Thursday, February 25, 2016
Earth, Air, Water, Fire
I used to LOVE The Avatar when I was younger. As we have been talking about the different elements, it made me think about this popular TV Show. The references to these 4 elements are the 4 things that the world is "made up of". I used to be very interested in this, and the balance they all played in the natural world. This is what the show Avatar is all about. As I was refreshing myself on the show, I came across this fun quiz. http://www.playbuzz.com/itsmex10/what-avatar-the-last-airbender-character-are-you For those of you who do not know, these are the characters. 
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6 comments:
I thought of this show too throughout our discussions! Eliot utilizes these 4 essential elements to prove different things throughout The Waste Land. He manipulates each element to represent a positive and negative result of its being. I feel like in a way, you could argue that Eliot is the Avatar. In the show, he is the only one that has mastered all four elements and has enough power to "bend". Hence, why it is titles "Avatar: The Last Airbender". As the author of The Wasteland, Eliot bends the elements to their multiple uses throughout his plot lines.
When we first began to discuss the presence of the 4 elements in Eliot's Waste Land, "The Last Airbender" was the first thing I thought of. The balance of the forces reminded me of Newton, and how every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Therefore, the atrocities of World War I produced a catostrophic reaction on the emotional and mental mind set of society. It makes sense that Eliot described the essential balance of the four elements within the wasteland that is earth.
Antonio brings up a good point - Eliot could have believed that there was some imbalance of the forces of the universe in Europe after WWI, due to its devastating effects on the European population both physically and mentally. Coming out of a financially successful (although mentally stressful) industrial revolution, a lot of Europeans were very disillusioned when they realized how brutal and inhumane the Great War came to be. Human history then started cycling again (and Eliot alludes to Hinduism many times in The Wasteland, and we know that one of Hinduism's main beliefs is the cyclical nature of history and human life), and wealth and power continued to be the driving forces of human conflicts. And this time, with the cold efficiency of modern life, the general populations seem more disposable and detached from their culture than before.
I used to love this show as a child and i love the fact that you compared the two. I like how Eliot uses the four elements to create a balance. It is just like in the show when you need each character, element, to come together to balance each other. In real life you can't have one element without another. I enjoyed that show because I liked the idea of everyone coming together. The balance created by the four elements is what balances life.
I actually took a quiz to see which element my personality was more like. I got "fire," which wasn't very surprising to me. It represents "inspiration, passion, enthusiasM, and desire." But it also represents aggression and quick to act. Fire is a starter, an initiator. I believe fire represents me more than any element, both in positive and negative ways.
I recently rematched the entire avatar series as well as the new avatar series called legend of korra. I definitely thought of the same similarities throughout the poem. Another thing I find interesting is the parallel between the elements based on how they are thought of in the show and how they are used in the poem. In the opening scene, katara famously ends with "it all changed when the fire nation attacked." In the avatar, the fire nation is scene as the violent and evil faction of the four elements. They act tyrannically over the other elements. I thought this is interesting considering the portion in the wasteland about the fire sermon. In that portion the element of fire is taking over through lust and subduing all of the other elements. Eliot through Buddhism advises us to fight against those feelings. The violence in the show parallels the many rapes seen in that section of the poem. Just thought that was interesting
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