Tuesday Given that a recession would doom Donald Trump’s already shaky reelection chances, how will he behave if the economy suddenly tanks? On Nicole Wallace’s NBC program last week, the Rev. Al Sharpton said that Democrats must be prepared to deal with a man who has no boundaries and will do anything to win. Of […]
Tag Archives: Doctor Faustus
The Meaning of Hell
Spiritual Sunday Stephen Greenblatt, the world’s preeminent Shakespearean, has an article about hell in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books that has me thinking about a subject I generally avoid. It’s a smart piece but fairly grim. For the most part, my view of hell is the one set forth in […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Seneca a Fragment", Charlotte Bronte, Christopher Marlowe, Dante, hell, Inferno, Jane Eyre, John Wilmot Comments closed
The Year in GOP Soul Selling
This blog’s “post of the year” compared the GOP’s embrace of Trump to Faustus selling his soul to the devil.
A Literary History of the Insult “Cuck”
“Cuck” has become a favorite insult amongst alt-right types. In today’s post I trace literary references to cuckolds going back to Chaucer.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged alt-right, As You Like It, Canterbury Tales, Christopher Marlowe, Country Wife, cuckold jokes, cuckolds, cuckservatives, 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 Christopher Marlowe, E. T. A. Hoffman, Jacques Offenbach, romantic love, Tales of Hoffman Comments closed
