Tag Archives: Rasselas

On Rereading During a Pandemic

By Robin Bates | Published: May 19, 2020

In three articles on rereading great literature during difficult times, two discuss how it reassures them and the third that literature isn’t meant to reassure.

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Is Old Age Becoming Overrated?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 26, 2019

A “New Yorker” article on aging turns to literature to debunk the notion that aging is a good thing.

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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 […]

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Paul Ryan: No Country for Old Men

By Robin Bates | Published: September 25, 2012

Paul Ryan’s speech before AARP brings to mind the generational conflict described in Samuel Johnson’s “Rasselas.”

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Rightwing Rewrites Reality

By Robin Bates | Published: July 7, 2011

Today’s Republican right are practitioners of the Humpty Dumpty approach to communication: “I said it very loud and clear. I went and shouted in his ear.” Like Lewis Carroll’s Humpty, they also believe that they can make reality, as Humpty makes words, mean whatever they want it to mean.

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Rasselas, a Bloglodyte’s Salvation

By Robin Bates | Published: July 6, 2011

As a blogger, I sometimes spend excessive amounts of time in solitary contemplation. Samuel Johnson warns of the dangers of such a skewed perspective in his philosophic narrative “Rasselas.”

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Election Got You Down? Read Johnson

By Robin Bates | Published: November 2, 2010

By the end of today in the United States, some will be celebrating and others will be rending their garments and gnashing their teeth. While I am not one to underestimate the significant of elections—I think voting is one of a citizen’s most important responsibilities—I also caution everyone not to become (in the words of […]

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