For Halloween, here’s one of the scariest poems that I know. In it, Robert Graves recalls a childhood nightmare after he was wounded in World War I.
Monthly Archives: October 2024
Halloween: “Purring in My Haunted Ear”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Child's Nightmare", Carl Jung, Halloween, PTSD, Robert Graves Comments closed
Election Anxieties? Read Kipling’s “If”
Milbank uses a Kipling line as he begs readers not to leave the Washington Post. Kipling also provides timely advice for the last week of this election.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Election 2024, If, Jeff Bezos, Rudyard Kipling, Washington Post Comments closed
Our Lear Is Running to Be King Again
In an essay reposted from 2017 that is still relevant, I compare Trump’s narcissism with King Lear’s.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Election 2024, King Lear, narcissism, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Washington Post, a Harpy of the Shore
In which I direct Oliver Wendell Holmsian indignation (as expressed in “Old Ironsides”) at the billionaire owners of “Washington Post” and “L.A. Times.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Election 2024, Jeff Bezos, LA Times, Old Ironsides, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Patrick Soon-Shiong, presidential endorsements, sane-washing, Washington Post Comments closed
Cutting Edge Native Healing Ceremonies
Silko explores the power of Native American healing practices in “Ceremony,” some of which modern medicine is beginning to adopt.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Ceremony, Laguna Pueblo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Therapy Comments closed
Trump, His Billionaires, and Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand’s novels help explain why certain billionaires are gravitating to Donald Trump. Trump’s own enthusiasm about “The Fountainhead” is also revealing.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Donald Trump, Election 2024, Fountainhead, Libertarianism, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Ronald Reagan, Thomas Hartmann, Tom Nichols, Trumpism Comments closed
Combat Lit Awakens Future Warriors
In “Purple Hibiscus,” Adichie continues the liberation struggle of Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” but for the next stage of Nigeria’s history.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged African literature, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Chinua Achebe, Edward Said, Enid Blyton, Frantz Fanon, Literature of combat, Little Black Doll, Nigeria, Purple Hibiscus, Things Fall Apart Comments closed
Environmental Novelist Harriet Martineau
Victorian novelist Harriet Martineau, though largely forgotten, foresaw ecology, environmentalism, and realist fiction.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Charles Darwin, Environmental fiction, Environmentalism, Harriet Martineau, Thomas Robert Malthus Comments closed
