Tag Archives: Christopher Marlowe

Trump and Satan, Both Miserable

Trump is as miserable as Milton’s Satan (and also a character in a Trollope novel). Unfortunately, like Satan, he does all he can to pull others into his well of misery.

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MAGA Militias and Nazi Collaborators

Kate Atkinson’s “Transcription” involves a mole infiltrating the ranks of Nazi sympathizers. Pro-Publica recently published an account of such a mole in U.S. rightwing militias.

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Lit Packs a Powerful Punch

My book “Better Living through Lit” this past year was only one of several making the case that literature can be social dynamite.

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Why Fiction Terrifies People

I announce my forthcoming book and contrast it with a similar book–“Dangerous Fictions”–coming out soon.

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Trumpian Darkness or True Light? Choose

Trump and many of his fans twist themselves in the perpetual torment of their resentment and anger. Henry Vaughan describes their state in “The World.”

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A GOP Senator as Doctor Faustus

Mitt Romney has accused Sen. J.D. Vance for selling himself “so cheap.” Think of the “Hillbilly Elegy” author as Faustus.

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Hawthorne Explains the Eternal Sin

Hawthorne explores what Jesus means by the “eternal sin” in a number of stories, including “Scarlet Letter.”

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Who Gets to Be Called “Dr.”?

Alexandra Petri satirizes a dismissal of Jill Biden’s doctorate by imagining herself as Dr. Victor Frankenstein.

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Does Lit Lead to Illicit Sex?

Dante’s beautifully tragic account of Paolo and Francesca captures–as many great works do–the dangers of total absorption in a relationship.

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