Libraries as described by poet Paul Engle are sometimes repositories of dynamite, sometimes of comfort.
Monthly Archives: August 2024
The Dangerous Power of Libraries
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Library", Anna Karenina, C. S. Lewis, Grand Canyon, Julius Caesar, Leo Tolstoy, libraries, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lolita, Louisa May Alcott, Merchant of Venice, Paul Hamilton Engle, Tempest, Vladimir Nabokov, William Shakespeare Comments closed
On Literature’s Transformational Power
My book “Better Living through Literature” gets released today. It is the culmination of my life’s work.
Akhmatova’s Response to Despair
Ana Akhmatova writes that although horrors threaten us, “cherries blow summer into town.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Everything Is Plundered", Ana Akhmatova, Gulag, hope, Josef Stalin, Soviet Union Comments closed
Tana French, a Writer for Our Time
Tana French’s novels capture some of the mood engendered by Trumpism.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Faithful Place, Hunter, Likeness, mysteries, Searcher, Secret Place, Tana French, Trespasser Comments closed
The Pope’s Extraordinary Defense of Lit
St. Francis recently penned an extraordinary defense of literature and why it should be taught in seminaries (and elsewhere).
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged book bans, Index of Prohibited Books, papal letter, Pope Francis Comments closed
Harris as Potter, Biden as Dumbledore
Think of Biden as first Harry Potter and then Dumbledore in the battle against Trump Voldemort.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged C.S. Lewis, Deathly Hallows, Donald Trump, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe Comments closed
What to Make of a Diminished Month
“The Oven Bird” is a good poem to read when one is feeling old.
Is Trump Set to Inherit the Wind?
The way that the Bryan figure deflates in “Inherit the Wind” may prefigure Trump’s demise.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Clarence Darrow, Donald Trump, Election 2024, Inherit the Wind, Jerome Lawrence, Kamala Harris, Robert Edwin Lee, Scopes Monkey Trial, William Jennings Bryan Comments closed
