Dr. Watson is also a former Afghanistan War vet, with certain similarities to our own vets. The messy end of America’s involvement also recalls Kaye’s “Far Pavilions.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Birds of Afghanistan", Afghan withdrawal, Afghanistan, Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye, Scott Bates, Study in Scarlet | Comments closed

Holmes and Lupin, a Comparison

By Robin Bates | Published: June 24, 2021

Netflix’s Lupin is based on Leblanc’s “gentleman burglar series,” which itself owes much to Sherlock Holmes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged detective fiction, Lupin, Maurice Leblanc, Scandal in Bohemia, Study in Scarlet | Comments closed

Mueller Demythologized

By Robin Bates | Published: July 24, 2019

Thursday I’ve written a lot about people’s hopes in Robert Mueller, which helps explain the palpable disappointment in his performance yesterday before two Congressional committees. From one perspective, there’s no reason to feel let down. After all, his report exposed one of the great scandals in American history: our president welcomed and encouraged Russian election […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "In the Pine Woods Crows and Owl", Crime and Punishment, David Lodge, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jean Renoir, Mueller Report, Robert Mueller, Rules of the Game, Russia investigation, Sherlock Holmes, Small World | Comments closed

Sherlock: Hard-Boiled or Soft-Boiled?

By Robin Bates | Published: June 17, 2019

Tuesday I share today an Alexis Hall essay I encountered in CrimeReads arguing that Sherlock Holmes is a hard-boiled detective. (Thanks to Literary Hub for the alert.) For those who study detective fiction, the thesis is startling because Holmes is generally grouped with the soft-boiled or puzzle-solving detectives, more like Dupin, Poirot, Miss Marple, Nero […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Dashiell Hammett, existentialism, Farewell My Lovely, Maltese Falcon, Raymond Chandler, Sherlock Holmes | Comments closed

Are We Overanalyzing Trump?

By Robin Bates | Published: May 19, 2019

Monday My son gave me a tough-love talk about my writing at a wedding reception this past Saturday afternoon. We were in Iowa together for my wife’s nephew and Darien took a few moments to express doubts about book he is helping me self-publish. While he is a big supporter of the blog, he worries […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Knight" Donald Trump, Alexander Pope, Death and the Compass, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Jorge Luis Borges, Study in Scarlet | Comments closed

Are We Watching Shakespeare or Beckett?

By Robin Bates | Published: March 7, 2019

Friday When assuring my English majors that they will find jobs in the world beyond college, I sometimes point out that they are experts in narrative. Increasingly we are learning how much we process reality through stories, and political operatives talk ceaselessly about “controlling the narrative.” How you organize facts (or for that matter, lies) […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, Endgame, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Mueller investigation, narrative, Richard III, Samuel Beckett, Unnamable, Waiting for Godot, Westword Ho!, William Shakespeare | Comments closed