New Judgments: Literary Criticism on Air

Navigating Cultural Desolation: Exploring T.S. Eliot's Depiction of Anxiety and Fragmentation in The Waste Land

“…To Bloom, this epigrammatic reference is provocative and indicative of the reflections of Eliot (1922) on the crisis of modern civilization. Bloom (2007) remarks, "…Her condition reflects the condition of the civilization Eliot leads the reader through in The Waste Land, a culture of living death." Analytically, "a culture of living death" could be considered as the crisis suffered the people out of cultural anxiety.…”

“…After the episode of Marie and her cousin, according Bloom (2007), the poet raises the central question of the poem, "What are the roots that clutch?" (Ferguson et al, 2005;Eliot, 1922) and Bloom (2007) asserts that the provocative question "states directly the problem the poem confronts throughout its five cryptic, fragmented sections." As a complimentary question Eliot raises another question, "what branches grow out of this stony rubbish?"…”

“…Obviously, the poet makes a relation between "roots", "branches" and "culture" implying that in "stony rubbish" no roots or branches are supposed to sprout and thrive. Bloom (2007) presents an analysis of the question, "How can there be a civilization worthy of mankind and how can mankind itself be whole, wholesome, and create a worthy culture, if the environment in which it grows undermines life rather than nurtures it." And "How can rootlessness and uprootedness be repaired?".…”

“…Their lives are dried with "no sound of water" (Ferguson et al, 2005;Eliot, 1922) which is symbol of renewal and regeneration. Here, Bloom (2007) makes an insightful comment, "The Waste Land is a riddle the reader must unravel in the quest to find "roots that clutch." But there is a concluding line in the poem, "These fragments I have shored against my ruins" (Ferguson et al, 2005;Eliot, 1922) implying that the poet's search has remained fragmentary in the quest he makes for an integrated worldview or cultural wholeness.…”

Expanding the Photonic Palette: Exploring High Index Materials

“…This brings us to an interesting state of affairs regarding all types of metal-containing optics in the visible and near-IR ranges, which can be best described as “metamaterial Catch-22”. , Namely, with the high losses in existing metals, such contrivances as “superlens” and “hyperlens” do not live up to their lofty promises. ,,− If, on the other hand, a really low loss metal (or other negative ε medium) is developed, then the aforementioned concepts completely lose their appeal, as more or less conventional optics with artificially high index dielectrics can provide very high resolution and magnified images in the far field and easily outperform both super- and hyperlenses. In other words, with a reduction of metal loss, the concepts of super- and hyperlensing go straight from being unrealizable to being unneeded.…”