Modernism:
What does 'The Wasteland' mean?
1) how has it been interpreted? (cite examples)
2)what are some of the key features
3) In what way has it been influential
Post-Modernism
1) What common qualities do 'the beats' share? Why 'beats'?
2) How is beat poetry linked to rap?
3) How was Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
4) On what grounds was 'Howl' accused of being obscene - grounds for the defense?
5) What kind of protest song/rap other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?
What does 'The Wasteland' mean?
1) how has it been interpreted? (cite examples)
2)what are some of the key features
3) In what way has it been influential
Post-Modernism
1) What common qualities do 'the beats' share? Why 'beats'?
2) How is beat poetry linked to rap?
3) How was Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
4) On what grounds was 'Howl' accused of being obscene - grounds for the defense?
5) What kind of protest song/rap other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?
Modernism:
ReplyDelete“The Wasteland” focuses on the aftereffects of World War I. It opens with the famous line, “April is the cruelest month”, said by a young female devastated by the war and the hardship during that time. When the poem was first published it was seen as being incredibly experimental. The title is an indication of Eliot’s view on contemporary society, discussing a dry wasteland which is used as a metaphor for Europe’s devastation of the war. The poem is particularly fragmented despite being organised into five sections involving stanzas, as it includes various view points and voices.
Moral degeneration is a strong motif throughout the poem as well as discussing obsessions within Europe such as materialism, novelty, and gratification. Eliot uses images of modern life with bleak settings to emphasise spiritual and cultural death and the ghostly landscape. Eliot shows the failed relationships between the different men and women to ironically capture how they’re unable to nourish a dying world. He shows us just how vain and shallow these relationships are and how the culture became very cliche. He includes many images to show this broken world known as “the wasteland”,for example, “the dead tree that gives no shelter”.
The poem can be rather hard to fully understand as it includes a lot of anthropological and historical allusions and also language we don’t use today. The way it is strutted can be hard to follow, however, after thoroughly reading through and analysing the poem, you can gather a good understanding of what Eliot was trying to portray in “The Wasteland”.
References:
eNotes.com. (n.d.). The Wasteland Summary. Retrieved from https://www.enotes.com/topics/waste-land
An effective summary. But which question is it answering?
DeletePost-Modernism:
ReplyDelete3) How was Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
Bob Dylan’s song “Masters of War” is a protest song about the wars during the 1960’s. The song is seen to still be very relevant today. It was on February 21st in 1991 when the controversy began at the Grammy Awards. During the awards Dylan was to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award when he preformed a rendition of “Masters of War”. This was during the war between America and Iraq during the Bush administration. This performance became one of the most memorable of Dylan’s in his career.
Dylan performed the song once again after Bush declared a second war on Iraq on November 11th, 2002. He performed the song in Madison Square in front of a huge crowd, as a protest against Bush’s intentions. The song made a huge impact on juvenile delinquents and school kids, particularly at one school that performed the song in a talent quest. They changed the lyrics from “I hope you die”, to “die Bush, die”. While they performed the song they had footage of Bush and Iraq playing behind them.
References:
Rolling Stone. (n.d.). Bob Dylan, 'Masters of War' | Readers' Poll: The 10 Best Protest Songs of All Time Retrieved from http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/readers-poll-the-10-best-protest-songs-of-all-time-20141203/bob-dylan-masters-of-war-20141203
Words in the Bucket (n.d.).I Can See Through Your Masks. Retrieved from https://www.wordsinthebucket.com/i-can-see-through-your-masks-explaining-bob-dylan-masters-of-war
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ReplyDeleteYes, you have the argument here. But while Ginsberg might have used crude words and swear words, his literary style was far from crude.
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DeleteMODERNISM
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1 and 2:
T.S Eliot The Wasteland was written in the beginning of the 20th century. (1922) It relates to the traumatic shock after World War 1 and what the world, specifically England had become. After WW1 the industrial revolution was happening, and this poem refers to this.
Multiple eyes/ differing perspectives throughout the poem for example, it starts off as an omniscient narrator then moves into first person.
This poem has many references to the Rider Waite Tarot Card deck. Also, Shakespeare’s play the Tempest, as it starts with a shipwreck and this poem includes a shipwreck.
“Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe, with a wicked pack of cards. Here, she said, is your card the drowned Phoenician sailor, (those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!) Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks, the lady of situations. Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel.”
“I do not find the hanged man. Fear death by water.”
