T.S. Eliot - BBC Arena Portrait 5/6

Comments · 11

• ST

  @strutherhill · 7 years ago (edited)

  Many thanks for uploading this. Nothing new (to me), but interesting to revisit. As to TSE's anti-semitism -- deplorable and indefensible. But surely we must try to separate great works of literature from the failures of their authors, otherwise Shakespeare would be off-limits: anti-semitism in The Merchant..., misogyny in The Taming... etc. We can each compile our list. In response to a question (that has gone adrift) the issue of anti-semitism in The Merchant has caused endless debate -- sometimes anguished in the case of Harold Bloom.

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• LA

  @LawrenceCarroll1234 · 5 years ago (edited)

  I’m glad that Eliot’s apparent anti-Semitism is dealt with here, and the way he himself seemed almost unaware of it. Yet his statement in one of his American lectures that “There were too many free-thinking Jews” is still absolutely horrible. &nbsp;That he apologized later, and stated that when he said that (&amp; other things too perhaps) that it was because he was a very “sick man” at the time, is perhaps at least partially redemptive, though many may find it hard to forgive. &nbsp;<br><br>It is true, though, that — as one of his biographers, Peter Akroyd states — Eliot did enjoy the friendship of many Jewish people, and lost — among others I’m sure — the friendship of Jewish philosopher George Boas because of this incident.<br><br>Later in life he would accept Groucho Marx’s friendship and they would both enjoy and discuss cigars and Kitty Kats . . . &nbsp;:-D<br><br>(I lament that some of the audio of Bob Dylan singing at the end is muted — as is the commentary! &nbsp;Ugh!)

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• LI

  @Lightsomewise · 2 years ago

  Read the Quran before it’s late

• GA

  @garyhosty9874 · 1 year ago

  why does the sound keep dropping out during the last few minutes