Tag Archives: Brothers Karamazov

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.

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“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.

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Fed, Rafa, Djoker–A Sibling Drama

By Robin Bates | Published: September 19, 2011

Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic are like the brothers in a Dostoevsky novel or a Grimm Brothers fairy tale: the two older brothers focus on each other and then the unassuming younger brother comes in and takes over.

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Remembering My Son through Alyosha K

By Robin Bates | Published: March 20, 2011

Spiritual Sunday Several times over the past few months I have rhapsodized over Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, feeling a little bit like Keats upon first reading Chapman’s Homer. “Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/When a new planet swims into its ken,” the poet writes, perfectly capturing the experience. One reason I like the novel is […]

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With Aging, Abundant Recompense

By Robin Bates | Published: February 10, 2011

  In a follow-up to yesterday’s post where I talked about my cancer-ridden friend Alan, I examine another passage from The Brothers Karamazov. This one is focused on aging generally, not just death. If you ever find yourself getting depressed about getting old, check it out.   And check out as well William Wordsworth’s Intimations […]

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Life from the Vantage Point of a Deathbed

By Robin Bates | Published: February 9, 2011

  I haven’t updated you for a while on my friends Alan and Jackie Paskow, former St. Mary’s colleagues. Alan has been suffering from terminal cancer for close to three years now, and Julia and I visit every Sunday night. Julia performs Reiki massage on Jackie while Alan and I talk. This past Sunday, while […]

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A Tiny Seed Can Save a Church

By Robin Bates | Published: February 6, 2011

Spiritual Sunday       Like many mainline Protestant churches, our little Episcopalian congregation in St. Mary’s City, Maryland is having money difficulties.  The expense of aging buildings plus a recession that wiped out much of our endowment has forced us to hold fairly continuous fundraisers to balance the budget.    People have become testy and […]

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Alyosha Karamazov’s Plea for Straight Talk

By Robin Bates | Published: January 26, 2011

Is it just because I’m an Obama supporter or has political rhetoric reached new levels of inanity? And the rhetoric I have in mind is not that of Tea Party supporters, which is not new. I saw such self-indulgent calls for revolution coming from the left in the early 1970’s. No, I’m thinking of the […]

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What Would Alyosha Karamazov Do?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 12, 2011

I continue to turn to The Brothers Karamazov almost as a meditational practice to guide me through the turmoil I am experiencing over the Arizona shootings. Yesterday I quoted Zosima, the elder in the book, about how we must look to ourselves if we want others to change. I spoke approvingly of those who, rather than […]

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