Idaho libraries are under attack and children must now have parent-signed waivers to use them. Thankfully this is not the case in Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend.”
Monthly Archives: September 2024
Idaho Libraries & “My Brilliant Friend”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged censorship, Elena Ferrante, libraries, My Brilliant Friend Comments closed
6 Impossible Trump Lies before Breakfast
Lewis Carroll’s White Queen challenges Alice to believe 6 impossible things before breakfast. Six is a bare minimum for Trump supporters.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Alice through the Looking-Glass, Donald Trump, Election 2024, Lewis Carroll, Trump-Harris debate Comments closed
Pushing Back against Cultural Genocide
Ukrainian poets are actively pushing against Russia’s attempts at cultural genocide. I feature one of the best today, Serhiy Zhadan.
Unexpected Book Bans
Book bans were on the rise in the 2023-24 school year–sometimes for understandable reasons, sometimes not.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "The Hille We Climb", Amanda Gorman, Anne Frank, banned books, Better Living through Literature, censorship, Charlotte's Webb, Diary of a Young Girl, E. B. White, Edgar Rice Burroughs, freedom of speech, Harriet the Spy, Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling, James and the Giant Peach, Louise Fitzhugh, Maurice Sendak, Maus, Roald Dahl, Robin Bates, Tarzan, Trumpism, Twelfth Night, Where the Wild Things Are, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Finding Sanctuary within the Self
Teasdale’s lovely poem “Sanctuary” finds other ways than the conventional to put us in touch with God.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Book of Wisdom, Dante, inner peace, Meditation, Paradiso, Prayer, Sanctuary, Sara Teasdale Comments closed
Laughter in the Presidential Campaign
Trump and Vance’s jokes are designed to beat down, not include. They elicit Hobbesian laughter, not Shaftesburian.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged blood libel, Caite Upton, Comedy, Donald Trump, Henry Fielding, Kamala Harris, Laughter, Leviathan, Mel Brooks, mysogeny, Tom Jones Comments closed
Harris’s Use of Goneril Tactics
In Tuesday’s presidential debate, Harris played Goneril and Regan to Trump’s King Lear. With differences, of course.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Election 2024, Kamala Harris, King Lear, presidential debates, William Shakespeare Comments closed
9-11 and Auden’s “September 1, 1939”
In which I examine why Americans turned to Auden’s “September 1, 1939” on September 11, 2001–and how the poem still offers us solace and hope in the face of Trumpism.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "September 1 1939", Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, W. H. Auden, World War II Comments closed
