Dick’s “Man in a High Castle” shows how easily Americans can adjust to autocracy—which makes it particularly relevant today.
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Man in High Castle Captures Life under DJT
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged DJT, Man in the High Castle, Naziism, Philip K. Dick, Timothy Snyder, tyranny Comments closed
Made Whole by Their Hospitality
As Malcolm Guite makes clear, the story of Abraham and Sarah entertaining strangers is the call for us all to do the same. Thus are the barren made fertile.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Holy Thursday", "New Colossus", “Abraham and Sarah at Mamre", Emma Lazarus, Immigration, Malcolm Guite, William Blake Comments closed
How Sports Spurred My Literary Imagination
In which I examine my longtime relationship with sports, along with some of its literary associations.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Ties", "To Be of Use", Brian Gottfried, Dabney Stuart, Jean Renoir, Julius Caesar, Marge Piercy, Roger Federer, Rules of the Game, Sports, sprezzatura, tennis, Tobias Wilson-Bates, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Biopunk: Essential Sci Fi If We Are To Survive
In her dissertation, Majda Nizamič makes a compelling case that biopunk is one of the most important genres being written today.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged biopunk, biotechnology, Blood Music, Borne, Greg Bear, Jeff Vandermeer, Majda Nizamič, Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, Paolo Bacigalupi, Windup Girl Comments closed
Juvenal’s “Bread and Circuses” at the White House
Trump White House cage match is a modern version of the “bread and circuses” Juvenal describes in his Satire X.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Vanity of Human Wishes", Juvenal, Samuel Johnson, White House cage match Comments closed
The Tempest and Our Own Coup Attempts
We can see our current electoral politics, and the threats to social order, in Shakespeare’s “Tempest.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged DJT, electoral politics, Tempest, William Shakespeare Comments closed
A Love Poem to a Long Marriage
A love poem from my wife, which I share on our 53rd wedding anniversary.
Trump Christians Worship Moloch
While Sen. Mike Lee has accused Texas senate candidate Talarico of being in thrall to Maloch, Ginsberg’s “Howl” shows that the real Moloch is the America Lee desires.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Alan Ginsberg, Howl, James Talarico, Maloch, William Blake Comments closed
Something Funny Happened Along My Career Path
Looking back over my academic career, I explore a regret over not having achieved more as a literary scholar.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Garden of Forking Paths", Carleton College, Jorge Luis Borges, memoir, Road Not Taken, Robert Frost "Ovenbird" Comments closed