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TS Eliot: searching for sainthood amid hate speech and hurt


Some of the 20th century's finest poetry belongs to liot! yet "ny "ccount of it must "lso #eep tr"c# of the h"rm he did

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In Murder in the Cathedral, Thomas Stearns Eliot has his namesake and mouthpiece Thomas Beckett say:
9-he l"st tempt"tion is the gre"test tre"son 7 -o do the right thing for the wrong re"son(9

Eliot may often have been deeply unkind he had vile vie!s on many topics but he !as never stupid, especially about the moral and rational life" #et in this, as in so much else in the !ork I shall be considerin$ in this series, he !as speakin$ a brilliant half%truth" Eliot ar$uably the $reatest poetry in En$lish in the &'th century !as so !orried that he mi$ht be pursuin$ reli$ious and literary sainthood for his o!n e$o rather than to the $reater $lory of $od, that he for$ot ever to consider !hether it !as even possible or desirable to pursue sainthood at the e(pense of ordinary kindness and common decency" Throu$hout his life and it !as a lon$ one, full of $reat !ork he left a trail of human !recka$e and hurtful speech" )ny account of that !ork and of the ideas embedded in it has to keep track of the harm he did, not in a spirit of cheap point%scorin$, but as an a!ful !arnin$" Those of us !ho try to pursue both an ethical life and a creative one find that it is never easy, that it is al!ays needful that !e !ei$h one $ood a$ainst another" *e should never think selfless virtue can be reached by treadin$ on others" The cold splinter at the heart of the true artist must be harsher in its +uarrel !ith the self than it is in its rhetorical en$a$ement !ith other people" ,or believers, this is the virtue of humility- I am not sure !hat the rest of us can call it" *hat !e can a$ree on is the constant e(amination of conscience, and, !hen !e fall short, a conscious decision to do better" Eliot !as in love three times, and each of those loves became events in his artistic and spiritual lives and t!o of the !omen involved !ere massively the !orse for it" .ivien Eliot !as a difficult !oman, yet Eliot !ho had connived at her affair !ith Bertrand /ussell treated her, !ith the a$reement of his spiritual advisers, !ith a coldness that helped break her spirit, perhaps her mind" Emily 0ale !as the !oman he deserted for .ivien- she spent her life at his encoura$ement !aitin$ for .ivien to die, and it !as in her presence that he had some of his deepest moments of spiritual intensity yet she !as eventually dismissed from his life !ith

e+ual coldness" They !ere both central to his $reatest !orks: .ivien to The *aste 1and and Emily to much of The ,our 2uartets" T!o of his closest friends, Mary Trevelyan and 3ohn 0ay!ard, !ere also in due course sent into outer darkness" *e are told to for$ive our enemies- Eliot could not even for$ive those !ho loved him" In all those cases, Eliot !as a!are of the harm done, and may even have taken responsibility for it in his heart- !hat he never did !as +uestion the human cost to others of the life he pursued in his +uest for $enius and sainthood" 0e !ould not face the possibility that any 4od !ho asked such thin$s of him !as not !orth his !orship" It is clear that Eliot !ould have preferred to live in a society in !hich it !as not even possible to ask a!k!ard spiritual +uestions" 0e $re! up under an austere 5nitarianism and moved to a hi$h )n$licanism not because he disliked the doctrinal certainties of the Catholic church, but because )n$licanism meant he could amal$amate reli$ious certainty !ith a hi$h Tory monarchism that re$arded even the rise of the Tudors as a dilution of the divine ri$ht of kin$s" 60e mourned /ichard III each year !ith a !hite rose in his lapel7" 0is antisemitism !as e(pressed in visceral terms but at root it !as free%thinkin$ he thou$ht should have little place in a $ood society as much as the 3e!s he identified it !ith" )s )nthony 3ulius has demonstrated beyond a shado! of doubt, Eliot used lan$ua$e about 3e!s that !as closely linked both to traditional antisemitic hate speech and to the tropes of the murderous antisemitism of his o!n time" It is hard to see ho! this can be reconciled to his Christianity, e(cept because he sa! diversity as a threat to his cloistered virtue" 8r perhaps I am !ron$" Eliot9s racism to!ards )frican%)mericans !as e(pressed in the crudest and most simplistic of do$$erel- the antisemitism creeps into, if not his $reatest !ork, at least into !ork closely allied to it" )nd yet, amid the relationships in bad faith and the vile vie!s, Eliot mana$ed to say important and useful thin$s about both the e(perience of modernity and the mental states !hich !e may as !ell call :the spiritual life:, even if !e are sceptical about the e(istence of spirit" It is important that !e read him, sometimes holdin$ our nose, because !ith all his deep personal fla!s and all the more !hen !e think about them he remains one of the key !riters of his and our time"

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