An Atlantic article recently expressed fears that, with the decline of reading, we are becoming postliterate. Literature has something to see on the matter, however.
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Pratchett on Paperwork and Accountability
Pratchett’s “Fifth Elephant” has a running joke about paperwork, but its bigger theme is the urge to escape all accountability as one abuses power. ICE agents should read it.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Fifth Element, ICE, ICE killings, paperwork, Terry Pratchett Leave a comment
World Cup Semi: All for One, One for All
The Musketeers’ motto—“All for one and one for all”—applies to both France and Spain in tomorrow’s semi-final World Cup match.
Posted in Uncategorized Leave a comment
The Lost Honor of Lindsey Graham
Trump sycophant Lindsey Graham died unexpectedly yesterday. I turn to Beckett, Orwell, Conrad and Eliot to sum up the man.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Hollow Men", 1984, Anne Appelbaum, Captive Mind, collaborators, Czeslaw Milosz, DJT, George Orwell, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Lindsey Graham, Samuel Beckett, T. S. Eliot, Waiting for Godot Comments closed
The Bible in English Classes? Good Idea
The Texas Board of Education is requiring Biblical passages now. This may be a good thing.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Bible, Genesis, Greg Olear, separation of church and state, Texas Board of Education Comments closed
A Boy Juggling a Soccer Ball
A lovely Christopher Merrill poem about a boy juggling a soccer ball.
Posted in Uncategorized Comments closed
Was Oedipus Deserving of a Red Card?
The World Cup is leading to some great literary tweets from my English professor son.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Bluesky, Oedipus, Sophocles, Tobias Wilson-Bates, World Cup Comments closed
Children as Devouring Mice?!
Images of devourment show up in children’s lit (“Children’s Hour,” “The Night Kitchen,” “Little Black Sambo,” “Runaway Bunny”), speaking to an inner tension in kids.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged children’s literature, Goodnight Moon, grandchildren, Helen Bannerman, In the Night Kitchen, Little Black Sambo, Margaret Wise Brown, Maurice Sendak, Runaway Bunny Comments closed
U.S. Soccer and the Ancient Mariner’s Curse
After Trump intervened with FIFA to overturn a red card, the USMT still lost. It was as though the Greek goddess Nemesis had intervened.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, U.S Men’s Team, World Cup Comments closed