Robin Bates
@beowulfbates.bsky.social
Professor of literature, teacher, husband, father, liberal, Episcopalian, blogs daily at betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com. Author of Better Living through Literature: How Books Change Lives and (Sometimes) History
Pinned
Reposted by Robin Bates
This is a photo from the Vanity Fair article. Notice how they have to arrange it so Stephen Miller is on the end, so it isn’t obvious that there is no reflection of him on the mirrored table.🧛
December 16, 2025 at 9:08 PM
This is a photo from the Vanity Fair article. Notice how they have to arrange it so Stephen Miller is on the end, so it isn’t obvious that there is no reflection of him on the mirrored table.🧛
Like DJT, for instance: "Practically I thought I had impunity to do whatever I chose, everything—save to give away my secret. So I thought. Whatever I did, whatever the consequences might be, was nothing to me. I had merely to fling aside my garments and vanish. No person could hold me."
The Invisible Man is the story most different from its cultural afterlife. HG Wells was basically like, "what if the most annoying jerk you know was also invisible???"
December 9, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Like DJT, for instance: "Practically I thought I had impunity to do whatever I chose, everything—save to give away my secret. So I thought. Whatever I did, whatever the consequences might be, was nothing to me. I had merely to fling aside my garments and vanish. No person could hold me."
Maybe Dostoevsky should have entitled The Brothers Karamazov “Mad Men"
Wait a second. Was Mad Men just paraphrasing Dostoevsky???
December 7, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Maybe Dostoevsky should have entitled The Brothers Karamazov “Mad Men"
Yes!!
Library people watching is better than airport people watching bc everyone in a library appears to be living their best life
December 7, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Yes!!
Reposted by Robin Bates
We remember Christmas Carol bc it is one of the most adaptable and frequently adapted stories from the 19th century, but the prose of the original is really quite extraordinary.
‘I wear the chain I forged in life,’ replied the Ghost. ‘I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?’
~Jacob Marley
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
#PhantomsFriday
~Jacob Marley
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
#PhantomsFriday
December 5, 2025 at 2:53 PM
We remember Christmas Carol bc it is one of the most adaptable and frequently adapted stories from the 19th century, but the prose of the original is really quite extraordinary.
Reposted by Robin Bates
Wordsworth and Coleridge would’ve tried to launch their own app, but it would be an incredibly embarrassing failure as Wordsworth would never learn how to code and Coleridge would become convinced that a Chatbot was the voice of God.
Byron would’ve been on every social media and dating app, but William Blake would only have been on Bluesky
December 2, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Wordsworth and Coleridge would’ve tried to launch their own app, but it would be an incredibly embarrassing failure as Wordsworth would never learn how to code and Coleridge would become convinced that a Chatbot was the voice of God.
In my experience, the best research essays have a story arc. Story gives meaning to the facts. And the Communist Manifesto has a boffo ending
Whingeing about some grading, and one of my daughters volunteers “you shouldn’t have suspense in you research paper.”
Exactly. I am reminded of a colleague’s quip “A research paper isn’t a mystery novel. You don’t have to read to the last page of Marx to find out the capitalists did it.”
Exactly. I am reminded of a colleague’s quip “A research paper isn’t a mystery novel. You don’t have to read to the last page of Marx to find out the capitalists did it.”
December 2, 2025 at 6:14 PM
In my experience, the best research essays have a story arc. Story gives meaning to the facts. And the Communist Manifesto has a boffo ending
Reposted by Robin Bates
December 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Robin Bates
"In the solitude of a book, we find ourselves a little more willing to be vulnerable to having our mindset challenged." - Nick Raines
The main difference between people who want to ban books and me:
They would feel threatened by that quote.
I feel *energized* by it.
The main difference between people who want to ban books and me:
They would feel threatened by that quote.
I feel *energized* by it.
November 27, 2025 at 8:33 AM
"In the solitude of a book, we find ourselves a little more willing to be vulnerable to having our mindset challenged." - Nick Raines
The main difference between people who want to ban books and me:
They would feel threatened by that quote.
I feel *energized* by it.
The main difference between people who want to ban books and me:
They would feel threatened by that quote.
I feel *energized* by it.
Reposted by Robin Bates
Reposted by Robin Bates
“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”
—André Gide, winner of the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature
—André Gide, winner of the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature
November 25, 2025 at 11:52 AM
“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”
—André Gide, winner of the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature
—André Gide, winner of the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature
Reposted by Robin Bates
Frankenstein is the story of a lonely sea captain who hears such a great story that he decides not to kill his entire crew in the arctic.
November 25, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Frankenstein is the story of a lonely sea captain who hears such a great story that he decides not to kill his entire crew in the arctic.
A key difference between a man like Shepard and today’s dismal exemplars of hypermasculinity is that his currency was guilt, whereas now the watchword is resentment. The former internalizes blame, forging stoics, while the latter assigns it elsewhere, yielding brats. - Atlantic article on S Shepard
November 24, 2025 at 8:25 PM
A key difference between a man like Shepard and today’s dismal exemplars of hypermasculinity is that his currency was guilt, whereas now the watchword is resentment. The former internalizes blame, forging stoics, while the latter assigns it elsewhere, yielding brats. - Atlantic article on S Shepard
"As soon as I replace my direct perception of reality by the words of a book, I deliver myself, bound hand and foot, to the omnipotence of fiction. I say farewell to what is, in order to feign belief in what is not….I become the prey of language." (G. Poulet)
Impossible how good reading is. You mean I just point my face at the paper for a bit and it does a whole update on my brain?
November 23, 2025 at 6:20 PM
"As soon as I replace my direct perception of reality by the words of a book, I deliver myself, bound hand and foot, to the omnipotence of fiction. I say farewell to what is, in order to feign belief in what is not….I become the prey of language." (G. Poulet)
Reposted by Robin Bates
If you don’t want to read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein together by candlelight whilst sharing dark chocolate and a vintage bottle of Château Margaux in an abandoned castle on the Irish coast during a full moon, then please don’t tell me you’re “down for a good time.”
November 21, 2025 at 1:22 PM
If you don’t want to read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein together by candlelight whilst sharing dark chocolate and a vintage bottle of Château Margaux in an abandoned castle on the Irish coast during a full moon, then please don’t tell me you’re “down for a good time.”
Love it
November 21, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Love it
So Eliot was the road not taken? Years hence they will be recalling this moment with a sigh
I lost the vote, folks. Robert Frost defeated George Eliot 😩😩😩
I know this the race all of you are most concerned about, but I have submitted a course proposal for a single author upper level course on George Eliot where we will read MIDDLEMARCH, and I have begun campaigning to the English majors who will get to vote on it. Will keep you all updated 🤞🤞🤞
November 21, 2025 at 7:53 PM
So Eliot was the road not taken? Years hence they will be recalling this moment with a sigh
cue Twilight Zone score
“Would you like to enter your email for alerts and promotions?”
*the lights dim, a distant hissing sound fills your ears, a green-tinged fog clouds your vision. this decision may haunt you until your dying breath.
*the lights dim, a distant hissing sound fills your ears, a green-tinged fog clouds your vision. this decision may haunt you until your dying breath.
November 21, 2025 at 7:48 PM
cue Twilight Zone score
Reposted by Robin Bates
1.Thread for the evening. Given that #Tolkien was a brilliant professor, it should be no surprise that there is almost no end to what what can learn from him. He was a man who thought more deeply on many subjects than is, perhaps, common and he brought a high heart and mind to this. For example...
November 19, 2025 at 1:34 AM
1.Thread for the evening. Given that #Tolkien was a brilliant professor, it should be no surprise that there is almost no end to what what can learn from him. He was a man who thought more deeply on many subjects than is, perhaps, common and he brought a high heart and mind to this. For example...
carpe diem be damned
November 19, 2025 at 4:20 PM
carpe diem be damned
Philip Pullman’s Secret Commonwealth has passages that could describe ICE invasions and people resisting betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com/pullman-anti...
Pullman Anticipates ICE Brutality | Better Living through Beowulf
In “The Secret Commonwealth,” Pullman anticipates ICE’s bullying tactics.
betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Philip Pullman’s Secret Commonwealth has passages that could describe ICE invasions and people resisting betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com/pullman-anti...
Very funny! Yes, Frankenstein's subtitle was “The Modern Prometheus.” Of course, Prometheus ended up staked out on a rock with an eagle eating his liver
I don't understand the problem. The moral of both Frankenstein and Lord of the Rings is that you should totally push through with that awesome creative project you're thinking about, naysayers be damned.
November 17, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Very funny! Yes, Frankenstein's subtitle was “The Modern Prometheus.” Of course, Prometheus ended up staked out on a rock with an eagle eating his liver
Some thoughts on Epstein’s Sherlock Holmes reference. The Epstein files call for Dupin more than Holmes betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com/trump-and-th...
Trump and the Non-Barking Dog | Better Living through Beowulf
Epstein, in talking about Trump and an underage trafficked girl, invoked a Sherlock Holmes story. But the case is probably one for Poe’s Dupin.
betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Some thoughts on Epstein’s Sherlock Holmes reference. The Epstein files call for Dupin more than Holmes betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com/trump-and-th...
Wonderful!
It was all going so swimmingly until the poetry workshop leader suggested alliterative verse was dead.
November 17, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Wonderful!
Reposted by Robin Bates
‘For poetry ... is also the best therapy because sometimes the troubles come tumbling out.’
— John Steinbeck
writingforwellbeing.co.uk
#writing #WritingCommunity #WritersCommunity #poetry
— John Steinbeck
writingforwellbeing.co.uk
#writing #WritingCommunity #WritersCommunity #poetry
November 17, 2025 at 10:27 AM
‘For poetry ... is also the best therapy because sometimes the troubles come tumbling out.’
— John Steinbeck
writingforwellbeing.co.uk
#writing #WritingCommunity #WritersCommunity #poetry
— John Steinbeck
writingforwellbeing.co.uk
#writing #WritingCommunity #WritersCommunity #poetry