Comments | lit_addicts: Critics

jari021120 in lit_addicts

Critics

Sep 15, 2007 19:47

Hi. I'm Jari and I'm a first-time poster. I've been on a lit kick for quite a while. (All my life? LOL.) I'm not a student. (I do have a Liberal Arts degree, however.) I do toy with the idea of going back to school for lit when the corporate world drags me down, but that's a maybe someday, wishful thinking sort of thing. (The urge hasn't ( Read more... )

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tempore September 16 2007, 01:54:18 UTC

TS Eliot's The Waste Land. The poem is a staple of English lit, and is so layered and insane, it's just amazing and beautiful. It pulls from so many influences, too.

jari021120 September 16 2007, 07:35:36 UTC

It's very dream-like, isn't it? I've only read it casually; I've never dared tried to really pick apart all that symbolism and whatnot. Not yet, anyway. It's weird - every time I read it, I imagine Stephen King's Dark Tower series. LOL.

You must be a post modernism fan. Coincidentally, I've just read "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka today. Gregor Samsa turns into some sort of bug. No, I'm not convienced I've entirely wrapped my head around that one either. I'll venture a guess, though - he turned into exactly what he already was. Poor thing.

tempore September 16 2007, 13:23:40 UTC

Well, modernism and post-modernism. More modernism, given that my specialization and focus is Virginia Woolf, Walter Benjamin, and TS Eliot, with some DH Lawrence, Joyce, etc. thrown in. I guess I relate to the way in which they viewed the world. That said, I hate Kafka.

And yeah, it is very much a dreamscape. It's a reflection too, of the way in which Eliot saw the world post World War I.

Another great, epic poem is Howl by Allen Ginsburg. One of the best opening lines ever. :)

jari021120 September 16 2007, 22:37:07 UTC

I'm not all that familiar with Kafka - I just stumbled upon him while surfing Project Gutenberg. It was just one of those flukey things that just sort of sucked me in. I'm not sure if I like his world-view, either. (I could, though, in a way, identify with Gregor - Oh, that's pretty sad...) Your era is not one I'm very familiar with, I don't think - it's not one I much encountered in school. It certainly is differnet, though. I like the way it stretches my brain in different ways - even if it's a bit disconcerting. LOL. I suppose I'm used things being less abstract and more micro - it's usually more about the individual than society at large. But, I feel it's never a bad thing to try to broaden your horizons, so I don't always stick with just what's comfortable ( ... )

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