A Mary Oliver poem for All Souls’ Day in which she balances life’s fragility with powerful natural forces.
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Author Archives: Robin Bates
Tell-Tale Heart Terrified Me as a Teen
In which I explore the power impact that Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart” had upon me as a teen.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe, Michel Foucault, Tell-Tale Heart, Wolf Man Leave a comment
Cankar, Yeats, and Lawrence on Remorse
In which I use works by Ivan Cankar, Yeats, and D. H. Lawrence to understand those flashes of mental pain we experience when certain memories come to mind.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Snake", "Vacillation", Cup of Coffee, D. H. Lawrence, Ivan Cankar, W. B. Yeats Leave a comment
Shakespeare’s Deep Dive into Explosive Sexual Desire
Which came first, Midsummer Night’s Dream or Romeo and Juliet? Is the first a spoof on the second or the second a tragic expansion of the first? I look at both sides.
Sexual Dominance and the Iran Invasion
Post-colonial theory suggests that Trump’s invasion of Iran–the Persian Orient–may be psychosexual.
Iran: Heart of Darkness Redux?
We may be living a Heart of Darkness but Trump is no Kurtz.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "White Man's Burden", Colonialism, DJT, Edward Said, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, She Leave a comment
Jesus’s Radical Empathy – Nothing Toxic about It
Jesus’s message and parables push against current rightwing Christian attacks on empathy.
Why I Hated Catcher in the Rye (But Not Anymore)
I hated Catcher in the Rye in high school. I learned a lot about myself later in life when I analyzed my response.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged adolescence, Catcher in the Rye, innocence, J.D. Salinger Leave a comment
Much Ado about Male Insecurities
The men in Much Ado about Nothing are obsessed with cuckoldry. Out of the play, however, arises a revolutionary vision of how male-female relationships could be.