A survey of how literary authors have grappled for meaning in times of pestilence bolsters our own search. I look at Sophocles, Virgil, Defoe, Porter, Camus, King, Mandel, Atwood, and Erdrich.
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Tag Archives: Daniel Defoe
A Literary Survey of What Plagues Mean
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aeneid, Albert Camus, COVID-19, Emily St. John Mandel, Journal of the Plague Year, Katherine Anne Porter, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Atwood, Oedipus, Oryk and Crake, Pale Horse Pale Rider, Pestilence, plague, Sophocles, Stand, Station Eleven, Stephen King, Tracks, Virgil Comments closed
Church Attendance in Plague Times
Defoe in “Journal of the Plague Year” captures people’s need for church in plague times.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged church attendance, COVID-19, Journal of the Plague Year, worship services Comments closed
Journal of a Plague Year
Defoe’s “Journal of the Plague Year” has many unsettling parallels with our current situation.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged coronavirus, COVID19, Journal of the Plague Year Comments closed
Using Novels for Sexual Assualt
In Sanditon the novel, unlike the television series, the villainous Sir Edward Denham reads novels. He learns the wrong lessons from Samuel Richardson, however.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Clarissa, Jane Austen, Moll Flanders, Pamela, rakes, Samuel Richardson, Sanditon, seduction, sexual assault Comments closed
Robinson Crusoe Has ALL the Answers
In Wilkie Collins’s “Moonstone,” the wonderfully realized house steward resorts to “Robinson Crusoe” to face all difficulties.
The Origins of Crazy U.S. Work Ethic
New interpretation of “Robinson Crusoe” suggests that maybe Puritans not quite so much to blame for America’s insane work ethic as once thought.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Max Weber, Puritan work ethic, Robinson Crusoe, tobacco Comments closed
Trump’s Crusoe Wall Goes Up in Airports
This past weekend so a flurry of illegal and unconstitutional executive orders that created chaos in airports and elsewhere as travelers from certain countries found themselves in detention. Defoe captures versions of such dramas in “Robinson Crusoe.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, executive orders, immigrants, Robinson Crusoe, Steve Bannon Comments closed
When Christianity Becomes a Money Cult
A new book, “The Money Cult: Capitalism, Christianity, and the Unmaking of the American Dream,” brings to mind Howard Nemerov’s poem “Boom!” The book’s author argues that prosperity theology is not an aberration but was present from the beginning of American Puritanism.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Boom!", Adam Bede, Calvinism, Capitalism, George Eliot, Howard Nemerov, Ian Watt, Max Weber, prosperity theology, Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Robinson Crusoe, theology of abundance Comments closed
On Walls: A Letter to the Incoming Class
Talk about walls and keep people out of America is beginning to seep down to high schools and colleges. It is therefore important that students understand how walls operate. Daniel Defoe and Lucille Clifton has some useful insights into how walls both make us safe and entrap us.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "note to self", "wishes for sons", Donald Trump, Lucille Clifton, walls Comments closed