Monthly Archives: December 2024

To Survive Trump, Be Like Lizzie

How to survive Trumpism’s anticipated assaults on democracy? Reading Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” is a good place to start.

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A Florida County Targeted Paradise Lost

Milton’s Paradise Lost, banned by a Florida County this past year, exposes the hypocrites who have taken it off school library shelves.

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Unexpected Responses to a Murder

An African American’s response to the killing of Healthcare Insurance CEO Brian Thompson echoes one found in “Midnight’s Children” following the killing of Gandhi.

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The Real Story of Christmas

Scott Bates points out the multicultural aspects of the Nativity in “Christmas at the Courthouse.”

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Blog Fragments Shored against My Ruins

In which apply a line from T.S. Eliot’s “Waste Land” to this very blog and suddenly understand the project in a new way.

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Resurrection Stories from All Over

Scott Bates’s “Flight to Egypt” looks at Egyptian influences on the Jesus nativity story.

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Memories of Being Read To

This Scott Bates Christmas poem celebrates reading together before an open fire. Many of the children’s classics I grew up with, it so happens, have an environmental theme.

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Atkinson Uses Lit to Explore Dying

Atkinson, in “A God in Ruins,” uses literary fragments to explore the process of dying. She includes excerpts from Shakespeare, Blake, Hopkins, Wordsworth and others.

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On Atkinson, Trollope, and Death

Kate Atkinson is masterful in how she sprinkles literary allusions throughout her novels, which give her special insight into challenging subjects such as death.

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