Tag Archives: Sophocles

France vs. the Little Engine That Could

By Robin Bates | Published: July 13, 2018

Which World Cup story do we root for? The little engine that could or redemption after humiliation?

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The Stories We Tell Our Robots

By Robin Bates | Published: April 10, 2018

My sons have a podcast–“The Stories We Tell Our Robots”–which links literature with such developments as bitcoin, chatbots, airline pricing, and the like. Their rating system ranges from utopia to apocalypse.

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Act in All Things as Love Will Prompt

By Robin Bates | Published: March 11, 2018

My lectures on Flannery O’Connor, James Baldwin, Shakespeare and Sophocles all seem to track back to Lent these days.

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My Dinner with Mladen

By Robin Bates | Published: March 7, 2018

An account of a dinner with an old Slovenian friend and intellectual.

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Anger in Ancient Greek Works

By Robin Bates | Published: September 13, 2017

A new book looks at how the ancient Greeks approached the issue of anger in works such as “Iliad,” “Ajax,” and “Hecuba.

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Lit Comforts an ALS Sufferer

By Robin Bates | Published: June 23, 2017

This past March an ALS sufferer spoke eloquently, shortly before her death, about how she turned to Sophocles, Kafka, and Shakespeare for comfort.

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My Cataract Surgery Recalls Oedipus, Lear

By Robin Bates | Published: February 5, 2017

Recent cataract surgery had me recalling all those literary passages where sharp objects get poked into people’s eyes. The real drama, however, was renegotiating my professional identity.

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Lit Opens Minds to Suffering of the Other

By Robin Bates | Published: October 23, 2016

Philosopher Martha Nussbaum argues that literature is essential for creating good citizens in a diverse society, turning to Sophocles’s “Philoctetes” and Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” to make her point.

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Solace for Vets from Sophocles

By Robin Bates | Published: September 13, 2016

A group has been giving dramatic readings of Sophocles plays in order to reach veterans suffering from PTSD. The results have been astonishing.

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