Since I wrote about Swiftian satire yesterday, I was interested when a current political satirist was contrasted with Swift in yesterday’s Washington Post. Laura Ingraham has a new book out which purports to be the secret diaries of Bo, the White House dog. In his review Steven Levingston concludes that, while the book is sometimes […]
Tag Archives: satire
And Universal Darkness Buries All
Yesterday I talked about irresponsible political commentators and politicians and how they reminded me of the scribblers that John Dryden was worried about in the 1680’s. In the 1740’s Alexander Pope was even more pessimistic about the threat they posed. In The Dunciad he imagines an inevitable cultural slide until “universal darkness buries all.” Harold […]
Enough Already, Rush, Glenn, Shadwell!
Last week when I complained about Christopher Hitchens, I think I was reacting as much to the incessant chatter of pundits as to Hitchens himself. At present there appear to be non-stop voices competing with each other to see who can make the most outrageous claims or confrontational statements, whether on talk radio, cable television, […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alexander Pope, Dunciad, Glenn Beck, John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe, politics, Rush Limbaugh, Talk Shows Comments closed
Better Austen than Bronte on the Court
An interesting New York Times column by David Brooks has me doing some more thinking on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s enjoyment of Pride and Prejudice. Here is some of what he wrote: About a decade ago, one began to notice a profusion of Organization Kids at elite college campuses. These were bright students who […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged David Brooks, Elena Kagan, Gail Collins, Jane Austen, politics, Pride and Prejudice, Supreme Court Comments closed
The Damned Human Race
Last Wednesday was the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain’s death. To mark the occasion, Ben Click, our enterprising department chair, set up a panel to discuss what Twain had to say about “race, religion, politics, and the ‘damned human race.’” On the panel were Peter Sagal, star of National Public Radio’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell […]
Can Satire Change Lives?
For a website devoted to whether and how literature can change lives, satire presents a special case. That’s because satire seems to have changing lives as its goal. Because of this apparent agenda, it fell out of favor with the high culture crowd in the heyday of the New Criticism. The New Critics, who dominated […]
Swift, Obama, and Idealism
Like many Americans, I was excited, inspired, and rendered hopeful by the election of Barack Obama as president last November. I felt that, at long last, we could accomplish great things in this country. I have also been thinking how I will respond when my high hopes run up against reality. At least I’m old […]
