Our very own waste land.

One thing that I can relate to in this reading is how life can become redundant and fall into an almost unbreakable routine. We are told that routine is good, order is good and so is structure. I think some people waste their life's potential settling for less because of a fear that there isn't anything better. Another part that was interesting to me was in section three when it was describing nature and how it was clean because people hadn't littered it with trash. In our group we discussed how beauty came out of a bad thing. We also posed the question is nature better off with out us?

Philomela: Princess of Athens

Sorry this is gonna be a few minutes late. This was almost the second week in a row i completely forgot to blog so please dont think i'm just neglecting it.

In section two of The Waste Land, Eliot mentions "the change of Philomel." Having never heard of Philomel, I looked it up, and it turns out that Philomela was raped by Tereus on a voyage to Thrace. I found this an interesting parallel to the woman portrayed later in the section. The woman has already had five children and is still being coerced by her husband to have more. Because of this, she is forced to take abortion pills in an attempt to stop her current pregnancy.

Now, what the implications of this are for the poem as a whole, i have absolutely no idea. But for the sake of the blog, I will venture to make a guess. The only logical conclusion I can come up with about this parallel is that is part of a social commentary on the times in which this poem was written. This was very much a time period where woman were still expected to be submissive and obedient to men as a whole, so for Eliot to draw this parallel in particular, i believe that he is disagreeing with that treatment. Philomela was indeed the princess of athens, so it would then be fair to assert that he would view this woman in the same way; as a princess who was altogether wronged.

p.s. - I commented on jamie's

The mind is the first to go

First I want to say that the most memorable thing from class Tuesday (no matter how sad this may be) is a quote by Dr. Mitchell
        "BIG MOTIONS! If you want to get that big job at Disney, you've got to get big motions!"

     My group discussed the fifth portion of this work. At this point, so many different things have happened. The subject has gone through so much and you can see it taking a tole on them. At the end he begins to use different language and seems to be almost rambling. He also makes reference to London Bridge making this reader remember the nursery rhyme from childhood.

     When a person is mentally ill and they are losing their mind, they tend to revert to a childlike mentality. They literally have the mind of a child. To me, his use of this in the end of the text shows a decline mentally or physically of the subject. Whether this is interpretation or just application, I think a parallel could be drawn for humanity. Before it gets to the end, you can see a decline in the subject. The gibberish is last showing a kind of end point. I think that our culture and society are the same way. You can see obvious declines. There is a lack of deeper thinking now and that is just one area of decline. Soon we could be getting back to a state like the subject of this writing.

I commented of Nick's post

Death at Water?

I didn't make class on Tuesday so I'm still as confused on The Wasteland as I was before. I was in class though when we divided up and talked about each of the sections.

My group talked Section 4, which was Death by Water. Which describes a man that had died on the water. The way that I understood it was that the man died while he was on the ocean during a storm. The section goes on to describe his body rising and falling on the waves. He has forgotten the sound of the gull's cry and the swell of the sea.

The poem continues to tell that death is no respecter of persons. The person can be a Gentile or Jew but it doesn't matter when it comes to death because the grim reaper doesn't respect any man.

P.S. I commented on Kaylie's Post

Death by Water

    When I first read through, "Fear Death by Water", from the "Wasteland", I was like... Ok cool so we are talking about a dead sailor who drowned. Nothing more uplifting right? But then again the Wasteland is hardly uplifting at all. As I read the section of the poem my second thought, is this is warning? But what is it warning us from? Simply to be cautious on the water, or something deeper?

    One of my thoughts were maybe it was a warning to the young and brave who are ready for adventure, that adventure does costs something, and eventually your life. Also do not be consumed chasing after profits, because the dead do not remember, the dead do not see or hear. Make the most of your life. 

    

    As I considered these thoughts, Abernathy said something. This is the most epic piece of the poem, there is action, adventure, pulse. This young Phoenician sailor died doing something he loved, he knew the risks of the sea. So was this really a warning or an encouragement? Not to die I mean, but neither to settle for dull land-lover-like life. I mean I would want to go out doing something I loved, in the middle of action. I'd much rather die in the middle of the sea rather then die at my desk doing paperwork. I rather die in the moving cool water, than the endless scorching desert. So should we fear death by water or death by paperwork? 