“Those pearls that were his eyes”, refers to Shakespeare’s the Tempest, as well as the drowned sailor, they are connected through these two lines. In the Tempest this line is from Ariel’s song in Act 1, Scene 2. She is informing Ferdinand that his father has died in a shipwreck, but she is lying. This could lead to say that Tarot cards sometimes lie.
The man of three staves (or three of wands) describes “a calm, stately figure, with his back turned, looking from a cliff’s edge at ships passing over the sea. Three staves are planted in the ground and he leans slightly on one of them” and the meaning is that “he symbolises established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, discovery, commerce; those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are sailing over the sea. If reversed: the end of troubles, suspension or end of adversity, disappointment, and toil.”
This relates to the Tempest as characters Miranda and Prospero are watching the shipwreck unfold from the shore of their island. And yet another lie, Prospero set up the shipwreck, unknown to Miranda until he tells her the story of why.
The man of three staves relates to the Wasteland as during the industrial revolution, imports and exports were increasing. So “established enterprise, trade, commerce, bearing merchandise which are sailing over the sea” could reflect England within the world trade.
The wheel of fortune: “destiny, fortune, success, luck, felicity. Reversed: increase, abundance, superfluity.”
The hanged man: “wisdom, trials, circumspection, discernment, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy. Reversed: selfishness, the crowd, body politic.”
I actually have a pack of Rider- Waite Tarot cards, so these are the divinary descriptions from the booklet the came along with the pack of cards. I find it very interesting how Eliot included this in his poem, to add an extra layer of meaning and depth to his poem. As tarot cards on their own hold many meanings; so does T.S Eliot’s poem.
http://wasteland.windingway.org/48/those-are-pearls-that-were-his-eyes-look
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/tempest/page_48.html
POST- MODERNISM
ReplyDeleteQuestions 1 and 4:
Post- modernism was a cultural trend which took some elements of modernism and threw some away. Art and literature were intensified and challenging. There was a move away from meta-narratives and move into meta- modernism, the proposal that we should go back to the idea of a utopia from modernism. Post-modernism was a revolutionary sentiment in the mainstream.
The Beats were of the post-modern movement from the 1950/60’s. Beat poetry was written to be read aloud, performed orally, and is related today to rap. They were poems in protest. Howl for example was banned because it contained open homosexuality. Bob Dylan wrote protest songs, there were less love songs of the early 50’s, and more songs about serious issues.
Howl by Allen Ginsberg (1956)
Dedicated to his friend Carl Solomon, who was a psychiatric patient who underwent shock therapy. He was the inspiration for the poem. This poem is about life and death. It includes, sex, drugs and suicide. The American way that is hidden from view. This poem was banned because of the explicit content.
Ginsberg starts referring to a Moloch in the second part of the poem. A Moloch is:
“A deity whose worship was marked by the propitiatory sacrifice of children by their own parents. II Kings 23:10; Jer. 32:35. –Bible.”
“Anything conceived of as requiring appalling sacrifice:
the Moloch of war.”
“(Lowercase) a spiny agamid lizard.”
In relation to the poem this word means children were sacrificed by America; their own mother. America sacrificed to its realities. Soldiers going to war and all the civil servants doing the jobs they are told to do by the government.
In the third part of his poem he mentions Carl Solomon whom the poem is dedicated to. He says “I’m with you in Rockland.” Rockland is a county of New and holds the largest Jewish population, (Ginsberg is Jewish). He said this line to show that Solomon is not alone and that the Beats all stand together in their fight against the United States.
POST-MODERNISM CONT
ReplyDeleteQuestions 2 and 5:
Rap originated from African warrior boasting. This included their prowess and sexual boasting, as well as a social commentary, (the society they were living in; what was happening in their community). (Ginsberg, A. (1995). On rap. US: Hibbet Radio).
I find it interesting that rap today is still essentially boasting about women and how much money a person has. But not all rap is like this, it is more the beat and genre now that is classified as hip hop/ rap.
Beat poetry and rap are linked through their rhythms and in some cases, content. Rap is essentially poetry so you could argue that beat poetry and even poetry are forms of rap.
There are protest raps, such as back in 1982 with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s songs The Message. This rap talks about the corrupt streets of New York typically the Bronx. The government lets people live this way. No one can escape it- “Don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge, I’m trying not to lose my head. It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under.” The society we’re living in is all about money, and the way people get it is sometimes wrong.
