The Philosophical Optimist

              In Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew , is Petruchio's wooing of Katherine not an image of unrelenting love?   He refuses to see the bad in her words and deeds and imagines in them great good.   Even as she wishes his death, he speaks and acts as if she only loves and adores him.   He will not hide from her what others say of her, but he will not join with them; rather, he repudiates what they say, even as we see how true it all is.             Yet, he is as rough with her as she is with him.   He confronts her with force for force, but it is so deftly handled as only to serve to undermine further all her attempts to rebuff him.   When she slaps him, he does not act shocked, but merely threatens to respond in kind; yet he never does, for she is so shocked by his response that it provokes not more violence, but a further war of w...

Another Example Essay for my students, composed, as the date would suggest, several years ago.  The basic principle of connection, however, is still valid.  Let this substitute for the essay I never published in January.  I did not publish this then, only because I thought I had posted it already. Brent Oliver Dr. Guilds Film Studies 4 February2011 Of ‘Bots and Bowmen Here is a short note to remind us to keep looking for the patterns, because, it's all connected. I was recently watching my favorite science fiction television series, Dollhouse (the imminent demise of which merely illustrates the principle that by the logic of television and its need to appeal to the masses, bad writing tends to drive out the good), where a character noted that "Rossum," the name of the corporation that runs the Dollhouses, comes from "an old play."  Of course! I said, only then remembering R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots , the play (published 1920, performed 19...