Wow

[trinityofone]

I was doing a random search, looking for Prufrock-themed desktops (though I don't actually know what that would be), when I found this site which, as you'll see, at the top of the page has what they say is an mp3 of T.S. Eliot reading "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." I don't know if it's the genuine thing--how can I know what he sounded like?--but it's certainly strange and odd and evocative, and very worth listening to.

So yeah...listen to it. I have nothing else to say.

Comments

WOW

[ilgattopardo.livejournal.com]

(a) Prufrock-themed desktops!? So cool, and yet so... disturbing...

(b) I didn't actually listen to the mp3 (it's a poem from which I'm trying to escape, rather than wallow in, just at the moment), so I can't say that's authentic, but there are certainly plenty of recordings of T.S. Eliot out there (e.g.: http://www.harperaudio.com/more_eliot.htm if you want to buy some!).

(c) Or how about The Wasteland?
http://town.hall.org/Archives/radio/IMS/HarperAudio/011894_harp_ITH.html

Re: WOW

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

(a) Yeah, I think I was kind of hoping that somebody had done some fanart and that I could make it my desktop and stare at it every once and a while and pretend it was the cover to my unfinished novel (The Chambers of the Sea).

(b) I know what you mean about wanting to escape, rather than wallow in, Prufrock--there are times when I get a little too obsessed with it, where I'm like, "This poem is about me, man!" Not good. But in another way it's kind of reassuring, because although Eliot created a character, I'm sure he was feeling some of the things that construct was feeling--and he was T.S. Eliot! Here's another example of that, which I sometimes read as an antidote to Prufrock:

Sonnet VII
by John Milton

How soon hath time the subtle thief of youth,
Stol’n on his wing my three and twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom sheweth.
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,
That I to manhood am arrived too near,
And inward ripeness doth much less appear,
That some more timely-happy spirits endueth.
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,
It shall be still in strictest measure even,
To that same lot, however mean or high,
Toward which time leads me, and the will of heaven;
All is, if I have grace to use it so,
As ever in my great task-master’s eye.

I'm a weird person that I go to Milton for cheering up.

Thanks for the other Eliot links--I'll check 'em out!

Re: WOW

[ilgattopardo.livejournal.com]

Milton is always appreciated; thank you for that! I was going to say (in hommage to Mr. Joyce) that Prufrock is a nightmare from which I am trying to awaken, but given what happens in the poem itself when human voices wake us, it's perhaps not the happiest metaphor.

As for your pics, someone made a movie a year or two ago that was inspired by "Prufrock" (fanart of a sort, then)? I didn't see it (no Greek release, alas), but I remember reading about it in the NY Times.

[a few moments of searching later] It was called "Till Human Voices Wake Us", no less! And here are the specs:
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=272745

Re: WOW

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I never saw that movie, either. I remember seeing the previews and thinking "Oooh! Prufrock ref! Must see! (Plus Guy Pearce is kinda hot...)" But then it got really bad reviews and I never got around to it. But good idea, image-wise--I shall do a Google search! Thanks!