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==The Waste Land App== | ==The Waste Land App== | ||
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| + | ===Poem=== | ||
| + | The first feature of the app begins with the poem. In addition to the original text, there are several other aspects of this feature that add to the reader's understanding. There is a Notes option on this feature that allows the reader to make personal notes in a digital format. More importantly, the poem feature includes a reader option. One can choose to have the poem read aloud to them by several famous voices. These voices include two different versions of T.S. Elliot, along with Alec Guinness, Ted Hughes, Jeremy Irons and Eileen Atkins, Viggo Mortensen and Fiona Shaw. The two different readings by T.S. Elliot are especially striking. In 1933, Elliot has a much more relaxed tone regarding the poem as opposed to 1947. Elliot's accent also becomes more affected in the 14 year gap. | ||
| − | === | + | ===Perspectives=== |
| − | + | After reading the original poem, an individual can then move on to the Perspectives section of the app. This feature allows the reader to gain better understanding of the poem through various video perspectives. These perspectives include everything from editors to punk rock artists who were influenced by Elliot's work. The first of these perspectives comes from Seamus Heaney. Heaney, a beloved Irish poet, speaks to readers who are encountering Elliot for the first time. He dictates a process of reading Elliot and then reads several sections aloud. The next perspective on this feature comes from Paul Keegan, a poetry editor at Faber & Faber. He discusses Elliot's collaboration with his editor Ezra Pound. This perspective is especially helpful when reading the manuscripts in another feature on the app. Jim McCue is a leading expert on T.S. Elliot. He gives a detailed history of The Waste Land's publication. Craig Raine is a fellow English poet, critic, and academic. He is known to be one of the leading experts on T.S. Elliot. He discusses Elliot in detail, along with British poets in general and the first World War. His perspective also includes reading a section of "What the Thunder Said." Following Raine is Irish actor Fiona Shaw, whose performance is detailed later in the page. Shaw discusses her feelings about Elliot, along with critics and her impact on the audience. This perspective is especially useful in conjunction with the Performance feature of the app. One of the most interesting perspectives coms from Frank Turner. Turner is a hardcore punk lead singer turned folk singer-songwriter and solo artist. Turner discusses how Elliot's work has influenced his song lyrics. In addition to his personal experience with The Waste Land, he speaks about Bob Dylan's influence, the history of the poem and it's lyrical qualities. The final perspective comes from Jeanette Winterson. Winterson is a famous British author who discusses the difficulty of Elliot's work, it's technological aspect and the Elliot's vision for the future. All of these perspectives can be watched in order or the reader can choose which topic by which author that they would like to view. This feature greatly adds to the academic quality of the app. | |
| − | + | ===Manuscripts=== | |
| + | The Manuscripts feature of the app allows the reader to view the original drafts of the poem. They include a lively, handwritten dialogue between T.S. Elliot and his editor, Ezra Pound. The manuscripts give the reader an opportunity to view the progression of the poem, along with edits, changes, and personal thoughts. Any individual hoping to delve deeply into The Waste Land should view these manuscripts in detail. | ||
| − | + | ===Gallery=== | |
| + | The Gallery section of the app is filled with iconic photos relating to The Waste Land. It includes everything from early photos of Elliot, to scenes and images depicted in the poem. The photos from World War 1 and the impoverished East End of London are especially striking. | ||
| − | == | + | ===Readings and Notes=== |
| − | + | The Reading section of the app, along with the Note section of the app serve to aid the original feature of the Poem. The readings mentioned above are included in their own section. Additionally, there is a specific section for the reader to organize and categorize their own personal digital notes. | |
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| + | ===Fiona Shaw Performance=== | ||
| + | Exclusive to The Waste Land App is a groundbreaking filmed performance of the entire poem by Fiona Shaw. Filmed in Dublin, the performance runs approximately 37 minutes and includes all five sections of the poem. Shaw's dynamic performance of the poem goes beyond the scope of traditional poetry reading; she creates a number of individual characters, each possessing their own voice, physical posture, facial expressions, and personality. Through her characters, Shaw finds humor in an overwhelmingly bleak piece of literature. Her character voices are comical; her physical gestures are energetic; her facial expressions allow for hints of sarcasm to be carried across Eliot's original words. | ||
