Monthly Archives: November 2022

GOP Red Wave Doesn’t Materialize

By Robin Bates | Published: November 9, 2022

Longfellow’s “The Brook and the Ocean” capture some of the dynamics of the 2022 mid-term election.

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Humorless Twitter Boss as Malvolio

By Robin Bates | Published: November 8, 2022

Elon Musk sparring with his Twitter critics is like Shakespeare’s Malvolio going after Feste.

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It’s Election Day so “CMON, COME OUT”

By Robin Bates | Published: November 7, 2022

Tuesday – American Election Day African American poet June Jordan says all that needs to be said on this election day: “CMON/COME OUT.” More than Congress is up for grabs as, all over the country, election-denying Republicans are running for governor, secretary of state, and other positions of power. If significant numbers of them are […]

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Good Company, Rich Conversations

By Robin Bates | Published: November 6, 2022

As we visit with old friends in Slovenia, I think of how Jane Austen’s Anne Elliot values “good company.”

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Now Let Us Praise Poor Naked Wretches

By Robin Bates | Published: November 5, 2022

In “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,” Agee and Evans include a powerful passage from “King Lear” that is appropriate for All Saints Sunday.

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Do Not Stand by My Grave and Weep

By Robin Bates | Published: November 3, 2022

As Slovenes this past week visited the graves of those who have passed on, I thought of Frye’s poem “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep.”

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Just How Dangerous Is Fiction?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 2, 2022

Peter Brooks’s new book, “Seduced by Story,” raises the issue of fiction’s role in horrors.

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On Drinking Songs as National Anthems

By Robin Bates | Published: November 1, 2022

Slovenia’s national anthem is taken from a poem by its national poet, France Preseren. They chose the peaceful stanza, not the warlike one.

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