Everyone agrees that Eliot was griping about something (how's that for
turning on a subject line)in the Wasteland, and the debate turns on
precisely what he was griping about. That search then has to keep moving
back and forth between the poem and events, tendencies, people, whatever
"outside" the poem that generated the griping. That can get complicated
because there can be many different takes on what was going on in 1920,
_all_ of which (including Eliot's (whatever it was) and the given
commentator's will be more or less at odd's with each other _and_ with
what was "really going on" (if the concept of what was really going on
makes any sense). Hence -- I'm not quite sure, but at a minimum it would
seem to indicate that there can't be any quick and certain distinction
between what is "on topic" and what is "off topic" when discussing the
poem.

Carrol