Monthly Archives: January 2023

To Understand Your Life, Read Novels

By Robin Bates | Published: January 31, 2023

Theorist Peter Brooks contends that it is through novels that we find shape and meaning to our lives.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged narrative, narratology, Peter Brooks, Seduced by Story, Walter Benjamin | Comments closed

“Paradise” Explains Nichols Killing

By Robin Bates | Published: January 30, 2023

Toni Morrison’s “Paradise” helps explain why Black policemen would carry out the horrific killing of Tyre Nichols.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Paradise, police killings, racism, Toni Morrison, Tyre Nichols | Comments closed

Lit in Andre Agassi’s Life

By Robin Bates | Published: January 30, 2023

In his autobiography, Agassi cites two literary works that come to his aid at difficult moments.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Ulysses", Alfred Lord Tennyson, Andre Agassi, Death in the Family, James Agee, Novak Djokovic, tennis | Comments closed

Lifting for a Little While the Veil

By Robin Bates | Published: January 28, 2023

Micah’s instructions and Jesus’s “Sermon on the Mount” function themselves as poems. Guite has his own poem about Jesus’s sermon.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Beatitudes", Malcolm Guite, Micah, Sermon on the Mount | Comments closed

Alice, Victorian Rebel

By Robin Bates | Published: January 26, 2023

Lewis Carroll’s Alice books use nonsense to hold off no-nonsense adult society.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alice in Wonderland, Alice through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll | Comments closed

Integration’s Child Pioneers

By Robin Bates | Published: January 25, 2023

Black children in the early days of integration report intense bullying from peers. Ozeki describes such childhood cruelty in “Tale for the Time Being.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Civil Rights Movement, desegregation, racism, Ruth Ozeki, Tale for the Time Being | Comments closed

The Usefulness of “Let’s Pretend”

By Robin Bates | Published: January 24, 2023

In “Seduced by Story,” Brooks challenges the idea that literature is meant to be useful. Instead, he says, it resembles play (and then acknowledges that play itself is useful).

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alice in Wonderland, Alice through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll, narrative, narratology, Peter Brooks, Seduced by Story | Comments closed

Avatar II’s Debt to Moby Dick

By Robin Bates | Published: January 23, 2023

Cameron’s “Avatar 2” owes a large debt to “Moby Dick.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Avatar 2, Herman Melville, James Cameron, Moby Dick, whale hunting | Comments closed

Silko Foresaw Arizona’s Water Crisis

By Robin Bates | Published: January 22, 2023

In “Almanac of the Dead” (1991), Silko foresees Arizona’s current water problems.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Requiem for Sonora", Almanac of the Dead, deserts, drought, Leslie Marmon Silko, Richard Shelton, Sonora Desert, water problems | Comments closed