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Trump as Miss Havisham
Harry Furniss, “Miss Havisham” Wednesday I had an aha moment the other day when New York Times columnist Frank Bruni cited Great Expectations in a column about Donald Trump’s obsession with Hillary...
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What Kind of Con Man Do You Want?
Chichikov, from “Dead Souls” Wednesday A couple of weeks ago, when I was in the early stages of Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls, I compared Donald Trump to the flamboyant but charismatic liar Nozdrez, who...
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How Moliere Is Saving France
Friday Few writers are able to apply literary lessons to contemporary politics as well as The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik. In a very smart article, he says that French president Emmanuel Macron is...
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Putin as Murakami’s Boris the Manskinner
Vladimir Putin Tuesday To understand why the Russians intervened to help Donald Trump, experts consistently advise us to “follow the money.” More than anything, Vladimir Putin hates the Magnitsky...
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Murakami on Ideology’s Hollowness
Wednesday In yesterday’s discussion of Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore, my students seized upon a diatribe against narrow-minded ideologues. In the novel, Murakami mentions leftwing radicals who...
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Marquez: How GOP Can Regain Its Soul
Thursday I am currently teaching One Hundred Years of Solitude in my Magical Realism course and am struck by how magical realism might be the only genre that could do justice to our current politics....
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Swift Predicted Trump’s Lies
Gustave Doré, Satan rallies his troops Tuesday Washington Post satirist Dana Milbank has alerted me to a Jonathan Swift essay on “Political Lying” that is only too relevant. Political lying took some...
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How Fantasy Keeps Us Human
The bad and good angel in “Good Omens” Thursday I understand better why Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett are so beloved after teaching them in my British fantasy course. The two have found...
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Sly Marc Antony Resembles McConnell
Sir John Soanes, “Marc Antony Reading the Will of Julius Caesar” Wednesday In the controversy about New York’s Shakespeare-in-the-Park production of Julius Caesar, I think the two sides are missing one...
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GOP “Moderates,” the Hollow Men
Anne Lyman Powers, “The Hollow Men” Friday The Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri has a scathing takedown of GOP moderates in a recent column, dramatizing how, though they may sometimes talk a good...
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Trump as Miss Havisham
Harry Furniss, “Miss Havisham” Wednesday I had an aha moment the other day when New York Times columnist Frank Bruni cited Great Expectations in a column about Donald Trump’s obsession with Hillary...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What Kind of Con Man Do You Want?
Chichikov, from “Dead Souls” Wednesday A couple of weeks ago, when I was in the early stages of Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls, I compared Donald Trump to the flamboyant liar Nozdrez, who loves making...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Moliere Is Saving France
Friday Few writers are able to apply literary lessons to contemporary politics as well as The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik. In a very smart article, he says that French president Emmanuel Macron is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Putin as Murakami’s Boris the Manskinner
Vladimir Putin Tuesday To understand why the Russians intervened to help Donald Trump, experts consistently advise us to “follow the money.” More than anything, Vladimir Putin hates the Magnitsky...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Murakami on Ideology’s Hollowness
Wednesday In yesterday’s discussion of Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore, my students seized upon a diatribe against narrow-minded ideologues. In the novel, Murakami mentions leftwing radicals who...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Marquez: How GOP Can Regain Its Soul
Thursday I am currently teaching One Hundred Years of Solitude in my Magical Realism course and am struck by how magical realism might be the only genre that could do justice to our current politics....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Swift Predicted Trump’s Lies
Gustave Doré, Satan rallies his troops Tuesday Washington Post satirist Dana Milbank has alerted me to a Jonathan Swift essay on “Political Lying” that is only too relevant. Political lying took some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Fantasy Keeps Us Human
The bad and good angel in “Good Omens” Thursday I understand better why Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett are so beloved after teaching them in my British fantasy course. The two have found...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What Is Truth? Cowper’s Beautiful Answer
Nikola Ge, “What Is Truth” (Pontius Pilate Questioning Christ) Wednesday To hear Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani glibly proclaim “truth isn’t truth” while working for a man who has told over 4229 falsehoods...
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Vote for the Best Lizard
Friday My brother David just reminded me of the following Douglas Adams passage (from So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish), which is always relevant but never more so than now as U.S. Covid deaths...
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