'The Waste Land' by Thomas Stearns Eliot : Brief Discussion & Overview.

Introduction : This blog is written as a response to the Thinking Activity assigned by my professor Dr Dilip Barad sir. The blog relates several questions and thinking milestones regarding T. S. Eliot's long poem 'The Waste Land.'

'The Waste Land' is a long poem written by modernist English poet Thomas Stearns Eliot and was published in 1922. The poem is a collage of several myth accross the world. It is regarded as one of the masterpieces ever produced by Eliot.The 433-line, five-part poem was dedicated to fellow poet Ezra Pound, who helped condense the original manuscript to nearly half its size. 

The basic theme of The Waste Land is the disillusionment of the post-war generation and sterility of the modern man. The critics have commented on the theme in different words: "vision of desolation and spiritual drought" (F. R. Leavis); "the plight of the whole generation" (I. A. Richards); "a sigh for the vanished glory of the past" (Cleanth Brooks); "There is a life in death, a life of complete inactivity, listlessness and apathy" (Stephen Spender). 

1 : What are your views on the following image after reading 'The Waste Land'? Do you think that Eliot is regressive as compared to Nietzche's views? or Has Eliot achieved universality of thought by recalling mytho-historical answer to the contemporary malaise?

Answer : The concept of 'Ubermesch' is put forth by the famous existentialist Friedrich Nietzsche in his book 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' (1883.) Nietzsche talks about the prospective possibility for humans to be upgraded from their present limitations of physical as well as psychological. The German word 'Ubermensch' can be translated in Englosh as 'Overhuman' or 'Superman.' Nietzsche's posited humans are supposed to be individual, possessing their own moral codes & conduscts unlike herd-mentality and mass-morality, concerned about Earthly life but the other one - dogmatically illustrated in religions - where they have not been ever, and the progressive minds indeed. This is considered as the 'Progressive Approach' to find the solutions amongst scholars. I have found interesting videos describing the very concept of 'Ubermensch' along with its criticism :

Now let us see that how far Eliot has reached to seek to the solutions for thr problems presented in the early modern age, the problems which still resonate in one way or the other in the post-modern age wherein we have been living since thr beginning of the modernist period from 1901 to the present date. 

T. S. Eliot steps back into the mythologies of the most celebrated presentday religions in the world such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and undoubtedly Christianity in order to find the solutions for the problems he as an aware and cognizant poet had been observing in his time, i.e., Moder Age of England. His method to come over the malaise prevalent in then and now time of the world is regarded as - unlike Nietzsche's 'Progressive Approach' - 'Regressive Approach' which is apt to raise the following concerns for a thinking mind :

(1) If problems are yet to be found there in the prevalent time, it clearly means that previous mythological solutions are abject failure since their time. 

(2) Rather than seeking resort to the impractical, irrational, and emotional solutions for the problems observed and felt, one is supposed to turn to more pragmatic solutions which can surely give some feasible views to solve the prevalent problems. 

So, aforementioned points can be categorised as the two major drawbacks of Eliot's method of solution seeking which is 'Regressive Approach.' 

2 : Prior to the speech, Gustaf Hellström of the Swedish Academy made these remarks :

What are your views regarding these comments? Is it true that giving free vent to the repressed 'primitive instinct' lead us to happy and satisfied life? or do you agree with Eliot's view that 'salvation of man lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition'? 

Answer : Sigmund Freud and his fellow researcher Joseph Breuer contributed the juggernaut psychological treatise which they named as 'Studien über Hysterie' (1895) and in English translation - 'Studies on Hysteria' which is originally written in German language.

In the book, Freud and Breuer defined catharsis as "the process of reducing or eliminating a complex by recalling it to conscious awareness and allowing it to be expressed." Catharsis still plays a role today in Freudian psychoanalysis. 

So, this was the idea of free emotional vent proposed by Freud which was refuted by the speaker Gustaf Hellström while eulogizing Vaidik idea of controlling one's natural physical urges in order 'to prevent malaise' which Eliot took in his poem 'The Waste Land' as 'Damyataa' or 'Self-control.' So, the stark dichotomy is seen between both the statements given by two prominent figures in their respective fields. 

