The Waste Land

Absence & Connections

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C K W I E B E W J K N X C A P W M H D H V
Q E N V V U C G V J F H O V O R V A W H G
B P B E G E R H F E H E N A E Q N S Y N T
E R Y E P M O Y T C V A K B T B O K A U W
G A O D Y Y F G B N I P C S A G I Q V L H
I X X F C M G R X E A O E E B U T Q S P C
N S T I U R N A H S B F N N S S A Y G K C
S K E U W V I H E S W B T C O L U V A N N
W X Z H J Y S A B E O R R E R W T V Q U G
I G R P E J I M M F U O E C B E I F L P A
T X A X E F L H C O S K A O E F S O R P W
H C P Y O K I E K E C E N N D Q E A Q L M
P D O I U P B U S S E N D N I E H B X O H
A X U D L E A G T N F I O E N J T B H R L
R H N I X D T H Y E C M R C O U F K Q G A
A W D F B T S P Y S B A D T B E O G P W X
D O V G C G A U U B O G E I J Q G K P J C
O W X F I S M C T A F E R O E V G U P L B
X A O B A V I A E X V S Y N C B H S J A I
M W M J H W R R B I B M S S T H J E O M K
E S L N I R I X F W L E E S A O S V E T Y

Clues

  • a world defined by the absence of a central stabilising force; logic, God, empirical certainty (11, 5)
  • in the absence of essence, self & world define each other diacritically (7, 2, 7)
  • is one of 'being-in-the-world' (3, 9)
  • It is the cultural world that speaks, not a persona (4, 8, 2, 6)
  • makes the reader experience the absence of expected connections (7, 11)
  • most basic to human experience - the interdependence of life & death (6, 4, 7)
  • rather than understood as a whole (4, 2, 6, 6)
  • the poem is an 'emotional unit' (4, 5)
  • Tiresias functions not as a single human consciousness, but as a mythological catch-all - a unifying factor of no effect (6, 5)
  • Without a centre, the world has no order (6, 3, 5)

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