“Invisible Man,” with its protagonist moving in and out of shadows, is all too relevant as the Trump administration threatens to deport the DACA kids.
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Tag Archives: Donald Trump
DACA Kids, Back to the Shadows?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged DACA, Invisible Man, Jeff Sessions, Ralph Ellison Comments closed
Do You Believe in the Great White Race?
There’s a marked contrast between the nobility people claim for the Confederate statues and the young men swarming around them. Langston Hughes understood the contrast in his darkly humorous “Ku Klux.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Ku Klux", Confederate statues, KKK, Langston Hughes, racism, which supremacy Comments closed
What Kind of Con Man Do You Want?
Gogol’s “Dead Souls” shows us two conmen, one who is a lot like our president, the other like various politicians (including Ryan, McConnell and Hillary Clinton). The boisterous and ineffective conman comes off better that the carefully calculating one.
Tolstoy on Resisting a Narcissist
If Trump is like Napoleon in Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” can he be defeated by popular resistance, as he is in Tolstoy’s novel?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged American Dream, Immigration, Leo Tolstoy, Trump resistance, War and Peace Comments closed
Baldwin Explains White Supremacists
To understand white supremacy, check out James Baldwin’s short story “Going To Meet the Man.” It helps explain the hatred and violence we saw in Charlottesville this past weekend.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Going to Meet the Man, Heather Heyer, James Baldwin, neo-Nazis, white supremacists Comments closed
Gogol Would Understand Trump
I may just have discovered the ultimate literary parallel for Donald Trump: Gogol’s Nozdrev from “Dead Souls.” Reading about Nozdrev helps us understanding our fascination with Trump.
Could a Bestseller Help Defense Sec?
Secretary of Defense James Mattis is a voracious reader, and a novel he mentions liking is M. M. Kaye’s “Far Pavilions.” The work explores how to deal with inept leadership, which may be important to him in his current situation.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Afghanistan, Far Pavilions, James Mattis, M. M. Kaye, nuclear war Comments closed
Trump as Raskolnikov
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.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Idiot, Russiagate Comments closed