In my opinion, one should rely more on one's present state of life conditions and take decisions accordingly, at the same time I would consider it wise to seek solitions of presentday problems from past to present time in form of universal mindset; as long as there is universality in any literary text of all the cultural vividness, it may help to get rid of the problems sought to be solved. 

3 : Write about allusions to the Indian thoughts in 'The Waste Land'. (Where, How and Why are the Indian thoughts referred?) 

Answer : In his famous modernist poem 'The Waste Land,' Eliot makes an extensive use of myths and allusions from all around the glob. If we are to see Indian allusions taken into the poem, we are supposed to refer to them by a direct reading of the poem. I have observed several Indian Thoughts & Epistemology as well as Philosophical and Mythological allusions employed finely by Eliot : 

'Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves

Waited for rain, while the black clouds

Gathered far distant, over Himavant.

The jungle crouched, humped in silence.

Then spoke the thunder

DA

Datta: what have we given?

My friend, blood shaking my heart

The awful daring of a moment’s surrender

Which an age of prudence can never retract

By this, and this only, we have existed

Which is not to be found in our obituaries

Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider

Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor

In our empty rooms

DA

Dayadhvam: I have heard the key

Turn in the door once and turn once only

We think of the key, each in his prison

Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison

Only at nightfall, aethereal rumours

Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus

DA

Damyata: The boat responded

Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar

The sea was calm, your heart would have responded

Gaily, when invited, beating obedient

To controlling hands 

I sat upon the shore

Fishing, with the arid plain behind me

Shall I at least set my lands in order?

London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down

Poi s’ascose nel foco che gli affina

Quando fiam uti chelidon—O swallow swallow

Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la tour abolie

These fragments I have shored against my ruins

Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe.

Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata. 

Shantih     shantih     shantih' 

(From  Part V : 'What the Thunder Said' : 'The Waste Land') 

The very first reference occurs in the fifth and last part of the poem is of Ganga or Ganges river of India. Here the location and description of the referenced river is seen below :

(Photo Courtesy : Wikipedia)

Second Indian reference is coming from is from Brihadaranyaka Upanishada. 

'Eliot derives the speaking thunder from an ancient Indian philosophical work called the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in which people are enjoined to adopt certain moral standards in their lives. 

These standards are “Datta,” giving; Dayadhvam,” being compassionate; and “Damyata,” exercising control. Though these moral commands are unmistakably the products of Eastern philosophy, their derivation from the thunder, which all of us experience at some point in our lives, gives them a universal relevance, even to those of us who live in the West. 

In fact, they are particularly relevant to those who live in the West, especially those who live in the fractured, chaotic society of the post-war era, when many of the old moral, cultural, and political certainties had been upended by years of bloody, senseless conflict.' (Source : Click Here)

4 : Is it possible to read 'The Waste Land' as a Pandemic Poem? 

Answer : It will be interesting and novelistic study if the poem is read and analysed through the pandemic lens. One book by Elizabeth Outka, named as 'Viral Modernism' (22nd October, 2019) can be taken to refer to the pandemic study of the poem 'The Waste Land;' based on that book, I have found an article wherein it is mentioned that not only the poem chosen, but some others can also be studied through the pandemic lens. :

'Readers will tend to connect the events in the literary work to their real-life situations and reinterpret them. While  tracing the history of literature, one can find that several works were composed in the backdrop of pandemics and they have brought a change in the ideology of people. The ideological shift in people is rightly  presented in the book Viral Modernism:  The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature by Elizabeth Outka. While Outka read The Waste Land, Second Coming and Mrs. Dalloway through the lens of the pandemic, this research tries to read Ode to the West Wind, Metamorphosis and Mental Cases in the light of covid pandemic. In  short, a paradigm shift has occurred in the reading perception in the pandemic time.' (Source : Click Here)

5 : Give link of the Google Sheet with tabular information on Myths, Allusions, Languages, Animals/birds, colours etc. 

Answer : I have prepared a document in form of Google Sheet denoting all the Myths, Allusions, Languages, Animals/Birds, etc. motifs during the classroom course of the poem 'The Waste Land.' 

Click Here to View the Roll.

Thank You!