Flowers on a Grave

"... I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Od' und leer das meer." (Waste and empty is the sea)

How do spell "AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!" You can ask Amanda, I just let out a cry of stress!
I'm in a place right now where I literally feel neither alive or dead and that everything I once knew no longer holds any truth. Would you call this place a waste land? Sounds good! It's like looking into an abyss, then looking back at God and asking, "Are you sure about this...?!" Yet trusting Him to guide your steps even when you can't see two steps in front of your feet. When you feel to numb to feel alive, but keep walking anyway, He gently directs you along the path He has laid out for your life. Look towards the heart of His light, and in the silence you will hear His soft, still voice. 

"That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?" 

The entire poem has recurring themes of life versus death and drowning versus drought, but also life that emerges from death. How does life feed off of something devoid of life? Like flowers blooming on top of a grave, does Eliot intend to say that even in death there is always hope,  and that in order for new life to begin a part of you has to die?

Commented on Joy's "Baptism"

Mama-Bear Syndrome

"What is that sound high in the air  Murmur of maternal lamentation 
Who are those hooded hordes swarming 
Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth 
Ringed by the flat horizon only
What is the city over the mountains 
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air 
Falling towers 
Jerusalem
Athens
Alexandria 
Vienna
London
Unreal" -Lines 365-375 The Wasteland

While we were in our groups on Tuesday, Rachel mentioned the line about "maternal lamentation" which got cogs moving in my clockwork brain. Since I'm not a woman, and therefore will not be a mother, I can't exactly tell you firsthand what maternal lamentation looks/feels/sounds like. However, I decided that since I couldn't experience it firsthand,  I would look to all of the places that I know it can be found.

The first would be Andromache in "The Iliad" who is lamenting the death of Hector. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Ben, she's lamenting her husband, not her child!" That statement is mostly correct, except that she is lamenting about the life that her child will have to live without a father. Next in line is Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon. She laments her innocent daughter, Iphegenia, who Agamemnon sacrifices to please Artemis. His thought processes behind the sacrifice still baffle me, as the whole reason Artemis was pissed at Agamemnon was due to all of the innocents who would die by his hands if he were to go to Troy. So, logically the best way to appease her would to be to kill your innocent daughter. Anyway, I digress. Not only did Clytemnestra lament her daughter, it eventually led her to killing her husband. I could also talk about Thetis, Achilles' mother, in the Iliad, but I feel like that whole plot line is a bit "fishy". I could also draw several Biblical parallels, but I figure you guys get the point.

As we learned above, maternal lamentation is a terrible thing to witness or experience. Mothers are the most loving, protective, strong, and nurturing beings on the Earth. So, naturally when their emotions start flowing, everyone should watch out. You might just end up dead.

However, as it is just a "murmur" of maternal lamentation, it implies that the mother is off in the distance somewhere, so you're probably safe.

For now.

So, what did we learn today? Nothing? The wasteland makes as much sense as Heidegger? Don't mess with mama? All good answers. Tune in next week when I'll hopefully be able to actually make sense of something that we were assigned to read.

P.S. I commented on Callie's "Fallen to a Wasteland"

Heidegger on Knowledge

Just as Descartes stretched my mind, Heidegger is now doing the same. With Descartes it was about doubt, with Heidegger it is about being. Along with his discussion on being, Heidegger also touched on his philosophy of knowledge. I found his breakdown of knowledge interesting. On pages twenty-one and twenty-two Heidegger says that those who are knowledgeable are those who have the ability to learn. Ability to learn is shown by a person’s knowledge of their need to learn. This reminds me of Socrates, indeed Heidegger is a philosopher, and there is no doubting. Next Heidegger says the ability to learn implies that one has the ability to inquire. The image of inquiry brings visions of Honors in my head. Finally on page twenty-two Heidegger continues, “Inquiry is…the resolve to be able to stand in the openness of the essent.” Knowledge is not to “possess information” but to be able to struggle through inquiry. Isn’t that the point of honors? Honors seek to instill in us a desire to be learning and inquiring for the rest of our lives? Heidegger, I wager would agree with our program in this aspect. That is what Honors is about, and it was cool to notice that in our very own reading assignment.

