Tag Archives: existentialism

The Bridge on the Black Sea

By Robin Bates | Published: October 9, 2022

The damaging of the Russian bridge to Crimea brings to mind “Bridge on the River Kwai”–although it’s closer to the movie than to the novel.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Bridge on the River Kwai, Dashiell Hammett, Maltese Falcon, Pierre Bouille, Russo-Ukraine War | 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", Jean Paul Sartre, 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", Freedom, Jean Paul Sartre, Scott Bates | Comments closed

Sherlock: Hard-Boiled or Soft-Boiled?

By Robin Bates | Published: June 17, 2019

Tuesday I share today an Alexis Hall essay I encountered in CrimeReads arguing that Sherlock Holmes is a hard-boiled detective. (Thanks to Literary Hub for the alert.) For those who study detective fiction, the thesis is startling because Holmes is generally grouped with the soft-boiled or puzzle-solving detectives, more like Dupin, Poirot, Miss Marple, Nero […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Arthur Conan Doyle, Dashiell Hammett, Farewell My Lovely, Maltese Falcon, Raymond Chandler, Sherlock Holmes | Comments closed

Murakami and Millennials’ Identity Quests

By Robin Bates | Published: January 10, 2018

Murakami’s novels appeal to millennials because they are existential parables, and young people are grappling with life’s big questions, especially identity and purpose.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged existential quest, Hard Boiled Wonderland, Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore, millennials, Wild Sheep Chase, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle | Comments closed

A Weed’s Zen Acceptance of Fate

By Robin Bates | Published: July 8, 2015

If you’re hostile towards garden weeds these days, here’s a very Zen-like Scott Bates poem from a weed’s point of view. Or maybe it’s an existentialist parable about free will.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Contented Weed", fatalism, free will, Scott Bates, Zen Buddhism | Comments closed

Art Is the Path to Liberation

By Robin Bates | Published: May 8, 2014

Nick Brown, a very bright philosophy and English double major, reflects on how to live a worthwhile life. An aesthetic approach to life is at the core of his argument.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Ode on a Grecian Urn", Albert Camus, Art, As You Like It, Dogen, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, Fear and Trembling, John Keats, Karl Marx, liberation, Macbeth, Myth of Sisyphus, Soren Kierkegaard, Zen Buddhism | Comments closed

The World’s a Stage–Choose Your Part

By Robin Bates | Published: February 5, 2014

In his senior project, one of my students uses literature to examine life and literature to engage with it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged As You Like It, examined life, happiness, Leo Tolstoy, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Two Parables Involving Falling Leaves

By Robin Bates | Published: November 8, 2013

Scott Bates and Lucille Clifton find poetic lessons in falling leaves.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Existentialist Leaf", "lesson of the falling leaves", Albert Camus, Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom, Freedom, Jean Anouilh, Jean Paul Sartre, Lucille Clifton, Samuel Beckett, Scott Bates | Comments closed