Examining an upcoming trial by people who were tortured during the George W. Bush administration, Ariel Dorfman examines the face of Iago and the satisfaction we take at the tortures that await him.
Sign up for my weekly newsletter
Tag Archives: Othello
Even Iago Should Not Be Tortured
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Ariel Dorfman, CIA torture, Iago, Iraq War, torture, William Shakespeare Comments closed
A Literary History of the Insult “Cuck”
“Cuck” has become a favorite insult amongst alt-right types. In today’s post I trace literary references to cuckolds going back to Chaucer.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged alt-right, As You Like It, Canterbury Tales, Christopher Marlowe, Country Wife, cuckold jokes, cuckolds, cuckservatives, Doctor Faustus, Donald Trump, Geoffrey Chaucer, Miller's Tale, William Shakespeare, William Wycherley Comments closed
In Defense of The Merchant of Venice
Percy Shelley believes that great art transcends the prejudices of its time, even when it is cloaked in them. If he is right, then “Merchant of Venice” is less of a problem play than many people consider it.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged anti-Semitism, Defence of Poetry, Merchant of Venice, Percy Shelley, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Comments closed
The Complex Inner Life of Teachers
Lily King’s “The English Teacher” is filled with literary lllusions, most of them thematically important.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Voice", Annabelle Lee, Beowulf, Edgar Allen Poe, Homer, Huckleberry Finn, Love Song of J. Alfred Pruforck, Mark Twain, Odyssey, Rose for Emily, T. S. Eliot, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Robert Durst’s Iago-Like Soliloquy
How to interpret suspected murderer Robert Durst’s enigmatic words on “The Jinx”? Shakespeare’s villains point the way.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Jinx, King Lear, moral consciousness, Robert Durst, soliloquies, Soul, William Shakespeare Comments closed
The Bard Could Improve Lawyer Behavior
A judge makes his case about how Shakespeare can improve lawyer professionalism.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged courts of law, Hamlet, Henry VI Part II, judges, King Lear, lawyers, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Richard II, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Debating Whether Lit Is Useless
I take issue with a “New Yorker” blog on whether or not literature can be considered “useful.”
Petraeus: Karenina, Oedipus, or Antony?
The David Petraeus affair–is it 19th century melodrama or high tragedy?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Anna Karenina, Antony and Cleopatra, David Petraeus, Leo Tolstoy, Macbeth, Notre Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare Comments closed