Tag Archives: Crime and Punishment

Ukraine: What Would Leo and Fyodor Do?

By Robin Bates | Published: June 21, 2023

Dostoevsky and Tolstoy’s novels work as indictments of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Just How Dangerous Is Fiction?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 2, 2022

Peter Brooks’s new book, “Seduced by Story,” raises the issue of fiction’s role in horrors.

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First They Came for Toni Morrison, Then…

By Robin Bates | Published: November 3, 2021

In the right attacks Toni Morrison novels, does this mean that Homer, Dostoevsky, Milton, and Sophocles are next?

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The Great Books as Assimilation Manual

By Robin Bates | Published: September 15, 2021

Phuc Tran’s “Sigh, Gone” describes how great literature helped him negotiate a difficult immigrant experience.

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Mueller Demythologized

By Robin Bates | Published: July 24, 2019

Thursday I’ve written a lot about people’s hopes in Robert Mueller, which helps explain the palpable disappointment in his performance yesterday before two Congressional committees. From one perspective, there’s no reason to feel let down. After all, his report exposed one of the great scandals in American history: our president welcomed and encouraged Russian election […]

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Trump as Raskolnikov

By Robin Bates | Published: August 7, 2017

Is Trump as Raskolnikov, unable to hide the fact that he’s committed a crime so that a relentless detective is able to track him down. But while Mueller may be a Porfiry, Trump isn’t deep enough to be a Dostoevskian hero.

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Sotomayor and Latina “Bias”

By Robin Bates | Published: May 28, 2009

I’m going to take a break from one political topic—the disillusion that some who voted for Barack Obama are experiencing or will experience (and the ability of Gulliver’s Travels to help idealists of all stripes to understand and work through disillusion)—to take on another. There is a (predictable) furor over President Obama’s choice of Sonia […]

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