Saturday, February 24, 2018
What is a Wasteland?
In class we were briefly sharing ideas of what we thought a wasteland was, and I thought the ideas brought up were really interesting. Personally, when I think of a wasteland, I think of a completely barren landscape, or abandoned industrial structures. To me, the latter has more of a feel of abandoned humanity, or disconnect. What do you guys think a wasteland is?
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6 comments:
For some reason, I think of a polluted swimhole. No people, no animals, just garbage floating in a body of water. I'm not quite sure why though. Maybe because of the word "waste" in wasteland but water isn't land so I don't know if my brain's trying to tell me something or not. But anyway, that's what my convoluted brain came up with.
I see abandoned industrial structures as well, Liz. Specifically, an image from The Great Gatsby movie we watched Sophomore year comes to mind. It's from a specific moment when Jay and Daisy are driving into the desolate city, and the camera zooms out to show their car approaching several buildings. This is really specific, but this scene from the image really stuck with me. Also, I think it's interesting how we all associate different images with the term, yet all of our interpretations are based on some post-modern destruction. We see damaged cars and dilapidated buildings which once carried a purpose and provide evidence of a formerly bustling city. I think that the fact that these structures had the ability to revolutionize society but now lie without purpose contributes to its association with the phrase "wasteland." They are being wasted.
What comes to mind is this image of the dry vast land, not necessarily a dessert but an area where there’s no dense and lush vegetation. Along with a dired our land, I also see a sort of industrial waste land, where rubble and debris from sky scrapers and other buildings are littered all over the place.
I think "The Waste Land" refers to an infertile land with no water. There's no water, so there's no growth. For Eliot and other modernists, 20th century culture was a barren land of intellectual and spiritual death. The various speakers in the poem seem to be roaming around this desert where very occasionally oases, represented by primitive culture and art, come to view. The speakers try to pick up on fragments of Dante, Greek mythology, Shakespeare, Hindu scriptures, etc., but they realize that the waste land will remain dry and will never produce good art.
I'm really glad you posted this!
I kind of think of that scene from Mulan when Mulan & co come upon the destruction caused by the Huns, where Shang finds out his dad and that’s that one little girl’s doll lying about in the ruins. (https://www.google.com/search?q=mulan+destruction+by+huns&client=firefox-b-1-ab&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwix-5LLpMDZAhVQIqwKHRN1BywQ_AUICygC&biw=1211&bih=711&dpr=2#imgrc=Brp9Oc0e7LtbJM:_) (https://www.google.com/search?q=mulan+destruction+by+huns&client=firefox-b-1-ab&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwix-5LLpMDZAhVQIqwKHRN1BywQ_AUICygC&biw=1211&bih=711&dpr=2#imgrc=in4_9fASZFUgzM:)
I think of a place that’s been neglected—no, abused, almost. I don’t think of a place where nature has run wild, but where humans have. It seems like that’s what everyone else is thinking of, too, which makes sense considering what we read and know about the context in which Eliot was writing. World War I was a time where people perpetrated mass destruction, chaos, terror, and heartbreak because they were too short-sighted to see the bigger picture, or to see what they were doing until the world itself had already turned into a sort of wasteland.
Oops. *where Shang finds out his dad died
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