A Detailed Explication of T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred 

                        Prufrock. Cambridge Scholars Press, 2022, www.cambridgescholars.com

Once Upon a Time a Boy Lived on Lake Minnetonka

Seeking God in the works of T. S. Eliot and Michelangelo

The Joker

To prepare for the role of The Joker, Heath Ledger locked himself in a London hotel room, trying to understand and become a character he saw as “an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown” who was not intimidated by anything and found all of life “a big joke.” In the end, Ledger’s obsession with his role contributed to his own death from drugs before The Dark Knight was released. The connections and irony are too close to ignore. And the movie gives the world a curious twist on the roles of Batman and the Joker. It’s politically incorrect, and yet emotionally the Joker’s insanity becomes more endearing than Batman’s noble sacrifice. What is it? Why does this psychopath seem to have a sense of higher truths in his insanity?

This is the role of The Joker or The Fool, a standard character in theater, and a role consciously adopted by serious artists since the late 1800s. Just as Shakespeare’s Fool in King Lear used his riddles and puns and satire to reveal the truths the royal leaders of his world could not or refused to see, today’s artists are both revealing the darkness within the culture and offering a way out. Waiting for Godot has been proclaimed the greatest play of the twentieth century. But there are no great roles in it, no characters representing the equivalent of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Rather, the two main characters are closer to T. S. Eliot’s J. Alfred Prufrock, who says he cannot be a Hamlet, only, perhaps, Hamlet’s Fool.

This book explores what has happened as Europe’s culture fragmented and the world lost its center – all of the different arenas, from political, social and religious happenings to scientific and artistic expressions, seeking to find the centers of the human condition and how the dark expressions of meaninglessness so commonly highlighted are more rites-of-passage than the final destination.   

Insanity and Genius 2nd Edition Front Cover

Insanity and Genius 2nd Edition Back Cover

Electric Sheep Front Cover

Electric Sheep Back Cover

The Mythology of Dance Front Cover

The Mythology of Dance Back Cover

The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke Front Cover

The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke Back Cover

Divine Madness Front Cover

Divine Madness Back Cover

Metaesthetics 3rd Edition Front Cover

Christ of the Coal Yards Front Cover With Back Cover Blurb

     No one heard the shot. No one ever found the gun.

     It was Sunday, July 27, 1890. Vincent had recently finished Wheatfield with Crows, thought to be his final painting, one that he described as representing “vast fields of wheat beneath troubled skies,” one where he said in a letter he meant to send to Theo “I did not need to go out of my way to try to express cheerlessness and extreme loneliness.” The letter never got sent, but was found stuffed in his smock.

     That morning, as usual, he walked out into the wheat fields with his easel, brushes, tubes of color and folding stool, perhaps hoping to reach his destination before the gang of local boys and girls were up and able to tease him and throw tomatoes. Le Crau, a wide plain of ripe grain, fields of citron, yellow, tan, and ochre, spread out beneath the bright Provencal sun. It’s safe to assume he heard the cicadas singing loudly, the swiping swishes of the farmers’ scythes already cutting through the rich wheat stalks, the gusts of wind whispering through the olive branches.

     Driven and filled with energy for months, he had been quickly, with an assurance that overcame and perhaps even came from his doubts and struggles, putting his own dramatic visions on canvas after canvas. But today he did not go into the fields to paint, or, perhaps, in the beginning he did, perhaps in the morning that was his intention. No one will ever know.

     He said he brought the revolver to frighten off the crows. Possibly that was his original intention when he included it with his lunch of bread and milk. In the end it‘s probably not relevant, except for the endless attempts to analyze him, to dig into his complex psyche, at once brilliant and yet impelled to self-destruction.

     The Ravoux family were sitting on the terrace of their café when he returned, a bit concerned because he was late, but not overly so. When he finally appeared, his walk was more uneven than usual, and he held his hand over his stomach. “Monsieur Vincent,” Mrs. Ravoux said, “we were worried, we are glad to see you come. Has anything bad happened?”

     “No, but I . . .” he left his reply unfinished as he passed inside.

     Mr. Ravoux followed him upstairs, where he found him sitting on his bed, facing the wall.

     “I wanted to kill myself.”

     This book is a critical examination of Vincent van Gogh that offers insights into his life, his religious beliefs, his relationships with women, and, of course, his paintings. It includes discussions of his letters, and responds to many of the previous works about him, dispelling some of the myths that have no foundation and pointing out how many of the claims made about him and many of the popular beliefs that have grown up around him are at best guesswork. It explores psychological, neurological, theological, philosophical, aesthetic, and historical paradigms for comprehending his enigmatic and enticing personality.

     Harry Edwin Eiss is a full professor at Eastern Michigan University, where he teaches world mythology and literature. His publications include Insanity and Genius, Metaesthetics, Young Adult Literature and Culture, Children’s Literature and Culture, Image of the Child, Literature for Youth on War and Peace, Dictionary of Mathematical Games, Puzzles and Amusements, and Dictionary of Language Games, Puzzles and Amusements. He has taught at several other universities as well, including The University of North Dakota, Minnesota State University, Northern Montana College, and Pacifica, and received national recognition for his pedagogy.

Young Adult Literature and Culture Front and Back Covers

Insanity and Genius Front and Back Covers

Metaesthetics 2nd Edition Front Cover

Second Edition
Pearson Publishing, 2007
ISBN: 0-536-29518-2
 
First Edition:
Pearson Custom Publishing (December 21, 2005)ISBN-10: 0536155240
ISBN-13: 978-0536155245

Children's Literature and Culture

Children's Literature and Culture

Editorial Reviews

This collection of scholarship on the world of the child offers an eclectic overview of several aspects of youth culture today. The first essay focuses on Donna Williams, Joanna Greenberg, Temple Grandin and other children whose unusual minds raise questions that take us deep into the mysteries of all of human existence. The second, Colonel Mustard in the Library With The Sims: From Board Games to Video Games and Back, gives a historical context and theoretical frame for considering contemporary video and board games in our current age of television The third, Just a Fairy, His Wits, and Maybe a Touch of Magic; Magic, Technology, and Self-Reliance in Contemporary Fantasy Fiction, takes on the technological world of childhood, in this case considering how it is represented in three fantasy series, Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl and Faerie Wars, The fourth essay offers a detailed view of the history of children s literature in China, including discussions of the important philosophical views that controlled what got taught and how, detailed charts of significant historic dates, genres of children s literature, and award winning books of Chinese literature. The fifth considers contemporary Western world consumerism, in this case three popular book series, Clique, Gossip Girl, and The A-List, all published by Alloy for teenage girls. The sixth, Surfing the Series: A Rhizomic Reading of Series Fiction, once again deals with series fiction. The seventh explores the recent Monet Mania that has sparked interest in the great Impressionist Claude Monet among adults and educators. The final essay, Jean Craighead George s Alaskan Children s Books: Love and Survival, focuses on her book Julie of the Wolves and how it expresses aspects of Alaskan culture.

Harry Edwin Eiss is a full professor at Eastern Michigan University whose publications include Metaesthetics, Pearson Press, Images of the Child: Past, Present, and Future, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, Literature for Youth on War and Peace, Greenwood Press, Dictionary of Mathematical Games, Puzzles and Amusements, Greenwood Press, and Dictionary of Language Games, Puzzles and Amusements, Greenwood Press.

Product Details

Hardcover: 220 pages
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing; New Ed edition (May 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1847181724
ISBN-13: 978-1847181725
Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces