Tag Archives: Joseph Conrad

My “Last Lecture”

By Robin Bates | Published: April 16, 2018

I share here my “last lecture” from my retirement ceremony. (But rest assured: I will not be retiring from this blog.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aristotle, Bertolt Brecht, Chinua Achebe, Divine Comedy, Goethe, Heart of Darkness, Horace, Huckleberry Finn, integration, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Martha Nussbaum Wayne Booth, Matthew Arnold, Percy Shelley, Plato, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Samuel Johnson, segregation, Sir Philip Sydney, Terry Eagleton, W. E. B. Du Bois, Wayne Booth | Comments closed

What Would Lord Jim Do?

By Robin Bates | Published: February 28, 2018

Trump and the NRA call for heroes with guns to save us from mass shootings. Conrad’s “Lord Jim” shows us what happens when fantasies encounter reality.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, Lord Jim, mass shooting, Parkland Florida shooting | Comments closed

Trump in Chaucer, Shakespeare & Conrad

By Robin Bates | Published: September 24, 2017

When compared to people called “dotard” in Chaucer and Shakespeare, Trump fits the insult hurled at him by Kim Jong-un. His statement to African leaders, meanwhile, makes him sound like a “Heart of Darkness” ivory trader.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Africa, Capitalism, Donald Trump, Geoffrey Chaucer, Heart of Darkness, Kim Jong-un, King Lear, Wife of Bath, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Reading Lit To Find the Meaning of Life

By Robin Bates | Published: January 8, 2017

Paul Kalinithi moves between neuroscience and literature as he tries to understand the meaning of life and death, including his own terminal disease.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged meaning of life, Paul Kalinithi, T. S. Eliot, Vladimir Nabokov, Waste Land, When Breath Becomes Air | Comments closed

Conrad: Terrorism Not as Clear as It Looks

By Robin Bates | Published: December 3, 2015

We all think we know what went on with the killings in Charleston, Colorado Springs, and San Bernardino because they fit easy narratives. Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Agent” should make us wary about jumping to conclusions.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Media, Planned Parenthood mass shooting, San Bernadino killings, Secret Agent, Terrorism | Comments closed

Speaker Paul Ryan in Literature

By Robin Bates | Published: November 4, 2015

I’ve written a lot about Paul Ryan and his aspiration to be a John Galt figure. Now that he is Speaker of the House, I review other literary parallels I’ve drawn over the years.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alice in Wonderland, Ayn Rand, Chinua Achebe, GOP, Hard Times, Heart of Darkness, Lewis Carroll, Oliver Twist, Paul Ryan, politics, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Things Fall Apart, Thomas Hardy | Comments closed

A Guide’s Conradian Revenge Fantasy

By Robin Bates | Published: June 9, 2015

Do tour guides ever dream of doling out to their chargers what the porters in “Heart of Darkness” do with one of the visiting English?

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Cuzco, Heart of Darkness, Peru, tours | Comments closed

The CIA’s Heart of Darkness

By Robin Bates | Published: December 15, 2014

Published details about the CIA’s torture program reveal that America descended into a Conradian heart of darkness.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged CIA, Heart of Darkness, Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report, torture | Comments closed

Why GOP Right Is Beating Up on the Poor

By Robin Bates | Published: March 20, 2014

Paul Ryan projects upon the poor as Joseph Conrad did upon Africans.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged GOP, Heart of Darkness, Paul Ryan, politics, war against the poor | Comments closed