Nancy Gish wrote:

> . But the concluding evaluation is a bit exaggerated: "the literary 
> mind par exellence" would be more convincing with "a" in place of 
> "the." He was not "the" only great mind of his time even if he was 
> possibly exceptionally influential, partly because, as editor of Faber 
> and Faber, he was able to define who mattered, and he did not hesitate 
> to assert his own judgment.

    POSSIBLY??? Because he was an editor!? God help us.  Anyhow, call 
for "diverse readings" all you want; one of them would certainly be that 
Eliot was "the literary mind par excellence." Many "educated and 
continuing readers of Eliot" have said so, contrary to what many 
advocates of "diverse readings" prefer to believe. You want to privilege 
one side of the rift; CR the other. You don't need to control all 
threads to pursue your interests. Cowley awaits. For myself, I'm 
reminded of Ted Hughes' "Dancer to God" and will review that piece that 
I've not seen for some years.

Ken A
>
> *Commentary's*/ /self description*:*
> *"COMMENTARY *serves as a forum for the exchange of conservative 
> political and cultural ideas, and does so with opinion pieces that go 
> far beyond 10-second TV sound bites and time-restricted talking head Q 
> & A segments."
> My point is that, if this is supposed to show up anyone who fails to 
> recognize Eliot's poetic brilliance or historic influence, it's very 
> old news and no one is disagreeing. This is aimed at educated readers 
> who are not scholars or continuing readers of Eliot, as I assume 
> everyone on this list is.  I think this list should move well beyond 
> all this totally contrived and empty challenging of diverse readings 
> as either properly idealizing or not and try to have some discussion 
> of Eliot as a poet and critic from many points of view.
>  
> In a (no doubt mad) attempt to do that--I'm reading Eliot's prose 
> again.  Does he discuss Cowley somewhere other than in "The 
> Metaphysical Poets" and the essay on Marvell?  I'll be looking, but 
> I'm interested if anyone knows right away, and I'm interested in how 
> he rated Cowley. He was countering Samuel Johnson's dismissal of the 
> metaphysicals, but he made distinctions.
> Nancy
>
>  
> >>> Chokh Raj 10/09/11 10:22 PM >>>
> T.S. Eliot and the Demise of the Literary Culture
> Joseph Epstein
> 8 Nov 2010
>  
> http://site.douban.com/widget/notes/134616/note/99639279/
>  
> Compels you to sit back and take note.
>  
> CR
>  
>  
>