| − | + | For example, this video of Shaw's performance of The Burial of the Dead contains a scene in which Shaw brings to life the famous Madame Sosostris. Her portrayal of the clairvoyante is captivating, and the viewer feels as if he is having his own fortune read to him. A bubbly, elderly woman, Sosostris clearly contradicts her title as "the wisest woman in Europe." Instead, Shaw highlights the fact that this woman is a fraud. Her humorous justification of the blank card, and the short and snappy conclusion to her reading--a mechanical "thank you" accompanied by an extended and expecting hand--bring serious doubts as to the legitimacy of her profession. The humor of this performance serves to convey Eliot's message that society has begun to search for meaning from the most ridiculous sources because the sources of the past have proven unreliable. | |
| − | + | <blockquote><videoflash type="youtube">lPB_17rbNXk</videoflash></blockquote> | |
| − | + | <blockquote>[[Image:male7-interview-shot-480.jpg]]</blockquote> | |
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| + | Interesting in its own right is the filming technique of the performance itself. Because Shaw's performance is a solo act, there is not a lot of camera work required to capture it. As a result, many of the camera angles are reminiscent of a documentary interview (see image above). Suddenly, each new speaker within the poem becomes, in a sense, its own interview. Rather than a crowd of random voices, these characters get a chance to offer their testimony of their experiences. This can be seen in the opening lines of the poem as Shaw (in character, of course) tells of her memories with her cousin: | ||
| − | + | And when we were children, staying at the arch-duke's, | |
| + | My cousin's, he took me out on a sled. | ||
| + | And I was frightened. He said Marie, | ||
| + | Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. | ||
| + | In the mountains, there you feel free. | ||
| + | I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter. | ||
| − | + | This final line carries new weight when spoken directly to the camera. If unclear before, it is not unmistakable that this is the confession of insomnia caused by traumatic experiences. This interview-style filming makes a fairly inaccessible poem quite personal. Shaw creates troubled characters, and the filming captures her emotional vulnerability for the audience in an intimate setting. As a whole, the series of interview-like segments cause the performance to feel much like a war documentary. Given the context of the poem, this is an entirely appropriate mood. After all, the poem is an exploration of the various responses to World War I; it only makes sense that the 21st Century adaptation of this exploration would mimic the documentary. Each medium--the poem and the documentary--seeks to accomplish the same purpose. Thanks to Shaw's performance and the developers at Touchpress, we are now able to see a blend of both. | |
| − | + | ==Pieces of Work Influenced By Eliot and The Waste Land== | |
| − | + | '''Wilfred Owen''' [[Image:Wilfred owens.jpg]] | |
| − | The | + | Owen was a poet contemporary to Eliot, also writing WWI thematic poetry such as his poem [http://www.englishverse.com/poems/futility Futlity] which speaks of the war dead and futile attempts to wake them from their final slumber, as well as representing the destructive effects the war had on the land. ''The Waste Land'' has a continuous theme of futility and desolation in Europe following the war. |
| − | + | Lines from "Futility" stating that "If anything might rouse him now / The kind old sun will know" are reminiscent of pieces of ''[http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176735 The Waste Land]'' that speak of the dead, such as the zombie scene displayed in the first section of the poem, Burial of the Dead. The war dead are wandering the streets of London, they are vacant and empty as "death had undone so many" of the people, creating the zombies that the narrator sees. In Owen's poem "Futility", the same theme of the unknown factor that comes with death is present. "If anything might rouse him now", such as whatever roused the war dead in ''The Waste Land'' | |
| − | + | '''Allen Tate''' [[Image:Allen tate pic.jpg]] | |
| − | + | Tate, a fan and admirer of both Eliot and ''The Waste Land'', wrote "The Golden Mean", a parody of Eliot's poem. (http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/tate/life.htm) | |
| − | + | '''Ezra Pound''' [[Image:Ezrapound.jpg]] | |
| − | + | Pound, upon first meeting Eliot, was definitely the more famous of the two poets and he was one of the reasons why Eliot found fame so quickly with his work. Though Eliot is the one most remembered nowadays, the two were incredibly close friends and worked together on many things. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/books/review/McGrath-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) | |
| − | + | '''W.B. Yeats''' [[Image:Yeats.jpg]] | |
