Feel depressed about Election 2024? Samuel Johnson’s “Rasselas” has some good advice.
Tag Archives: Rasselas
Is Old Age Becoming Overrated?
A “New Yorker” article on aging turns to literature to debunk the notion that aging is a good thing.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Vanity of Human Wishes", "Sailing to Byzantium", "Tithonous", Aging, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Aristotle, As You Like It, Ecclesiastes, Geoffrey Chaucer, Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift, King Lear, Merchant's Tale, old age, Plato, Samuel Johnson, Ulysses, William Butler Yeats, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Fathers & Sons: He Goes His Way, I Mine
Wednesday The talk with my son that I described in Monday’s post reminded me of talks with my own father where I was sure he was wrong. I’ve since concluded that I was not as right as I thought I was and that our disagreements came down to our different life arcs. Our arguments came […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, Blaise Pascal, Jean Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Samuel Johnson, Ulysses, Westword Ho! Comments closed
Paul Ryan: No Country for Old Men
Paul Ryan’s speech before AARP brings to mind the generational conflict described in Samuel Johnson’s “Rasselas.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Medicare, Paul Ryan, politics, Samuel Johnson, Seniors Comments closed
Rightwing Rewrites Reality
Today’s Republican right are practitioners of the Humpty Dumpty approach to communication: “I said it very loud and clear. I went and shouted in his ear.” Like Lewis Carroll’s Humpty, they also believe that they can make reality, as Humpty makes words, mean whatever they want it to mean.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alice through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll, politics, Republican Party, Samuel Johnson, Tea Party Comments closed
Rasselas, a Bloglodyte’s Salvation
As a blogger, I sometimes spend excessive amounts of time in solitary contemplation. Samuel Johnson warns of the dangers of such a skewed perspective in his philosophic narrative “Rasselas.”
Election Got You Down? Read Johnson
By the end of today in the United States, some will be celebrating and others will be rending their garments and gnashing their teeth. While I am not one to underestimate the significant of elections—I think voting is one of a citizen’s most important responsibilities—I also caution everyone not to become (in the words of […]
