Kimmel’s joke about Melania Trump, for which she is attacking him, has precedents in Chaucer, John Gay, and Wilde. Stephens’s poem “The Shell,” meanwhile, captures the travesty of the DoJ vs. Comey.
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Tag Archives: Importance of Being Earnest
Seashells and Widow Jokes?!
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beggar's Opera, Department of Justice, Geoffrey Chaucer, James Comey, James Stephens, Jimmy Kimmel, John Gay, Merchant's Tale, Miller's Tale, Oscar Wilde, Shell Leave a comment
How Sociopaths Like DJT Escape Justice
Brundage’s magnificent crime novel “All Things Cease to Appear” frustrates our longing for accountability—as does DJT.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged accountability, All Things Cease to Appear, crime novel, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Bundage, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, King Lear, Oscar Wilde, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Trump’s VP? Lady Bracknell Knows
How will Trump pick his V-P? As Lady Bracknell picks suitors for her daughter in “Importance of Being Earnest.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2025 Plan, America's oligarchs, Donald Trump, Oscar Wilde, vice-president selection Comments closed
The Very Model of a Modern Russian General
Tweeters have been busy finding literary allusions to capture the incompetence of Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Gilbert and Sullivan, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, Pirates of Penzance, Ukraine invasion, War and Peace, William S. Gilbert Comments closed
Will Trump Pay? Literature Is Unsure
Will Trump escape all accountability? Literature weighs in.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beggar's Opera, Bertolt Brecht, Candide, Dante, Donald Trump, Henry Fielding, impeachment hearings, Inferno, John Gay, Oscar Wilde, Threepenny Opera, Tom Jones, Voltaire Comments closed
“The Farewell’s” Oscar Wilde Ending
The film “Farewell” has a surprise ending that reminds me of a funny scene from “Importance of Being Earnest.”
Imagine Lit Characters in Reality TV
Thursday I came across this enjoyable tweet from one Ross Danniel Bullen, who imagines a Victorian version of the House Hunters television show: Host: I— Henry James: I should like a kitchen whose concept is – how shall I conceive of it – not closed, not in some way occluded, but bright, agape, unrestrained as […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bachelor, Bachelorette, Charles Dickens, Hard Times, Henry James, House Hunters, Jane Austen, Jeopardy, Lost, Oscar Wilde, Pride and Prejudice, reality television, Samuel Beckett, television shows, Waiting for Godot Comments closed
How Dangerous Is a Little Learning?
Pope’s “a little learning” seems dangerous at first glance but the alternative is not entirely attractive.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College", Alexander Pope, colleges, Education, Essay on Criticism, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Gray Comments closed
Style, Not Truth, the Important Thing
Truth was missing in action in the GOP’s Wednesday night debate. Oscar Wilde and John Gay would have understood.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2016 election, Beggar's Opera, campaign rhetoric, Donald Trump, GOP, GOP debates, John Gay, Marco Rubio, Oscar Wilde, Ted Cruz Comments closed