Eliot: Wasteland?

Hedera

Hi,

Does anyone know where I can get (for a reasonable amount) a copy of 'The Wasteland' by T.S. Eliot?
Everywhere I look it seems to be out of print, which sounds a bit weird to me; I thought it was a classic.

And have any of you read it? From what I understand, it is one of the first works of literature to speak of tarot 'as we know it' . Is it interesting?

Thanks,

Hedera.
 

truthsayer

hi!
i have a copy of the wasteland by t.s. eliot somewhere. it's one of my fav poems. i also have that phrase about madame sosostros, card reader in my quote index somewhere... i think you could just go to the library and look for a book of 20th century american poetry. then either read it there or make a xeroxed copy. it's quite a long poem and can be difficult to understand. i wouldn't spend a lot for a book with it. the part of tarot is very brief and the poem itself isn't about tarot.

personally, i find his "uncle possum's book of cats" more fun. it's the poetry that the broadway show "cats" was based on.

if you can't find it let me know. if you want a book of eliot's works you might be able to find such at amazon.
 

Hedera

Thank you!
If the library is worth its salt, they should have it, I guess. Hadn't really thought of that yet, stupidly enough.
The weird thing was that I couldn't find anything on Amazon (uk or us) that was readily available.
I guess everbody just xeroxes....

Do you know any other works of fiction that use Tarot in an interesting way? It seems such a fruitful element, but it tends to be used, if at all, in a rather silly way, much as it is in most films.


Hedera.
 

jmd

Eliot's The Wasteland is often incorporated in various poetry compilations - thus find it hard to believe that it is out of print.

In any case, here's an e.version.
 

truthsayer

the wasteland is the only famous poem i can think of that uses tarot as imagery even though there may be more. the lines about madame sosostris start at line 43. i don't think eliot actually studied tarot to use in the wasteland. the cards are probably more made up than actual tarot cards. one card "the drowned phonecian" is one he made up to suit his own purposes.
 

Khatruman

Looks like folks have given you some wonderful leads. It is a highly anthologized piece, and, having been a literature student and now a literature teacher, I am sure I could dig out at least three copies of the poem in various literature anthologies. It should be available on the internet, and I think someone already gave you an e-text link. Shouldn't be too hard to find, as long as you aren't looking for it as a sole-published piece.

Peace!
 

Khatruman

truthsayer said:
i don't think eliot actually studied tarot to use in the wasteland. the cards are probably more made up than actual tarot cards. one card "the drowned phonecian" is one he made up to suit his own purposes.
Click to expand...
I see one of the major themes of the poem being the 20th century fragmentation of belief, and Eliot used tarot to illustrate that fragmentation. Makes sense in that the tarot is a set of individual cards which can be scattered and randomized as opposed to a book of wisdom, which is linear and whole in some way. The waste land is the spiritually exhausted modern man trying to make sense out of a wicked pack of cards.

Peace!
 

Ophiel

I just bought this book within the past two months at a Barnes and Noble, in the U.S.

This is the version I got:

Paperback: 88 pages. Publisher: Harvest Books; (December 1955)
ISBN: 015694877X
 

truthsayer

Khatruman said:
I see one of the major themes of the poem being the 20th century fragmentation of belief, and Eliot used tarot to illustrate that fragmentation. Makes sense in that the tarot is a set of individual cards which can be scattered and randomized as opposed to a book of wisdom, which is linear and whole in some way. The waste land is the spiritually exhausted modern man trying to make sense out of a wicked pack of cards.

Peace!
Click to expand...

khatruman,
i'm quite familiar with the wasteland as a literary piece. i was only talking about the poem as to its merits for someone who isn't familiar with eliot's work. i was an English teacher, too even though i'm changing professions now. i feel embarrassed and my feelings are kind of hurt b/c i feel like you are implying i don't understand this poem. i haven't taught it but i studied it intensively as an undergrad and even wrote a paper on it comparing it to images used in f. scott fitzgerald's "the great gatsby".

i doubt you meant to hurt my feelings but that's just how i took it. i'm probably being too sensitive.
 
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