P.S. I commented on Callie's post.

Fallen to a Wasteland

I found myself really enjoying the wasteland. While at first it seems hard to understand the poem, with its weird onomatopoeias, shifts in subject matter, and lines in other languages. However, this "nonsense" allows for the true beauty of the poetry to shine. One may not be able to follow a logical plot within the wasteland, at least not at first, but one will instantly understand the feeling of the poem. Like Plato constructs a city with words, the poet creates emotions with diction and form. A poem like Wasteland, or Jabberwocky, take the focus off of the literal meaning of the poem and forces the reader instead to focus on the image which it is presenting.

Through its "nonsense" the wasteland presents an incredible picture of brokenness and the lack of humanity in society. There is the woman with no care or desire, a great amount of death referenced through the entire work, and a grossness associated with all humanity (the scene of trash on the bank; dinner in tins; animal behavior). This poem is man in his fallen condition. Now we are left to find a solution.

I commented on Kaylie's "Wasteland 0.0"

DADA

Today in Art Appreciation, our class began to discuss an art movement called Dada. Immediately, I thought back to the last section of The Waste Land where we had a discussion about Eliot using the term.

According to my Artforms book, "Dada began in protest against the horrors of World War I..." This movement protested the war was to get away from "traditional, narrow-minded values" that, as Dadaists believed, started the war.

I began to connect this art form, or lack of it, to the to craziness that we all seemed to notice in The Waste Land. Obvious connections are the war and the madness that became of the poem in certain areas. Maybe Eliot's wanted to transfer the ideals of this relatively new artistic movement to his word art. This seems to be the case to me.

P.S. I posted on Cameron White's.

Scopes Too Narrow

I had to laugh at myself a little while reading through this hefty bit of philosophical musings. Heidegger brought up the word “resolve” and it brought my back to my final post of last semester. For the majority of my time in honors, I have ferociously abused the word “resolve” as some sort of synonym for peace of mind over these philosophical dilemmas we are ever confronted with in the classroom. Now, Webster may still agree with my former view on it, but I am taking to heart what ol’ Heidegger has to say on the matter.

“For this reason the misuse of language in idle talk…destroys our authentic relation of things.” Interestingly enough and as Facebook will testify, last night I joked with Amanda over my own choice of words in a text message to a friend: “I seriously won’t be offended.” I could have worded that in a couple of different ways, and it would have conveyed a different meaning to the person receiving the message. I appreciate what Heidegger has to say about being choosy with our words. I discovered this little problem when I went through Mashburn-osophy 101. Mashburn asked a question one day, to which none of us had a solid answer. This hurt me to watch, and it led me to question a lot in the wrong direction—much like Heidegger’s problem with questioning “rather than nothing”. I called several people I trusted to help me out with my questions. One person actually laughed and told me there was a problem with the way the question was asked because it only provided for the two possible answers Mashburn suggested to us. Once I was able to ask the question for myself in an appropriate manner, it led me to other questions rather than answers. In my opinion (if I may be so bold), the way a philosopher may pose a question may be just as deceitful as a poet that provides his own footnotes. Thank you, Dr. Schuler for pointing this out: “Because poets lie! It’s what they do!” Shall we keep them in the Republic or treat them as Orwell’s proles? I digress…

That established, I return to this fickle double-meaning of “resolve”. Heidegger states, “He who wills, he who puts his whole existence into a will, is resolved. Resolve does not shift about…but it acts out of the moment and never stops.” He then calls it the “crucial beginning of action”. How wrong I have been about resolve! It seems I do have resolve after all! Well, on most days…sometimes I am apathetic about it. What Heidegger seems to be suggesting is that resolve is willing to know, willing to question, and acknowledging that knowledge incorporates learning without hope of stopping. Resolve is this endless thirst for truth we find ourselves in, of seeking to win from the darkness of unknowing.

I shall end my ranting with my favorite lines from the passage: “Ability to learn presupposes ability to inquire. Inquiry is the willing-to-know analyzed above: the resolve to be able to stand in the openness of the essent.” [emphasis mine]

COMMENTED ON DANIELLE’S

a wasteland indeed

The river’s tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf
Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind
Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.
The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed.
And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors;
Departed, have left no addresses.
By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept,
Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
But at my back in a cold blast I hear
The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.

