In “A Circle of Quiet,” the late, great Madeleine L’Engle writes of self-image, a subject explored with her class at Ohio State University, where she had been writer in residence for two weeks.

Although written in the 1970s, her words perfectly describe the Donald Trump phenomenon:

“Picture Satan in a business suit, with well-groomed horns and a superbly switching tail, sitting at his huge executive’s desk, thinking, ‘Aha! If I can substitute images for reality I can get a lot more people under my domination.’ … Give the public the ‘image’ of what it thinks it ought to be, … and we will buy more of the product, become closer to the image, and further from reality.”

Nancy L. Allen

West Bath