The Hollow Men - Influence in Culture

Influence in Culture

The Hollow Men has had a profound effect on the Anglo-American cultural lexicon and – by a relatively recent extension – world culture since it was published in 1925. References range from film (Apocalypse Now, Waking Life) to video games (Fable II, the Halo series, and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty), to Japanese literature (the novels of Haruki Murakami), to American television shows (30 Rock, Frasier, The Big Bang Theory, Northern Exposure, Dexter, Mad Men, The X-Files, and Dollhouse ). Stephen King used a stanza to begin his novel, The Stand. The Acacia Strain also used a variation of a quote from the poem in their song "Nightman." The poem is the source of the title for Nevil Shute's On the Beach. The Anime Highschool Of The Dead uses the last two lines of the poem to end the first season's last episode. In addition, books such us "Road to Woodbury" and "Warm Bodies" make use of the famous quote.

The poem's referential variety moves some questions concerning its significance outside the traditional domain of literary criticism – where Harold Bloom, for one, often half-laments Eliot's influence – and into the much broader category of cultural studies. Here, its history has itself become a subject for study in the work of many critics and artists, including, for instance, film essayist Chris Marker.