Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle
With words and meanings.
T.S. Eliot, "East Coker"
I feel that I need to say a few things by way of foreword – forewarning, maybe – before getting down to business.
This essay is nominally focused on the influence of T.S. Eliot’s poetry on SMiLE. I say “nominally” for a couple of reasons.
First, because the essay also covers a fair amount of other ground: other writers and musicians, some contemporary with Eliot, others decidedly not.
And second, because “influence” is too narrow a word for the mysterious relationship between SMiLE, on the one hand, and the musical/literary tradition, on the other. I think it’s valid to talk about echoes, resonances and connections, even where no “influence” per se can be established. I’m aware that this is a somewhat contentious point; so be it.
I suppose it’s fair to say that this essay was envisioned as one of the centerpieces of the planned SMiLE book: the weightiest of the analytical/interpretive pieces, at any rate. (At one point we fell into the habit of calling it "The Big Essay" for short.) As befits that status, it’s pure, unapologetic artistic criticism; I suspect that it may be heavy going for folks who don’t often bore themselves with that kind of thing.
It presupposes a certain level of familiarity with the poems of T.S. Eliot. When I first sat down to write it, I considered including a sort of introductory section, a kind of Wikipedia-esque overview of Eliot’s life and work. It became clear early on, however, that that idea was a non-starter. For one thing, it would have been, necessarily, a superficial treatment, failing to do justice to the gentleman and his work. (The plain fact is that there are hundreds of books and websites that do a better job than I could have hoped to do; I encourage curious readers to seek them out.) For another, it would have added pages to what it already a long essay.
On that last point: it would be folly to try to shoehorn an essay of this length into a single blog post; it might be technically possible, but it would strain the format well beyond its intended limits. Cutting it up into more manageable chunks wouldn’t be much of an improvement; presenting it that way would damage its coherence, distorting the overall arc and making it more difficult to follow. With no other better options at hand, I’m making it available as a PDF download. That way folks can skim through or dip in and out; pause and return; skip the things they find tiresome and focus on the things – if any – they find interesting.
For what it’s worth, I think there’s some good stuff here. I think the discussion of Watts’s Joyous Cosmology, toward the end, may add something of value to the body of SMiLE-focused criticism, if only because it draws on non-public sources that haven’t been (to my knowledge) referenced elsewhere.
The attentive reader will note that some of the points discussed in this piece have been touched on in the other essays. I hope that they are more fully elaborated here.
A word about footnotes: they aren’t in proper academic format, and there is an intimidating quantity of them. Go ahead and ignore them, if you like. They’re included mainly as a way of capturing the sources; I’ve learned, in the course of readying these essays, how easy it is for links to vanish and for research notes to get mislaid.
Please feel free – in the spirit of old-time SMiLE discussion – to share this essay, with two small conditions. I would ask that you refrain from circulating partial or edited versions; and that you not upload it to any of those sites that make books and articles available in contravention of copyright (*cough*Scribd*cough*).
If you encounter download difficulties, or issues with PDF formatting, please let me know in the comments or via the contact form. I hope you find something interesting here!
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