Happy Spring Break

Here's a shorter version of "The Waste Land," for your Spring Break enjoyment:

grumble . . . grumble . . . SOMETHING IN GREEK. . . grumble . . . grumble . . . DANTE . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . LONDON IS A HORRIBLY FRIGHTENING PLACE DON’T YOU AGREE . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . SHAKESPEARE! . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . THE BIBLE THE BIBLE THE BIBLE . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . THIS ONE ELIZABETHIAN SOMETHING OR OTHER . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . VEGETATION MYTH . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . DANTE X2 . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . A NURSERY RHYME OR TWO . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . THE GRAIL . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . GREEK MYTH . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . A LARGE PORTION OF EASTERN PHILOSOPHY . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . A SONG I HEARD JUST THIS OTHER NIGHT . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . CUT BY POUND . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . THE END? . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT

Somebody's on to something!

Simply Me has a simply brilliant reading of "Burial of the Dead," the first section of "The Waste Land" (TWL):

The first section of the poem is titled the "The Burial of the Dead", sounds great? NOT. I thought to myself why would I want to read something that is titled that way. The title threw me off and the poem is nothing what you expect it to be. Eliot is talking about more then just literarily burying the dead. He is talking about the seasons dying. Summer is great but then fall comes around and everything dies. Also in the first section he says, "I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter." Made me think of how the birds migrate south in the winter for the warm weather. Maybe the world which he is living in "dies" so to speak because all of this.

She's right! One of the themes of TWL is the death and (hopefully) rebirth of the earth. Almost all ancient cultures had something called a "vegetation myth," a way of explaining to themselves (pre-science) why the earth grew cold and dark for a third of the year. If you put yourself in someone else's shoes who doesn't have the benefit of science to explain winter, it's a pretty frightening thing to experience.

Here's the vegetation myth in Greek Mythology, the story of Demeter and Persephone.

Some Words on "Tradition and the Individual Talent"

T.S. Eliot's essay, much like a lot of his stuff, is a daunting thing to encounter at first. That's why is I think Fresh does a really nice job isolating one of its main points:

Eliot describes in this case how poems as they are related to other poems and how that relation essentially makes or breaks them. Writing like many things in life comes from a long line of antecessors who have affected the way we write even today.

Regarding the above photo: I've always been fascinated with Eliot's hair. What kind of product does he use to get that effect?

Once, during a particular intensive week or so of reading Eliot, I had a dream in which Eliot and Ezra Pound spend a great deal of time making fun of my hair. It was weird.

The exasperation that is Eliot

R.A. Bella has a great post looking at some of the themes of Eliot's "The Waste Land":

A prevailant them throughout appears to be death, and life that cycles through death. Symbols of life are breeding lilacs(known for passion, beauty, deise, promise and life), summer, rain, rivers, lakes(all water representative of life) Where he writes," I will show you fear in a handful of dust, he is stating that life is fleeting, he writes again and again of life coming out of death. He writes of the warning of fleeting lives as he writes," Fresh blows the wind to the homeland; my Irish child, why are you waiting?He gives another symbol of life, the hyacinth girl. The line below says that 'waste and empty is the sea' Since the water represents life I am thinking that he is saying that life is empty when caught up in the past.

What do you want Essay #2 to be about?

So I'm in the midst of grading your first set of essays, and it led me to think about Essay #2. I'm still tossing around a few ideas about the assignment, which I'll give you before Spring Break.

But I wanted to hear your ideas--I'm sure you have them. So, let me ask this question: What would make a good topic for Essay #2?

I'm really interesting in your ideas for an assignment. I can't say that I'll definitely use an of them, but I thought bringing you guys into this conversation would be good for the class.

So, if you have ideas, half-ideas, thoughts, or suggestions for what you'd like to write about for the second essay, please leave them in the comments here.

The (Annotated) Waste Land

While I'm rifling through my past life, looking for my notes on T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land," please take a minute to check out this site, the annotated version of "The Waste Land."

I can't stress its usefulness enough. It's pretty great. It allows you to read the poem in one screen and link to copious notes in another, all at the same time. If you're staggering through Eliot's poem, take 10-20 minutes to check this out. It may very well be the fragments you shore against your ruin (you know, so to speak).

Chandler's "Red Wind"

Here's a quick round-up of some really good blog posts on Raymond Chandler's "Red Wind."

stryker says:

Chandler's use of shadows to make his characters mysterious is done with great care and perfect timing. A good example of this would be on page 1556 when John Dalmus gets back from the police station and tries to get into his apartment building and hears a low quiet voice say, "Please". Dalmus states that he knew the voice so he got into her car. This is perfect timing because you now have a picture in your head of this tall beautiful women who you thought you knew but now she is doing something out of the ordinary. You think you have her pinned down as a loose woman but this appearance makes you wonder what she is really up to.

Octavius says:

One thing that I noticed about this piece is how Dalmas, who is a character, is also the narrator. I have read plenty of novels and never really paid attention to this very important detail. I think that reading and analyzing poetry has really paid off. The first thing I do when I read is automatically try to analyze what the author is trying to say, how he is saying it, and what it is he means by it. Another thing that I can attribute to reading poetry is the way that my mind wants to recreate what I read, giving it my own twist.

And finally, George lays out Dalmas's character:

Even though the story is very interesting, what interests me the most was Damas character. Like I mentioned in the beginning, Damas was a man that displayed courage and sensitivity. Damas showed courage in various occasions throughout the story. For example, when the murder left, he was the first to go after him and take the license plate numbers. He investigated Lola, Miss Kolchenko, and Mr Frank.

He encountered death when Mr Tessilore threatened him and during all these events, there is no sign that Damas ever carried a weapon or a friend with him. It shows tremendous courage to go after a murder, especially when we consider that Damas was not acquainted with any of the subjects that he dealed with.

Damas also showed sensitivity during the story. He did his best to cover up Lola since she had saved his life. He wasn't going to take this act for granted, and actually helped her out in may ways.

And here's Joan Didion, one of my favorite writers, talking about the Santa Ana winds, which play a large-if-mysterious role in "Red Wind":

I have neither heard nor read that a Santa Ana is due, but I know it, and almost everyone I have seen today knows it too. We know it because we feel it. The baby frets. The maid sulks. I rekindle a waning argument with the telephone company, then cut my losses and lie down, given over to whatever it is in the air. To live with the Santa Ana is to accept, consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human behavior.

EXTRA CREDIT: Word, the English Club reading series

The English Club's reading series, Word, is taking place this Wednesday, March 10. The reading is from 5pm to 6pm, and it's in the second floor of the Nampa campus.

I also wanted to offer you the chance for some extra credit if you attend and write a little something about it. Here's the deal:

Zach Critser is reading nonfiction and fiction. If you decide to attend (and I encourage you to), write a short, 300-word blog post on his reading. It'll be worth twenty participation points, so if you've missed a class, this is your chance to make up those points.

I am also reading too, but giving you extra credit to write about my reading is weird, so I'm not going to do that. You'll need to write 300 words on Zach. A couple of you went to last semester's reading and really enjoyed it. I hope you'll come out again.