What does The Wasteland mean (Lol)?
OK, well, let's unpack that:
1. How has it been interpreted? Use citations.
2. What are some of its key features?
3. In what ways has it been influential??
PoMo
1. What common qualities do the "Beats" share? Why were they so-named?
2. On what grounds was Ginsberg's HOWL accused of being obscene, and on what grounds was it defended?
3. In what ways are Beat poetry and rap linked?
4. How was Bob Dylan's song Master of War involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
PoMo 1.
ReplyDeleteCommonalities within by the “Beats” were that they tended to be well-educated men with a middle-class background with a shared ideology. They were concerned, disillusioned, and angered by America’s post-war consumerism, they saw capitalism as exploitative and spiritually destructive of man, and they reacted against the prior generation’s prudence when it came to discussing sexuality. Their style was daring and provocative, a blatant reaction against the sterility they believed marked modernists, and they were inspired by the free-flowing richness of jazz music. It is said that Jack Kerouac, one of the core founders of the movement, came up with the name “The Beat Generation.”
Rahn, J. (n.d.). The Beat Generation. Retrieved from http://www.online-literature.com/periods/beat.php
PoMo 3. Stylistically there are roots in Beat poetry that extend down to the ancient tradition of rap, which Allen Ginsberg related his rhythm and style to in an interview. Ginsberg said that this form of expression went back to griot in Africa - the storyteller and historian, who provided social commentary, facilitated village commentary. Features of this expression were intentional hyperbole, a boasting of power, of sexual promiscuity (Ginsberg, 1995). Ginsberg’s America (1956), contains a line that I think encompasses all of these features: “my national resources consist of two joints of marijuana millions of genitals an unpublishable private literature that goes 1400 miles an hour and twentyfivethousand mental institutions” (stanza 3). I think this is a boast of Ginsberg’s autonomy, and thereby power, because the society wherein this was published was anti-drugs and afraid (or unwilling) to discuss sex and the body. Ginsberg ticks off talking about both these taboos and there is dramatic flair (hyperbole) in the numbers “1400 miles an hour”/”twentyfivethousand”.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the technique in delivering rap traces back to African bards wherein sermons, stories and songs were “chanted in poetic fashion” (Keyes 1991, as cited in Bennett, 1999 p.77). Making a very general connection here, I would suggest that Ginsberg’s reading of Howl has a certain lull to it, a chant-like quality, that can perhaps be seen as being influenced by the delivery in rap. Also, in terms of themes, there could be another sort-of connection. Rap was a distinctive feature in Hip Hop, which arose in Bronx, New York in the 1970s as an “African-American street-culture” (Bennett, 1999, p.78). Notably, it channelled the anger of youth about the dire state of the city due to racism, economic recession and bad urban development plans (Bennett) into a creative form. It was a way to assert a sense of self (Bennett). There is a similar sort of speaking-out in Beat poetry - similar, but not the same because it isn’t rooted in a reaction against systematic racism, as far as I know of.
Bennett, A. (1999). Hip hop am Main: the localisation of rap music and hip hop culture. Media, Culture & Society 21(1), 77-91. Retrieved from: journals.sagepub.com
Ginsberg, A. (1956). Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books
Ginsberg, A. (1995). On rap. US: Hibbet Radio.
Modernism
ReplyDelete1.
The Waste Land (1922) by T.S Eliot, is considered one of the most difficult poems written, as well as one of the most talked about.
For starters, is interpreted as an exploration of the modern world after the destructive WWI had left Eliot’s society disillusioned. Interesting Literature (2016), suggests that Eliot is showing modern civilisation and how it’s been reduced to waste; “the land has lost its fertility and ability to bring forth life. Even the living seem to be suffering from some kind of spiritual wound.” This can be seen in the lines “and the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
and the dry stone no sound of water.” (l.24-25). Eliot is describing a barren land linking in to his metaphorical exploration of a society he clearly believed was culturally barren.
Many critics view Eliot’s poem as a type of release for him. In class, Mountfort (2018), explored how “The Wasteland is often seen as partly a product of Eliot’s unhappy first marriage”. Bush (1999) explains how T.S Eliot married impulsively in 1915, which then created a rift between him and his family and when his father died in 1919, he was in a state of misery and guilt regarding this and his marriage that had quickly turned sour. Eventually, as a result of the stress from his wife’s mental and physical health deterioration, Eliot suffered a breakdown (Bush, 1999). Leading to the mental emotions and feelings that went into The Waste Land.
