Tag Archives: Herman Melville

Does Moby Dick Await Us?

By Robin Bates | Published: July 23, 2013

Is America headed for the same fate as the Pequod?

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged consumerism, environmental devastation, global warming, materialism, Moby Dick | Comments closed

No More Privacy–And We Don’t Care

By Robin Bates | Published: July 17, 2013

We no longer fiercely guide our privacy, as did the worlds of Austen, Trollope, Thoreau, and Melville.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, Henry David Thoreau, James Boswell, Jane Austen, Life of Johnson, Pride and Prejudice, privacy, Samuel Johnson, surveillance | Comments closed

The Civil War Was Fueled by Poetry

By Robin Bates | Published: January 4, 2013

Scholar Faith Barrett shows how the War between the States was a “poetry fueled war.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Battle Hymn of the Republic, Civil War, Emily Dickinson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Julie Ward Howe, Uncle Tom's Cabin | Comments closed

Lamentation and Weeping in Newtown

By Robin Bates | Published: December 15, 2012

The Sandy Hook killings recall the Biblical massacre of the innocents, referenced in “Moby Dick.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Greater Love", Bible, massacre of the innocents, Moby Dick, Sandy Hook shooting, Wilfred Owen | Comments closed

Defeating the White Whale of Race Hatred

By Robin Bates | Published: November 19, 2012

With a little imagination, “Moby Dick” can be dramatized as a story about race relations.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged GOP, Mitt Romney, Moby Dick, race relations | Comments closed

Campaign 2012: Assorted Lit Allusions

By Robin Bates | Published: March 1, 2012

Literary allusions are flying fast and free in this primary season.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alice in Wonderland, John Bunyan, Lewis Carroll, Moby Dick, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pilgrim's Progress, Presidential campaign, Scarlet Letter, William Blake | Comments closed

Bartleby, A Story of (Occupy) Wall Street

By Robin Bates | Published: November 23, 2011

Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” has been adopted by a number of the Occupy Wall Street protesters but, according to one commentator, the story works as an ironic commentary on the movement.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Bartleby the Scrivener, Occupy Wall Street, protest | Comments closed

Captain Ahab, a Tyrant for All Seasons

By Robin Bates | Published: November 2, 2011

Nathaniel Philbrick describes “Moby Dick” as a “metaphysical survival manual” which helps us understand the nature of tyrants.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Moby Dick, politics, tyrants | Comments closed

Mold Causing Problems? Bring in a Ship

By Robin Bates | Published: October 27, 2011

Our students, displaced by mold, are being housed in a cruise ship. A campus production of “As You Like It” may have given administrators the idea.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged 2000 Leagues under the Sea, As You Like It, Beatles, Education, Jules Verne, Katherine Anne Porter, Moby Dick, Mold, Ship of Fools, St. Mary's College of Maryland, William Shakespeare | Comments closed