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?
Perception was changed through science from 19th century. In that period post-impressionism and expressionism have started. Post-Impressionist painters developed from 1885 to 1900. Expressing inner feelings became important. The example of expressionist artwork is Edvard Munch’s The Scream in 1893.
ReplyDeleteThis is true. How does this relate to our texts?
ReplyDeleteExpressing inner feelings are main theme in 'America' (1956) and 'he Waste Land' (1922). The expressionist artwork is shown through music industry. The examples are Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' and Eminem's 'Mosh'.
DeleteIn 'America' (1956) used personification to America. And blame America for many reasons. For example, he blamed America for causing human wars. He used quite strong swearing words such as "America when will we end the human war? Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb I don't feel good don't bother me." The writer is expressing his own political feelings here.
ReplyDelete'America' is similar to Eminem’s “Mosh”. Eminem is an American white rapper. He is special in music industry because the Black rappers are dominant. In his music videos, he used strong symbolism by cartoon. “Mosh” was realeased just before to the 2004 election. He also used strong swearing words to against the war and the president George.W.Bush.
Reference
Ginsberg, A. (1956). Howl, and other poems. San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop.
Eminem - Mosh Video Official Uncensored. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqPHAeqMvI8
Question 5 on Post-modernism
DeleteInteresting connection between Eminem and Ginsberg. Same spirit of protest.
ReplyDeleteYes, in his "Mosh" music video, the Black and White rappers collaborated together, protested on the street. They even go the The White House Office in Washington, D.C. to raise their voices. In his music video, the newspapers like New York Times and George W. Bush and the terrorist Osama bin Laden is showing on TV screen. And people who watch these media are not happy about it.
DeleteEminem and Gisberg are both not happy about what America causing the World wars.
Ginsberg also highlights about the media. "Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine? I'm obsessed by Time Magazine.
DeleteI read it every week."
And Eminem's lyrics and Ginsberg's poem both have rhythms and sound as if they are shouting their voices.
"America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
America when will you send your eggs to India?
I'm sick of your insane demands.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?" Ginsberg keeps repeating the word 'America' to reinforce the problems of the America.
In Eminem's 'Mosh' lyrics, he used the repetitions and rhymes to highlight his opinions, "We gonna fight, we gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march. Through the swamp, we gonna mosh through the marsh."
The personal pronoun 'we' is repeated and 'march' and 'marsh' rhymes.
We can see that although Eminem and Ginsberg has different time periods, they have many similarities and have same spirit of protest.
Reference
Ginsberg, A. (1956). Howl, and other poems. San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop.
EMINEM LYRICS - Mosh. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eminem/mosh.html
This is my response to Question 5 on Post-Modernism.
DeleteHi Han Seul,
Deletealso Eminem songs such as White America and Square Dance.
White America lyrics:
America, hahaha,Annotate we love you
How many people are proud to be citizens of this beautiful country of ours
The stripes and the stars for the rights that men have died for to protect
The women and men who have broke their necks for the freedom of speech
The United States government has sworn to uphold, or so we're told
this song tackles on the issues of Censorship, with this song being Eminem's bitter response
brings out the spirit of protest*
DeleteT.S. Eliot. (1922) The Waste Land
ReplyDeleteQuestion 3
Wasteland is the texts which showing that they are shifting to the modernism.
In “The Waste Land”, the readers can see that World War One influenced it. Although Elliot is not writing about WW1, but it is illustrating through about how he is writing Wasteland. Although, Eliot didn’t intended, it is a reaction to World War One. And also, the code has re-written. For example,
“Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
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” (line 60-65)
He is describing London city after the war.
“The Waste Land” has narrative coherent, yet it doesn't have a thematic coherent. It shows desolation of narrative and meaning.
Reference
T.S. Eliot. (1922). The Waste Land.
Faulk (2009) interprets ‘The Wasteland’ as a depiction of the city of London, in response to the author’s emotions regarding “the disintegration of national boundaries, of cultural hierarchy, and…of personal identity”. Faulk (2009) suggests that a key feature of ‘The Wasteland’ is that it “record[s] [the] responses” of multiple characters who are walking around and experiencing the culture of the city.
