At LSU, Shaq O’Neal recently wrote a thesis on mentorship in the Odyssey. I imagine the basketball examples he might have used.
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Shaq on Homer’s Basketball Lessons
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Homer, leadership, mentorship, Odyssey, Shaquille O'Neal Comments closed
A Book Fair in War-Torn Ukraine
Kyiv continued to hold its annual book festival this year despite Russian attacks. In Ukraine, book publication is seen as self-defense and reading as resistance.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Local Heroes", Book Arsenal, genocide, Russia-Ukraine War, Thomas Lynch, Ukraine Comments closed
“Parasite and Tool of a Proud Tyrant”
Dickens’s “Dombey and Son” captures the relationship between a tyrant and his sycophant—not unlike what we are seeing in the White House these days.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, Donald Trump, sycophants Comments closed
Aslan’s Song of Creation
In the recently published “The Green Worlds of C.S. Lewis,” John Gatta says that Lewis has a vision of God’s creation as one that is always unfolding, never static.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged C.S. Lewis, creation story, Green Worlds of C.S. Lewis, John Gatta, Magician’s Nephew Comments closed
Cavorting through Literature’s Wonderland
In which I look back over a career of teaching a wide variety of literature courses.
Posted in Uncategorized Comments closed
The Odyssey, U.S. Fascism, and the Iran War
Two recent applications of the Odyssey: Elon Musk complaining about a Black actress and Jay Kuo applying the poem to Trump’s Iran troubles.
The Loneliness of the Tyrant
Trump is a Richard III figure. A Robert Hayden poem tells us how to counter him.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Richard III, Robert Hayden, Stephen Colbert, William Shakespeare Comments closed
How Roberts Might Rewrite the Classics
A comic exercise imagining how a teenage John Roberts would interpret various classics.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged 1984, Anna Karenina, Christmas Carol, Don Quixote, Huckleberry Finn, John Roberts, Jungle, Lolita, Modest Proposal, Narrative of Sojourner Truth, Oliver Twist, Othello, Pride and Prejudice, Scarlet Letter, Supreme Court, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Tom Jones Comments closed