These several lines from part III The Fire Sermon scream death. It speaks of what once was life.Nature, civilization, and everything bearing life has gone down the chute. The nymphs are departed. there is no longer any song; not even the wind can be heard over the brown land. No leaf for the wind to rustle, no grass for the nymph to lie it's bosom? Indeed a Wasteland, a Wasteland Indeed.

posted on ms. hillbun's blog

The Waste Land and Tornados

My group did Section 1 of The Waste Land. The section starts off with saying that "April is the cruellest month..." I immediately thought of my experience with the April 27 tornados. April has always been a month known for severe storms in the Birmingham area, but last year really proved the point. I remember driving to school and the sky was the scariest shade of green that I had ever seen. Only a few kids were at school and the teachers were running around in a frenzy. We had already had a tornado come through and destroy some of the areas in Warrior the night before. We returned home just in time before the storms hit. It was terrible. We could only watch in horror while the news showed the tornado rip through Tuscaloosa and head towards Birmingham. The storms eventually passed. My childhood day care was completely destroyed and I lost 2 people in Tuscaloosa. April 27th will be a day I never forget. April will be a month that I will always label with destruction. This reading really brought back all of the memories and I thought about how April brings destruction, but May brings hope and sunlight. "April showers bring May flowers." May is like the light at the end of the tunnel. Out of the darkness, comes light and hope. I believe that Eliot was trying to emphasize how April allows for flowers to grow and winter to leave. Spring is coming and it will be warm and beautiful again.

P.S. Commented on Brittany's post, "Adventure Time."

Mortality and the Wasteland

During the class discussions, my group focused on section four of the wasteland. To me, this section says a lot about mortality. The the sailor died at sea, his life flashing before his eyes. It didn’t matter how well he knew the sea. It didn’t matter how tall, strong, or handsome he was. At this point, he is dead. This made me think about how, in life, we tend to spend so much of our time worrying about things that are ultimately insignificant, when, in the end, very little of it will matter after our death.

No one will really care about the type of house you lived in or the kind of car you drove. Chances are, no one will remember all of the things you said, and a lot of what you did won’t matter. However, if you change one person’s life for the better, that one person will remember you. And maybe that one person will impact someone else, who will help someone else, and so on.

-Jamie

Commented on Joy's "Baptism."

Heide-what?

"Why are there essents rather than nothing?"

This question does not seem like one that I can ask. I am completely frustrated by it. I follow his argument thus far (I'm only on page 31 right now), but I'm faced with a sense of apathy towards it. As he said, any answer that we could come up with is inconsequential to the actual existence of things. No answer could change anything. Perhaps it is because I do not have this sort of will to know as he defines it. In philosophy we always talked about questioning things and how questions without answers can leave us better off. Speaking honestly, I don't really know how asking this question could leave us better off. Perhaps that's what is so scary about this age to me sometimes--that a person could get to the point where they honestly, willfully ask this question. What does it say about they world that surrounds them?

commented on Mallory's

Acceptance: Wasteland Style v. God's Style

So my group got to discuss section two of The Wasteland. And we found some interesting images in it, too many to fit on the board since everyone insisted that they had to read it. One thing I found interesting was the story interwoven with HURRY UP PLEASE IT’S TIME. I’m not quite sure what happened to the husband, but the wife and a friend are discussing his return and what will happen if the wife doesn’t change her appearance. It was very odd to me. I wasn’t quite sure what to think, especially when the friend started saying that the husband could find any number of prettier women if the wife didn’t change.

This led me to think about God’s acceptance of us. He doesn’t care what we look like on the outside, He still loved us enough to send His Son to die for. I think that’s pretty great. God never asked us to get new teeth, like Albert did with Lil. He welcomes us no matter what we look like on the outside, whether we’re tall or short, black or white. I don’t think that this is what Elliot was trying to say, it’s just a thought that popped into my head.

