What a good idea. Faber have launched a Waste Land app. Among the numerous features is T.S. Eliot reading from The Waste Land. Listening to it, I was reminded of the opening lines of Four Quartets (Time present and time past/ Are both perhaps present in time future). There seems something fitting about Eliot’s patricianly drawl being played on a gadget that embodies the future.
I doubt that the Waste Land App will be a roaring commercial success to rival the Pocket God app, in which you rule omnipotent over pygmies, but so what? It’s tremendous fun, and an excellent way for publishers to introduce new audiences to their back catalogues. Think of it: Betjeman reading Christmas, Dylan Thomas reading from Under Milk Wood; Joyce declaiming the Fire Sermons. The possibilities are almost endless.
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