Ancient Greek literature provides us with a power lens through which to examine the John F. Kennedy assassination.
Tag Archives: Sophocles
Manziel: Whom the Gods Would Destroy…
Johnny Manziel has “Greek tragic hero” written all over him.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Doctor Faustus, Football, Johnny Manziel, Marlowe, Oedipus, Sports Comments closed
Antigone Would Bury Boston Bomber
Sophocles and Homer present compelling cases for granting full funeral rights to the Boston Marathon bomber.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Ajax, Antigone, Boston Marathon bombing, funerals, Homer, Iliad, Odyssey, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Terrorism Comments closed
Shakespeare Was Mandela’s Lifeline
A copy of Shakespeare’s works that circulated through apartheid-era prisons shows the Bard providing solace for the prisoners.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Antigone, Henry V, Merchant of Venice, Nelson Mandela, Shakespeare in the prisons, Tempest, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Doc, Prescribe Me a Poem
Literature as therapy, Greek tragedy as soap opera: assorted articles about lit and life.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Variation on a Theme by Rilke", catharsis, Denise Levertov, Elizabeth Bishop, Greek tragedy, Marianne Moore, Oedipus Rex Comments closed
Joe Paterno, a Modern Day Oedipus
The lessons of the Sophocles play “Oedipus” can be applied to disgraced Penn State coach Joe Paterno.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged child molestation, Football, Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, Oedipus, Penn State Comments closed
Roger Clemens, Greek Tragic Hero
Roger Clemens tried to bully his Congressional interrogators the way that Oedipus bullies witnesses. To say that he should have handled himself differently is to say that he should have been a different man.
At 60, a Comfortable Old Scarecrow
Having just turned 60, I’ve been thinking of Teiresias. Wise though the blind seer may be, his advice doesn’t help others that much. Aging, in other words, appears to require humility.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aging, Bacchae, Carl Jung, Euripides, Homer, Odyssey, Oedipus, T. S. Eliot, Wasteland Comments closed
Do Mistaken Idealists Apologize?
Watch out for political purists and dogmatic idealists. They can do a lot of damage. A writer who delivers this warning is Milan Kundera, a Czech novelist who owes his insights to his experience with communism and the 1968 Soviet invasion. Expect to encounter regular posts from me about Kundera because I am mentoring a […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Communism, Milan Kundera, Oedipus, politics, Unbearable Lightness of Being Comments closed
