McConnell, a modern-day Unferth? What are we to make of the gridlock in the United States Senate these days and the refusal of Republicans and Democrats to cooperate to address the nation’s ills? (In my partisan view, columnist Thomas Friedman is right when he accuses Republicans of never having been more irresponsible, but feel free to […]
As the president addressed the nation Tuesday night about his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, I found myself impressed with his seriousness and depressed over the situation. I know that he has no good options. I can’t tell whether his decision is the right one. Literature, as I’ve periodically noted on this blog, […]
A couple of months ago I wondered on this blog whether some of the vitriolic attacks on Obama (as distinguished from reasoned disagreement) were driven by racism, and now I see that others are wondering the same, including Maureen Dowd and Jimmy Carter. But a reader of Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish has a more […]
As I teach William Wycherley’s The Country Wife, I am struck by the resemblances between Restoration society and our own.The play was written in 1676 during the age of Charles II, and in some ways our worlds couldn’t be more dissimilar.This was a monarchy and a very formal society in which sincerity was viewed with […]
Like many supporters of health care reform, I am distressed by what I see as right-wing attempts to disrupt civil discussions on the matter. Practically no one disputes that we are facing a financial crisis over health care costs and health care coverage. My own 27-year-old son and his wife, who have just started a […]
If Grendel rage is on the rampage in America, do we have a Beowulf who can defeat it? And what would defeating it look like? In a recent New York Times piece, liberal columnist Frank Rich talks about how irresponsible talk from political commentators and politicians essentially enable those committing hate crimes, even though these […]
I’ve had fun discussing the reading of Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas over the last couple of days, and while I’ve come up dry on further posts about the Supreme Court and literature, it has given me the idea of periodically dipping into reading stories of other political figures. I’ll start a list here, beginning […]
I return for one last time to Swift, who provides invaluable perspectives for understanding contemporary politics. Swift was a shrewd student of political dynamics. His satire is often an allegorical depiction of real life people and incidents, and if one knows one’s history, one can read parts of Gulliver’s Travels as a roman à clé, […]