Eminem’s rap “Mosh” (2004) is a protest song about the 2004 American election. He wants people to vote George W. Bush out of office. Some lyrics that stand out are:
“They tell us “no!” We say “yeah!” They tell us “stop!” We say “go!”
“Fuck Bush!”
“Until they bring our troops home.”
“No more blood for oil.”- Fighting in Iraq.
“The stars and stripes have been swiped, washed out and wiped.”- The flag no linger represents the people of America.
The accompanying music video includes military men getting called out to Iraq, families getting evicted from their homes, and an African American man being hassled by police, and a mosh crowd against the White House. These are issues in the United States still today, and Eminem addressed them back then.
I think there are protest songs today, but they are more subtle. You could say that people are more scared of creating major protest songs now, because of the previous reception they received, and nothing really changed.
A modern protest rap is by Kendrick Lamar called Alright and was released 2015. It talks about the struggles of being African American. Lyrics that stand out are:
“Wouldn’t you know we been hurt, been down before, nigga, when our pride was low lookin at the world like, “where do we go?” nigga, and we hate po-po wanna kill us dead in the street for sho’ nigga, I‘m at the preacher’s door my knees getting weak, and my gun might blow but we gon’ be alright.”
It is a song of hope, yet still states the corruption that needs to change. This song was included in the Black Lives Matter campaign which swept America.
Music can be spread to many people to get a message across. Protest music is what makes people notice and join in what they’re saying because it is true. Not everything can be changed, but people can always fight against the societal insecurities.
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ReplyDeleteQuestion 5
ReplyDeleteIn the last decade there have been many protest songs and raps released. “Dear Mr. President” by Pink is one of my favorites. This song was directed at George W. Bush who was president at the time in 2005 when this song was first written on Martin Luther King Day. The song however was not released until 2007.
This song conveys many notions such as homosexuality, poverty and inequality. The song is a voice for not only Pink but also many others. In the first line it says, “Dear Mr. President, come take a walk with me” In this line, Pink is introducing this idea that the president is not aware of the current problems that are taking place in which she then asks him to come take a walk with her so she can show him. Because he is obviously already aware of the issues, it acts as a mockery or a representation of the president’s ignorance.
In another line it says, “how do you sleep while the rest of us cry?” This is a clear conveyance of how unhappy people are with Bush and suggests that he does not seem to care about the aforementioned existential crises. In another line it says, “lets pretend were just two people and you’re no better than me” In this line, Pink is addressing his power of authority and depicts the notion that Bush regards to himself as superior to everyone else thus reinforcing the aforementioned representation of his ignorance.
The last lines I want to mention are “how can you say no child is left behind, were not dumb and were not blind. They’re all locked up in your cells”. Here pink is addressing Bushes No child left behind act that was supposedly implemented to fix the nations deteriorating education system. She is implying that he is a liar and that his act means nothing. This song is basically about Bush not fulfilling his duties as a President and not doing anything to make a difference for his nation. There is definitely still a spirit of protest that is not only present in this song but in many others.
References
https://www.lyricinterpretations.com/pink/dear-mr-president
http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/196947/analysis-of-the-song-dear-mr-president-by-pink
http://marya330.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/2010/10/03/musical-analysis-dear-mr-president/
Modernism
ReplyDeleteThe wasteland is a rather complex poem. Critics have said that the title expresses a notion of exhaustion and that the wasteland is a literal description of what the landscape was like in the 19th century during WW1. The poem conveys a lot of different messages. Some of these include fragmentation, ruination, subjectivity and moral deterioration.
The first notion can be seen in the structure or layout of the poem. The poem has 5 sections. Interpreters have said that this concept of fragmentation depicts distinct notions of western culture, disillusion and disintegration. There is also a notion of shoring up where the writer is supposedly trying to stop the exhaustion and repurpose.
An interesting notion however is the idea of mastery in which the writer is trying to make sense of the world around him. This can be seen in the line “unreal city.” He is cut off from a clear sense of self and cannot make sense of the world around him. This is also related to the idea of consumerism, which correlates with the notion of moral deterioration.
The notion of mastery and disintergration can also be seen in the lines
“A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet” which talks about how people have become so mindless and how existence after death is now in his own presence. He then ends the poem with the line “shantih shantih shantih” which means the peace which passeth understanding. He is expressing the idea of sympathy and peace.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJvAU3D37tQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEC5k5Y--gk