Category Archives: history

RKS British Literature: Hitler Did Not Betray Himself (John Fowles)

‘The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed.’ ‘I suppose I could say that Hitler didn’t betray his self.’ He turned. ‘You are right. He did not. That was the tragedy. Not that one man had the courage to be evil. But that millions had not the courage toContinue reading “RKS British Literature: Hitler Did Not Betray Himself (John Fowles)”

RKS CHINESE FILM: “Dear You”: Many Stories Behind the Story

“Dear You” is an epic familial tale focusing on love, friendship, compassion and loss but there are many stories hovering around the apparent simplistic plot. And the film is a solid hit in China being the second highest grossing film there in 2026 and attracting audiences throughout Southeast Asia. It also has sparked controversy inContinue reading “RKS CHINESE FILM: “Dear You”: Many Stories Behind the Story”

RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: Letter from Birmingham Jail (Martin Luther King Jr.)

My friends I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as ReinholdContinue reading “RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: Letter from Birmingham Jail (Martin Luther King Jr.)”

RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: Hymie’s Bull (Ralph Ellison)

Bulls are pretty bad people to meet if you’re a bum. They have head-whipping down to a science and they’re always ready to go into action. They know all the places to hit a bone to turn it into jelly, and they seem to feel just the place to kick you to make your backboneContinue reading “RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: Hymie’s Bull (Ralph Ellison)”

RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: Tokensim the Neutralizer of Creativity (Audre Lorde)

“And in the university that is no easy task, for each one of you by virtue of you being here will be deluged by opportunities to misname yourselves. To forget who you are, to forget where your real interests lie. Make no mistake you will be courted; and nothing neutralizes creativity quicker than tokensim. ThatContinue reading “RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: Tokensim the Neutralizer of Creativity (Audre Lorde)”

RKS British Literature: Master and Beggars in Burma! (George Orwell)

“No natives in this Club! It’s by constantly giving way over small things like that we’ve ruined the Empire. This country’s only rotten with sedition because we’ve been too soft with them. The only possible policy is to treat em like the dirt they are. This is a critical moment, and we want every bitContinue reading “RKS British Literature: Master and Beggars in Burma! (George Orwell)”

RKS French Literature: Sexual Promiscuity of Children in A French Coal Mining Town (Émile Zola)

“They grew up quickly, these mining girls; and he remembered the ones back in Lille and how he used to wait for them behind the factories, whole gangs of them, already corrupted at the age of fourteen by living in the kind of destitution that makes people simply let themselves go. From the age ofContinue reading “RKS French Literature: Sexual Promiscuity of Children in A French Coal Mining Town (Émile Zola)”

RKS French Literature: Parisian Bourgeoise Shareholders Visit the Squalid French Coal Mining Town (Émile Zola)

“Mme Hennebeau was already growing tired of this visit, happy one minute to alleviate the tedium of her exile by playing this role of a zoo guide, then immediately repulsed by the vague odour of poverty that hung everywhere, despite the cleanliness of the carefully selected houses she dared to enter. In any case allContinue reading “RKS French Literature: Parisian Bourgeoise Shareholders Visit the Squalid French Coal Mining Town (Émile Zola)”

RKS French Literature: Extreme Poverty and Quasi Starvation (Émile Zola)

“Buried beneath the blanket, all that could be seen of her was her long face with its broad features, which had a certain heavy beauty, but which at the age of thirty-nine, had already been disfigured by her life of poverty and the seven children she had borne. She told him how there was noContinue reading “RKS French Literature: Extreme Poverty and Quasi Starvation (Émile Zola)”

RKS British Literature: Who Are the Opium Eaters in England? (Thomas De Quincey)

“Reader, I am sorry to say, a very numerous class indeed. Of this I became convinced some years ago by computing at that time, the number of those in one small class of English society (the class of men distinguished for talents, or of eminent station), who were known to me, directly or indirectly, asContinue reading “RKS British Literature: Who Are the Opium Eaters in England? (Thomas De Quincey)”