Thread: The Waste Land - By TS Eliot

How complex is Wasteland? It's not that complex. As Mr. Glass said, it's a response to an era after WWI. It is filled with a fractured amount of voices of the people affected. That's the only complexity, our "narrator" is infact, the voice of all these voices. Like cubism looked at a fractured/distorted reality, so does Eliot.

Of course, this is coming from a girl who's read it so many times and gotten so much from it. When I first read it, it does what it intends to do: evoke confusion, a great feeling of disturbance, a sense of loss and pointlessness. I think people like Prufrock better becuase it's more focused, there's a character to empathize, but I think Wastelands is his best and I think the content alone (not just rythms, which are amazing) can give the reader a lot.

Originally Posted by Buddy Glass

But that's the point. It isn't nonsensical. It's incredibly well-structured and carefully executed. It is only outwardly complex. I fear that you have misunderstood the form and structure of the poem.

Dear God.

When I posted my reply in your Joyce thread I had no idea you were actually in here browbeating people for not getting The Wasteland, too.

For Christ's sake, get over yourself.

Originally Posted by ClancyBoy

Dear God.

When I posted my reply in your Joyce thread I had no idea you were actually in here browbeating people for not getting The Wasteland, too.

For Christ's sake, get over yourself.

So arguing for a poem that I think is ingenious is actually browbeating? Gee, thanks for enlightening me. With your black and white points of view, it is quite impossible for me to say anything in favor of Joyce or Eliot, isn't it?

Whiney, whiney, whiney.