| − | + | While Eliot is considered the father of Modernism, Yeats is considered the father of the Irish Renaissance. Nevertheless, Yeats was influenced by Eliot and his work, a fact that puzzled him. While Yeats was a well known poet before Eliot came on the scene, Yeats applauded Eliot's first poem and Eliot's influences can be seen in bits and pieces of Yeats' work. In Eliot's later career, Yeats was a huge antagonist, criticizing and tearing apart not only Eliot's poetry, but his personal life as well. (http://faculty.uscupstate.edu/jpellegrino/articles/yeatsarticle.htm) | |
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| − | '''Other Authors''' | + | '''Other Authors Influenced by Eliot''' |
| − | + | John Dos Passos ... Anthony Burgess ... Wallace Stevens ... Eugenio Montale | |
| − | + | Ralph Ellison ... Hart Crane ... W.H. Auden ... Francis Bacon | |
| − | + | Jeanette Winterson ... Guy Butler ... James Plunkett ... Nick Laird | |
| − | + | ==Music Artists and Songs Influenced by ''The Waste Land''== | |
| + | One of the apt ways in which the legacy of ''The Waste Land'' has lived on has been through the medium of music. T.S. Eliot once remarked that ''The Waste Land'' was merely "rhythmical grumblings." While it arguably has many qualities that take it beyond sheer "rhythmical grumblings," many a songwriter has found a connection with T.S. Eliot's rhythmic, piecemeal style of poetry. ''The Waste Land'' has invited artists to, in the words of Eliot, "communicate" with poetry before "it's understood." | ||
| − | + | ===Pop Music and ''The Waste Land''=== | |
| − | + | *The influential American singer-songwriter, artist, and writer '''Bob Dylan''', influenced by Eliot's lines as well as Eliot's style, released the eleven minute song, "Desolation Row" not long after T.S. Eliot's death. The song, filled with allusions and borrowed "broken images" has a modern, mosaic style reminiscent of Eliot's ''The Waste Land.'' | |
| − | + | <blockquote><videoflash type="vimeo">11222889</videoflash></blockquote> | |
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| − | + | *The popular English folk-punk singer '''Frank Turner''' in an interview found in the "Perspectives" section of ''The Waste Land'' App spoke on Eliot's influence on his song writing: " I wasn't a poetry lover until I met Eliot... I hadn't grasped how devastating poetry could be until I came across Eliot... Reading Eliot gave me a kind of sense of ambition in what one could achieve through words." | |
| + | Frank Turner has three songs directly influenced by Eliot's poetry: | ||
| − | + | *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_ahJwZGLbU The Fisher King Blues] - T.S. Eliot incorporated elements of the Arthurian legend of The Fisher King into ''The Waste Land.'' | |
| + | *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRuE1bk1Lus Journey of the Magi] - Turner based this song off of Eliot's poem of the same name "Journey of the Magi." | ||
| + | *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3eM2R1aCKQ I Knew Prufrock Before He got Famous] - This song is a reference to Eliot's second most famous poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." | ||
| − | + | *British musician '''Polly Jean Harvey''' 's stated Eliot's poetry as an influence on her 2011 album ''Let England Shake.'' Many of the lyrics seem to identify with the same feelings of turmoil, war, and darkness expressed by Eliot in ''The Waste Land.'' | |
| + | [http://jamesrussellontheweb.blogspot.com/2011/02/pj-harvey-ts-eliot-and-paul-nash-in.html One blogger] has suggested Harvey directly referencing lines from ''The Waste Land'' in her song [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDblL441DxM On Battleship Hill] containing the lyrics "Jagged mountains jutting out/ Cracked like teeth in a rotting mouth" which read similar to lines 338-9 in ''The Waste Land'': "If there were only water amongst the rock/ Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit." | ||
| − | + | * To name a few more-'''Van Morrison,''' '''The Pet Shop Boys,''' '''Chuck D,''' and '''Thom Yorke''' are a few additional artists that have marked influences in their music tracing back to the poetry of Eliot. | |
| − | + | ===British Punk/Rock Bands Influenced by ''The Waste Land''=== | |
| + | Many British punk/rock bands of the late 20th century and early 21st century have identified with and been influenced by the pessimistic tone and mosaic, allusion-filled style of Eliot's poetry. A few worth mentioning: | ||
| − | + | *'''King Crimson''' is a progressive rock band that began in London in the late 1960s but became a transatlantic band in the 1980s. Their 1999 album ''The Deception of the Thrush'' carries allusions and influences from Eliot's poetry as well as specific references to ''The Waste Land.'' | |
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| + | *'''Hot Chip,''' a British electronic music band directly quotes Eliot's famous line "April is the cruellest month" in the opening of their song [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mATrenootCA Playboy] released in 2004. | ||
