Tag Archives: Capitalism

The Entrepreneurial Dream

By Robin Bates | Published: July 25, 2012

Millhauser’s novel “Martin Dressler” captures the dreams of capitalist entrepreneurs but also moves beyond dream.

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Vs. Obama, Would Mitt Change Movies?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 20, 2012

To run successfully against Obama, Mitt Romney may need to flipflop from Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street” to Edward Lewis in “Pretty Woman.”

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Marilyn Monroe Died for Our Sins

By Robin Bates | Published: December 2, 2011

Ernesto Cardenal poem “Prayer for Marilyn Monroe” sees the actress sacrificed on the altar of our own longings.

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Goodbye, Lenin. Goodbye, Wall.

By Robin Bates | Published: May 27, 2011

Unlike the other “Films about Fences” I showed, Goodbye Lenin involves the trauma of a fence coming down. The fence in this case is the Berlin Wall and the trauma is the shock to East German sensibilities when they have to negotiate the chaotic complexities of life under capitalism.

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After the Mess, Can Obama Be Fortinbras?

By Robin Bates | Published: May 27, 2010

I’ve been thinking recently about how every Shakespearean tragedy concludes with a restoration of order.  The stage may be strewn with corpses and the spectator’s heart may have broken into a thousand little pieces, but (as though to provide some reassurance) someone steps forward at the end to set things straight. In Hamlet it is […]

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Seeking a Spiritual Connection with Nature

By Robin Bates | Published: March 3, 2010

from Songs of Innocence and Experience  My Introduction to Literature class (focus on Nature) has just moved from Robinson Crusoe to William Blake, and we are seeing in the 18th century a  conflict similar to one we are witnessing today over the environment. Defoe’s protagonist is an advocate of the “drill, baby, drill” approach to nature although, […]

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Crusoe, A Parable for Our Time

By Robin Bates | Published: March 2, 2010

I have been teaching Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in an Introduction to Literature class and am struck once more by how important a book it is. I say this even though it is not read or taught as much as it once was. Robinson Crusoe continues to be relevant because it goes right to the […]

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