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.
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Famous quotes containing the words influence in, influence and/or culture:
“I wish to reiterate all the reasons which [my predecessor] has presented in favor of the policy of maintaining a strong navy as the best conservator of our peace with other nations and the best means of securing respect for the assertion of our rights of the defense of our interests, and the exercise of our influence in international matters.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“I think of consciousness as a bottomless lake, whose waters seem transparent, yet into which we can clearly see but a little way. But in this water there are countless objects at different depths; and certain influences will give certain kinds of those objects an upward influence which may be intense enough and continue long enough to bring them into the upper visible layer. After the impulse ceases they commence to sink downwards.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“Our culture has become something that is completely and utterly in love with its parent. It’s become a notion of boredom that is bought and sold, where nothing will happen except that people will become more and more terrified of tomorrow, because the new continues to look old, and the old will always look cute.”
—Malcolm McLaren (b. 1946)