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| + | *'''Amebix''' is an English crust punk/ heavy metal band that dealt with themes from ''The Waste Land'' in their music. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYEcjcvLVXE Drink and Be Merry] is an example of the allusions to a modern waste land and allusions to WWII. | ||
==Derivative Works== | ==Derivative Works== | ||
===Cover Art=== | ===Cover Art=== | ||
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| − | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover 2.jpg]] | + | ==== <u>The Waste Land</u> ==== |
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| + | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover 2 final.jpg]] This cover is from the a version of The Waste Land published by W.W. Norton & Company in 2000. | ||
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| + | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover 6 final.jpg]] This one is from a copy of The Waste Land published by Vee Press. | ||
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| + | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover 8.jpg]] This cover is from the Kindle edition of The Waste Land published by Liveright in September 2013. | ||
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| + | ==== <u>The Waste Land and Other Poems</u> ==== | ||
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| + | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover 1 final.jpg]] This is The Waste Land cover for the edition published by Penguin Books in 2003 that also contains some of Eliot's other poems. | ||
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| + | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover 11 final.jpg]] This is the cover for a collection of T.S. Eliot's poems, featuring The Waste Land published by Barnes & Noble in 2005. | ||
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| + | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover 10 final.jpg]] This cover is from the Kindle edition of The Waste Land and other T.S. Eliot works. It was published by Modern Library in July 2009. | ||
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| + | ==== <u>Related Works</u> ==== | ||
| − | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover | + | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover 13 final.jpg]] This cover is from an annotated version of The Waste Land published in 2006 by the Yale University Press. |
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| − | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover | + | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover 16.jpg]] This is the cover for the Kindle version of "T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land in 999 Words (What Everyone Should Know) published in 2010 by Nimble Books LLC. |
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| − | [[Image: The Waste Land Cover | + | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover 12 final.jpg]] This is the cover for the Kindle edition of an illustrated version of The Waste Land. It was published in July 2014 by Heritage Illustrated Publishing. |
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| − | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover | + | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover 5.jpg]] This is the cover art for a website entirely devoted to The Waste Land. It's a detail from the painting The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel. |
| − | [[Image: The Waste Land Cover | + | [[Image: The Waste Land Cover 7 final.jpg]] This is the cover art for The Waste Land as read by Robert Speaigh and created by Olga Lehmanns. |
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| − | [[Image:The Waste Land Cover | + | [[Image: The Waste Land Cover 9.jpg]] This is the cover of The Waste Land as an audiobook, published by thoughtaudio.com. |
| − | + | Each of these covers is pretty different, but some of them have a common theme; a barren landscape. Even though the poem is titled ''The Waste Land'', is this an appropriate rendering of the poem? Certainly everyone will have their opinion on this, and I don't think there's necessarily a right or wrong answer, but I don't think a picture of deserted wilderness is exactly relevant to this poem. In my reading, I found ''The Waste Land'' to be about people and their interactions with each other. I don't think these landscapes reflect that part of the poem. It has been suggested that Eliot is making a point to say that we need to be generous again and rediscover our empathy; these covers do not reflect that part of the poem. They do, however, accurately reflect the aftermath of a war-torn land. War brings devastation and ravages the land, leaving it scorched, but as the poem says, the land will breed lilacs out of the dead ground again, even after the terrible fighting. These covers depict the first part of that cycle, but not the rebirth and struggle afterwards. ''The Waste Land'' is about combining the past and the future, mixing ancient and modern, but these covers only show one side of that. | |
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===Art Galleries=== | ===Art Galleries=== | ||
