In a previous post, I noted that Tolkien had a particularly adversarial disposition toward Machines. In his book, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, Humphrey Carpenter recounts a humorous anecdote about J. R. R. Tolkien’s personal relationship with one kind of Machine, the automobile.
Books & Literature
J. R. R. Tolkien: Modernity, Magic, and Machines
Anyone who has spent much time reading Tolkien’s fiction knows he struggled to reconcile with modernity and the resultant effects of technological progress on the human condition. Having served in WWI as a Battalion Signalling Officer at the Battle of the Somme until a severe illness took him out of the trenches, he witnessed firsthand the brutality of modern killing Machines.
The American Dream: A Commonplace Idea
The American dream that has lured tens of millions of all nations to our shores in the past century has not been a dream of merely material plenty, though that has doubtless counted heavily. It has been much more than that. It has been a dream of being able to grow to fullest development as […]
Prufrock: Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?
As we continue our journey unpacking The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, you may enjoy listening to Anthony Hopkins read Eliot’s poem. As was seen in the last post about the poem, time is a central issue for Prufrock. It is only in the last five lines where he is contemplating having time to […]
Prufrock: A Time for Everything Under the Sun
The first three lines of the next stanza connect it with the previous one by use of the feline-like yellow fog reference: And indeed there will be time For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; Like the feline imagery of the previous stanza, this one is entirely […]
Prufrock: Yellow Feline Fog
In case you’re just tuning in, I’m on a short quest to slowly unpack T. S. Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and see if we can’t gain some access—even if basement-level access—into his poetic corpus. Why, you might ask? Because according to Russel Kirk, Eliot was the principle champion of the moral imagination […]
Is Prufrock a Bottom Feeder in the Underworld?
Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent These lines imply they are in a part of the city where the monotonous streets subtly lead one deeper into the abyss of debauchery. The import of imagery seems characteristic of the Vieux Carre, in New Orleans, or of Greenwich Village, in New York City. […]
The Uneasiness of Modern City Life: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, the muttering retreats The lines “Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,” indicates the narrator has moved from prompting his companion to go with him, to guiding his companion to a certain end. There seems to be echoes of Dante’s Virgil who let him through the nine concentric […]
A Melancholy Meditation: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Let us go then you and I. When the evening is spread out against the sky. Like a patient etherized upon a table; In case you’re new to our merry band, and have only recently subscribed, I’m writing a short series of posts on T. S. Eliot’s, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” in […]
An Impotent Messenger from the Underworld: The Epigraph of J. Alfred Prufrock
S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero, Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo. If I believed my reply were to one that was ever to return to the world, this flame, […]