Tag Archives: Ernest Hemingway

Is Sexist Lit Gaslighting Women?

By Robin Bates | Published: February 19, 2018

A Guardian article argues that critical praise for sexist male authors valorizes patriarchal attitudes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Charlotte Bronte, Donald Trump, Feminism, Hillary Clinton, Human Stain, Jane Eyre, Lolita, MeToo, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Sexism, Vladimir Nabokov | Comments closed

Great Pro-War Literature Doesn’t Exist

By Robin Bates | Published: June 22, 2017

In which I argue that great pro-war literature doesn’t exist, including “The iliad” and “War and Peace.” (Both works are magnificent; I just don’t see them as pro-war.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Charge of the Light Brigade", Alfred Lord Tennyson, anti-war literature, Catch 22, Donald Trump, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Homer, Iliad, Joseph Heller, Leo Tolstoy, Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer, Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, war, War and Peace | Comments closed

Sleeping Bears?! What Would Papa Say?

By Robin Bates | Published: April 12, 2017

The GOP’s decision to allow the hunting of hibernating bears and denned wolf cubs raises issues of wannabe machismo that one can find in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, hunting, machismo, Short HappyLife of Francis Macomber, wildlife protection laws | Comments closed

The President Who Loved Literature

By Robin Bates | Published: January 16, 2017

In a remarkable interview with “The New York Times,” Barack Obama spoke about the importance of literature in his life. The range of his reading and the sensitivity of his responses is astounding.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Barack Obama, Bend in the River, Colson Whitehead, Doris Lessing, Fates and Furies, Garcia Gabriel Marquez, Gilead, Gillian Flynn, Golden Notebook, Gone Girl, Jack Kerouac, Jhumpa Lahiri, Junot Diaz, Lauren Goff, Liu Cixin, Marilynne Robinson, Martha Nussbaum, Maxine Hong Kingston, Moveable Feast, Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Philip Roth, Road, Saul Bellow, Song of Solomon, Tempest, Three Body Problem, Toni Morrison, Underground Railroad, V.S. Naipaul, Warrior Woman, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Politically Incorrect Okay for Hemingway?

By Robin Bates | Published: August 31, 2016

If Bill Gorton, a positive figure in “The Sun Also Rises,” is politically incorrect, does that mean that Donald Trump is correct in his attacks on PC? Award-winning high school teacher Carl Rosin tackles the issues by contrasting Gorton and Trump.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, political correctness, politics, Sun Also Rises | Comments closed

If Trump Tweeted Classic Lit Reviews…

By Robin Bates | Published: March 17, 2016

Donald Trump has a very distinctive twitter style., one that would be great for classic book reviews. A BuzzFeed writer imagines how he might have reviewed “Hamlet,” “Tristram Shandy,” “Ulysses,” and other classics.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Albert Camus, Donald Trump, Hamlet, J. R. R. Tolkien, James Joyce, Lawrence Sterne, Lord of the Rings, Stranger, Sun Also Rises, Tristram Shandy, Ulysses, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Aslan and Cecil the Lion’s Death

By Robin Bates | Published: August 3, 2015

The death of Cecil the Lion conjures up images of Aslan in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” and of the lion in Ernest Hemingway’s “Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged big game hunting, C. S. Lewis, Cecil the Lion, hunting, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber | Comments closed

In Praise of the Liberal Arts

By Robin Bates | Published: April 17, 2015

NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof recently sang the praises of the liberal arts and talked about the vital importance of literature.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Homer, Iliad, Jhumpa Lahiri, Khaled Hosseini, Liberal arts education, Odyssey, Old Man and the Sea, Toni Morrison | Comments closed

Through WWII, My Father Carried Poetry

By Robin Bates | Published: March 13, 2013

Literature played a major role in my father’s World War II experiences.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Pinch of Salt", Bell for Adano, For Whom the Bell Tolls, John Hersey, Robert Graves, Scott Bates | Comments closed