“Cuck” has become a favorite insult amongst alt-right types. In today’s post I trace literary references to cuckolds going back to Chaucer.
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Tag Archives: Christopher Marlowe
A Literary History of the Insult “Cuck”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged alt-right, As You Like It, Canterbury Tales, Country Wife, cuckold jokes, cuckolds, cuckservatives, Doctor Faustus, Donald Trump, Geoffrey Chaucer, Miller's Tale, Othello, William Shakespeare, William Wycherley Comments closed
Trump’s Faustian Emptiness
Donald Trump has a lot in common with Doctor Faustus: both are narcissists who create hells for themselves by being unable to reach out beyond themselves.
How to Make All Your Fantasies Come True
In high school I learned, from Jacques Offenbach’s opera “Tales of Hoffman,” how to make all my sexual fantasies come true. It took several decades of married life to fully embrace his insight.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Doctor Faustus, E. T. A. Hoffman, Jacques Offenbach, romantic love, Tales of Hoffman Comments closed
Aristotle Changed the Way Europe Thought
In “Aristotle’s Children,” Richard Rubenstein gets us to rethink the Faith-Reason and Religion-Science splits. When Aristotle revolutionized the High Middle Ages, Church leaders and thinkers tried to reconcile the tensions. Knowing this has me rethinking Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Donne.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aristotle, Doctor Faustus, High Middle Ages, John Donne, Plato, scholasticism, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Shakespeare Was Malvolio
Recent research shows how much of a social climber Shakespeare was. The knowledge gives us new insight into characters like Malvolio and Othello.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Comedy, Doctor Faustus, Jane Austen, social climbing, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Envy, the Sin That Blinds
In this week’s poker essay by novelist Rachel Kranz, envy is described as the one deadly sin that gives no pleasure at all.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Dante, Doctor Faustus, envy, Poker, Rachel Kranz Comments closed