Jon Stewart stepped down from “The Daily Show” just over a year ago. At the time, he was our Jonathan Swift and, like Swift, he was not afraid to satirize satire itself when it became too puffed up.
Tag Archives: Jonathan Swift
Jon Stewart Resembled Jonathan Swift
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Daily Show, Jon Stewart, Laura Ingraham, political satire, satire Comments closed
The Rich Complain about Shaming
Some wealthy Americans are receiving therapy to make them feel better about their riches. Swift would have something to say about this, as would F. Scott Fitzgerald and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Hustand", F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gulliver's Travels, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, one percent, Rich Boy, Therapy, wealth inequality Comments closed
Trump, Prince Vasili, and Pure Cynicism
Prince Vasili in “War and Peace” will say anything to come out on top. He’s a lot like Donald Trump.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Gulliver's Travels, Hillary Clinton, Leo Tolstoy, Marco Rubio, politicians, politics, War and Peace Comments closed
Can Lit Help Build an Egalitarian World?
Neo-Marxist literary theory calls for us to see literature as relevant to building an egalitarian society.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Frederic Jameson, Gulliver's Travels, Literary Theory, Literary Theory: An Introduction, Terry Eagleton Comments closed
Trump as Frankenstein’s Monster
What is it about Donald Trump that brings out the literary analogies? First a Salon columnist compared him to Odysseus’s Cyclops, then the New Yorker’s John Cassidy saw him as Gulliver, and most recently Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and others have compared him to Frankenstein’s monster. I’ve written about the Cyclops parallel here, but let’s take […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Frankenstein, GOP, Gulliver's Travels, Mary Shelley, politics Comments closed
Can Lit Make the Rich More Empathetic?
With growing income disparity comes a decline in empathy. Literature can help rebuild our compassion.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Clansmen, empathy, Honoré de Balzac, Income inequality, Thomas Dixon, Thomas Pinker, violence Comments closed
Meditation upon a Broom (April Fool!)
Swift’s “Meditation on a Broomstick” could well have been an April Fool’s joke.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Meditation upon a Broomstick, Robert Boyle, satire Comments closed
A Modest Proposal for Shooting Students
Reacting against a proposal to allow guns on Idaho campuses, an Idaho professor has come up with a modest proposal of his own.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged gun control, guns on campuses, Modest Proposal, NRA Comments closed
