A college try at Elliot

I've been procrastinating this post for some time now. I really don't want to write it. My thoughts are scattered and my prose is a bit shaky but I feel i have to give it the old college try right?

Of course I am talking about a blog about the Four Quartets as a whole. A summation, a collection of the wanderings of my brain. I have no Idea where this is going.

Things I've noticed...

Paradox- Pat's discussion of paradox got me to start looking for paradoxes all over the quartets. Throughout the poem Eliot uses paradox to describe the indescribable. The still point, the point that is neither arrest nor movement. The end and the beginning. Between melting and freezing. Where I get a bit held up is the purpose to all of these paradoxes?

Adventure and the Still Point-

"At the still point, there the dance is" (Burnt Norton). A common theme through the presentations was the point of enlightenment existing in some indescribable area between stillness and motion. I think (in more general terms) the source of the river in Dry Salvages is the still point of Burnt Norton and the Sea is the vast knowledge attainable to those willing to explore the Still Point. However the journey is not as simple as tubing a river. Some voyagers "ended their voyage on the sand, in the sea's lips, Or in the dark throat which will not reject them" (Dry Salvages). There is threat of fire in the river from the "dark dove with the flickering tongue" (Gidding). Loneliness and loss fill the river yet the only option is for the voyager, once he has accepted the mission, is to "fare forward". The adventurer exploring the waters of the still point must realize "all shall be well" even when no hope exists. The journey is not pretty or romantic rather it is disjointed and winding like a river flowing through a delta. Each decision on the journey comes with the possibility of the opposite, the possiblity of the the other decision. Those decisions not chosen flow along side as other branches of the delta. They are "echoes" that follow the traveler (Norton). Even with these unrealized possibilities, the adventurer must always "fare forward" because true enlightenment occurs at the end...and at the beginning "And what you thought you came for, is only a shell, a husk of meaning, from which the purpose brakes only when it is fulfilled, if at all."

Bhagavad Gita/Dry Salvages-

I also became quite interested in this part from section 3 of the Dry Salvages

While time is withdrawn (in the still point maybe), consider the futer

And the past with an equal mind. (That is look to the echoes)

At the moment wich is not of action or inaction

You can receive this: "on whatever sphere of being

The mind of a man may be intent

At the time of death"-- that is the one action

(And the time of death is every moment)

Which shall fructify in the lives of others:

And do not think of the fruit of action.

Fare Forward.

(Salvages section 3)

The quote is from the Bhagavad Gita. In full it reads "on whatever sphere of being The mind of a man may be intent At the time of death, tither he will go." I find this interesting because i think Death can be another "still point" and like death the primary thought at a "still point" will be the catalyst for the journey I described above.

Of even more interest is another quote from the same section of the Gita. "To him who thinks constantly of Me, and of nothing else, to such an ever faithful devotee O Arjuna, am I ever accessible." To me, this is more than just a call to reflect on a higher power. A person dedicated to reflecting on the knowledge available in the "still point," or moment of enlightenment, will realize how accessible enlightenment truly is. Enlightenment isn't having the right thought, rather it is thinking right. Grasping the "still point" and riding out the river of unmoving enlightens the soul in a much greater way than some profound comprehensible thought. We must "suffer the trial and judgement of the seat, Or whatever event, this is your real destination" (Salvages section 3). Enlightenment comes not from the beginning or the end of the river (as these are one in the same) but rather from the bends of the river, the tributaries of the river, and the river delta all easily accessible so long as you think right.

I'm not sure i completed a single thought in this blog post but i tried. I consider this post the beginning of my float after being trapped for an extended period of time in an eddy.

A little tidbit of East Coker... stupid GRE

Well from the looks of other blogs, I missed out on a pretty excellent group presentation. Forgive me, I had to be sacrificed to the Gods of Standardized Higher Education and take the GRE. I'm so happy to say all of the knowledge of the last 5 years was packaged up into a little 4 hour chunk and spit out onto a Educational Testing Services computer to be compared with all of the other 4 hour chunks of students across the nation in efforts to determine worthiness to continue higher education.

But anyway back to the much more important matter.

I wanted to highlight a little passage that struck me in East Coker. It comes during the scene of the Dance of the Dead. Because this poem is so damn confusing I can only manage it in miniature chunks while the rest of it just flows over my head.

"Keeping time

Keeping the rhythm in their dancing

As in their living in the living seasons

The time of the seasons and the constellations

The time of milking and the time of harvest

The time of the coupling of man and woman

And that of beasts. Feet Rising and Falling.

Eating and drinking. Dung and death.

Dawn points, and another day"

This part of the poem initially struck me because of the thought of the dead keeping the time of the living. Living people have a insatiable fascination about time. Always, time for work, time for school, time for dinner, time for that incredibly important meeting. What struck me is all the dead have is time...an unlimited amount of it...to think, to ponder, to reflect on, if i were to guess, life. But Eliot says its the dead who keep time "as in their living in the living seasons." Switch a few of the letters around in that line and it reads. Its the dead who keep time "as if they're living in the living seasons." The dead keep the time of the seasons, constellations, milking, harvest and love. The dead keep the time of all the shit thats really important in life while the living keep time of meaningless appointments. The living keep dayplanners while the things worth keeping time of, i.e. seasons, constellations, and love, drift right on by without much notice.

