I which I explore the difficulties of a son forging an identity separate from his father.
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Tag Archives: Odyssey
Forging a Separate Identity from My Father
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, fathers and sons, Homer, Scott Bates, Ulysses Comments closed
How Homer Would Judge ICE
When ICE agents arrested people who had served them in a restaurant, they broke a taboo that goes at least as far back as Homer.
My College Search for Authenticity
In which I grapple with college feelings of inauthenticity.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Authenticity, father worship, Homer, Jean Paul Sartre, No Exit Comments closed
Social Media’s Siren Call
Chris Hayes’s “Sirens’ Call” draws on a Homeric allusion as it warns us against being devoured by social media.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Chris Hayes, Homer, Internet, Sirens' Call, social media Comments closed
Classics to the Rescue in Dark Times
In Trump’s first 100 days, Jill Lepore turned to 100 classics to survive.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "1914", "Fears in Solitude", "Nightingales Are Drunk", "Nose", "Story of the Bad Little Boy", "With Antecedents", Aesop, Antigone, classic literature, Dante, Eclogue II, Edith Wharton, Figure in the Carpet, Frogs Who Demanded a King, Grimm Brothers, Hafez, Henry James, Homer, Inferno, Jill Lepore, Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, Matsuo Basho, Modest Proposal, Nikolai Gogol, Reckoning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Six Servants, Sophocles, Virgil, Walt Whitman, Wilfred Owen, Yoshido Kenkō Comments closed
My Restorative Father-Sons Reunion
The presence of my sons at my brother’s memorial service proved deeply comforting, just as Telemakhos and Odysseus are comforted when they reencounter each other.
To Resist Trump, Be Like Odysseus
The Trump resistance started off like Telemachus overwhelmed by the suitors but, like Odysseus upon his return, it is starting to get strategic.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Homer, Trump resistance Comments closed
On Odysseus & Trump’s Desecration
Odysseus lambasts the suitors for desecrating all that is holy. One can imagine him doing the same to Trump.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged climate change, Covid, Donald Trump, Homer, World Health Organization Comments closed
Lit Packs a Powerful Punch
My book “Better Living through Lit” this past year was only one of several making the case that literature can be social dynamite.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beloved, Ben Jonson, Better Living through Literature, book bans, Christopher Marlowe, Dangerous Fictions, Harold Bloom, Hesiod, Homer, Iliad, Lyta Gold, Oscar Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray, Plato, Toni Morrison, William Shakespeare Comments closed