The German film “Mostly Martha” may help explain why the German Parliament has just extended the bailout to Greece and other indebted southern European nations.
In charged Israeli-Palestinian and Christian-Muslim relations, Naomi Shihab Nye is looking at how to move past the suffering and hate.
Michael Gerson writes that “Lord of the Flies” gives kids a picture of the bullying they experience and “To Kill a Mockingbird” the courage to stand up to it.
The crazy logic of Milo Minderbinder in Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22″ shows up in Pakistan’s Secret Service using funds donated by the U.S. to hire terrorists to attack the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
Literature makes us smarter–intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually–but the effects also fade. When we teach a work, therefore, it is always necessary that we reread it.
In honor of the upcoming Jewish High Holy Days, here is a 1945 poem by Yiddish poet Kadya Molodowsky in which “The Shofar Blower” faithfully sounds the traditional horn even in the face of utter darkness.
Akira Kurosaw’s magnificent film “Ikiru” reminds us, among other things, that when we give our lives to the betterment of our communities, we redeem our lives.
Recent Republican political tactics against Barack Obama have me thinking of the battle in William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies.”
Autumn kicks off this week–Friday by some calculations–so here’s a poem by Scott Bates to celebrate her coming.
As the Census Bureau reports the highest number of poor people since it has been publishing figures, it’s worth turning to George Bernard Shaw’s “Major Barbara,” which reveals the true cost of poverty.
Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic are like the brothers in a Dostoevsky novel or a Grimm Brothers fairy tale: the two older brothers focus on each other and then the unassuming younger brother comes in and takes over.
Posted in Aristotle, Dostoevsky (Fyodor), Ellison (Ralph), Grimm Brothers | Tagged Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Grimm Brothers, Invisible Man, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Ralph Ellison, Roger Federer, Sports, tennis |
In “The Far Mosque,” Rumi reminds us that we are princes in waiting who will step into our spiritual kingdom through compassionate action.
Sex without love, the subject of several sex comedies this past summer, was also an issue explored by poets and playwrights in the British Restoration.
Posted in Friends with Benefits (film), Libertine (film), No Strings Attached (film), Olds (Sharon), Wilmot (John), Wycherley (William) | Tagged Against Constancy, Comedy, Country Wife, Film, Friends with Benefits, John Wilmot, Libertine, No Strings Attached, sex, Sex without Love, Sharon Olds, William Wycherley |
Inspired by “foodie novels” such as “Like Water for Chocolate” and “Fried Green Tomatoes,” student Julia Rocha discovered that beans and rice brought back a sense of home and her Brazilian heritage.
John Wilmot’s poetry stands as a warning against living only for self.
Philip Larkin has written a fine poem about harvest moons, one of which we experienced last night.
The Haruki Murakami short story “Town of Cats” has a passage that speaks to literature’s ability to provide solutions to life’s problems==only the solution may be conveyed as “the indecipherable text of a magic spell.”
To commemorate 9-11, I post Derek Walcott’s “A City’s Death by Fire,” written about another disaster. Walcott finds the hope of baptismal renewal amongst the destruction.
I have dropped “Sports Saturday” in order to open up more writing time for myself and from here on out will blog only six days a week. I will continue to write occasional posts about sports and literature, however.
In “Northanger Abbey,” Jane Austen advocates the ideal way to raise one’s kids: encourage them to read good literature and they will learn the life lessons that they need.
Posted in Austen (Jane), Carroll (Lewis), Gay (John), Gray (Thomas), Pope (Alexander), Shakespeare (William), Thompson (James) | Tagged "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady", Alexander Pope, Alice in Wonderland, James Thompson, Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Measure for Measure, Northanger Abbey, Othello, Reading to children, Seasons, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare |
In a New York Times article, Carina Chocano writes that tormented celebrities like Brittany Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Paris Hilton are living lives that resemble classic gothics
In “Heart of Darkness,” Joseph Conrad indirectly teaches us that doing work that contributes to human misery will take a toll, however much we try to focus just on the work.
In her poem “Of Being,” Denise Levertov believes that mystery of creation outweighs the “looming presences” of great suffering and fear.
This poem by Scott Bates is about the dream of sports as it contrasts with its often bloated reality.
The Oscar-winning German film “The Lives of Others” speaks to the ability of art to change people’s lives.
There are many similarities between the act of reading and the act of eating. In literature about food, words are dishes to be savored
