In Witches Abroad Terry Pratchett explores the dangerous power of predetermined story and how to push back against it.
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Author Archives: Robin Bates
DJT Replays Scene from Dead Zone
DJT escaping his plane in a catering cart while using reporters and staff as decoys is reminiscent of a scene in Stephen King’s Dead Zone.
Helen Keller in the Garden of the Lord
In this poem Helen Keller finds the kingdom of God in her garden.
My Childhood Encounter with Wind in the Willows
In which I look back and recall the importance of Wind in the Willows on my childhood.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Piper at the Gates of Dawn", Childhood, Kenneth Grahame, Norman Finkelstein, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, wind in the willows Comments closed
Poison Ivy and the Spoon River Citizens
A recent run-in with poison ivy sent me back to the Spoon River Anthology—many of whose denizens have fair exteriors masking poison.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Edgar Lee Masters, Martha Lavinia Hoffman, poison ivy, Spoon River Anthology Comments closed
DJT as a Harpy, Befouling All That Is Good
DJT befouling all that is sacred is akin to Virgil’s harpies befouling Aeneas’s feast.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Aeneid, DJT, Old Ironsides, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Virgil Comments closed
On Raccoons and Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince
With raccoons assaulting our birdfeeders while showing little fear of us, I think of the friendship Saint-Exupéry Little Prince develops with the fox.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Kiran Desai, Little Prince, Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, raccoons Comments closed
George Herbert: Joseph Story Prefigures Jesus
In Herbert’s sonnet “Joseph’s Coat,” the Joseph story prefigures Jesus while comforting a poet worn out with illness.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Joseph’s Coat", George Herbert, Illness, Joseph and his coat of many colors Comments closed