In a continuation of my memoir, I look at my first year of teaching at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, including the shift I would make to elicit meaningful essays.
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Pullman’s Debt to the Romantic Poets
In Secret Commonwealth and Rose Field, Pullman takes inspiration from the great Romantic poets in his quest to keep the imagination open.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Ode to the West Wind", "World is too much with us", “Aeolian Harp", Biographia Literaria, fantasy, Imagination, Intimations of Immortality, Percy Shelley, Philip Pullman, Rose Field, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Secret Commonwealth, Tintern Abbey, W. H. Auden, William Blake, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Pullman’s Warning about Closed Societies
In Pullman’s “Rose Field,” there is an eloquent critique of ideological purists.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Philip Pullman, religious fundamentalists, Rose Field Comments closed
Pullman’s Resounding Fantasy Defense
In his latest novel, Pullman shows the dangers of a world that turns its back on the imagination.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Capitalism, Imagination, materialism, Philip Pullman, religious fundamentalism, Rose Field, skepticism Comments closed
Lord Byron’s Call to Battle Tyrants
Nicole Renee Good’s murder by an ICE agent may be (to use images from a Byron lyric) be the thorn in the couch that awakens mass resistance.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Journal in Cephalonia", ICE violence, Lord Byron, Nicole Renee Good, Phil Ochs Comments closed
In Ordinary Time, Search for Marvels
In his Christmas Oratorio “For the Time Being,” Auden captures the power of the season of Epiphany.
Illness Can Feel Like a Heart of Darkness
My recent bout with the flu has me revisiting Heart of Darkness. It may not be malaria but it’s plenty unpleasant.
Wheezles and Sneezles
For anyone with a bad head cold, A. A. Milne’s “Sneezles” is the poem for you.
For Jan. 6 and Venezuela, Read 1984
To understand the rewriting of Jan. 6 and the invasion of Venezuela, reread 1984.
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