Now, back to reading Heidegger, which is making no sense whatsoever! Until next time,

Tantum E Tenebris Receptum Constabit

Meghan Johnston

P.S. I commented on Will's "Lack of Structure"

P.P.S. I just wanted to make you all aware that I might be recording a few classes over the next few months to send to Lucy Beth.

The Wasteland: The Extremes of Halla

*Spoiler Alert* (First off, I'm sorry for those who have never read the Pendragon series because some of this will sound like it’s totally off in left field to you)
I absolutely love it when some I’m reading for school ties in with something I’m reading for fun. Yesterday we were talking about how Eliot’s “The Wasteland” depicts a loss of structure and how each section seems to solve a problem in the section before by turning to the extreme opposite of what causes the issues. Unfortunately, what fixes the problem in the previous section brings doom in the next. I believe someone threw out the phrase, “Turning to the east when the west doesn‘t work.” That discussion made me think of the book (really the entire series) that I’m reading right now, the Pendragon series. As with “The Wasteland”, in the Pendragon series we see that there are both good and bad results from turning to extremes for solving a problem.
The case of the territory Veelox, it was a territory overwhelmed by technology. The world was dying because people refused to tear themselves away from the technology. Once it was clear there was no help for the territory, a group of phaders and vedders decided the only course of action was to start a new society reliant on absolutely no technology at all. For the world of Veelox, extremes worked well. The phaders and vedders for a colony on the island of Ibara and while the rest of their world crumbled and died, Ibara remained a peacefully simple island paradise.
On the other hand, extremes also prove to be a bad thing. The bad guy of the series, Saint Dane, has this grand solution for all mankind. He plans to rid the universe of all those beings who are complacent and people who are not exceptionally excellent - in other words, drains and normal people - by rewarding only those people he deems “worthy” of surviving. His plan of totally wiping out the people he calls the source of the universe’s problems ultimately brings the destruction of each world. The future of our territory, Third Earth is completely in shambles along with every other territory in Halla. Of course, the destruction of Halla was Saint Danes ulterior motive from the get-go, but that’s not the point. Like the use of water to solve a drought in “The Wasteland” only for the water to then cause death by drowning, Saint Dane’s plan ironically turns the territories into wastelands of their own.

P.S.: for those of u who haven't read Pendragon, i REALLY recommend that you read it.
P.P.S.: I commented on "Lack of Structure"

The Whole World In His Hands

"All significant truths are private truths. As they become public they cease to become truths; they become facts, or at best, part of the public character; or at worst, catchwords."
-T.S. Eliot

As much as I would love to write a post about Heidegger (and believe me, I do) I'll save some of that juicy metaphysical awesomeness for class tomorrow and the upcoming paper. For now, though, let's talk about T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, which I'm sure NO ONE has talked about. Looking at the five stanzas of the poem, there is clearly A LOT to talk about. A scholar could probably spend an entire week digging into The Waste Land and still have things to find. There are contradictions, predictions, double meanings, hope, despair, truth, lies, the elements, and even God Himself in a strange sort of way can be derived from this one poem. I could try to focus in on one particular aspect of this poem like we've done in class so far, but to do so at this point would be superfluous. To try to place my focus on one particular aspect of the poem while there is so much else to discuss would not do the poem justice.

Since my choice to pursue the path of literature as the primary focus of my education and career, I have taken up the ancient art of poetry. I have tried to make it good, I have tried to make it my own, and I have tried to make it truthful, but if poetry is an art that can be perfected I am certainly very far from it. A typical techinque of poets is to focus on one particular aspect of life and show it for what it is through language, which even Heidegger agrees is perhaps the most incredible power in the world. Eliot, however, I'm sure, is the poetic master, because he doesn't just focus on one particular thing in his poetry-he creates an entire world. I have never in my life read a non-epic poem that is as all-emcompassing as this one, one from which can be derived so much, one that is so confusing and unclear that only the most valuable of truths can be derived from it.

