Wednesday Writing last week for the New York Times’ “What Is Power?” series, Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari argued that fiction is a more powerful force than truth in politics. I extend the discussion to literature (which Harari does not discuss) because of its reliance upon fabrication in the service of a higher understanding. Camus, […]
Tag Archives: Brothers Karamazov
Does the GOP Love Big Brother?
Do Congressional Republicans flatter Trump Goneril-like out of convenience or do they “love Big Brother”? Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor may hold the key.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Maldive Shark", 1984, Congressional Republicans, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Orwell, GOP, GOP Tax Plan, Grand Inquisitor, H. G. Wells, Herman Melville, Invisible Man Comments closed
The Grand Inquisitor Was Right
To understand Donald Trump’s stunning victory, turn to Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor. The lure of an authoritarian leader and the challenges of a pluralistic and multicultural society can be found in Ivan Karamazov’s parable.
I Am Lazarus Come Back from the Dead
I’ve just realized that the Lazarus mentioned in Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a different once than I’ve been assuming. This makes me appreciate the poem even more.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Fyodor Dostoevsky, Grand Inquisitor, hell, Lazarus, Love Song of J. Alfred Pruforck, poverty, T. S. Eliot Comments closed
ISIS and the Grand Inquisitor
Dostoevsky may provide a compelling explanation for the recruiting success of ISIS: young people want to escape from freedom.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Grand Inquisitor, ISIS, Michel Houellebecq, Submission Comments closed
Top 10 Hellish Child-Parent Relationships
Top 10 Literary Parent-Child Relationships from Hell.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "All that Rises Must Converge", "Daddy", "Letter to a Dead Father", Aeschylus, D. H. Lawrence, Euripides, Flannery O'Connor, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Hamlet, King Lear, Medea, Midsummer Night's Dream, Oedipus, Oresteia, parents and children, Phillip K. Roth, Portnoy's Complaint, Richard Shelton, Romeo and Juliet, Sons and Lovers, Sophocles, Sylvia Plath, William Shakespeare Comments closed
