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The President Who Loved Literature
Barack Obama in Prairie Lights Bookstore, Iowa City, Iowa Tuesday Not the least of the things I will miss about Barack Obama will be his literary reflections. Since I believe, along with Jonathan...
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Poetry as a Check against Tyranny
Former National Poet Laureate Rita Dove Tuesday I find it fascinating that African American poets, descendants of people whose suffering in American history rivals only that of Native Americans, write...
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The Work of the World Is Common as Mud
Rosa Bonheur, Ploughing in the Nevernais (1849) Wednesday Washington Monthly columnist Nancy LeTourneau recently shared a wonderful Marge Piercy poem as she endorsed a slow and steady approach to...
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Obama Was Invisible to White America
Elizabeth Catlett, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man Wednesday I suggested in Monday’s blog that some of white supremacism’s resurgence can be traced to hysteria over having had a black president for eight...
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Trump, 4 Dead Soldiers, & Col. Cathcart
Balsam as Colonel Cathcart in “Catch-22” Wednesday Few novels understand the military mindset better than Catch-22. Nevertheless, I imagine that even Joseph Heller would gape at Donald Trump’s latest...
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The Dark Jinn Invade America
Tuesday A while back, while writing about 100 Years of Solitude, I speculated that electing Donald Trump may have been a case of America choosing spectacle over technocratic reason. Who wants “no...
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Go High When Trump Goes Low?
Tuesday Given that a recession would doom Donald Trump’s already shaky reelection chances, how will he behave if the economy suddenly tanks? On Nicole Wallace’s NBC program last week, the Rev. Al...
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Trump vs. Obama, Hook vs. Pan
Thursday I was digging around in James Barrie’s Peter Pan the other day and came across something that caught me by surprise. Captain Hook’s relationship to Peter is a lot like Donald Trump’s...
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Obama: From Patience to Fury
Barack Obama speaking at the Democratic National Convention Friday I was reminded of a John Dryden quotation that I had once applied to Barack Obama when a district judge recently wrote me about the...
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