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Trollope on Conservatives & Liberals
I recently finished listening to Anthony Trollope’s Prime Minister (1876)—it took me to Maine and back—and now understand a little better the nostalgia that certain people have for the old Washington,...
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Cruz’s Contortion of Cristianity
Ted Cruz: “I am a Christian first, an American second.” Thursday Because I’m a sucker for any article that applies Jonathan Swift to modern politics, I was pleased yesterday to see Bill Moyers in Salon...
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Brecht’s Working Class Revenge Fantasy
Lotte Lenya as Pirate Jenny Friday If working class Americans are turning to Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, it may in large part be because their incomes are stagnating while the rich are getting...
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On the Death of a Controversial Judge
William Hogarth, “The Judges” Monday My library book group this week is discussing Anthony Trollope’s Barchester Towers (1857), and I couldn’t help but read the opening chapter in light of Justice...
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Prospero and the Presidential Primaries
William Hamilton, “Prospero and Ariel” Monday Sometimes the news of the hour bleeds imperceptibly into the works I am reading, prompting me to see them in a new light. This occurred with me this past...
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Clifton, Ellison Help Explain Whitesplaining
Clinton listens to Black Lives Matter protesters Tuesday Hillary Clinton said something in a speech recently which reminded me of a Lucille Clifton poem—a poem, I should add, which takes me personally...
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History’s Zigzagging Narratives
Kirpal Singh, “Storming a Castle” Wednesday The New Yorker offers a remarkable series of fiction and poetry podcasts where authors read and discuss previous works that have appeared in the magazine....
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Christie as Prufrock & Other Lit Allusions
Christie and Trump Thursday There were a number of literary citations in articles written about the Super Tuesday primaries this past week. I’m always glad to see that happen since it means that...
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Bernie Is Peter Pan, Hillary Is Wendy
“Peter Pan” (1953) Friday I was teaching James Barrie’s Peter and Wendy yesterday in my British Fantasy class and, in spite of myself, found myself drawing connections with the presidential primaries....
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Limbaugh’s Clinton-Ratched Comparison
Fletcher as Nurse Ratched, Hillary Clinton Thursday I have just caught a glimpse of what a Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump presidential race could look like and it’s not pretty. I had the insight after I...
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Ted Cruz as Lucifer, “Squat Like a Toad”
Gustave Doré, Satan plots how to ruin Adam and Eve Monday Have you noticed how many people absolutely loathe Texas Sen. Ted Cruz? John Boehner, whose life Cruz made miserable when Boehner was Speaker...
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Trump and Gazing into the Abyss
Gustave Doré, Satan in the Abyss Wednesday So (God help us!) Donald Trump will be the Republican presidential nominee following last night’s blowout primary win in Indiana. Earlier in the day, before...
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The Unbearable Lightness of Donald Trump
Friday Here’s a must-read article by Charlie Pierce of Rolling Stone on the importance of memory and what happens to us when we forget. Donald Trump, Pierce says, “will rise, and keep rising, until we...
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Now, Gods, Stand Up for Trump!
Michael Kitchen as Edmund in BBC’s “King Lear” Monday A student essay about King Lear has me thinking that it might be one of the most important works of literature that Americans these days can read....
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Time for GOP Moderates To Go to Ground?
Edgar in “King Lear” Tuesday Yesterday I opined that King Lear was all too relevant today, given how it shows chaos unleashed when social institutions are delegitimized. I forgot to mention, however,...
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#NeverTrump! Never! Never! Never! Never?
Lear (Feore) crying over Cordelia (Farb)? Or #NeverTrump crying over GOP? Wednesday Okay, one last post (for this week anyway) where I apply King Lear to the problems that Donald Trump poses for the...
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How Trump Is Changing the Discourse
Friday I fear that this blog is becoming All Trump All the Time. In my defense, I think it is vital that we figure this man out and how to stop him. I believe Donald Trump to be the greatest threat to...
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Trump’s Use of the Homeric Epithet
François Gérard, “Blind Homer” Wednesday Whenever Homer shows up in a New York Times headline, I’ve got to post on it. The piece was on Donald Trump’s use of the Homeric epithet: Donald Trump’s...
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Hillary Clinton as Emma Woodhouse
Gramola Garai as Emma Woodhouse Tuesday Are Hillary Clinton’s high unfavorability ratings due to 25 years of nonstop GOP criticism? A wonderful New York Times article about how some women are endorsing...
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Pope Foresaw GOP Capitulation to Trump
William Hoare, “Alexander Pope” Wednesday If Donald Trump becomes America’s next president, it may be because the electorate has come to see the abhorrent as normal. Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker,...
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