Tag Archives: Oliver Twist

Anti-Vaxxers Ignore the Past

By Robin Bates | Published: July 10, 2023

Anti-vaxxers should read 19th century novels, which describe high mortality rates

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Some in GOP Love Child Labor

By Robin Bates | Published: March 21, 2023

Some in the GOP want to bring back child labor. Kingsolver, Dickens and Browning weigh in on the subject.

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The Fearsome Georgia Bulldogs

By Robin Bates | Published: January 11, 2022

To honor the world champion Georgia Bulldogs, I compare them to the bulldog (actually, bull terrier) in “Oliver Twist.”

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Indecipherable Texts of a Magic Spell

By Robin Bates | Published: April 6, 2021

Murakami’s “1Q84” has a magical passage about the power of literature.

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Biden-Trump Invites Dickens Comparisons

By Robin Bates | Published: October 19, 2020

If one thinks of the 2020 election in Dickensian terms, several novels come to mind.

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Lit that Championed Chimney Sweeps

By Robin Bates | Published: December 26, 2019

Watching modern chimney sweeps at work, I’m relieved that we’ve left behind the days of William Blake and Charles Dickens.

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Migrant Kids in a Dickensian Nightmare

By Robin Bates | Published: June 25, 2019

Wednesday As the Trump administration’s treatment of children at the border continues to horrify the nation, Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist comes to mind. There you have another child caught up in a nightmare where ideology overwhelms basic humanity. Whereas most of us see the death of a child as overwhelmingly tragic, it serves the agendas […]

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How Deep Is Roger Stone’s Act?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 29, 2019

Tuesday What are we to make of longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone’s flamboyant behavior following his arrest by Special Counselor Robert Mueller for lying to Congress about his contacts with Wikileaks? I think back to a passage from Herman Melville’s The Confidence Man that I applied to Trump during the campaign but which applies equally […]

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Trump Policy Is Oliver Twist Redux

By Robin Bates | Published: June 22, 2018

Dickens would have a field day with the Trump administration’s decision to separate children from their families.

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