Tag Archives: Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy Calls Us to Aid Syrian Refugees

By Robin Bates | Published: October 4, 2015

During the evacuation of Moscow in “War and Peace,” the Rostov family gives up their worldly goods to help soldiers in distress. This is much more than many in the U.S. are willing to do for Syrian refugees.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Barack Obama, Ben Carson, Donald Trump, refugee crisis, refugees, Syrian refugees, War and Peace | Comments closed

Tolstoy and Climate Change Denial

By Robin Bates | Published: September 28, 2015

The denial of the citizens of Moscow as Napoleon approaches the city, described by Tolstoy in “War in Peace,” resembles climate change denialism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged climate change, climate change denialism, Environmentalism, global warming, GOP, politics, War and Peace | Comments closed

Please Go Gentle into That Good Night

By Robin Bates | Published: August 24, 2015

Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle” can be read as a narcissistic desire by young people that their elders will go out on young people’s terms.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night", Christopher Marlowe, death and dying, Death of Ivan Ilych, Doctor Faustus, Dylan Thomas | Comments closed

A Tolstoy Fable about Radical Empathy

By Robin Bates | Published: August 12, 2015

Tolstoy’s story “Esarhaddon” captures a common wish fulfillment of the powerless–that the oppressor see the world through the eyes of the oppressed.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged empathy, Esarhaddon, Justice | Comments closed

The World’s a Stage–Choose Your Part

By Robin Bates | Published: February 5, 2014

In his senior project, one of my students uses literature to examine life and literature to engage with it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged As You Like It, examined life, existentialism, happiness, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

What Anna Karenina Would Say to the GOP

By Robin Bates | Published: October 25, 2013

Perfect advice from Tolstoy for the GOP.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Anna Karenina, GOP, Obamacare | Comments closed

Speak Now for Peace

By Robin Bates | Published: September 6, 2013

Obama, take note: Vachel Lindsay in 1915 counseled against going to war even after the sinking of the Lusitania.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Two Poems written on the Singing of the Lusitania", American intervention, chemical weapons, Jane Addams, Syria, Vachel Lindsay, war | Comments closed

Magnificent Women in the Sick Room

By Robin Bates | Published: August 22, 2013

Tolstoy shows us deathbed vigils can spur us to a deeper engagement with life.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Do Not Go Gentle", "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", Anna Karenina, death and dying, Dylan Thomas, George Eliot, John Donne, Middlemarch | Comments closed

Tolstoyan Therapy for Mental Illness

By Robin Bates | Published: July 18, 2013

Guest poster Lucy Fuggle explains how Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” helped her cope with her PTSD.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged bibliotherapy, PTSD, War and Peace | Comments closed