My 15 minutes: during Slovenia’s 1995 V-E Day celebration I read Walt Whitman to a national television audience.
To politicians who make irresponsible claims after an incident like the Boston Marathon bombing, Shakespeare has a warning and a model to follow.
Between the motion and the act of my tennis game falls the shadow. Translation: too much thinking.
Also posted in Eliot (T.S.), Robinson (Edward Arlington) | Tagged "Hollow Men", "Minniver Cheevy", E. A. Robinson, Hamlet, Marshall McLuhan, Sports, T. S. Eliot, tennis, William Gladwell, William Shakespeare |
Some of Pope Benedict’s retirement demands sound like King Lear’s.
Lebron James is to opponents as the gods are to King Lear.
Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” is the perfect play for Valentine’s Day.
Shakespeare is so pervasive in the language that we are often oblivious when we are quoting him.
A copy of Shakespeare’s works that circulated through apartheid-era prisons shows the Bard providing solace for the prisoners.
Spielberg’s “Lincoln” captures the president’s extensive reliance on literature.
The David Petraeus affair–is it 19th century melodrama or high tragedy?
Also posted in Hugo (Victor), Sophocles, Tolstoy (Leo) | Tagged Anna Karenina, Antony and Cleopatra, David Petraeus, Leo Tolstoy, Macbeth, Notre Dame de Paris, Othello, Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare |
Boxer Orlando Cruz has just come out, bringing to mind Shakespeare’s hyper-masculine gay characters.
“Sandy” conjures up for me a traumatic childhood reading experience along with a passage from “The Tempest.”
The onslaught of Hurricane Sandy reminds us of King Lear’s storm experience.
Mitt Romney’s “tangled web” entraps Obama and recalls Sir Walter Scott.
Fantasy is nothing in and of itself but takes its character in opposition to an unsatisfactory reality.
Also posted in Keats (John), Lewis (C. S.), Tennyson (Alfred Lord), Tolkien (J.R.R.) | Tagged "Lady of Shalott", "Lotos Eaters", "Passing of Arthur", Alfred Lord Tennyson, C. S. Lewis, Eve of St. Agnes, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lord of the Rings, Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare |
The poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty get us to interpret the sculpture differently than the designer intended.
In this topsy-turrvy baseball season, as in Midsummer Night’s Dream, all things are possible and the Baltimore Orioles are a game out of first.
Like Shakespeare’s Puck, Usain Bolt toys with his opponents.
Pundits have recently been turning to literature to comment on the 2012 elections.
Also posted in Bierce (Ambrose), Burdick (Eugene), Lederer (William), Rand (Ayn), Trollope (Anthony) | Tagged Ambrose Bierce, Ayn Rand, Barack Obama, Eugene Burdick, Fountainhead, Mitt Romney, Oscar Wilde, politics, Presidential race, Richard II, Ugly American, William Lederer, William Shakespeare |
The opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics were rich in literary allusions.
Also posted in Barrie (J. M.), Blake (William) | Tagged "Jerusalem", Children's literature, James Barrie, Olympics, Peter Pan, Richard II, Sports, Tempest, William Blake, William Shakespeare |
David Brooks argues that today’s “nurturing, collaborative” educational system would have kept Shakespeare’s Prince Hal from becoming one of England’s great kings.
In the immortal words of Muhammad Ali, Roger Federer floated like a butterfly, stung like a bee as he won his 7th Wimbledon title yesterday.
Also posted in Ali (Muhammad), Pope (Alexander), Tolkien (J.R.R.) | Tagged Alexander Pope, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Muhammad Ali, Rape of the Lock, Roger Federer, Sports, Tempest, tennis, William Shakespeare, Wimbledon |
The summer solstice and Shakespeare’s famous play appear sentimental to us today. They were not always so.
Also posted in Byatt (A.S.), Chaucer (Geoffrey), Kipling (Rudyard), Sir Gawain Poet | Tagged A. S. Byatt, Children's Book, fairies, Geoffrey Chaucer, Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck, Puck of Pook's Hill, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, summer solstice, Wife of Bath, William Shakespeare |
With names from Salinger and Blake, my two new grandchildren have promising destinies.
Also posted in Blake (William), Salinger (J. D.), Sterne (Lawrence) | Tagged Children, Four Zoas, J. D. Salinger, King Lear, Laurence Sterne, names, To Esme with Love and Squalor, Tristram Shandy, William Blake, William Shakespeare |
The plays would have been different if Shakespeare’s characters had had access to social media.
It’s not only Rush Limbaugh and Bill Maher who are use sexual epithets to denigrate women. King Lear does it too.
Shakespeare’s Falstaff would be in violation of the Stolen Valor act, now being challenged before the Supreme Court.
Crazy weather swings have been messing with our spring flowers, bringing to mind Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18.
“I do believe her, though I know she lies,” wrote Shakespeare about the dark lady. It could also be said by some Republican voters about Mitt Romney.
There’s is no easy way for son’s to find their identities apart from their fathers, but they have no choice but to try.
Israeli author Amos Oz believes that literature can provide “a partial and limited immunity to fanaticism.”
