Tag Archives: Hard Times

Clean Air Is Bad for the Nation?!

By Robin Bates | Published: December 5, 2014

Republicans complaining about clean air regulations recall the Coketown mill owners in Dickens’ “Hard Times.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

How Is Lit Useful? Let Me Count the Ways

By Robin Bates | Published: January 30, 2014

A recent issue of “New Literary History” explores a number of ways that literature is useful.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Dickens’ Children Expose Class Unfairness

By Robin Bates | Published: October 30, 2013

Charles Dickens’ Sissy Jupe, in her innocence, could teach the GOP something about its insensitivity to the needs of the poor.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

E. W. Jackson, a Modern Day Bounderby

By Robin Bates | Published: October 22, 2013

Virginia lieutenant governor candidate E. W. Jackson appears to be attempting a fraud worthy of Dickens’ Josiah Bounderby.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

Gradgrind Takes Over English Classes

By Robin Bates | Published: December 12, 2012

The new Common Core State Standards are pushing literature out of English classes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

Joe Biden Debates Bounderby

By Robin Bates | Published: October 12, 2012

In last night’s, Joe Biden found himself up against a modern-day version of Dickens’ Bounderby from “Hard Times.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

The Road Less Traveled? Nope

By Robin Bates | Published: July 31, 2012

Perhaps some entrepreneurs need to believe their success is solely due to their own efforts, as Bounderby, Willy Loman, and the speaker of “The Road Not Taken” do.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Who Is Your Favorite Dickens Character?

By Robin Bates | Published: April 18, 2012

Characters from Dickens novels reside so deeply within us as to become virtual lifelong friends.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Quixote’s Battle for Imagination

By Robin Bates | Published: October 6, 2011

In a short poem about about Sancho Panza and one of the windmills, Scott Bates describes Don Quixote’s sidekick as common sense reality robbing life of imagination.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed