Tag Archives: Hard Times

It Sucks to Be Poor

By Robin Bates | Published: August 30, 2011

Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” offers a response to those who want to blame the recession on the poor.

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What Fictional Fantasy Means

By Robin Bates | Published: January 6, 2011

Having taught British Fantasy Literature for the first time last semester, I need to think back on it before it becomes a distant memory.    By reflecting publicly, I can share some of the insights I gained from the course. Two major things I learned are that (1) fantasy is an oppositional genre—by which I […]

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A Dickensian Response to the Mine Rescue

By Robin Bates | Published: October 14, 2010

As I write this, the last of the 33 Chilean miners has just been pulled to safety after spending two months underground in a situation that once seemed hopeless.   It appears that the entire world is celebrating, probably because we are all in need of hope.  Given how we are continually battered by economic […]

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Hard Times in 1854, Hard Times in 2010

By Robin Bates | Published: October 11, 2010

I am teaching Charles Dickens’ Hard Times this week and it is disconcerting to see how applicable is still is to modern life. To be sure, one needs to be careful with comparisons. Industrial England in 1854 is not America in 2010. Dickens was writing about a world in which there were no air quality […]

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Forget Bootstrapism – We Need Each Other

By Robin Bates | Published: October 7, 2010

  Always be suspicious of people who talk about pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. The image is an excellent one since you can only rise if you have help from others. Yet many people think they are somehow diminished if they can’t claim to have risen on their own. Thanks to Dickens, there […]

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