Yes, it is incredibly disorienting, but so is the world we live in. It cannot be understood in a simple read-through and analysis because it is a microcosm of the modern world. All its darkness, all its anguish, all its hidden beauty-all in one poem, the wasteland. It may seem like a wasteland as far as poetry is concerned, but there is so much to be found that suddenly, lines like "fear in a handful of dirt" and the imagery of flowers rising from corpses suddenly takes on a whole new meaning. Suddenly, as with all great poetry, what once seemed too incomprehensible and cunning to be understood is life defining. Suddenly, as with all great realizations, our life, which once seemed to dizzying and distressing to be enjoyed becomes something more than just a wasteland but a garden that can be cultivated, a collection of horrors that can be overcome to find beauty, and suddenly the salvation that Jesus died to establish becomes full and complete.

Well, thanks for reading through all of that, I hope you realize I'm not just laying on hyperbole but am sincere in what I'm saying. Please feel free to comment or respond as you please. I commented on Amanda Gaster's Hiking Through "The Waste Land" With Heidegger.

Hiking through "The Waste Land" with Heidegger

“Truth is the manifestness of the essent. To know is accordingly the ability to stand in the manifestness of the essent to endure it.”
While delving into the mystery of Heidegger I came across this sentence, and it intrigued me. It was like finding a pretty flower unexpectedly while hiking through the forest (because it made sense to my head). I think it relates to “The Waste Land” because the people in the poem are slowly dying. They suffer from boredom, sameness, and the mundane. This causes them to stop living passionately and simply exist in the regular, everyday routine. I think part of this descent into boredom and mediocrity was a result of them ceasing to search for truth. Truth gives the strength to stand. Truth gives the will to stand. Searching for truth shows life, and having a quest reveals an inner longing to go beyond the simple and mundane and an aspiration to reach for something more.
“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist…” Ephesians 6:14
There is a reason why this part of spiritual armor is listed first. If you know the truth then you know how to stand and how to endure. You know this because you know whom your faith is in, and that your faith is in something. Therefore, truth manifests itself through the ‘essent’ or existence of God.
P.S. commented on Will’s “Lack of Structure”

Before we got to class the only thing that stuck out to me about Wasteland was how unique and weird the whole poem was. Not often do you run into multiple different languages scattered throughout a poem, and it seemed as though Elliot had done this only to make things more difficult on the reader. What Mitchell discussed intrigued me though, that the only way the writers of the Modern era could get through to their readers was to distort the language so much that we would be forced to slow down and look for some kind of meaning in the chaos. This thought sparked a long mental tangent in class that ranged from considering deeper meanings for "Fear death by water." to trying to follow the poem as multiple different happenings recorded together to create a connection between them. I found that where I could not find more meaning in a line I could at least find a different meaning that often made less sense but could lead me in a new direction that perhaps was the only meaning the author had truly intended for the reader.

P.S. commented on Adventure Time

Lost in the Wasteland

We actually did a few weeks on the Wasteland in my high school AP English class. Even so, talking about it in class we touched on so many different things...and still none of them were what we discussed in High School. Which is interesting, its always fun to learn new stuff, but frustrating nonetheless.

The only way to sum up what we discussed in High school was that we focused more on the time factor in the poem? that still doesn't sound right but I'l just go with it. It seems that the wasteland is kind of a place where time and everything in it is stuck; where one is caught in the middle and cant move forward or back (which seems rather preferable when you think about what Eliot is saying concerning the present). Every character, I guess you can call them, is trying to pull something from the past, which is why everything seems like broken snippets of memory, and piece them together to try and remember/recreate something that is better than what they are in: a decaying but unmoving wasteland, where "heaps of broken images" are all that is left of the better days. We also talked about how history and tradition played an important part in the poem in showing how the the present, modern is failing and to highlight the past. For back then, a sailor wanted to die at sea like a hero wished to die at war. There was this beauty and heroism in destructiveness, in going out and doing something, anything. The wasteland is a place where people have forgotten how to do that. A place with no obstacles and nothing to overcome, where time is washed over and everything is stuck in a fog with nothing but their memories...where one is "neither living or dead, and knew nothing, looking into the heart of...the silence", where one "can connect nothing with nothing." Structure is also a big part in this. Structure gives one something to hold on to, whether it be the past or an actual object, or the human body itself. All of these seem to be slipping away in the poem. The last thing I remember my teacher saying about this poem in high school is asking us a question which took us in a different direction than what we had learned...she asked us something like: If everything wasn't so fixed, if Achilles never fought and died and the sailor never went to sea, would we be in a wasteland then too, and if so would it be the same as Eliot's or different?
Well there it is. I tried to combine what I learned in High school with some of the stuff that we touched upon and I actually understood in class. It probably doesn't make any sense.