Hay (1982) describes The Waste Land “as a poem of radical doubt and negation, urging that every human desire be stilled except the desire for self-surrender, for restraint, and for peace.” This alludes to the idea that Eliot was not writing this poem for the purpose of lifting people up or creating an historical interpretation, he was simply showing his personal anguish at his own life and feelings of desolation towards World War One.
These are just interpretations though, as Eliot never went into detail about what the poem meant, the notes left at the end of ‘The Waste Land’ simply confuse readers, rather than help them to understand the meaning of his work; “Eliot was often notoriously unhelpful at providing clarification or elucidation to his poems.” (Interesting Literature, 2016).
Bush, R. (1999). T.S. Eliot’s Life and Career. Retrieved 1 June, 2018 from http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/life.htm
Eliot, T. S. (1922). The Waste Land.
Hay, E. K. (1982). On The Waste Land: T.S. Eliot’s Negative Life. Retrieved 1 June, 2018 from http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/wasteland.htm
Interesting Literature. (2016). A Very Short Analysis of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Retrieved 1 June, 2018 from https://interestingliterature.com/2016/10/06/a-very-short-analysis-of-t-s-eliots-the-waste-land/
Mountfort, P. (2018). Lit&Desire_10-12a [PowerPoint Slides]. Literature and Desire ENGL600. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/
Modernism
ReplyDelete2.
‘The Waste Land’ (1922) is a five part poem and was considered groundbreaking as “a fragmented modern poem” (Shrestha, 2013) when it was published. Hirsch (2014) explains that “the modernist poets reinvented the fragment as an acutely self-conscious mode of writing that breaks the flow of time, leaving gaps”. Shrestha (2013) goes on to say that Eliot’s poem in particular uses “perspective, imagery, setting and subject” in many different ways, though in spite of the form used, ‘The Waste Land’ is bound together by the subject of despair.
I found when reading the poem, that ‘The Waste Land’ has quite a disjointed timeline, a plot that I found difficult to follow along with. It doesn’t have a beginning, middle or end. The only structure it has, are the five different sections; The Burial of the Dead, A Game of Chess, The Fire Sermon, Death by Water and What the Thunder Said. Each of these sections introduce new and different characters, that I didn’t feel seemed to be related to each other at all, but they are all there referencing aspects of waste and despair, the poems theme, which keeps it connected. For example; Phlebas the Phoenician seems to be drowning in Death by Water and there are a few different mentions of women being sexually abused in The Fire Sermon, the Thames women and the typist.
According to Shrestha (2013), ‘The Waste Land’ is full of many different literary and mythological connections that pull from many cultures and universalize the poem’s themes. One of the more obvious connections is the reference to the Holy Grail myth. Shrestha (2013) notes that ‘The Waste Land’ uses a lot of the myths symbols and creates its narrative structure around the quest for the Grail. Shrestha (2013) mentions that Eliot interweaves a particular version of the myth; “a wasteland is awaiting a miraculous revival-for itself and its failing ruler, the Fisher King, guardian of the Holy Grail.” This refers to the world Eliot is living in, waiting for its own revival after WWI.
‘The Waste Land’ also uses the narrator in a most interesting way. Levenson (1984) says of this “no single consciousness presides; no single voice dominates. A character appears, looming suddenly into prominence, breaks into speech, and then recedes, having bestowed momentary conscious perception on the fragmentary scene.” There are multiple voice and strings of consciousness, creating a fuller text, more unique with each voice that speaks from it. There’s never any real indication that some of the lines in this poem are different people speaking. An example of these different voices speaking amongst each other can be found in A Game of Chess; where two women are talking to each other, and that’s clear with “I said” and “she said”, but then there is the line “hurry up please it’s time” being interjected to their conversation. It’s clearly neither of these women speaking, adding to the poem’s difficulty and intrigue.
Hirsch, E. (2014). Fragment: From a Poet’s Glossary. Retrieved 1 June, 2018 from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/fragment-poets-glossary
Levenson, M. (1984). A Genealogy of Modernism: A Study of English Literary Doctrine. Cambridge, Cambridge: University Press.
Shrestha, R. (2013). The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: Critical Analysis. Retrieved 1 June, 2018 from https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/the-waste-land.html#.WxC0PHqFOUk
Post-Modernism
ReplyDelete4.
