#1045

Mentioned in 21 episodes

The waste land

Book • 1922

The Waste Land is a 434-line poem divided into five sections: 'The Burial of the Dead', 'A Game of Chess', 'The Fire Sermon', 'Death by Water', and 'What the Thunder Said'.

It is a complex and erudite work that incorporates numerous allusions to mythology, classical literature, and religious texts.

The poem reflects the spiritual disillusionment and moral decay of the Western world after World War I, portraying a sterile and fragmented society.

It was initially met with controversy due to its innovative and often obscure style but has since become a central work in the modernist canon.

Mentioned by

Dominic Sandbrook

Gabriel Kennedy

Joshua Michael Schrei

Canon Mark Oakley

Mentioned in 21 episodes

Mentioned by

Joshua Michael Schrei

among other books and resources.

On Singing to the Beloved in Times of Crisis

Mentioned by speaker 3 as a modernist masterpiece by T.S. Eliot.

Billion dollar babies: Trump-Musk spat

Mentioned by

Robert Greene

to highlight the human tendency to prefer illusion over reality.

Sometimes Words Are Very Unnecessary | Robert Greene's 10 Stoic Laws For A Better Life

Mentioned by

Dominic Sandbrook

as containing a reference to the Battle of Mylae.

424. Carthage vs. Rome: Total War (Part 4)

Mentioned by

Tom Holland

and

Dominic Sandbrook

as one of the greatest poems in English, published in 1922.

136. 1922: The Birth of the Modern World Part 1

Mentioned when sharing Ethan Malik's test of ElevenLabs' new model with a passage from it.

Is AI Getting Too Real?

Mentioned by

Gabriel Kennedy

in relation to Robert Anton Wilson's use of the metaphor "Chapel Perilous."

Gabriel Kennedy — The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson (EP.258)

Mentioned by

Zachary Marlow

when discussing the symbolism of the Holy Grail and the concept of the wasteland.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (w/ Zachary Marlow)

Mentioned by

Arshia Sattar

in relation to the title of

Girish Karnad

’s play, "A Heap of Broken Images."

175. #GirishKarnad(1/9) The River Has No Fear of Memories: An Introduction

Mentioned by

Isaac Levin

as an example of literature he read in a liberal arts class, connecting it to technology.

Mentioned by

Brad Harris

as a literary work capturing the fragmentation of meaning after the Great War.

The Decline of the West: Oswald Spengler’s Prophetic Vision

Mentioned by

Canon Mark Oakley

in the context of Eliot's major works and his health struggles.

TS Eliot's Four Quartets - Revd Canon Mark Oakley (Part I: Introduction) 2016

Mentioned by

Ben

as the source of the name "third man factor"

The Third Man Factor, Chapter One: "Who is the third who walks always beside you?"

Mentioned by Tom Keene in relation to the book's title.

Foreign Policy Research Institute Chair of Geopolitics Robert Kaplan Talks Trump Administration

Mentioned by

Tom Luongo

as presaging all of this ennui and breakdown of consciousness.

Tom Luongo: Why the U.S. Wants Europe Weakened And Is Reshaping The World With Russia And China

Mentioned by

A.N. Wilson

in relation to Helen Gardner's work on Eliot.

A.N. Wilson. Walking in mysteries.

Mentioned by

Spencer Klavan

in the context of modern poetry and its relation to translation.

C.S. Lewis's Lost Aeneid

Mentioned by

Tom Holland

in relation to the impact of the Spanish Flu on literature.

12 Days: Jean-Bédel Bokassa and the memory of pandemics

Mentioned by

Russ Roberts

when discussing the value of reading older texts.

Pano Kanelos on Education and UATX

Mentioned by

Michael Motia

as an example of a poem that uses a cento technique.

Chance E. Bonar, "The Author in Early Christian Literature" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

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