> Nancy Gish wrote:
> 
> As I said in an earlier message, I have written on the significance of the epigraph--in the paper in Florence.  And I noted that it had to do with the notion of being in "an after dinner sleep."  But it is also said to one who expects death on the orders of a hypocrite.  It is connected with other images, but that is a long topic.  But it is not the case that no one has taken it up.

There is a major study in cultureal history to be written on varieties
of conspiracy theory in politics, literature, domestic relations,
medicine, and economics in 20th-c U.S. in particular. This conspiracy,
apparently organized by eliot himself, to coneal Eliot's early Christian
history is rather extreme instance of the phenomenon, but its provenance
is clear. And the syndrome can of course be fruitful -- Pound's Cantos
are organized around a conspiracy theory that goes back almost two
centuries (Jewish Bankers). Sometimes it is quite amusing. A Conspiracy,
of course, can't be exposed unless it is hidden, which creates a problem
for the conspiracy moner when the alleged conspiators are announcing
their intentions from the housetops. This showed up in efforts to
red-bait SDS in 1969. Before it was possible to  expose the conspiracy,
one had to show that SDS claimed to be non-communist, then one culd
expoose them as rds, but how did you go about shoiwng that they were
pretending not to be reds when they were boasting of being red. It got
very confusing.

What I can't understand in the present case is why a Christian admirer
of Eliot should wish to deny the drama and poignancy of Eliot's
struggles as he moved from unbelief to belief. In fact, I've known quite
a few Christian admireres of Eliot over the years, and all of them
(until I got on this list) _emphasized_ his earlier unbleif; they thught
it made his acheivement of Christianity much more impressive.

Oh Well.

Carrol