There are many protest songs, raps and media that are present in the world, I would argue that these forms of protest are even more frequent at the moment, considering the concerning changes and nerve wracking potential of the near-future. There are more people speaking up about different issues that are affecting so many of us and much more of these are women.
Some examples;
‘This is America’ by Childish Gambino (2018) - This song talks about gun violence, being black in America and White Supremacy.
‘The Storm’ by Eminem (2017) - A freestyle rap that protests against, hates on and pulls Trump up for his immense inadequacies.
‘Alright’ by Kendrick Lamar (2015) - Acts as a rallying cry and reassurance for the Black Lives Matter movement.
‘Hell You Talmbout’ by Janelle Monae (2015) - This song has multiple artists come together to perform its march like call, they recite the many names of people slain through Police Brutality in the United States.
‘Born Free’ by M.I.A (2010) - Portrays her unapologetic view of the world as a refugee and a woman of color disturbed by oppression.
Post-Modernism
ReplyDelete1.
Poetry Foundation (n.d.) describes Beat poetry as a “largely free verse, often surrealistic”. After the Second World War, the American 1950’s called for a new cultural and literary movement to shift society from its consumer obsession, and that was The Beat Generation (Rahn, 2011). Rahn (2011) explains that the Beat movement wasn't a large movement in regards to numbers, but it was extremely visible.
As the postwar economic bloom took hold, university students began to question materialism and consumerism, “the Beat Generation was a product of this questions. They saw runaway capitalism as destructive to the human spirit and antithetical to social equality.” (Rahn, 2011). This led to various topics that were considered ‘taboo’ used as a rebellion to the previous ‘clean’ generations, things like “frank discussions of sexuality were seen as unhealthy and possibly damaging” (Rahn, 2011). Beat poetry discussed themes like sexuality, immorality and drugs. The poems used slang, swears and aimed to ruffle feathers by breaking the poetry rules. The Beat Movement was expressive, candid and daring in how it challenged society and focused on the freedom of speech.
Jazz was largely influential for writers of the Beat Generation, “underneath the seeming disorganization was careful planning and a deliberate effect” (Rahn, 2011). According to Poets.org (2004) these writers were “interested in changing consciousness and defying conventional writing.” The core founders and of the Beat Movement were Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and some of their most well known works were produced during this time, Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’ (1957) and Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ (1956). They were joined by other writers Gregory Corso and William S. Burroughs who both helped to form the bones of the movement (Rahn, 2011).
Jack Kerouac is said to have been the one who coined the name of the ‘Beat Generation’ (Pedia Press, n.d.), it apparently came to the group through someone from the underworld they knew who used the word ‘beat’ to mean tired or feeling down. That’s when Kerouac took a hold of the world and flipped its meaning to a have a more musical association like ‘upbeat’ and being ‘on the beat’, thus The Beat Movement was born (Pedia Press, n.d.).
Pedia Press. (n.d.). The Beat Generation. Retrieved 4 June, 2018 from https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=k2pVClvgu2UC&pg=PA1&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false
Poetry Foundation. (n.d.) Beat Poetry. Retrieved 1 June, 2018 from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/beat-poets
Poets.org. (2004). A Brief Guide to the Beat Poets. Retrieved 4 June, 2018 from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/brief-guide-beat-poets
Rahn, J. (2011). The Beat Generation. Retrieved 1 June, 2018 from http://www.online-literature.com/periods/beat.php
Post-Modernism
ReplyDelete2.
Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’, when first published in 1956, was quickly questioned for its use of honest language and not in a good way. The poem touched on subjects like “sexual promiscuity, drug abuse, and homosexuality.” (Rehlaender, 2015, p.3). Sederberg (n.d.) passionately describes ‘Howl’ as “a rage against conformity, inhibition, censorship, puritanism, and everything else that restricts and limits the realization of one's true self. It is both a howl of defeat from a living hell and a howl of defiant laughter.” Though a group of conservative people did not see it this way, thinking it had gone too far, and many parents and police were concerned about their children reading it.
According to King (2007), once word started getting around about the controversial poem, the “government crackdown began in March 1957 when San Francisco . . . seized more than 500 copies of Howl and Other Poems.” Then in June ‘57, City Lights Bookstore was caught selling copies of the book to an undercover inspector, causing the obscenity case to really begin (King, 2007). Rehlaender (2015) notes that the defending lawyer for the case, J. W. Ehrlich, put forward a solid defense, beginning with maintaining the literary justifications of ‘Howl’. Ehrlich, as Rehlaender continues, “asserted that Howl and Other Poems was not sold with the purpose of arousing lewd thoughts” (p.9) therefore it would not be bought with that intent. There were many witnesses for the defense who confidently argued of the social importance of ‘Howl’ and that the words used were necessary for the author to be honest in his modern goals (Rehlaender, 2015).
