Dostoevsky and Tolstoy’s novels work as indictments of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Tag Archives: Child Abuse
Ukraine: What Would Leo and Fyodor Do?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Anna Karenina, Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Hadji Murat, Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection, Russian Invasion of Ukraine, sadism, Vladimir Putin, War and Peace Comments closed
Lit for Survivors Lost in a Dark Wood
Monday Commonweal recently published a heartfelt article by West Point visiting English professor Cassandra Nelson on how literature can help trauma survivors recover. Nelson begins with an angry comment about a University of Chicago dean’s facile dismissal of trigger warnings, even though she herself opposes them. She, however, speaks from the vantage point of one […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bluest Eye, Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Dante, Inferno, Junot Diaz, PTSD, Toni Morrison, trauma, trigger warnings Comments closed
Fired by Happy Valley, JoPa Is No Aeneas
Just as Rasselas questions Samuel Johnson’s Happy Valley, so do Penn State students find themselves questioning their own Happy Valley after the child abuse scandal. Coach Joe Paterno admired Aeneas, and many feel abandoned like Queen Dido.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aeneid, Jim Boeheim, Joe Paterno, Sports, Virgil Comments closed
Paterno’s Rapist Associate and Mr. Hyde
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” warns us that we are in danger of becoming monsters ourselves if we don’t hold on to our humanity when responding to monsters like alleged child molester Jerry Sandusky, close associate of Coach Joe Paterno.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Lolita, monstrosity, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Robert Louis Stevenson, Vladimir Nabokov Comments closed
Poems for Abuse Victims
Lucille Clifton Having attended a memorial ceremony for the recently departed poet Lucille Clifton this past Saturday (see yesterday’s post), today I commemorate her by putting some of her poems to good use. Catholic priest molestation has been in the news recently (less the molestation, which tragically occurs in all walks of life, than the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "forgiving my father", "man who killed the bear", "moonchild", "shapeshifter poems", Lucille Clifton, sex Comments closed
Chaucer’s Answer to Catholic Corruption
Like many, I have been appalled at the non-stop stories of abuse coming out of the Catholic Church and depressed by the Church’s response. The latest egregious example of the latter is the pope’s personal preacher comparing newspaper accusations of the pope to the persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust. Calling Geoffrey Chaucer, to […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Canterbury Tales, Catholic Church, Geoffrey Chaucer, Religion Comments closed
