Tag Archives: Huckleberry Finn

Soliloquies Changed Us Fundamentally

Hamlet’s soliloquies changed the way we see ourselves and others and led the way to the novel.

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Lit that Features the N-Word: What to Do

Now to teach White literature that employs the n-word? Balance with Black literature.

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Why I Think the Way I Think

I survey my intellectual history, especially the evolution of my thinking about literature’s impact on human behavior.

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Which Literary Conman Is Trump?

To understand Trump as conman, I compare him to the King and the Duke, Mac the Knife, Melville’s Confidence Man, Satan & Iago.

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Trump Lying, Modern Day Shout-Boasting?

Mark Twain depicts the verbal art of shout boasting. Maybe Trump operates out of this tradition.

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The Novels that Shaped John McCain

McCain’s favorite novels included “Great Gatsby,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Huckleberry Finn,” and works by Somerset Maugham. One can understand why.

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Pap Would Have Voted for Trump

“Last place aversion” accounts for white resentment of safety net programs. Huck’s father is an example of the process at work.

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My “Last Lecture”

I share here my “last lecture” from my retirement ceremony. (But rest assured: I will not be retiring from this blog.)

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Beware of Literature’s Purity Police

Laura Moriarty’s “American Heart” has been attacked for being a white savior narrative. Such stories should in fact be critiqued, but the attackers are often a bigger problem.

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