It's like, Groundhog's Day. Bill Murrey's character only realizes the important things until after he's witnessed them thousands of times. The Dead have infinite time to figure out these important things and then fixate on them in ritual dance so as if to never lose them, while the living experience them in full flesh and blood only to disregard them during the never ending quest for "dawn points, another day."

"Still points" exists in the minutia of the world. It's a shame, i'd imagine Eliot would argue, that we walk right by them everyday. I think Joyce would agree because the greatest epiphany can come from patio furnature.

Pink Floyd and the Visual Echo

Best visual representation of an Echo I could find and Wiki Article to go with it. From the cover of Pink Floyd's 2001 release, Echoes. Click on the Picture to see the full image.

More revelations in Burnt Norton

While talking with Adam in the library, we discussed another interesting thought on the Four Quartets.

So much of Burnt Norton seems to be about something about a "still point." It's like a vaccuum in time. A stillness just before something happens but irrelevant to the actual happening, "Caught in the form of limitation Between un-being and being." (20). It's as if in this still point, an action has yet to happen but at the same time has already ended. It is a strange concept.

In Movement 3 in Burnt Norton. Eliot uses Subway imagery (or at least thats what the author of a short introduction on the Four Quartets says). For example "Only a flicker over the strained time-ridden faces Distracted from distraction by distraction filled with fancies and empty of meaning Tumid apathy with no conentration Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind that blows before and after time..." What I find interesting about the Subway imagery and the concept of "Still point" is the idea that when someone stands on a subway platform and a full subway car passes by, for a split second (or "still point"), the person on the subway platform can clearly see each person on the train as they pass even though the car remains in constant movement. For a brief nanosecond, the person on the subway platform and the person directly across from them on the moving car exist in a "Still point" (or at least the closest natural occurrence of a "Still Point.")

I have quite a few more thoughts on this idea however we should be covering them in our group presentation. I wanted to share a little food for thought about Burnt Norton as I discover the tasty tidbits.

Books I couldn't Put Down...more or less

To be quite honest, I only remember a few books I couldn't put down during my years of reading both forced and chosen and of those books I remember even less as to why I found each so intriguing. But none the less I will try to recount them here.

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead- Something about the general badassery of Howard Roark made the last couple hundred pages fly by on a lazy sunday afternoon.

Ken Kesey- Sometimes a Great Notion- Most complicatedly written book I have ever loved. A Greek tragedy set in a small

Oregon logging town. Kesey's writing turned me on to others of his or near his generation, Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski, Kerouac (though all were entertaining, none even approached Kesey).

Douglas Adams- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy- The first book that I can clearly remember made me laugh outrageously and actually question the common conceptions of things. I even ended up buying Adam's whole Hitchhiker's series.

And most recently...

Warren Miller- Wine, Women, Warren, & Skis- A simple short story told and illustrated only as Warren Miller can. I consider it my apology for being a ski bum. It also contains one of the single greatest epiphanies in the recent literature I've read. "If you don't do it this year, you'll be one year older when you do." Words to live by.

Weird stuff i wonder about

Don't know why I felt compelled to post this but the package of Toilet paper said the TP was bleached white using non-chlorine bleach. Why the hell do the powers that be feel the need to bleach TP white. Why is white the standard color for TP? Does our culture have some issue with wiping with brown, blue or red TP? I don't know why this bothers me. Sorry for wasting your time if you actually read this.

Diamonds Are Forever, and a Palaver is a Bore

My diamond comes from comment made by the servant girl Lily.

"The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you."

Lily makes this remark to Gabriel when he asks about her romantic life. At this response, Gabriel becomes very uncomfortable. It is the first indication of a bit of a self esteem issue for Gabriel. It is a little oh in his Character. A chink in the armor of a person thus far built up to be the perfect man...or perfect angel as his name suggests.

What I find very interesting is Joyce's use of the singular helping "to be" verb with the plural subject "Men." She is both referring to the male species and a particular man...most likely Gabriel himself. I say this because Lily describes men as palavers which are people who speak idly or borishly, without any deep sensible meaning associated with genuine conversation. Gabriel is a well educated scholar and battles with himself about how smart he should sound in his speech. He contemplates the quotes to use to toast the night. As toasts at gatherings such as this are generally pretty shallow "here's to the hostess" sort of ordeals, using high faulted quotes makes the toast that much more insincere.

The bitterness in Lily's voice leads one to believe her comment is some sort of plea. Yet Gabriel overlooks this detail and for fear he has somehow offended her simply and shallowly offers her a tip to make up for his transgression. This further illustrates Gabriel's shallow nature and his concern with appearances. My guess is shallow and superficial actions were part of Joyce's view of the Irish paralysis, a trait carried over from "enlightened" England. Shallowness prevents true relationships and meaningful exchanges.