Jerzy Kosinski’s 1970 novella “Being There” describes a man whose obsession with television helps him thrive and even ascend to the White House. Sound familiar?
Tag Archives: 2016 presidential election
Kosinski Foresaw Our Television President
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Being There, Donald Trump, Jerzy Kosinski, Television Comments closed
Trump as Browning’s Pied Piper
Charlie Pierce of “Esquire” makes good use of Robert Browning’s “Pied Piper of Hamelin” to describe Donald Trump’s con job. Then he imagines the tables turned and Trump as the deceitful major who stiffs his employee.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Pied Piper of Hamelin", Donald Trump, Robert Browning Comments closed
2016’s Top Story–Trump, Trump, Trump
Looking back of 2016, I choose three posts that stood out to me, all dealing with Trump. One compares him to Satan inspiring the invasion of Earth by Sin and Death in “Paradise Lost.” The other two compare him to Herman Melville’s “Confidence Man” and to the narrator’s son in the Raymond Carver short story “Why, Honey?”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Confidence Man, Donald Trump, Herman Melville, Hillary Clinton, John Milton, Raymond Carver, Why Honey? Paradise Lost Comments closed
Despite Trump, “The Land Holds Us Still”
On this one-month anniversary of the 2016 election, I look back at two authors who meditated on what to do next immediately after hearing the news. Terry Tempest Williams looks to nature while Zadie Smith looks to the music to be found in multiethnic harmony.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Erosion", Donald Trump, hope, resistance, Terry Temest Williams, White Teeth, Zadie Smith Comments closed
Toni Morrison: White Panic Led to Trump
As Toni Morrison sees it, William Faulkner’s observations about white panic go a long way toward explaining Trump’s victory.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Absolom Absolom, Donald Trump, Go Tell a Watchman, Harper Lee, racism, To Kill a Mockingbird, Toni Morrison, white privilege, William Faulkner Comments closed
HRC & McKinley’s Strong Woman Fantasy
Robin McKinley’s “Chalice” is a novel about a woman with strong powers who scares men away. It’s a story that may explain the 2016 election.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Chalice, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Robin McKinley Comments closed
What Would Beowulf Do?
Beowulf offers us guidance for fighting back against Trumpism. Here’s a step-by-step account of the three monsters that will be facing liberals and what they must do.
Poetry: Sure Solacer of Human Cares
For those trapped in gloom, Emily Bronte reminds us that the Imagination is there to provide us with solace.
Shakespeare Understood Trumpism
According to Adam Gopnik, Shakespeare would have understood the rise of Donald Trump better than we do today. Whereas we see him as a historical oddity, Shakespeare would have seen him as the kind of evil that has always resided within humankind.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Adam Gopnik, As You Like It, Donald Trump, Hamlet, Henry V, Hillary Clinton, King Lear, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Richard III, Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Comments closed
