Tag Archives: Terrorism

Conquering the Darkness Within

Pratchett’s novel “Thud!” is a plea to find inner strength rather than yielding to blind rage.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

The Meaning of Holy Texts of Terror

Biblical stories of violence confront us with wrenching questions. Rabbi Rebecca Barenblat’s poems grapple with it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Finn, Hengest, and Terror in Israel

The Finn episode in Beowulf applies only to well to the Hamas terror attack on Israel–and to the probable Israeli response.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments closed

Grendel’s Mother Attacks Israel

Hamas’s attack on Israel brings to mind Grendel’s Mother, who is the archetype of perpetual blood feuds.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Terrible Beauty Born from Easter 1916?

Yeats’s “Easter, 1916” is a profound meditation on activism, including on the poet’s ambivalent feelings about Dublin’s Easter Rising.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Rushdie, a Voice for Reason

In a recent fantasy novel, Rushdie describes the forces that, last Friday, led to an attempted stabbing of the author.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Baldwin on Making Education Relevant

Baldwin’s “Essays to Teachers” reminds them of what education should really be about.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Browning Describes Incel’s Misogyny

The Toronto van murderer claims to have been an “incel” (involuntary celibate) who acted out his rage against women. He resembles the creepy speaker in Robert Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

The Dark Jinn Invade America

Salman Rushdie’s “Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights” helps explain how Trump came to power. Blame it on a longing for dark fantasy.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments closed