Students who defaced it in 2018 will either deeply regret their actions in 2038, or will be making rules for the rest of us about what we are allowed to like and read. And will not know a single person who sees Kipling's work as art, and think that's just fine. I pity them.
Too bad the so-called students who vandalized "If" didn't read the poems Kipling wrote after his son died in World War I. Or, "Gods of the Copybook Headings." Kipling -- as usual -- is a much more complicated figure than his caricature. In "Stalky and Company", for example, the students refuse to salute the Union Jack -- at the height of Victorian Imperialism. More people who made policy for Afghanistan should have read "The Once and Future King." Not only are these great stories with wonderful entrancing narratives but, gee, you learn some things about the world you may not have known. And about Kipling as a writer. People lose a lot by not actually reading good writers, even unfashionable ones. On a side note, Hopper sneaked some of "If" into Apocalypse Now. He must have been obsessed with the poem.
I found it..and T.S. Eliot, too--PHOTOJOURNALIST: Hey, man, you don't talk to the Colonel. You listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet warrior in the classic sense. I mean sometimes he'll...uh...well, you'll say "hello" to him, right? And he'll just walk right by you. He won't even notice you. And suddenly he'll grab you, and he'll throw you in a corner, and he'll say, "Do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life? 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you'"...I mean I'm...no, I can't...I'm a little man, I'm a little man, he's...he's a great man! "I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas..."
Really, Apocalypse Now? I will need to rewatch that. Of course I don't like the colonial past but really, why do so many people from the old empire want to go to England and study. They could more constructively protest. I do not think anything should be wrecked. Kipling is probably the best background for understanding the part of the world where we did not read enough.
Yes! I decided to write about Kim today even though I just wrote about RK. It's a thin hook, but the Great Game is still a valid concept. That I feel like the MSM does not know.
What a beautiful poem. After finishing it, I thought how repulsive and hollow such a poem would be when written by a modern wokester to his son (even the “son” part would somehow be mangled). And sure enough, looks like the wokester has already written that lazy, mirthless poem, in the form of vandalizing the original.
Kipling isn't liked by English professors..too popular in his time, too representative of colonialism in the rear mirror.. Isn't it sad that something so many people like can't be honored by academia because it's too well-liked. I thought about this poem because in a book I was reading the rather intellectual main character made snide comments about an every-day person's love of Kipling.
Students who defaced it in 2018 will either deeply regret their actions in 2038, or will be making rules for the rest of us about what we are allowed to like and read. And will not know a single person who sees Kipling's work as art, and think that's just fine. I pity them.
Too bad the so-called students who vandalized "If" didn't read the poems Kipling wrote after his son died in World War I. Or, "Gods of the Copybook Headings." Kipling -- as usual -- is a much more complicated figure than his caricature. In "Stalky and Company", for example, the students refuse to salute the Union Jack -- at the height of Victorian Imperialism. More people who made policy for Afghanistan should have read "The Once and Future King." Not only are these great stories with wonderful entrancing narratives but, gee, you learn some things about the world you may not have known. And about Kipling as a writer. People lose a lot by not actually reading good writers, even unfashionable ones. On a side note, Hopper sneaked some of "If" into Apocalypse Now. He must have been obsessed with the poem.
I found it..and T.S. Eliot, too--PHOTOJOURNALIST: Hey, man, you don't talk to the Colonel. You listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet warrior in the classic sense. I mean sometimes he'll...uh...well, you'll say "hello" to him, right? And he'll just walk right by you. He won't even notice you. And suddenly he'll grab you, and he'll throw you in a corner, and he'll say, "Do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life? 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you'"...I mean I'm...no, I can't...I'm a little man, I'm a little man, he's...he's a great man! "I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas..."
Really, Apocalypse Now? I will need to rewatch that. Of course I don't like the colonial past but really, why do so many people from the old empire want to go to England and study. They could more constructively protest. I do not think anything should be wrecked. Kipling is probably the best background for understanding the part of the world where we did not read enough.
Kipling comes to mind today as the American Empire has met its end in the 'Graveyard of Empires', Afghanistan.
And it is all Biden's fault now....
https://thediplomat.com/2017/06/why-is-afghanistan-the-graveyard-of-empires/
\\][//
Yes! I decided to write about Kim today even though I just wrote about RK. It's a thin hook, but the Great Game is still a valid concept. That I feel like the MSM does not know.
What a beautiful poem. After finishing it, I thought how repulsive and hollow such a poem would be when written by a modern wokester to his son (even the “son” part would somehow be mangled). And sure enough, looks like the wokester has already written that lazy, mirthless poem, in the form of vandalizing the original.
Kipling isn't liked by English professors..too popular in his time, too representative of colonialism in the rear mirror.. Isn't it sad that something so many people like can't be honored by academia because it's too well-liked. I thought about this poem because in a book I was reading the rather intellectual main character made snide comments about an every-day person's love of Kipling.
“I hate Rudy because he represents oppression of common people, and I hate common people because they like Rudy.”
That recitation by Dennis Hopper is spectacular!! Love it. Hoppe has always been one of my favorite actors. He is so versatile .
I forgot how handsome he was when he was young.
Thanks for this treat Kathleen.
\\][//
Those old Johnny Cash shows are full of surprises. I am glad to remember Hopper as he was in 1970, not the Deacon of Waterworld.
Yea, but he was great in BLUE VELVET!...Awesome...."mommy!!!" Lol
\\][//