering into Eve’s ear as she sleeps is a lot like QAnon and Fox News whispering into the ears of gullible followers.

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Meacham, Eliot on Democratic Heroism

By Robin Bates | Published: March 20, 2022

Jon Meacham recently cited “Middlemarch” in a discussion about democratic notions of heroism.

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A Different Way to Observe Lent

By Robin Bates | Published: March 19, 2022

Madeleine L’Engle breaks with stereotyped version of Lent in the 1966 lyric.

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Zelenskyy Could Be a Hugo Character

By Robin Bates | Published: March 17, 2022

Friday A Washington Post column yesterday reminded me of a post I wrote a year ago and which I am reconfiguring for today. Seeking to balance the inspiring leadership of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky with the grim reality of the war, David Ignatius wrote, Zelensky has taken the West with him, emotionally, to the barricades […]

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For GOP, Hellish Descent Is the Easy Part

By Robin Bates | Published: March 16, 2022

NeverTrumper Bill Krisol recently quoted Virgil in revealing that he may have to vote for a Democrat in the next presidential election.

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Du Bois Embraced Dead White Men

By Robin Bates | Published: March 15, 2022

Rather than being repressed by the classical tradition, writers of color have been energized by it.

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A Bakhtinian Reading of Zelenskyy

By Robin Bates | Published: March 14, 2022

To understand Ukraine’s Zelensky, Adam Gopnik applies the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin.

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Did Russian Officials Recruit Dead Souls?

By Robin Bates | Published: March 13, 2022

Did Russian officials claim to pay money to corrupt Ukrainian officials while actually pocketing the money? Cue Gogol’s “Dead Souls.”

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He Beholds the City with Tears in His Eyes

By Robin Bates | Published: March 12, 2022

Today’s Gospel reading can be applied to Russia’s attack on Ukrainian cities. So can this Malcolm Guite poem.

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