Commented on Ben's Jesus and the Doctor

Waste Land O.O

I wasn’t in class Tuesday, and I wish I had been able to make it because I have been thoroughly confused about The Waste Land. It has me quite jumbled up in my brain. However, I’ll try and write as much on it as possible on what I felt I sort of understood.
“The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed
And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors;
Departed…”
I think that this whole thing is sort of talking about urban life decaying, or ceasing to exist all together. All of the things listed are sort of modern things that if there was any sort of city life would be in existence. Then he says that city directors are departed I think that just reestablishes that it’s supposed to represent this lack of city life. I’m not positive the significance of this but I so think that’s what it’s referencing in this section.

P.S commented on Brittany Hilburn’s Adventure post.

Chess Queens

The second movement of T.S. Eliot's "Waste Land" is called "A Game of Chess," in which he compares and contrasts two women. The first half of Eliot's "Waste Land" paints a picture of a lonely woman living in richness and refinement:

The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Glowed on the marble, where the glass
Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out

It continues on, stealing lines from Shakespeare and describing the woman's sad existence in spite of her many luxuries. Her husband is absent, though it is unclear where he has gone.

That she is "waiting for a knock upon the door" suggests that her husband is a soldier fighting somewhere. Every time she hears a noise, she worries, though it's just "the wind under the door," and she exclaims "Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?" She is a prisoner in her mind. The second half portrays the plight of a common woman:

He said, I swear, I can't bear to look at you.
And no more can't I, I said, and think of poor Albert,
He's been in the army four years, he wants a good time,
And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I said.

The second woman, whose name is Lil, has a husband who had been discharged from the army. Having borne five children and not desiring another, she acquires pills to induce the abortion of her sixth. The pills cause her teeth to fall out, and though she becomes unbearable to look at, Lil's husband still won't "leave [her] alone." She is a prisoner in marriage.

The rich woman is a queen on the back of the chess board, and her king is out on the frontline. The poor woman is a queen who, in relation to her king, is more like a pawn, used to satisfy his sensual cravings. The irony here is that each woman wants what the other has. The rich woman longs for companionship, and the poor woman wants to be left alone.

EDIT:  I commented on Mallory Searcy's "Looking into the Heart of Light, the Silence." and Brittany Hilbun's "Adventure Time."

Looking into the Heart of Light, the Silence.

In class on tuesday I spoke up before I really had my idea fully formed (typical) and defended The Waste Land as being hopeful. I did a poor job of explaining why, because I didn't know why at the time. Since I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, here is my further explanation of that sentiment.

The Waste Land is hopeful the way Catcher in the Rye is hopeful. It doesn't necessarily point to a knowable, attainable happiness, it's true. It doesn't leave us with a package of neatly resolved concepts for us to go and apply to life like a self help book would. Instead, it leaves me with the overwhelming feeling that "life" as it is, isn't really bearable.

I think trying to move from that moment reaches beyond the bounds of the work. It says to me that T. S. Elliot is watching London and saying "don't you see? you're miserable and you don't even know it."

For me, at least, there is freedom in that declaration. There is a lot of hope in saying "this isn't enough for me." Because if I dare to speak those words, if i dare to say (Like Bono and Ecclesiastes) that I still haven't found what I'm looking for, then it means I can let it go.

It cries for rain, for shantih, for the Lord to pluck us out. At least when I read Elliot, I am moved to acknowledge my futile ambition and my need for a Savior. Life without Him isn't bearable.

I commented on Abstraction

Lack of Structure

We talked in class a lot about the lack of structure that Eliot was pointing to. I would like to expound on this topic a bit more.