DeleteCuda (2009) perceives ‘The Wasteland’ as a “profoundly personal poem”, which takes a series of fragments of poems that come together, and reflects the tumult of Eliot’s own life, that included his discovery of the affair between his wife and his mentor, as well as the struggle with illness, of both himself and his wife, both physical and mental.
Hauck (2009) notes that ‘The Wasteland’ can be “read as a quest narrative driven by a guilt-ridden protagonist, whose sin remains unnamed”. It is also suggested that Eliot took inspiration from a number of religious or cultural myths, which deal with ritual and sacrifice, and suffering for sections of the poem. For example, the poem’s final section “What the Thunder Said” alludes to “Vedic myths of a land suffering from drought…caused by some evil force” (Hauck, 2009).
Cuda, A. (2009). The Poet and the Pressure Chamber: Eliot’s Life. In D. Chinitz (Eds.), A companion to T.S Eliot (pp. 3-14). London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Faulk, B.J. (2009). T.S Eliot and the Symbolist City. In D. Chinitz (Eds.), A companion to T.S Eliot (pp.27-39). London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Hauck, C. (2009). Not One, Not Two: Eliot and Buddhism. In D. Chinitz (Eds.), A companion to T.S Eliot (pp.40-52). London: Wiley-Blackwell.
I am uncertain whether Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland’ has had any particular influence on this particular song, but as I am an avid fan of Linkin Park, and eagerly anticipating the release of their new album, it was interesting when they released the lyric video for their new song “Wastelands”.
DeleteThe lyrics reflect Eliot’s desolate views on society falling apart, the loss of personal identity, and the changes in culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6sFG7qOd4A
An example of the lyrics of "Wastelands":
Delete"...They're talking for just talking,
But meaning, they got none...
...how many got bred with integrity,
Not one..."
Part of the chorus:
"In the wastelands of today,
When tomorrow disappears,
When the future slips away,
And your hope turns into fear..."
Linkin Park. (2014). Wastelands. On The Hunting Party. US: Warner Bros. Records Inc.
Yes, Roanna. T.S. Eliot is one of the important modernist writers in the 20th century.
DeleteBoby Dylan is an American performer. He has a rough voice and he used cord switching technique.
ReplyDeleteHe is coming to NZ in June!!
DeleteThose who are intersted in Jazz or Bob Dylan, can disscuss in here!
Dylan also used repetitions to deliver his message through lyrics.
Delete"You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks "
Again, he is against guns, fights and wars. The lyrics is influenced World Wars happened.
Reference
Dylan, B. (1963). Masters of War. In
The freewheeling Bob Dylan
. US: Special Rider Music.
'My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
ReplyDelete'Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.
'What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
'I never know what you are thinking. Think.'
I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.
Here in 'the wasteland' there is a searching for why there is all the death and war on human kind. There is wanting to know what the thoughts are because there is no understanding.
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock, 25
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
There are a lot of details on how it looked and felt. It becomes more deathly real through the words. The words bring the death alive. That all the destruction is something to be feared. Yet as the sun beats on the dust has the burnt souls resting in its warmth. The blazing sun on, the world still turns over even with all the human hurt.
Mod.1
DeleteT.S. Eliot. (1922) The Waste Land
DeleteThe river sweats
ReplyDeleteOil and tar
The barges drift
With the turning tide
Red sails
Wide
To leeward, swing on the heavy spar.
The barges wash
Drifting logs
Down Greenwich reach
Past the Isle of Dogs.
That the hunger for wealth is being sweated over . The oil that turned people's hearts red in want for the wealth.
Mod . 2
DeleteT.S. Eliot. (1922) The Waste Land .
DeletePost Mod. 2
ReplyDeleteThere are links between rap and poetry through the language beat. The language builds on itself and creates one thing from the last line. They both intertwine . Each line rolls from the next and it is all joined. Rap is formed by using poetry. A rap is either thought up on the spot or created and brainstormed. There is a focus on a topic and followed through.
reference
Deletehttp://www.powerpoetry.org/actions/7-tips-writing-rap
Post Mod. 3.
