Monthly Archives: March 2023

Reading Proust before Dying

By Robin Bates | Published: March 9, 2023

A dying friend decided to read, in his last months, Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time.” As I read it, I’m beginning to understand why.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged death and dying, In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | Comments closed

On Homer and Rethinking My Father

By Robin Bates | Published: March 8, 2023

The famous scene of Hector and Andromache has given me a new perspective on my father’s fatalism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged determinism, fatalism, Homer, Iliad, Kurt Vonnegut, Scott Bates | Comments closed

Pullman and White Christian Nationalists

By Robin Bates | Published: March 7, 2023

In “The Secret Commonwealth” Pullmans description of the Magisterium sounds a lot like White Christian Nationalism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Christian nationalism, Philip Pullman, rightwing politics, Secret Commonwealth, white supremacy | Comments closed

Lit that Features the N-Word: What to Do

By Robin Bates | Published: March 6, 2023

Now to teach White literature that employs the n-word? Balance with Black literature.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Absalom Absalom!, Beloved, Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, n-word, racism, Song of Solomon, To Kill a Mockingbird, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner | Comments closed

Hamlet: Shakespeare Grieving His Son?

By Robin Bates | Published: March 5, 2023

In which I explore why O’Farrell’s “Hamnet” opened up wellsprings of grief I didn’t realize were there.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Anne Hathaway, death and dying, grieving, Hamlet, Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

On Lent, Dust, and His Dark Materials

By Robin Bates | Published: March 4, 2023

In Practical Christianity, Jane Shaw uses Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” to discuss how to grapple with life and sin.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Coming of Age, His Dark Materials, Jane Shaw, Lent, Philip Pullman, Practical Christianity | Comments closed

March Has Come in Like a Liobam

By Robin Bates | Published: March 2, 2023

What do you have when March comes in as both a lion AND a lamb. Thanks to Margaret Atwood, we have liobams.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged gene splicing, Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, Seasons, Spring, Year of the Flood | Comments closed

Faulkner on Racism: Sadly, Still Relevant

By Robin Bates | Published: March 1, 2023

Faulkner’s “Absalom, Absalom!” understands White America’s race hatred in a deep way that is still revelant.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Absalom Absalom!, Diversity, gothic fiction, miscegenation, racism, William Faulkner | Comments closed