Waste Land the Contrast Between Book Report

In Rowson's version he mimics Eliot in the sense that his comic book is part satirical, it is pessimistic, and it is told in fragments, as well. But the two literary works could hardly be farther apart in substance, as Rowson parodies a crime novel's trashy tone -- parodying noted pulp crime writer Raymond Chandler more than Eliot or Eliot's poem -- and it shows in his edgy comic drawings that there is more than one "waste land" in the world.

Rowson had some problems in getting his lawyers to sign off on his parodies of Eliot's lines; for example, in Eliot's "The Fire Sermon," line 205, the poet writes "Jug jug jug jug…" and originally Rowson had his hero, Chris Marlowe ("Philip Marlowe" was a Chandler character ) walking past six jugs in the British Museum (which he uses in his comic illustrations). So instead of the six "jug[s]…" Rowson changed jugs to "Ampora," "vessel," "gugglet," "pitcher," "ewer," and "crock." And the difference between Eliot's poem where the poet used lines directly from the classics, Rowson made up names of Latin writers that were wholly fictitious.Rowson's hero, Chris Marlowe, is trying to put together all the fragments -- and make sense -- of the various situations that Rowson has alluded together. Much like a reader digging into Eliot's work is trying to sift through the myriad images to figure out what Eliot is really saying. It seems clear that Rowson doesn't think much of Eliot's poem albeit by parodying it, trivializing and satirizing it, Rowson is admitting that "The Waste Land" is a formidable force in modern literature. Chandler, Rowson's protagonist, says murders are happening "round me like footbaths in a Beverly Hills flop house." Are there flophouses in Beverly Hills? Not likely. This is Rowson's style in finding absurd juxtapositions and ironies that parody similar seemingly obscure lines in Eliot's poem (like, "Drip drop drop drop / But there is no water").

Works Cited

Eliot, T.S. (1922). The Waste Land. Bartleby.com. Retrieved January 2, 2012, from http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html.

Rowson, Martin. (1990). The Waste Land. New York: Harper and Row......