ReplyDeletein his song he keeps says. "You put a gun to my head." Like Bush and his war is being forced on America whether they liked it or not. The trigger was unstable. He also mentions that 'he' , bush, is hiding behind deaths. The deaths that are caused by the war are covering up the greed, at the same time to those who can see the exemplify the greed for money. Doesn't matter who many lives are taken for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwuWL7uUFl0&feature=kp
Delete5) What kind of protest song/rap other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?
ReplyDeleteThere are various protest songs still relevant during the last decade. Musicians and Bands such as Rage Against the Machine, immortal technique, Green Day, Henry Rollins etc are notable musicians that use their music and lyrics a way to get their politically awareness and social activism to their listeners.
The band Rage Against the Machine used their music as a vehicle for social activism, as lead singer Zack de la Rocha one stated: "Music has the power to cross borders, to break military sieges and to establish real dialogue".
The punk movement has always been known to show political awareness and tends to promote the motives of anarchy and much criticism is used against the right wing conservatives. Especially during the Bush administration and the Iraq invasion, many protest songs were released speaking out against these doings. Green Day for example were a very light punk pop band, but however released the album “American Idiot” in 2004, with the single of the same name was completely speaking out against the bush administration. Other punk rock bands such as Anti-Flag, Nofx, Against Me! And Rise Against have written many songs criticising the right wing government in general. There is also a collaboration of punk rock songs speaking out against the Bush administration called, “Rock Against Bush” that are all aimed against the man himself.
"Torture, rape, murder and death are all waiting for you;
Democracy subversion, well, they got that covered too.
The grad names on their walls, most infamous of all dictators/coup learders
Learn well, someday you may be ranked with these awesome k-k-k-k-killers!"
These lyrics come from the Rock against Bush collaboration from the band Anti Flags song School of Assassins comparing Bush to evil dictators of the past.
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ReplyDeleteThe beat generation was founded in the early 1940’s by Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg’s. Lucien Carr, John Clellon Holmes, and Neal Cassidy were also original members of the initial group.
ReplyDeleteThe shared qualities of beats were portrayal of human conditions, rejection of materlism, interest in religion, alternative sexualities, experimentation with drugs, innovations in style, and rejection of received standards (A brief guide to the poets, n.d).
A Brief Guide to the Beat Poets | Academy of American Poets. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/brief-guide-beat-poets
question 1
Delete1) What common qualities do 'the beats' share? Why 'beats'?
DeleteAfter WWII the word 'beat' was a slang term used by jazz musicians and the youth to describe being broke or tired, physically and spiritually "down and out". Keuroac took this term but also referred to the beat as in the beat of the music (specifcally Jazz music), and the beat of the heart, thus we can see that the 'beat' had positive connotations as well. And so the term "Beat Generation"was coined by Jack Keroauc, author of 'On the Road', during a conversation with John Clellon in 1948.
In the conversation regarding the nature of generations past and present, Keuroac came to elaborate on the new mentality and spirit he saw amongst the young in Time Sqaure. In which Holmes' goes onto recount the conversation in his essay 'The Name of the Game',
"It's a sort of furtiveness. Like we were a generation of furtive. You know, with an inner knowledge there's no use flaunting on that level, the level of the public, a kind of beatness, I mean, being right down to it, to ourselves, because we all really know who we are-and a weariness with all the forms, all the conventions of the world. It's something like that. So I guess you might say we're a beat generation."
Common qualities shared by 'beat' writers and artists would be an exploration of the human condition surviving against the post-war economic boom which restructured society into a consumerist-capitalist society, alongside the prudent conservative mindset of the generation before. "Prophesying a new style for American culture" (Kerouac, 1958), they would experiment with drugs to induce mind-altering states and exploring hidden states of being and consciousness, reject standard social morals and order, and traditional aesthetic and literary form and style. Their style was bold, honest and expressive of the " nakedness of mind, and, ultimately, of soul; a feeling of being reduced to the bedrock of consciousness." Holmes, 1952.
The original founders of the beat generation, like Ginsberg, were heavily influenced by the Romantics such as Percy Bysshe Shelly and William Blake, Surrealist, Absurdist and the American Transcendental Movement inspiring the Beats to take a very confrontational stance against politics of the time. They disregarded the neo-classical formalism of T.S. Elliot, which as denoted as being too much removed from real life and experience, and the precise formalism of the early twentieth century Modernists.
