Although today we are sometimes suspicious when literature seeks to instruct us, Samuel Johnson considered this to be literature’s primary aim. He held up Shakespeare as proof.
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Tag Archives: Samuel Johnson
Peter Wimsey vs. Oklahoma Executions
With Oklahoma resuming its executions yesterday, we need the reminders that Dorothy Sayers and Oscar Wilde give us about holding on to our humanity.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Ballad of Reading Gaol", "Eclogue for the Marriage of the Earl of Somerset", Busman's Honeymoon, Charles Warner, death penalty, Dorothy Sayers, John Donne, lethal injection, Oscar Wilde Comments closed
In Defense of the English Major
Adam Gopnik makes a spirited defense of the English major in a recent “New Yorker” article.
Life as a Stage Coach Ride
America is in many ways like the stage coach rides described by Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Adventurer, Henry Fielding, Obamacare, politics, Tom Jones 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.”
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, Rasselas, Republican Party, 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 […]