Wilde’s “Salomé” is the story of a material girl trapped in a material world.
Tag Archives: materialism
The Otherworldly Cry of the Loon
Nemerov’s “Loon’s Cry” searches for the transcendent in our world.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Loon's Cry", "World is too much with us", Capitalism, Howard Nemerov, Nature, William Wordsworth Comments closed
D. H. Lawrence: People in Thrall to Things
D. H. Lawrence’s story “Things” features, among other things, a returning ex-pat couple trying to figure out what to do with all their things. I’m currently sympathetic with their predicament.
Filling Our Houses with Stuff
As I sort through decades of clutter in preparation to move to a smaller home, I am reminded of L. Frank Baum’s Oz book about bric-a-brac.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged bri-a-bric, Edith Wharton, L. Frank Baum, Ozma of Oz, Thorstein Veblen Comments closed
Black Friday: Don’t Just Shop
Black Friday’s shopping frenzy can prompt us to forget the spiritual origins of gift-giving. Leslie Marmon Silko helps us see beyond the glitter.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Black Friday, Ceremony, consumerism, holiday shopping, Leslie Marmon Silko, spiritual desolation Comments closed
Does Moby Dick Await Us?
Is America headed for the same fate as the Pequod?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged consumerism, environmental devastation, global warming, Herman Melville, Moby Dick Comments closed
Marilyn Monroe Died for Our Sins
Ernesto Cardenal poem “Prayer for Marilyn Monroe” sees the actress sacrificed on the altar of our own longings.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Prayer for Marilyn Monroe", Capitalism, Ernesto Cardenal, Marilyn Monroe Comments closed
Hell, an Inner Emptiness that Can’t Be Filled
“I think Hell is a fable,” Doctor Faustus tells Mephastophilis at one point in Marlowe’s 1593 tragedy. While many Elizabethans would have disagreed—the play terrified them precisely because they believed in a literal hell—we’re more sympathetic with the notion now. To most of us, fire and brimstone and devils with pitchforks are the stuff of […]