University of Missouri, (n.d.). Beats on Beat. Retrieved 12/06/2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/virtualstl/phase2/1950/events/perspectives/documents/beatsonbeat.html
The Literature Network, (n.d.). The Beat Generation. Retrieved 12/06/2014 from: http://www.online-literature.com/periods/beat.php
Allen Ginsburg’s work “howl”was accused of being obscene. An example can refer to the graphic reference to homosexuality in a one line comment. He quotes “who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy” (Ginsburg, 1957).
ReplyDeleteGinsberg was also disgusted with the aftermath of the war and was very graphical in his description. He quoted, “What sphinx of cement and aluminium bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination? Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!” (Ginsburg, 1957).
Ginsberg, A. (1956). Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books
question 4
Delete
Delete4) On what grounds was 'Howl' accused of being obscene - grounds for the defense?
In June of 1957, Editor and published author Lawrence Ferlinghetti and book store manager Shigeyoshi Murao were arrested for disseminating obscene literature, the book 'Howl and other poems' (1995) by Allen Ginsberg.
There were many grounds in which the prosecutor claimed Ferlinghetti breached the censorship act by selling 'obscene' material to the public. The prosecutor firstly brought expert witnesses to the stand who detracted the literary merits of 'Howl', by calling at a mere imitation of Whitman's prose, and thus have no literary value. Secondly prosecutor argued that the use of "filthy, vulgar, obscene, and disgusting language" and direct reference to sexuality, homo-sexuality ("who let themselves be fucked in the ass"), drug taking ("who retired to Mexico to cultivate a habit,"), prostitution, and violence made the poem obscene and extremely controversial at the time.
Defense counteracted with witnesses who could vouch for the redeeming social importance and value of the poem, " “Howl,” like any other work of literature, attempts and intends to make a significant comment on or interpretation of human experience as the author knows it.". And that the use of profanity and vulgar vocabulary and terms were absolutely necessary to create an authentic voice and account of the narrators viewpoint, "the elements that go into the linguistic organization of the poem are all essential."
By the end the judge ruled that 'Howl' was not obscene, and that the freedom of speech act ensured both individuals and nations to express his own thoughts and ideas in his own words. Although the poem presented “unorthodox and controversial ideas", the judge concluded, "in considering material claimed to be obscene it is well to remember the motto: Evil to him who evil thinks."
DHS, (n.d.). Putting 'Howl' on Trial. Retrieved June 14, 2014 from: http://www.dhs.fjanosco.net/Documents/HowlOnTrial.pdf
George Mason University, (n.d.).T HE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA Plaintiff VS.LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI Defendant. Retrieved June 14, 2014 from: http://mason.gmu.edu/~kthomps4/363-s02/horn-howl.htm
Ginsberg, A. (1956). Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books.
Princeton University,(n.d.). Allen Ginsberg. Retrieved June 14, 2014 from: (https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Allen_Ginsberg.html
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 5
ReplyDeleteThe definition of protest is a statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something (Oxford dictionary, n.d). Eminem’s song square dance is a protest against George bush’s role of being the president of America. He quotes within his first line” the wrong button to push, no friend of bush” (Eminem lyrics – square dance, n.d). He later quotes “with a plan to ambush this bush administration, mush the senate’s face in and push this generation, of kids to stand and fight for the right to say something you might not like” (Eminem lyrics-square dance, n.d). Eminem mentions his opinion in regards to America taking action on going to war with the result of citizns participating with no option. He quotes “ fuckin assassins hijacking armtracks crashin, all this terror America demands action, next thing you know you’ve got uncle Sam’s ass asking, to join the army or what you’ll do for the navy, you just a baby getting recruited at 18”(Eminem lyrics-square dance, n.d). Within this generation of rap, Eminem took a strong stance on protesting through his music. Whereas other artist rap about generalised things such as girls, money and material possessions.
EMINEM LYRICS - Square Dance. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eminem/squaredance.html
Protest: definition of protest in Oxford dictionary (British & World English). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/protest