Friday, November 07, 2008

Alas!

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar--T.S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men."

3 comments:

a said...

I love this post and I love TS Eliot. I wrote my high school thesis on him. My favorite movies: Eraserhead, Clockwork Orange, Hostel II, Natural Born Killers all elaborate on the theme of this poem.

This is your best post ever! I'm hoping to get into Christian movie directing after college by making movies that elaborate the dark aspects of the human experience rather than the chip-chirpity of other Christian movies like Left Behind.

Christianity isn't about Disneyland; it's much more like a world of demons, dungeons, and dragons in my experience. But I'm also bipolar so maybe my experience isn't normal.

We are the hollow men (incidently this line has inspired many great movies). I love your passion for art and for exporing dark themes.

D. A. Armstrong said...

One of the best poems of our day. One might think that the latest election was one more demonstration that we are the hollow men.

Anonymous said...

Such pertinent words. May an increasing number find stabilizing weight and substance. They can then fill their heads with true meaning, standing firm and speaking with conviction amid the aimless and vagrant windblown travels of the straw masses.