Tag Archives: Brothers Karamazov

The Grand Inquisitor Was Right

By Robin Bates | Published: November 8, 2016

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.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, Fyodor Dostoevsky | Comments closed

I Am Lazarus Come Back from the Dead

By Robin Bates | Published: September 24, 2016

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

Dostoevsky Explains Trump’s Appeal

By Robin Bates | Published: December 27, 2015

Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor helps explain Donald Trump’s popularity: people want certainty more than they want freedom of thought.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Barack Obama, David Frum, Donald Trump, Fyodor Dostoevsky, GOP primaries, Grand Inquisitor, jamelle Bouie | Comments closed

Is Freedom More Powerful than Fear?

By Robin Bates | Published: December 13, 2015

Obama in his Oval Office speech on terrorism said that “freedom is more powerful than fear.” Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor would beg to differ.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Fascism, Fear, For the Time Being, Freedom, Fyodor Dostoevsky, W. H. Auden | Comments closed

Lit Is Aristotelian Road to Happiness

By Robin Bates | Published: December 8, 2015

Psychologists say that a strong sense of narrative identity can lead to the profound sense of happiness described by Aristotle. Literature helps us make sure we have available to us the best narratives.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aristotle, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Emma, eudaimonic well-being, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Great Expectations, happiness, Jane Austen, King Lear, stories, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

ISIS and the Grand Inquisitor

By Robin Bates | Published: August 17, 2015

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

By Robin Bates | Published: March 26, 2014

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

Making a Fetish of Suffering

By Robin Bates | Published: May 12, 2013

Ivan Karamazov attacks those Christians who rationalize suffering by finding a higher purpose in it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged crucifixion, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Suffering | Comments closed

“Harry, I Am Your Father” – Voldemort

By Robin Bates | Published: April 16, 2012

Voldemort can be interpreted as the father in Harry Potter’s primal scene.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Carl Jung, fathers, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling, Joseph Campbell, Maturation, Oedipus complex, Sigmund Freud | Comments closed