Category Archives: Uncategorized

Election Anxieties? Read Kipling’s “If”

Milbank uses a Kipling line as he begs readers not to leave the Washington Post. Kipling also provides timely advice for the last week of this election.

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Our Lear Is Running to Be King Again

In an essay reposted from 2017 that is still relevant, I compare Trump’s narcissism with King Lear’s.

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Washington Post, a Harpy of the Shore

In which I direct Oliver Wendell Holmsian indignation (as expressed in “Old Ironsides”) at the billionaire owners of “Washington Post” and “L.A. Times.”

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But the Light Will Come to Us Again

Poet Lory Hess contends that the healing story of the blind man is about opening ourselves to spiritual light.

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Cutting Edge Native Healing Ceremonies

Silko explores the power of Native American healing practices in “Ceremony,” some of which modern medicine is beginning to adopt.

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Trump, His Billionaires, and Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand’s novels help explain why certain billionaires are gravitating to Donald Trump. Trump’s own enthusiasm about “The Fountainhead” is also revealing.

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Combat Lit Awakens Future Warriors

In “Purple Hibiscus,” Adichie continues the liberation struggle of Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” but for the next stage of Nigeria’s history.

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Environmental Novelist Harriet Martineau

Victorian novelist Harriet Martineau, though largely forgotten, foresaw ecology, environmentalism, and realist fiction.

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Richard II and Our Own Succession Issues

Shakespeare’s “Richard II” maybe be about an absolute monarch but what it says about succession issues are relevant today.

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