Monthly Archives: December 2023

Soliloquies Changed Us Fundamentally

By Robin Bates | Published: December 10, 2023

Hamlet’s soliloquies changed the way we see ourselves and others and led the way to the novel.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Angus Fletcher, Charlotte Bronte, Hamlet, Harold Bloom, Harper Lee, Huckleberry Finn, humanism, Jane Eyre, Le Cid, Pierre Corneille, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robinson Crusoe, Shakespeare, soliloquies, Sorrows of Young Werther, To Kill a Mockingbird, transcendentalism, Wonderworks | Comments closed

Light in a Time of Darkness

By Robin Bates | Published: December 9, 2023

Allan Boesak’s “Advent Credo” reminds us that Advent is a time of radical hope.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Advent, Advent Credo, Allan Boesak | Comments closed

Beowulf’s Lessons in How to Grieve

By Robin Bates | Published: December 7, 2023

Hamlet, Beowulf, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight each show us powerful ways to grieve.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Angus Fletcher, Beowulf, death and dying, grieving, Hamlet, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, William Shakespeare, Wonderworks | Comments closed

Dec. 7 & Watching One’s Son Go to War

By Robin Bates | Published: December 6, 2023

Today being Pearl Harbor Day, I share a Gwendolyn Brooks poem about a mother who loses her son to the war.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "sonnet-ballad", Gwendolyn Brooks, Scott Bates, World War II | Comments closed

Pachinko and the Miracle of Teaching

By Robin Bates | Published: December 5, 2023

Min Jin Lee’s “Pachinko” has a scene that goes to the heart of literature teaching.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Charles Dickens, Min Jin Lee, Pachinko | Comments closed

Burns on December (and Austen on Burns)

By Robin Bates | Published: December 4, 2023

In “Thou Gloomy December,” Burns mourns a sad parting. While I enjoy Burns, I also enjoy Austen’s satiric takedown of the poet in “Sanditon.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Thou Gloomy December", December, Jane Austen, Robert Burns, Sanditon | Comments closed

George Eliot’s Humanism

By Robin Bates | Published: December 3, 2023

George Eliot’s “Middlemarch” was instrumental in developing a new humanism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Angus Fletcher, George Eliot, humanism, Ludwig Feuerbach, Middlemarch, sense of duty, Wonderworks | Comments closed

A Shadow Falls, the Book Glows

By Robin Bates | Published: December 2, 2023

As we enter a season of darkness, this Rilke poem reminds us to listen for the numinous.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "You Come and Go", Advent, Dante, Inferno, Rainer Maria Rilke | Comments closed