4 ms·
The Waste Land might be the most pretentious thing I've ever read. It just oozes self-importance. I've never seen any work that could be described as great that
by preordained 6y ago
The Waste Land might be the most pretentious thing I've ever read. It just oozes self-importance. I've never seen any work that could be described as great that has an overt peacocking quality to it.
- throwit-hey15 6y agoI feel the same way about both Joyce and Eliot: they make their readers do a lot of the interpretative work that other authors do on behalf of their readers. Some people enjoy doing that work, and some don’t. I think the latter group gets frustrated when the former does that work and then proclaim it as the highest form of genius. Sure, it’s genius, but it’s not _more_ genius than certain approachable prose/poetry, it’s just a different kind.
- dang 6y agoIf you think that's bad, try Byron. "Overt peacocking" has been a thing in poetry for centuries. The hiphop of our era is an example. I have the opposite impression of Eliot though. I thought self-erasure was a core principle of his poetics.