The Waste Land

[alphasunrise]

So today's reading for Brit Lit was Elliot's The Waste Land. I feel so very not-well-read. But on the third time through it started making more sense. I understand that he thought that poetry should be difficult. But I don't quite agree. If you write something so referential and deliberately difficult, you limit your audience. It's like

Comments

[gypsy_anna]

The goal of communication is to facilitate understanding. Any writer - of song, poetry, or prose - that intentionally writes in a way that makes understanding difficult is defeating the purpose.

I hear about all these great and wonderful authors, who have an important message to share. In my opinion, they're not 'great and wonderful' if their message is difficult or impossible for most people to understand.

Then again, I read for my own enjoyment. I'm not going to read something that I spend more time trying to decipher than it takes to actually read the words. :)