Reading Wilkerson’s “Caste” has me examining Indian lit describing the caste system there, including Mistry’s A Fine Balance and Roy’s God of Small Things.
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Author Archives: Robin Bates
Caste in India and the U.S.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Arundhati Roy, caste systems, Fine Balance, God of Small Things, racism, Rohinton Mistry Leave a comment
Steinem, Rich, Atwood, and Men in “Walls of Iron”
Adrienne Rich and Margaret Atwood understand what Steinem understood: how men, like women, are trapped in crippling mythologies.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Knight", Adrienne Rich, Circe Mud Poems, Gloria Steinem, Margaret Atwood, toxic masculinity Leave a comment
Feminism’s Deep Dive into the Female Psyche
In “Diving into the Wreck,” Rich captures what Gloria Steinem was preaching, that women must break free of controlling social myths.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Diving into the Wreck", Adrienne Rich, Gloria Steinem, Margaret Atwood, patriarchy, Sexism Leave a comment
For Labor Day, a Labor Strike Novel
For Labor Day, I cite a Brecht poem and passages from Rachel Kranz’s Leaps of Faith, which is partly about striking clerical workers.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Learner", Bertolt Brecht, Labor Day, Leaps of Faith, Rachel Kranz, Strikes, unions Comments closed
Theories of Aslan’s Crucifixion
In which I discuss the nature of Aslan’s “crucifixion” in Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Does it put Lewis in a Calvinist camp or is there more to Aslan?
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged C.S. Lewis, crucifixion, George MacDonald, John Milton, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, moral influence atonement, Paradise Lost, penal atonement, Prince Caspian Comments closed
Jane Eyre Opened Me Up to Feminism
Friday Memories of Books that Shook My World While I will be devoting a special post next week to the late Gloria Steinem, I examine today a work that helped open me up to feminism’s message. I can remember exactly where I was when I first sat down to read Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. The year […]
Posted in Uncategorized Comments closed
Tech Bros Stuck in Sci-Fi Childhood
An Atlantic article traces how Silicon Valley tech bros misread the sci-fi authors they loved as children, with horrific consequences for the rest of us.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Elon Musk, Foundation, Gil Beckerman, Jeff Bezos, Jill Lepore, Peter Thiel, Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, Sam Altman, Stranger in a Strange Land, Ursula K. Le Guin Comments closed
C.S. Lewis Speaks for the Trees
Images of Trumpian assaults on nature can be found in C.S. Lewis’s The Last Battle, where we encounter horrific images of deforestation.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged C.S. Lewis, deforestation, DJT, Last Battle, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, National Parks, Prince Caspian Comments closed