Monday My wife Julia alerted me to an intriguing although somewhat frustrating article in Atlantic about the end of time. Drawing on Frank Kermode’s 1967 The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction, Megan Garber wrestles with an issue recently raised by The Washington Post: how do we live with constant reminders […]
Tag Archives: Alexander Pope
Do Endings Reveal Meaning of Life?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Dover Beach", "Second Coming", endings, Frank Kermode, King Lear, Matthew Arnold, modernism, post-apocalyptic fiction, Samuel Beckett, Sense of an Ending, William Butler Yeats, William Shakespeare, world weary ennui Comments closed
Read to Resist: An Introduction
Thursday I share today the introduction to my upcoming book, which is still in draft form and whose title I keep changing. Latest title: Read to Resist: Classic Lit Provides Tools for Battling Trump and Trumpism. I’m still not entirely satisfied with that and so will keep tinkering. In any event, here’s my first attempt […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beowulf, Donald Trump, Dunciad, Go Set a Watchman, H. G. Wells, Harper Lee, Invisible Man, John Milton, Leo Tolstoy, Othello, Paradise Lost, To Kill a Mockingbird, Trump resistance, War and Peace, William Shakespeare Comments closed
National Inquirer, Political Sewage
“National Inquirer” is in trouble for having conspired to bury article critical of Donald Trump. Alexander Pope described such publications in “The Dunciad.”
How Dangerous Is a Little Learning?
Pope’s “a little learning” seems dangerous at first glance but the alternative is not entirely attractive.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College", colleges, Education, Essay on Criticism, Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Gray Comments closed
Pope Anticipated the Ansari Affair
Celebrity culture contributed to the Aziz Ansari scandal and the commotion it has caused. Alexander Pope sets forth the dynamics in “Rape of the Lock.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aziz Ansari, Celebrity culture, Rape of the Lock, sexual harassment Comments closed
Pope Describes Triumph of Stupidity
Book IV of Pope’s “Dunciad” captures the triumph of Trumpism. In Pope’s poem, the goddess dullness (stupidity) has conquered the world.
From Wycherley to Crazy, Stupid, Love
In my “Restoration and 18th Century Couples Comedy” class, my students paired old rom-coms with contemporary films, including “Ten Things I Hate about You,” “How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, “Friends with Benefits,” and others.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 10 Things I Hate about You, Aphra Behn Country Wife, Austenland, Belle's Stratagem, Brave, Crazy Stupid Love, Don Jon, Friends with Benefits, Hannah Cowley, He’s Just Not That into You, How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Jane Austen, Mean Girls, Oliver Goldsmith, Rape of the Lock, Richard Sheridan, Rivals, Rover, Say Anything, Sense and Sensibility, She Stoops to Conquer, William Wycherley Comments closed
