Tag Archives: Herman Melville

Parental Despair over Trump’s Orphans

By Robin Bates | Published: October 23, 2020

Spiritual Sunday I don’t throw around the word “evil” lightly, but the Trump administration deliberately and systematically tearing children away from their asylum-seeking parents was evil. Although some of the children were still breastfeeding, Trump and his minions didn’t care enough to ensure the families could be reunited, which means that he may have created […]

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Starbucks Chose Wrong Moby Dick Name

By Robin Bates | Published: January 23, 2020

Starbucks took its name from the first mate in “Moby Dick.” The third mate, however, would have been a better fit.

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Which Literary Conman Is Trump?

By Robin Bates | Published: September 15, 2019

To understand Trump as conman, I compare him to the King and the Duke, Mac the Knife, Melville’s Confidence Man, Satan & Iago.

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Amelia Bedelia, Working Class Rebel

By Robin Bates | Published: June 13, 2019

Friday Here’s a literary comparison I never would have anticipated: Amelia Bedelia as a feminist Bartleby. Reader Donna Raskin alerted me to this New Yorker article by Sarah Blackwood, who came up with the comparison after reading the series to her children. Amelia Bedelia is a maid who gets in trouble because she takes every […]

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How I Make Literary Connections

By Robin Bates | Published: January 30, 2019

Wednesday A friend the other day asked where my ideas come from, especially when I apply a passage from one century to incidents in another. Yesterday, for instance, I said that Trump confidant Roger Stone reminded me of a passage in Herman Melville’s Confidence Man. So how did that enter my head? To answer, let […]

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How Deep Is Roger Stone’s Act?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 29, 2019

Tuesday What are we to make of longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone’s flamboyant behavior following his arrest by Special Counselor Robert Mueller for lying to Congress about his contacts with Wikileaks? I think back to a passage from Herman Melville’s The Confidence Man that I applied to Trump during the campaign but which applies equally […]

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Trump’s Enablers Operate as Pilot Fish

By Robin Bates | Published: July 24, 2018

Herman Melville’s “Maldive Shark” captures how policy works in the White House. Trump is the shark, his enablers the pilot fish.

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Does the GOP Love Big Brother?

By Robin Bates | Published: December 26, 2017

Do Congressional Republicans flatter Trump Goneril-like out of convenience or do they “love Big Brother”? Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor may hold the key.

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Trump, Pale Ravener of Horrible Meat

By Robin Bates | Published: December 18, 2017

Melville is famous for exploiting and then casting off advisors. Perhaps they resemble the pilot fish in Herman Melville’s “The Maldive Shark.”

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