Friday I have lots of thoughts about the Congressional hearings on Donald Trump’s January 6 coup attempt, which opened last night, and am working up a post that references Milton’s rebel angels. I’ll end this week, however, on a lighter note, an interesting footnote that my English professor son alerted me to. Apparently, Laurence Sterne’s […]
Monthly Archives: June 2022
When a Novel Affected Clock Sales
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged clocks, Country Wife, Enlightenment, John Wilmot, Laurence Sterne, Plain Dealer, Tristram Shandy, William Wycherley Comments closed
To Julia, Upon 49 Years of Marriage
A James Weldon Johnson poem for our 49th wedding anniversary.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Only Beauty That Is Never Old", James Weldon Johnson, Marriage, wedding anniversary Comments closed
Angels in Pullman’s Fantasy
In “His Dark Materials” Pullman turns Milton’s “Paradise Lost” on its head. The fallen angels are the good guys.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged angels, Fundamentalism, His Dark Materials, Milton, Paradise Lost, Philip Pullman Comments closed
Good Omens and Vladimir Putin
To imagine the reluctance of Russian soldiers to fight, check out this scene in “Good Omens.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Good Omens, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Ukraine invasion, Vladimir Putin, war Comments closed
Atticus: Future Racist or NeverTrumper?
To see how gun violence and white supremacy are linked, look at “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged banned books, Go Set a Watchman, gun violence, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird Comments closed
The Moonlight Leaks Through
It is when we are feeling that all is ruined that sometimes the Pentecostal spirit leaks through, like moonlight in a ruined house.
To Welcome in June, Stand and Stare
To celebrate June, just sit back, relax, and observe.
Hemingway on What War Atrocities Mean
Undisciplined conscripts are likely to commit atrocities–and also, as Hemingway notes in “Farewell to Arms,” to lose.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, military discipline, Russian Invasion of Ukraine Comments closed
