Tag Archives: materialism

Rising Again to Dance

By Robin Bates | Published: July 18, 2010

Chidi Okoye (Nigeria) Spiritual Sunday I refute Berkeley thus, Samuel Johnson famously said. And kicked a rock. Bishop Berkeley was the 18th century idealist philosopher who asked how we know reality is really there if we are dependent upon our senses for perceiving it. Is the rock in existence when we turn our backs? Johnson’s […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "To Be Alive", Bishop Berkeley, Dance, Gregory Orr, Lucille Clifton, Religion, Samuel Johnson, Science, Spirituality | Comments closed

Playing Cards in Rape of the Lock

By Robin Bates | Published: October 1, 2009

The rules for ombre and how the hands are played in “Rape of the Lock.” Altogether brilliant.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alexander Pope, Cards, Playing, Rape of the Lock, satire, sexual harassment | Comments closed

Obama as Wycherley’s Country Wife

By Robin Bates | Published: September 15, 2009

As I teach William Wycherley’s The Country Wife, I am struck by the resemblances between Restoration society and our own.The play was written in 1676 during the age of Charles II, and in some ways our worlds couldn’t be more dissimilar.This was a monarchy and a very formal society in which sincerity was viewed with […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Barack Obama, Country Wife, cynicism, Restoration comedy, William Wycherley | Comments closed

Empty Sex in an Empty World

By Robin Bates | Published: September 11, 2009

John Wilmot, by Jacob Huysmans (1675) I’m have just finished teaching Lord Rochester and, as always, it has been an adventure. I sometimes think I get more embarrassed than the students by his explicit sexual language. My women students (they’re all women in this class) are more tolerant of his diatribes against their gender than I […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Against Constancy, Andrew Marvell, Fragment of Seneca Translated, John Wilmot, To His Coy Mistress | Comments closed