Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
For the lovers of literature and T.S. Eliot out there, there's a really great article in The American Conservative magazine about Eliot right now titled "The Critic as Radical." The subtitle of the piece is beautiful: "T.S. Eliot sought the still point of the turning world." (h/t member Tim Smith).
The article's author, George Scialabba, singles out the below passage as the "most moving passage I have encountered in all of Eliot’s writings."
To me, religion has brought at least the perception of something above morals, and therefore extremely terrifying; it has brought me not happiness, but the sense of something above happiness and therefore more terrifying than ordinary pain and misery; the very dark night and the desert. To me, the phrase ‘to be damned for the glory of God’ is sense and not paradox; I had far rather walk, as I do, in daily terror of eternity, than feel that this was only a children’s game in which all the contestants would get equally worthless prizes in the end. … And I don’t know whether this is to be labeled ‘Classicism’ or ‘Romanticism’; I only think that I have hold of the tip of the tail of something quite real, more real than morals, or than sweetness and light and culture.
The most moving passage that I have encountered in Eliot's works come from his poem, Burnt Norton, which is one of Eliot's Four Quartets:
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.
Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?
Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,
Round the corner. Through the first gate,
Into our first world, shall we follow
The deception of the thrush? Into our first world.
There they were, dignified, invisible,
Moving without pressure, over the dead leaves,
In the autumn heat, through the vibrant air,
And the bird called, in response to
The unheard music hidden in the shrubbery,
And the unseen eyebeam crossed, for the roses
Had the look of flowers that are looked at.
There they were as our guests, accepted and accepting.
So we moved, and they, in a formal pattern,
Along the empty alley, into the box circle,
To look down into the drained pool.
Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged,
And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight,
And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly,
The surface glittered out of heart of light,
And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.
Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty.
Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
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Aug '10
Re: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
Eliot is such a large box of wonder. Just think of " this is how the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper ".
"a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across the floors of ancient seas.."
Pretty bleak stuff. The thing I liked best about the article was the title of the author's book: What Are Intellectuals Good For ?
Well, for one, scaring the stuffing out of us. Great, just great to find out that damnation is a comforting realization. No wonder Rimbaud gave it up at 19.
Aug '10
Re: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
T S Eliot fan? Of a sort.
Of the Four Quartets, my favorite parts are in Little Gidding:
The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre—
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.
and
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
Journey of the Magi is also good.
Edited on Nov 24, 2010 at 9:16amMay '10
Re: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
Thanks for pointing out the article. A worthwhile read. I like Midget's comment about being a fan "of a sort." I cannot say that I "love" Eliot, but one does seem to come back to him often. Like Midg I prefer Little Gidding of the Quartets.
I do think I "get" Eliot more as the years go by. The Four Quartets are very much a reflection on life as seen from an older man, and the "gifts reserved for age", and it helps to be in the same state. Alas, not a happy revelation...
Perhaps that's the key to Eliot; not so much very lovely (and easily loved) but rather very true. (Could say as much for conservatism in general, eh?)
Jun '10
Re: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
In so many ways Eliot never let his eyes wander far away from the elephant in the drawing room: materialism. These days and even in his day, conservatives just work their way all the way around the good-in-itself thing as if walking beneath the viaduct instead of walking across the bridge from one side to the other will get you to your goal of being on the other side: the good life.
I wonder what a conservative like Eliot would have thought of, for instance, the Tea Party insurgency within conservative politics, and its undying adoration of business and even more the ubiquitous sanctity of small-business.
Of course, this resounds well with the Catholic Church’s position on materialism and capitalism.
So anyhow, who are the conservative artists/thinkers of our day? Waugh is behind us, Solzhenitsyn is a stretch....
I would love to hear some names…really!
Any help?
Oct '10
Re: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
I have little doubt that Eliot's mannered disdain for incivility, disorder, and the hoi polloi is really an intellectual thrill seeker's defense against distracting entanglements. Is there anything more thrilling than the unadulterated awe that a terrible swift sword can induce? It Eliot's case, of course, it's an emblematically abstract sword.
Alas, awe is transitory, and the poet, left longing for that elevated state, seeks relief in the discipline of his singular art, in the intensely concentrated search for the perfect word, the perfect rhythm, voice, image -- as a way to put his inevitable melancholia to use, to remake it into something separate, powerful, admirable, and thus escape it.
Other than that, I've always thought that poet's opinions are so much less interesting than their poetry.
Sep '10
Re: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
I live in a city that is bisected by a strong, brown, God, sullen, untamed and intractable. I was born on one side of it and I live and work on the other. So "The Dry Salvages" is my favorite. I do not know if it is necessary for Poets who write well into their "old age" to return to, or regain, a belief in Christianity, or religion more broadly perhaps but I suspect it is necessary
Aug '10
Re: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
Well, John Donne "got religion" at a fairly advanced age for his time. And in a river town. Eliot's river was the Mississippi. I'll take the Missouri. What's your river there Cap ?
Edited on Nov 24, 2010 at 3:26pmNov '10
Re: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
Tim: So anyhow, who are the conservative artists/thinkers of our day? Waugh is behind us, Solzhenitsyn is a stretch....
I would love to hear some names…really!
Any help?
If you are looking for industrial-strength Intellectual Conservatism, here is a good place to start:
http://www.newcriterion.com/
The Left has no one to match Roger Kimball.
And everyone on Ricochet should be linked to Mark Steyn:
http://www.steynonline.com/
Edited on Nov 24, 2010 at 3:01pmAug '10
Re: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
Lady Kurobara
Tim: So anyhow, who are the conservative artists/thinkers of our day? Waugh is behind us, Solzhenitsyn is a stretch....
I would love to hear some names…really!
Any help?
If you are looking for industrial-strength Intellectual Conservatism, here is a good place to start:
http://www.newcriterion.com/
The Left has no one to match Roger Kimball.
And everyone on Ricochet should be linked to Mark Steyn:
http://www.steynonline.com/ · Nov 24 at 2:52pm
Edited on Nov 24 at 03:01 pm
Paul Johnson
Theodore Dalrymple (Tony Daniels)
VDH
World of Wonders
h/t Davies
Edited on Nov 26, 2010 at 10:21amRe: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
It is an excellent, judicious article. I read it over dinner the other night.
Some outstanding non-left-wing litterateurs: Mark Helprin, Richard Dooling, Thomas Mallon, Tom Wolfe, Dana Gioia. Possibly Cormac McCarthy.
In more popular literature, Robert Ferrigno, Andrew Klavan, Tom Clancy, La Berlinska, any number of thriller writers, at least one detective novelist of my acquaintance, and probably a decent number of others who are discreet about it.
Edited on Nov 24, 2010 at 11:49pmSep '10
Re: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
Flownover, I live on the James. I echo the sentiment that the New Criterion is the perfect antidote to the disease of leftism in the Arts and Bill Walsh's list above. I think Mark Helprin's novel _A Soldier of the Great War_ is one of the best novels I've ever read. One might also include a certain series about the British navy in Napoleonic Wars even though I have no idea about the politics of its late chronicler and my particular friend Dr. Maturin is more skilled in this sort of discourse.
Sep '10
Re: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
Mark Helprin is my favorite -- how can you not love a writer who's model is Dante?
May '10
Re: Any T.S. Eliot Fans Out There?
I sometimes love Eliot, at other times I find he is just trying too hard to be obscure (The Waste Land). I often end up just wanting to yell "Oh lighten up Thomas, for God sake".
The now deceased Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, had a wicked habit of asking Garden Party guests once their mouths were full, "What do you think of TS Eliot's poetry... "