From browsing through the excerpt at the link I would generally agree with Nancy here. He has provided a _metaphor_ for the poem's principle of coherence. That is what all readers, beginning with Eliot himself, have been doing for nearly a century. Eliot wanted to prefix Gerontion, making the last line of that poem serve as the metaphor for the poem's coherence. When Pound rejected that, he provided a couple other metaphors in the Notes: What Tiresias sees (which makes little sense) and the grail legend (which makes less sense). But this effort to begin interpretation with some metaphor is itself interesting. Richards used the metaphor of "epic," which is also far fetched but useful.
Incidentally Muldoon makes several errors, though probably harmless. He clearly hasn't read Pippa Passes; his remark on it make sense only if one has read only the "song" separated from its context. Also it's a bit confusing on "when" Eliot began writing it -- but then I guess the reality was a bit uncertain.
Carrol
-----Original Message-----
From: T. S. Eliot Discussion forum. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nancy Gish
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 12:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Interview: Paul Muldoon, Editor Of 'The Waste Land' By T.S. Eliot : NPR
I was not in the audience or heard Muldoon on Eliot, but I have heard him read, and he is a wonderful poet. In this case, the "as" and the long modifying phrase after "music hall" make clear that this is not a literal description but an analogy, one that I, for one, think works. He does not say it is "like a music hall" or "as like a music hall," but that it is "as" one, that is, it functions similarly rather than being the same or including the same content. I want to find time now to follow the link.
Thanks to David,
Nancy
>>> "[log in to unmask]" 10/18/13 12:10 PM >>>
Paul plays in a rock and roll band and that may colour his remarks.
Eugene Schlanger
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 18, 2013, at 10:57 AM, Chokh Raj <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Lest we miss out on the Excerpt from Paul Muldoon's Introduction, here's a link:
http://www.npr.org/books/titles/226566569/the-waste-land?tab=excerpt#excerpt
"One very useful way of thinking about the format of The Waste Land is as a night in a music hall, complete with snatches of music, overheard inconsequential conversations, impious ejaculations from male (and female), impersonators, impressionists. The more general milieu of the poem is one of political, cultural, and social upheaval, the literal upheaval caused by trench warfare, the literal sense of dismemberment, discontinuity, and dissociation that followed the Great War of 1914–1918."
CR
________________________________
From: Ken Armstrong <[log in to unmask]>;
To: <[log in to unmask]>;
Subject: Re: Interview: Paul Muldoon, Editor Of 'The Waste Land' By T.S. Eliot : NPR
Sent: Fri, Oct 18, 2013 12:00:11 PM
Watching? Was there video? What did you think of the idea of regarding TWL as a night at a music hall? I thought, given Eliot's professed enjoyment of music hall entertainment, that it was an appealing idea, but I don't see it getting past the first line of poem. There are certainly some 'characters' in TWL, but Phlebas floating decomposing, the peace that passeth understanding, the undertow of broken lives throughout -- it just doesn't feel like the hearty kind of raucousness or comic sentiment that I imagine a music hall setting might support. ????
Ken A
On 10/18/2013 3:39 AM, David Boyd wrote:
Watching and listening to Muldoon on Eliot and The Waste Land is like being machine-gunned with the silver bullets of sparkling, original and apparently spontaneous ideas, from an apparently bottomless store of ammunition.
I do think that the journalist responsible for this interview report fails completely to convey anything like this.
Sent from my iPad
On 18 Oct 2013, at 01:19, Chokh Raj <[log in to unmask] <javascript:return> > wrote:
an encore
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/28/226564650/on-eliots-125th-his-waste-land-hasnt-lost-its-glamour
CR
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