After a long trial that ended in October that year, ‘Howl and Other Poems’ was ruled not obscene, not only that but the Judge felt the book “contained ‘redeeming social importance’ and was therefore protected by the First Amendment.” (King, 2007).
Ehrlich’s closing argument summarised by Rehlaender;
“The fact that a work contains words unappealing to some, or which are related to sex or sexuality, should not undermine the meaning of the literature. Allen Ginsberg did not write Howl to corrupt the minds of his readers, but instead to detail his own experiences: his pain and his reality and his survival.”
(Rehlaender, 2015, p.11)
King, L. H. (2007, October 3). ‘Howl’ Obscenity Prosecution Still Echoes 50 Years Later. First Amendment Center. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxwb2VtdGhhdGNoYW5nZWRhbWVyaWNhfGd4OjdhMzkwOTQwYzEwOGEyNzk
Rehlaender, J. L. (2015). A Howl of Free Expression: The 1957 Howl Obscenity Trial and Sexual Liberation. Young Historians Conference, 1. Retrieved from https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1065&context=younghistorians
Sederberg, J. (n.d.). The Howl Obscenity Trial. Retrieved 4 June, 2018 from http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Howl_Obscenity_Trial
PoMo 5.
ReplyDeleteRosenberg (2013) says that protest must take place on more than the physical location - it must have an atmosphere. Protest songs are vital for this, and their presence has been felt for centuries. And it continues to be felt (Rosenberg). The 1960s were marked as a golden age of the protest song and for a time after that, the feeling that music should challenge the establishment eroded (Lynskey). But it has returned in full force during the past 5 years, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and further ignited by Trump (Lynskey). Today’s music increasingly addresses social causes as race, gender, and sexuality (Lynskey). To name just two albums, Kendrick Lamar’s Damn (2017) and Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer (2018). Dirty Computer is also more than an album, it has a 46 minute narrative film alongside it, showing the multimedia possibility of the protest song today. In an opinion piece about the greatest protest songs of the 21st century, Trowbridge (2017) said, “there's still plenty to be angry about, and there are still plenty of people ready to translate that anger into powerful music that stands in the face of injustice.” So, protest never died, and so long as there is injustice, there will be its music, “steering the cultural conversation with a beat, a melody, and a message,” (Trowbridge).
Lynskey, D. (2018, January 15). In Kornhaber, S. The Trump protest-song boom, in the eye of https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/01/trump-protest-music-one-year-dorian-lynskey/550268/
Rosenberg, T. (2013). The soundtrack of revolution memory, affect, and the power of protest songs. Culture Unbound 5(1), 175-188.
Trowbridge, J. (2017, June 14). 15 greatest protest songs of the 21st century. What culture. retrieved from whatculture.com
4. What does the Wasteland mean?
ReplyDeleteThe Wasteland was recognised as the sign declaring a new literary age (Litz, 1972). A Jungian interpretation of The Wasteland says that it reveals Eliot’s inner psyche (Foster, 1945). The poet has tapped into what was deeply subsconscious and brought it forward, translating it into poetry and contextualising the subconscious in the conscious (Foster). What comes forth is what society is in need of most, and in bringing it to the surface, the artist is important for social and cultural change (Foster). Developed alongside this thought is the interpretation that The Wasteland reveals a critique on society in post-war Europe and is a strive for a person to find himself (Foster). Another interpretation is that the poem, “bespeaks a quest for sexual, cultural, and spiritual healing” and in doing so, mirrors the Grail Legend where a hero on a quest matures through his journey (Smith, 1956 as cited in Modern American Poetry).Though only two of the multitudes of interpretations there are, both of these touch on a similar chord - that the poem, at its core, is about change, or, the need for a healing change in a bad society. A key feature of the text is the multiple points of views and their complete lack of explanation. Levenson (1984) discusses the poem as having multiple characters, all of whom act like waves - suddenly upon us and just as suddenly having receded. At one point, the poem is even aware of itself as a poem, “These fragments I have shored against my ruins.” As such, the pieces of consciousness that had been defining the poem had become conscious of its pieces and fragmented nature (Levenson). This chaos is never resolved, and Menand (1987) says that this allows it to mirror its topic of a degenerated society.
