Book bans were on the rise in the 2023-24 school year–sometimes for understandable reasons, sometimes not.
Author Archives: Robin Bates
Unexpected Book Bans
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "The Hille We Climb", Amanda Gorman, Anne Frank, banned books, Better Living through Literature, censorship, Charlotte's Webb, Diary of a Young Girl, E. B. White, Edgar Rice Burroughs, freedom of speech, Harriet the Spy, Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling, James and the Giant Peach, Louise Fitzhugh, Maurice Sendak, Maus, Roald Dahl, Robin Bates, Tarzan, Trumpism, Twelfth Night, Where the Wild Things Are, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Finding Sanctuary within the Self
Teasdale’s lovely poem “Sanctuary” finds other ways than the conventional to put us in touch with God.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Book of Wisdom, Dante, inner peace, Meditation, Paradiso, Prayer, Sanctuary, Sara Teasdale Comments closed
Laughter in the Presidential Campaign
Trump and Vance’s jokes are designed to beat down, not include. They elicit Hobbesian laughter, not Shaftesburian.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged blood libel, Caite Upton, Comedy, Donald Trump, Henry Fielding, Kamala Harris, Laughter, Leviathan, Mel Brooks, mysogeny, Tom Jones Comments closed
Harris’s Use of Goneril Tactics
In Tuesday’s presidential debate, Harris played Goneril and Regan to Trump’s King Lear. With differences, of course.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Election 2024, Kamala Harris, King Lear, presidential debates, William Shakespeare Comments closed
9-11 and Auden’s “September 1, 1939”
In which I examine why Americans turned to Auden’s “September 1, 1939” on September 11, 2001–and how the poem still offers us solace and hope in the face of Trumpism.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "September 1 1939", Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, W. H. Auden, World War II Comments closed
Tolstoy, Must Reading for Economists
A New Yorker article argues that economists should read Tolstoy, who understood that we can’t strip morality and politics out of the discipline.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Economics, How Much Land Does a Man Need?, Leo Tolstoy, Milton Friedman Comments closed
Drought in Climate Fiction
Fiction writers are responding to climate change, including Anthony Doerr in “Cloud Cuckoo Land.”
Posted in Uncategorized Comments closed
My Heart Was in My Knees, but No Hearing
Herbert laments that sometimes, when he prays, his words don’t get through to God. And yet he finds peace in the end.
“Dinas Vawr” and Bully Culture
What do bullies feel when they assert their dominance. Thomas Love Peacock provides an insight.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "War Song of Dinas Vawr", owning the libs, Thomas Love Peacock, Trump and Trumpism Comments closed
