Tag Archives: Jean Paul Sartre

Kundera Understood Authoritarianism

By Robin Bates | Published: July 12, 2023

The late Milan Kundera understood the authoritarian mindset in a deep way. “Book of Laughter and Forgetting” and “Eternal Lightness of Being” capture the mindset.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aeschylus, Agamemnon, Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Donald Trump, Eternal Lightness of Being, Flies, MAGA, Milan Kundera | Comments closed

How Proust Saved a Prisoner’s Soul

By Robin Bates | Published: May 17, 2023

In an intense search for meaning, prisoner Daniel Genis finally found it in Proust.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "To Alithea from Prison", Epictetus, Ice Age, In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust, Margaret Drabble, meaning of life, No Exit, reading in prison, Richard Lovelace, Stoicism | Comments closed

My Son’s Death and Two Tree Poems

By Robin Bates | Published: April 29, 2021

Today, the anniversary of my son’s death and also Arbor Day, I link the two days with two tree poems.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, death and dying, death of a child, Flies, In Memoriam, Sycamore, trees, Wendell Berry | Comments closed

Sartre Captures White Privilege

By Robin Bates | Published: June 4, 2020

Sartre’s “Respectful Prostitute” captures many of the race dynamics of our current situation.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged police brutality, racism, Respectful Prostitute, white privilege | Comments closed

The Good Place & Dante’s Inferno

By Robin Bates | Published: May 14, 2020

The show “The Good Place” provides insight into Dante’s Inferno.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Dante, Divine Comedy, Good Place, Inferno, No Exit | Comments closed

Leaves Condemned to Be Free

By Robin Bates | Published: October 3, 2019

Scott Bates offers this humorous existentialist meditation on falling leaves.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Existentialist Leaf", existentialism, Scott Bates | Comments closed

A Serene Way to Deal with Chaos

By Robin Bates | Published: September 29, 2019

Scott Bates’s humorous fable “The Contented Weed” offers a serene way to handle everything that life throws at us.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Contented Weed", existentialism, Freedom, Scott Bates | Comments closed

Fathers & Sons: He Goes His Way, I Mine

By Robin Bates | Published: May 21, 2019

Wednesday The talk with my son that I described in Monday’s post reminded me of talks with my own father where I was sure he was wrong. I’ve since concluded that I was not as right as I thought I was and that our disagreements came down to our different life arcs. Our arguments came […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, Blaise Pascal, Rasselas, Samuel Beckett, Samuel Johnson, Ulysses, Westword Ho! | Comments closed

When It Comes to Culture, Bet on France

By Robin Bates | Published: November 18, 2015

In the wake of the ISIS attacks, France has something to fall back on: its proud literary tradition.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Albert Camus, Guillaume Apollinaire, ISIS, John Oliver, Marcel Proust, Paris terror attacks, Victor Hugo | Comments closed