T. S. Eliot and the Ideology of "Four Quartets.

" by John Xiros Cooper Review by: Tim Redman American Literature, Vol. 69, No. 4 (Dec., 1997), pp. 859-860 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2928360 . Accessed: 19/05/2013 11:49
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BookReviews 859 hopelessness inexpressible from themovement Landconsiders ofTheWaste in the"inviolable Moody'sinterest andtransformation. to acknowledgment theLatinpoem to investigate himfurther Land drives voice"in TheWaste

I may so that shallI become as theswallow uttacere desinam" (when chelidon cease tobe silent?). ofEliot's ofthe authenticity test"in confirmation a "field As ifto offer to Ashthe directresponses Moodyincludesan essay outlining poetry, is a addicts. Thispaper from somerecovering drug that he elicited Wednesday with encounter ofa demanding oftheprimacy reminder andtimely startling Moody's ownbook Incidentally, than on explication. reliance thetext, rather reviewers. essayists-or to eleventh-hour willgivelittle comfort andsereneas to seemabovethefray is so authoritative Witha tonethat debates to somecontemporary thebookmakesits contribution altogether, forexample, a perceived against aboutEliot'sreputation. Moodycautions, In spiteof to Indicsources. ofhis indebtedness to maketoomuch tendency Chrishe was"a fundamentally wisdom, for eastern Eliot's deepappreciation whoaccept, and "Thedivision between those tian poet"(34) whocouldstate, division I taketobe themost profound Christian revelation those whodeny, essaycalled"The MindofEurope" human beings"(34). A related between in European civilization. the importance ofthe sharedtradition considers "Thewisdom ofEuropeamounted thus: summarizes Eliot'sposition Moody redemption" (66). intheendtotherecognition ofsinandoftheneedfor of thepertinence mentions anti-Semitism, booknever Although Moody's queststo the counterand cultural to spiritual Eliot'sdeep commitments In thefinal examis clear. essay, Moody ofexclusivity orintolerance charge Here,the Eliot'sfearofwomen. a different form ofprejudice: inesdirectly and from Eliot'sexperience hisowndetachment about explicit critic is most of to callfor a reevaluation or"flaws" Buttheuse ofsuchdifferences views. toMoody. seempreposterous would thepoet'sreputation rightly SirSandford Fleming College Moran, Margaret Cambridge: " By Xiros Cooper. John of"Four andthe TS. Eliot Quartets. Ideology 235pp.$49.50. Press.1995.xiii, Univ. Cambridge whom audience, uponhis primary Eliot'seffect considers Cooper'sstudy ofpower"(23). "theobedient Coopercalls "themandarinate," servant[sI "a psychological gavethisgroup Eliot'sFourQuartets to Cooper, According crisesofthe1930sand theSecondWorld thesuccessive (31) after refuge" elites needsofthegoverning serve"thediverse "mandarins" Cooper's War. (32).The commitcosyrelationship" society" (33) inan "often ofestablished inthe "wavered" order socio-political totheexisting ofthemandarinate ment

"quandofiam uti fromwhich Eliot drew the fragment: Veneris Pervirgilium

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Literature 860 American "which showed thewayback" 1930s(35), and it was Eliot'sFourQuartets order intact" (33). Backbreaking "thesymbolic job ofkeeping (38) to their that. labor in a sociologiand"mandarinate" that he uses "mandarin" Cooperclaims of to anyofthemethodologies recourse cal sense,buthe does so without including the wouldentail, He is awareofwhatsuchan approach sociology. (105),but oftheFaber& Faberarchives" exploration "a thorough needfor we ofaccess he does notpursueit. Instead, because ofproblems perhaps 1957 Mills'sinfluential to C. Wright references incessant must makedo with andsupport thebookas adjunct which actsthroughout Elite, bookThePower a tune. supports ofa bagpipe much as thedrone argument, for Cooper's in giving a despairing impact had itsgreatest FourQuartets ForCooper, serve (114) thatallowedthemto better a "newinwardness" intelligentsia of untoward without qualms elite, power "masters" (40),theeponymous their were"panicky, (33),"quiescent" middle-aging" Thesemandarins conscience. (123).Cooperreadsthe "shaky" (119),and"vulnerable" (118),"querulous," poem,an (unintended) notso muchas a warpoemas a postwar Quartets CaryGrant, which Eliotbecomesa kindofliterary piecethrough rhetorical and theright mandarins thatwithgoodmanners thetrembling reassuring with theColdWarmuddle pensions makeitthrough somehow clothes they'll intact. to be FourQuartets thatEliotintended theneedto establish Freedfrom toestabresearch necessary thearchival inthis way(62,167),from received ofthe meaning from an appealtoany"actual audience, likely lishthepoem's Forhim, thepoem"functions his reading. poem"(118),Cooperconstructs the alienated from an intelligentsia backintothefold to bring ideologically a newaesthetic subjecin the1930s"(173)bycreating community national to engageinthe itfrom anyobligation hismandarinate, dispensing for tivity Perhaps he might itsmisspent youth. thathad marked historical struggles aesthetic, outofa symbolist poetry justhave said youcan'tmakepolitical seems andthat after a warmerecivilization offighting, that peoplegettired a luxury. ofFourQuartets byhis selected reception Cooperis goodon thepostwar is lively in theCathedral His reading ofMurder groupofpoetsand critics. Buthisbook, moments ofgreat insight. areother andthere andcompelling, has little to add onward, from Ash-Wednesday which treats all ofEliot'swork is convincing to sayabouthis andlittle that ofFourQuartets to ourreading mandarins. imagined ofTexasat Dallas TimRedman, University

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