In which I compare Trump’s State of the Union speech to Paradise Lost—well, a little bit—and also to Candide.
Sign up for my weekly newsletter
Tag Archives: Samuel Johnson
Milton, Voltaire, and Trump’s Address
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bill Kristol, Candide, Donald Trump, John Milton, Paradise Lost, State of the Union speech, Voltaire Comments closed
Why Aren’t More Kids Reading?
An Atlanta article attacks utilitarian arguments for reading. I push back.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Adam Kirsch, Ars Poetica, Cervantes, Don Quixote, Goethe, Gustave Flaubert, Horace, Huckleberry Finn, John Stuart Mill, Judy Blume, Madame Bovary, Mark Twain, Martha Nussbaum, Paul and Virginia, Perks of Being a Wall Flower, Sorrows of Young Werther, Tom Jones Comments closed
Worldly Vanity vs. Celestial Wisdom
Johnson’s “Vanity of Human Wishes” was inspired by the famous vanities passage in Ecclesiastes. It’s grim but has an upbeat ending.
To Stay Sane in 2025, Read Rasselas
Johnson’s Rasselas is must reading for those worrying about the next four years.
Politics Got You Down? Read Rasselas
Feel depressed about Election 2024? Samuel Johnson’s “Rasselas” has some good advice.
Homer, Virgil, Dante and the Afterlife
Literary afterlives, such as we encounter in Homer, Virgil, and Dante, are as much about this world as the next.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aeneid, Afterlife, Dante, death, Divine Comedy, Homer, Inferno, inner doubts, midlife crisis, Odyssey, Paradiso, Virgil Comments closed
The Vanity of Human Wishes
To mark today’s reading (from Ecclesiastes) about human vanity, I turn to Samuel Johnson’s great poem about the subject.
Johnson: Read the Bard, Not Tom Jones
I share the Samuel Johnson chapter from my book-in-progress.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aristotle, Clarissa, Henry Fielding, Horace, Plato, Republic, Samuel Richardson, Tom Jones, William Shakespeare Comments closed