Melville foresaw Trump in “Confidence Man.”
Tag Archives: Confidence Man
Melville Would Have Understood Trump
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Fascism, François de La Rochefoucauld, Herman Melville, MAGA Comments closed
Which Literary Conman Is Trump?
To understand Trump as conman, I compare him to the King and the Duke, Mac the Knife, Melville’s Confidence Man, Satan & Iago.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beggar's Opera, conmen, Donald Trump, Herman Melville, Huckleberry Finn, John Gay, John Milton, Mark Twain, Othello, Paradise Lost, William Shakespeare Comments closed
How I Make Literary Connections
Wednesday A friend the other day asked where my ideas come from, especially when I apply a passage from one century to incidents in another. Yesterday, for instance, I said that Trump confidant Roger Stone reminded me of a passage in Herman Melville’s Confidence Man. So how did that enter my head? To answer, let […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged blogging, Geoffrey Chaucer, Herman Melville, Restoration comedies, Twelfth Night, Wife of Bath, William Shakespeare Comments closed
How Deep Is Roger Stone’s Act?
Tuesday What are we to make of longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone’s flamboyant behavior following his arrest by Special Counselor Robert Mueller for lying to Congress about his contacts with Wikileaks? I think back to a passage from Herman Melville’s The Confidence Man that I applied to Trump during the campaign but which applies equally […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charles Dickens, Donald Trump, Herman Melville, Oliver Twist, Roger Stone Comments closed
2016’s Top Story–Trump, Trump, Trump
Looking back of 2016, I choose three posts that stood out to me, all dealing with Trump. One compares him to Satan inspiring the invasion of Earth by Sin and Death in “Paradise Lost.” The other two compare him to Herman Melville’s “Confidence Man” and to the narrator’s son in the Raymond Carver short story “Why, Honey?”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump, Herman Melville, Hillary Clinton, John Milton, Raymond Carver, Why Honey? Paradise Lost Comments closed
Trump as Melville’s Confidence Man
Why, in the words of Nicholas Kristof, do we think of Hillary as “a slippery, compulsive liar” and Donald Trump as “a gutsy truth-teller.” Herman Melville gives us a compelling explanation in “The Confidence Man.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump, Herman Melville, Hillary Clinton Comments closed
Political Consultants Should Read Lit
Which literary works would you recommend to a political consultant to stay in touch with his or her soul and avoid becoming lost in the dark side? How about Hawthorne, Melville, Shakespeare, Pinter, and Terrence McNally?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Antony and Cleopatra, Harold Pinter, Herman Melville, King Lear, Macbeth, Moby Dick, Nathaniel Hawthorne, political consultants, politics, Scarlet Letter, Terrence McNally, William Shakespeare Comments closed