Foster, G.W. The archetypal imagery of T.S. Eliot. PMLA 60(2), 567-585. DOI: 10.2307/459088
Levenson, M. (1984). A Genealogy of Modernism: A study of English literary doctrine. Cambridge: Cam bridge University Press
Litz A. (1973). The Waste Land Fifty Years After. Princeton University Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x11wz.3
Menand,L.(1987).DiscoveringModernism:T.S.Eliot and His Context. Oxford University Press.
Smith, G. (1956). T.S. Eliot’s Poetry and Plays: A Study in Sources and Meaning. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Retrieved from: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/wasteland.htm
PoMo #3
ReplyDeleteBeat poetry and rap are linked through some structural commonalities, in case of the rhyme and rhythm, but the major linkage is the use of language and its features. According to Ginsberg (1995), in one of his interview, when asked about Rap said, that its from an old tradition of griot in Africa where the storyteller, the orator - boasted about themselves. A warrior would boast about his prowess. There was also the sexual boasting as well as a commentary on the aspects of the village and the society that resided within. The language used were ‘intentionally hyperbolic and exaggerated’. And both rap and Beat poetry tended to be explicit and free with their language, with the use of profanity, with discussing taboo topics such as drugs and sex, at the time. Both, also insist upon the freedom to use language, in whatever one please and opposed the censor.
Ginserberg, A. (1995). On rap. US: Hibbet Radio.
Ginsberg, A. (1956). Howl and other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books
Post World War II, as the economic boom was taking hold, the new generation who went to universities questioned the nature of the runaway capitalism and the growing consumer culture. The Beat generation were a group of writers, who had emerged as a result created a cultural shift. They sought out to bring the literary arts away from its academic counterpart. The Beats represented the new way of life. The cannon of the writers associated with the Beat generation are: Jack Kerouac, author of the book On The Road; Allen Ginsberg who wrote poems such as the Howl; Williams Burroughs who authored The Naked Lunch.
ReplyDeleteThe ‘Beats’ were generally apolitical and indifferent to social problems. They promoted the ideas of the personal release and purification as the group was heavily influenced by Buddhism. Their views and uses of the drugs, sex and jazz to heighten one’s sensory awareness werel. (Britannica, 2013)
https://www.britannica.com/art/Beat-movement
Rahn, J. (n.d.). The Beat Generation.
Retrieved from http://www.online-literature.com/periods/beat.php
The Waste Land (1922) by T.S. Eliot is one of the central and important text for the Modernist movements. The poems still remain to prove difficult to read and relevant today.
ReplyDeleteThe poems are interpreted as an exploration of the modern world after the destruction of World War I, which left a whole generation and, Eliot in disillusionment. (Interesting Literature, 2016). The poems, through its use of the fragments to create a new breed of the poetry to show the modern elements of fragmentation and alienation in the modern society.(sparknotes, 2018)
Eliot in 1915, was married to his first wife impulsively. The marriage was hurtful and heavy on him. The poems of The Waste Land are also seen by many critics, to be about a product of this unhealthy unhappy marriage. This had grown to created difference between him and his father.
Being miserable and unhappy had escalated to a complete breakdown, when the state and stress of the his wife, physical and psychological health degenerated. (Bush, 1999).
According to Menand (1987), The poems of The Waste Land, describe something intangible through its description of tangible things. Therefore, the meaning behind poems are just another riddle. Thus still remain one of the hardest set of poems to read, adding to its depth.
SparkNotes Editors. (2002). SparkNote on Eliot’s Poetry. Retrieved June 15, 2018, from http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/eliot/
Menand, L.(1987). Discovering Modernism: T.S. Eliot and His Context. Oxford University Press
Bush, R. (1999). T.S. Eliot’s Life and Career. Retrieved 13 June, 2018 from http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/life.htm
hat does Wasteland mean?
