Modernism and "The Wasteland"

[ofcatslives]

I should first warn everyone that I wrote the majority of this post Monday after the lecture, so there will be some discrepancies in my references to the day seeing as how I am posting this entry today and not Monday (as I had initially intended). Here it goes

Comments

[roger_kuin]

Very good post. And well done Sarah, to find the Eliot/Hesse page. As you can see, there was very little contact between the two. As for interest in Oriental religions and philosophies, the period 1890-1930 was a HUGE time for this. Also crossbred versions such as Theosophy. I remember friends of my parents who had an enormous portrait of Madame Blavatsky (the high priestess of theosophy) hanging over their fireplace -- she seemed to follow one around the room with her gloomy piercing eyes. Many, many educated and semi-educated people took to reading Krishnamurti and other such authors. It was a way of getting out of Christianity (too often associated with rules, morality and parents) while maintaining some kind of spirituality. Eliot, of course, was a different kettle of fish, as he had actually studied it in considerable depth.
FInally, about Postmodernism, I put up a comment on (I think) Chris Gustafson's site (liver86) about that -- you might want to take a look.