Until we face up to America’s dark history, it will be like the corpse in Poe’s “Premature Burial,” scratching to get out.
Sign up for my weekly newsletter
Category Archives: Uncategorized
History That Refuses to Die
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Premature Burial", American history, Beloved, Edgar Allan Poe, Light in August, return of the repressed, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner Comments closed
“Kavanaugh Stops” and Catch-22
Racial profiling–the so-called “Kavanaugh Stop”–catches its victims in a Catch-22.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Brett Kavanaugh, Catch-22, Joseph Heller, racial profiling Comments closed
Morrison’s Healthy Response to Trauma
Stephen King (IT) and Toni Morrison (Beloved) show how we can live in thrall to our fears but also how we can move past them.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Beloved, buried trauma, It, racism, Stephen King, Toni Morrison, uncanny Comments closed
Stephen King Understands MAGA
Stephen King is the most banned author in America at the moment. It may be because he depicts America’s dark side so vividly.
The Miracle of Mustard Seed Faith
Levertov’s poem about Jesus’s mustard seed parable focuses more on the seed than on the tree.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Among School Children", "On the Parables of the Mustard Seed", Denise Levertov, mustard seed parable, W. B. Yeats Comments closed
Old Wisdom from Jane Goodall (R.I.P.)
The wisdom of the late Jane Goodall, as expressed in one of her poems.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Each and All", "Old Wisdom", Auguries of Innocence, Environmentalism, Jane Goodall, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Blake Comments closed
MAGA Seeks to Erase Scourged Backs
Trump and MAGA want to erase America’s slave past, including the image “Scourged Back.” Morrison’s “Beloved,” another art work featuring a scourged back, is also under attack.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Beloved, MAGA history, racism, Scourged Back, slavery, Toni Morrison Comments closed
Dems Channel Inner Lady Macbeth
Shakespeare and Henry James showed up in commentary on this weeks events: the impending government shutdown and the required gathering of 800 military leaders.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Government shutdown, Henry James, Macbeth, Pete Hegseth, Turn of the Screw, U.S. military, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Social Media’s Siren Call
Chris Hayes’s “Sirens’ Call” draws on a Homeric allusion as it warns us against being devoured by social media.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Chris Hayes, Homer, Internet, Odyssey, Sirens' Call, social media Comments closed