To get a sense of protesters in Myanmar, Hong Kong, and elsewhere who are risking their lives, read Hugo’s “Misérables.”
Tag Archives: Revolution
Another Way Frankenstein Is Relevant
Friday I somehow missed this New Yorker article on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein when it appeared last year in observance of the novel’s 200th anniversary. Although anti-Trump pundits have frequently cited Frankenstein in recent years to capture how the GOP created a monster it couldn’t control (see here and here), Joan Lepore argues that the novel […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Edmund Burke, Frankenstein, GOP, Mary Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwyn Comments closed
Fighting Back against the Program
In this Scott Bates parable, one can get pushed around only so much before turning to rebellion.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "The Recalcitrant Sheet of Mimeograph Paper", Capitalism, Ferguson Missouri, protest, Scott Bates Comments closed
Song to the Men and Women of Bahrain
As the remarkable uprisings continue to erupt across the Middle East, I turn for a third time to the revolutionary poetry of Percy Shelley. When one looks at his time period, one finds a number of modern day parallels. Napoleon’s wars, although imperial, still carried the ideas of “liberté, égalité, fraternité” into the rest of […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Song to Men of England", Middle East, Percy Shelley, politics Comments closed
Egypt’s Glorious Phantom Bursts Through
I’ve been looking for literature that can speak to the earth-shaking events going on in Egypt. Poetry seems almost unable to do justice to the joy that people are feeling as they revel in a vision of liberty. Maybe this sonnet by Percy Shelley gets at their breakthrough. On August 16, 1819, a large but […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "England in 1819", Egypt, Percy Shelley, politics Comments closed
Poetry Unleashed in the Streets of Cairo
The Daily Beast website has an article about poetry that is being chanted in the streets of Tunisia and Egypt. (Thanks to the Daily Dish for alerting me to it.) It shows once again that language well used has the power to move mountains—or at any rate, to give historical players a firm place upon […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Will to Live", Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi, Egypt, politics, Tunisia Comments closed
Revolution in Tunisia–A Good Thing?
While I want to be optimistic about the recent Tunisian overthrow of its dictatorial ruling family, I also appreciate Anne Appelbaum’s pessimistic assessment in a Washington Post column. Her caution brings to mind one of my father’s witty animal fables entitled “The Revolutionary Mice.” You can read it below. Appelbaum succinctly expresses her concern thus: […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "The Revolutionary Mice", politics, Scott Bates, Tunisia, William Blake Comments closed
