Tag Archives: James Joyce

Stream of Consciousness’ Healing Powers

By Robin Bates | Published: November 7, 2023

In “Wonderworks” Fletcher explains the therapeutic effects of stream of consciousness, Virginia Woolf’s especially.

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Joyce’s Eveline & Vaccine Resistance

By Robin Bates | Published: April 21, 2021

Republicans refusing the Covid vaccine remind me of Eveline in Joyce’s “Dubliners.”

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Biden’s Love for James Joyce

By Robin Bates | Published: November 15, 2020

Joe Biden’s favorite poet is Seamus Heaney, his favorite fiction writer James Joyce. While he expresses admiration for “Ulysses,” I think he might prefer “Dubliners.”

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Will Odysseus Shape 2020 Election?

By Robin Bates | Published: April 14, 2019

Monday I won’t take credit for this but Washington Post’s Molly Roberts recently penned a very Better-Living-with Beowulf type column where she contrasted two Democratic presidential candidates by examining which version of the Odysseus/Ulysses story they prefer. Her piece gives me an excuse to apply other versions of the story to various 2020 contenders. Roberts […]

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Pete Buttigieg on the Liffey

By Robin Bates | Published: March 21, 2019

Friday If any of the Democratic presidential candidates want space on this blog before the first debate in June (I hear them clamoring now), they must mention literature. I wrote about Sherrod Brown when I discovered his love for Tolstoy (although he ultimately chose not to run), and now Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg gets a […]

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Caught between Faith and Doubt

By Robin Bates | Published: February 3, 2018

Rushdie has a great passage about a character caught between faith and doubt. The passage gives me an opportunity to determine where I myself stand.

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Thanksgiving in the Age of Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: November 23, 2016

Thanksgiving this year may encounter the strains of the recent election. For a depiction of how bad it can get, check out the Christmas dinner scene in “Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man.” It will show you what to avoid.

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If Trump Tweeted Classic Lit Reviews…

By Robin Bates | Published: March 17, 2016

Donald Trump has a very distinctive twitter style., one that would be great for classic book reviews. A BuzzFeed writer imagines how he might have reviewed “Hamlet,” “Tristram Shandy,” “Ulysses,” and other classics.

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Detecting the Person behind the Poetry

By Robin Bates | Published: June 18, 2015

What we find when we look for the person behind the literary work.

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