He speaks of the rats that drag away bones. I think it is important to notice that rats normally bury themselves in the ignored crevices of man-made objects. They are also rather difficult to find wandering out in the open, as they are easily frightened. I believe Eliot is hinting here that these creatures, viewed as the hoarders of human scum, are a representation of everything we have ignored. Humans have devalued the things of importance. We are not simply looking back on an age enshrined on a Grecian urn as Keats did. We have shoved that urn away to the back of an attic where only the rats could find use of it. We are encouraging these scared rats to build a home in the things in which we once found solace. We allow these rats to come out and steal our structure, scattering it in every direction. By forgetting, we've lost our foundation and allowed ourselves to rot in a back alley after allowing weak, frightened creatures to dismember us.

The head rules the belly with the aid of what, now?

Ad augusta per angusta,

Will

P.S. Commented on Brittany's "Adventure Time"

Adventure Time

Today we touched on some cool stuff while finishing up "Waste Land." The comparison was established between the events in the poem to the events in the works of Shakespeare or the Iliad. One of the questions asked was along the lines of whether or not we would rather have the great Odyssey adventure happen or not? I jokingly said that I'd rather have my man stay home with me, but as the discussion went on I really began to mull over that. I would take the adventure! My gosh, the problem with this generation is that we have lost our sense of adventure. We would seriously rather have the climax of our lives to be marriage and 2 and a half kids. Now all of those things are sweet but there is more to life? What if you had your sweet marriage and then you and your honey spent a few years exploring, adventuring. I'm not saying you have to go Hades and back but come on! MY, I want to see the world!

posted on Rachel's

Baptism

So I have to say I have heard it several times since being at college that baptism is scary... I tried putting myself in other peoples point of view, because it was never really anything that scared me... But when I listen to what people say it takes a lot of trust to know that someone (I.E. your pastor most of the time) is going to pull you back up after "dunking" you. It would be awful if while you were being obedient to God's word by getting baptized the pastor started talking and he held you under, because he was so sidetracked, making you think that the same day you profess to the world that you are a believer that you will also be going to meet Jesus. Don't get me wrong, going to see Jesus is great, but dying in baptism not so great. This whole conversation steamed from the reading of the wasteland, that in its strange way can actually make sense. It talked about the person dying at sea (in water). However, just like Regis said, water is nothing to fear but only something one should be careful around. Sorry, this post is a bit on the random side.

PS -Amanda G

Abstraction

So I am pretty sure what I am about to say, is exactly why Dr. Talmage told me that I am no fun.....I don't work well with the abstract and I really want to equate the reading with application. I am less concerned with real meanings and more concerned with real life. I am not saying this to say I am therefore better, in fact it makes this class a whole lot harder for me.

As I struggle through Heidegger, I seriously want to reach into the text grab him and say,

"Dude, CHILL OUT! We don't need to dig down deep into the understanding of life in one night"

In my spare time you can assume I don't think about these kind of things (Nor alternate realities #Chloe Rush) However, I suppose that is why Honors is good for me it forces me to think outside the realm of what I am comfortable with-

A lot of people approach life with the attitude of wanting to bypass all that is not applicable to them- thus you hear things like "When will I ever use Algebra??" (which in my opinion IS necessary!)

And thus the more applicable question to my life, when will I EVER use Heidegger in nursing? Especially as a practical person who doesn't really appreciate abstraction.

Well, I could use some of his questions to stump my annoying patients into silence but I feel as if that would be the appropriate use of the philosophical struggles I have endured/embraced over the past two years.

So now I must discover an application to my life. Why does Heidegger matter?

In one way Heidegger matters because he represents the same thing Honors represents in my life. His search to answer this question which some may never ask themselves is one of struggle, and one that we cannot enter into lightly. Some people never want nor know to ask themselves, "Why are there essents rather than nothing?" And although a life will not be changed for the worse without asking this deep and meaningful question, what if a life could be more fully understood by really seeking this one out? How many people in our fast paced society reach the end of their busy lives filled with social events, work, church, and stuff just to wonder why?

As I begin to really dive into his deep philosophical questioning I begin to wonder if part of this is a deeper understanding of self. If I begin to understand why I am here and who I am and that relationship to the world, then my interpersonal skills could be better. But more than that I am as a person who has struggled up from the cave a person who has really grappled with reality and such I believe I am ready to face life and the world in a brighter position. I may not have all the answers but an acceptance of that is a better more enlightened place in which I can appreciate poetry, beauty and truth.

I really hope all of that connected as some what ordered. (: