Clik here to view.
Analyzing Loughner’s Booklist
Jared Lee Loughner Like much of America, I am still in a state of shock over Saturday’s shooting of a Congresswoman, a judge, and 16 others. Like many I wonder if this was an example of a disturbed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Oklahoma Tornado Recalls Dorothy’s
W. W. Denslow, “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” The horrendous damage visited upon Oklahoma by the recent tornado brings to mind literature’s most famous tornado, which is the one that carries Dorothy to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Wizard of Oz, America’s Greatest Fairy Tale
I’m currently teaching L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900) in my American Fantasy course and am discovering that Baum’s book was a watershed event in American fantasy, comparable to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sarah Palin as Dorothy
In yesterday’s post I shared the kind of interpretation of The Wizard of Oz that gives English teachers a bad name. When students hear us claiming that the Cowardly Lion is William Jennings Bryan or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hillary Will Be Cast as a Witch
Garland, Hamilton in “The Wizard of Oz” I have been vowing to stay away from the 2016 presidential race until (how’s this for an idea?) 2016, but today I am making an exception after hearing a recent...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Trump & GOP Tax Plans: All Humbug
Frank Morgan as the Wizard of Oz Wednesday Why were we shocked when Donald Trump once again “played us all for suckers” (as the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent put it)? Word was that, in the spirit of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dorothy and the Oklahoma Earthquakes
John R. Neill, illus. from “Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz” Friday Headlines we thought we would never see include this one from Wednesday’s on-line New York Magazine: Oklahoma Now No. 1 in Earthquakes....
View ArticleClik here to view.
I Am Trump, the Great and Powerful!
William Denslow, the Wizard of Oz exposed Wednesday This past Friday Americans got to play a scene from L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz, complete with a collapsing screen. Or in this case, a collapsing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dorothy as Feminist Threat
Denslow, Dorothy melts the Wicked Witch of the West Wednesday For the final assignment for my Theories of the Reader senior seminar class, my students select a literary work that, at some time in its...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sustaining Narratives Can Become Traps
Wednesday I am currently mentoring a single mother of two as she writes a Margaret Atwood senior project and am seeing up close how powerfully the Canadian author speaks to certain women. With...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Teacher, Lit, & a Jailed Student
After J Barnett, “Elizabeth Fry reading Bible to Newgate prisoners” Thursday The Atlantic has just reviewed a book that is now on my must-read list. Among other things, Michelle Kuo’s Reading with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Wizard of Oz, America’s Greatest Fairy Tale
I’m currently teaching L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900) in my American Fantasy course and am discovering that Baum’s book was a watershed event in American fantasy, comparable to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sarah Palin as Dorothy
In yesterday’s post I shared the kind of interpretation of The Wizard of Oz that gives English teachers a bad name. When students hear us claiming that the Cowardly Lion is William Jennings Bryan or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hillary Will Be Cast as a Witch
Garland, Hamilton in “The Wizard of Oz” I have been vowing to stay away from the 2016 presidential race until (how’s this for an idea?) 2016, but today I am making an exception after hearing a recent...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Trump & GOP Tax Plans: All Humbug
Frank Morgan as the Wizard of Oz Wednesday Why were we shocked when Donald Trump once again “played us all for suckers” (as the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent put it)? Word was that, in the spirit of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dorothy and the Oklahoma Earthquakes
John R. Neill, illus. from “Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz” Friday Headlines we thought we would never see include this one from Wednesday’s on-line New York Magazine: Oklahoma Now No. 1 in Earthquakes....
View ArticleClik here to view.
I Am Trump, the Great and Powerful!
William Denslow, the Wizard of Oz exposed Wednesday This past Friday Americans got to play a scene from L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz, complete with a collapsing screen. Or in this case, a collapsing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dorothy as Feminist Threat
Denslow, Dorothy melts the Wicked Witch of the West Wednesday For the final assignment for my Theories of the Reader senior seminar class, my students select a literary work that, at some time in its...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sustaining Narratives Can Become Traps
Wednesday I am currently mentoring a single mother of two as she writes a Margaret Atwood senior project and am seeing up close how powerfully the Canadian author speaks to certain women. With...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Teacher, Lit, & a Jailed Student
After J Barnett, “Elizabeth Fry reading Bible to Newgate prisoners” Thursday The Atlantic has just reviewed a book that is now on my must-read list. Among other things, Michelle Kuo’s Reading with...
View Article