ReplyDeleteWasteland in my opinion is about a man waiting for death to find him, I struggled for most of the reading to figure out what was happening and then it all clicked in my mind suddenly. At first the narrator speaks of all things, mainly in a description that makes them seem horrific, for example "(Those are pearls that were his eyes." (Eliot, 1922) speaking of a man who has drowned and his eyes have clouded over. Upon further research I found that this poem was, yes indeed about death but much, much more that I wouldn’t have even considered. Maybe because my generation hasn’t experienced the pure pain and loss that it bought or because our language is different so I wasn’t comprehending the words correctly, who knows. This poem is in fact about WWI and the devastation that came with the aftermath. The waste land is considered to be an epic poem, and many would argue it was T.S. Eliot's best and most famous work. The devastation I spoke of earlier is not just in relation to the loss of life, but also the massive depression, loss of identity/morals that came afterwards and it heavily about mental health. Peck (2018), explains " The title is indicative of Eliot’s attitude toward his contemporary society, as he uses the idea of a dry and sterile wasteland as a metaphor for a Europe devastated by war and desperate for spiritual replenishment but depleted of the cultural tools necessary for renewal." Understandably, this time was difficult, but never have I read about the aftermath in terms of how people must've been feeling, mentally. Growing up we watch documentaries in school about how many people passed and what happened, why it happened but never have I heard something so forthcoming about the mental health aspect. Peck (2018) states "spiritual death breeds cultural death, and the ashen landscape reflects a barren world void of transcendental value." When reading about the poem being about depression and lack of identity, I found that Eliot himself was actually on leave from his job at the bank, for what we now consider to be depression. In this time, he took off, he wrote this epic poem, McAloon (2018) explained.
Eliot, T, S. (1922). The Waste Land. Retrieved from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47311/the-waste-land
Peck, D. (2018). The Waste Land – Summary. Retrieved from https://www.enotes.com/topics/waste-land
McAloon, J. (2018). TS Eliot's The Waste Land remains one of the finest reflections on mental illness ever written. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/feb/13/ts-eliot-the-waste-land-mental-illness
4. How was Bob Dylan's song Masters of War involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
ReplyDeleteWritten during the Vietnam War, Masters of War, one of Bob Dylan’s many anti-war protests reached the height of it’s popularity, fame and relevance as the ground assault of Operation Desert Shield began during the Gulf War. The song made its second coming after being performed by Dylan while receiving his Lifetime Achievement Award at the thirty-third annual Grammy Awards (Marcus, 2006). The performance came at a very tense time in United States military history as the invasion of Kuwait by American troops, led by the Bush administration was within hours of beginning (Powers, 2015). The Bush administration’s push to invade Kuwait was seen in a mostly negative light throughout the United States as memories of the huge loss of life and their eventual defeat during the Vietnam War were still profound. The extreme convenience of the untapped oil wells throughout Iraq were also under speculation as the United States would have unrestrained access, should they invade. While Masters of War had fallen into an oversaturated collection of pieces protesting the Vietnam War at the time it was written, it came to perfectly resemble the actions of the Bush administration almost twenty years later, as over four hundred thousand United States military personnel sat, stationed in the middle east preparing for invasion. In Kuwait, on the same day Dylan performed Masters of War the ground assault was initiated. A ceasefire was reached four days after; however, it is estimated that as many as one hundred thousand Iraqi casualties, including civilians occurred during this time (Allwood, 2017). Lyrics such as “You that build the death planes You that build all the bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks” quickly became controversial as the United States displayed their air superiority during a bombing assault that would later be known as the Highway of Death. The assault took place on six lane highway, named highway eighty, where thousands of retreating Iraqi soldiers fleeing Kuwait were barraged for ten straight hours. The attack left thousands dead and sent both wreckage and human remains scattered for miles around the highway (Rogoway, 2016). To the great surprise of many, The Gulf War caused many subsequent problems in the middle east and ten years after a ceasefire was arranged, the Bush administration announced that the United States armed forces would invade Iraq for a second time. This announcement caused an even larger backlash as the terrible loss of life that had occurred during Operation Desert Shield had been fully recognised. Again, Dylan performed Masters of War at the Maddison Square Gardens with lyrics like “When the death count gets higher You hide in your mansion' As young people's blood Flows out of their bodies and is buried in the mud” as hundreds of thousands of young Americans and Iraqis prepared for the coming assault. His performance again rallied many against the Bush administration’s actions and solidified the masterpiece as one of the great anti-war demonstrations throughout history.
References
Marcus, G. (2006). Threepenny: Marcus, Stories of a Bad Song. Retrieved from http://www.threepennyreview.com/samples/marcus_w06.html
Powers, R. (2015, June 16). Learn About Desert Shield/Desert Storm and Get the Basic Timeline. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/desert-shield-desert-storm-basic-timeline-3357157
Allwood, G. (2017, February 7). Remembering the Gulf War: The Key Facts & Figures. Retrieved from https://www.forces.net/news/remembering-gulf-war-key-facts-figures