T. S. Eliot was born into a prominent unitarian family. Unitarianism is a nontrinitarian faith. He later converted to anglo catholicism as he felt that unitarianism was too unstructured. These are very important to discussions about his culture and context because he felt that one's religion should play a primary role in determining the culture one tries to build. In fact, this belief was his main strife with the catholic church at the time as he felt it was “just another sect” of Christianity. He was born in St. Louis in 1888 during a time of rapid population and economic growth. He lived there for the first 16 years of his life. This period of growth culminated in the 1904 World Fair and Summer Olympics both being hosted there, one of 2 times in history that both events have occurred in the same place and year. Shortly after this he moved away for schooling and was not there for the period of decline following these events. After that, he moved to Milton, Massachusetts to study at Milton Academy for a year. Milton was a farming town, but most of his interactions at that time were likely within the halls of the academy. He then moved to Cambridge to study at Harvard. Harvard had been going through some major changes at the time, including that it had recently begun to admit women. After graduating from Harvard he moved to Paris to attend the Sorbonne. It was a hotspot for art and literature, being home to many other literary giants of the time as well. He then moved to Oxford to go to the University of Oxford. While there he spent most of his time in London stating “Oxford is very pretty, but I don’t like to be dead.” He then moved to London where he spent the rest of his life. When he moved there it was the largest city in the world. He lived there during both world wars and the Great Slump which was Britain’s manifestation of the worldwide Great Depression.
Nietzsche was born into the Lutheran faith. His father was appointed to a powerful position in this faith by a Prussian king that Nietzsche was named after. He was born during the Lutheran revivals which was a subset of the protestant revivals. He was born in Rocken, Prussia. This was in the province of Saxony which was the richest region of Prussia. He was born during the wars of German unification. His father died when he was 4 and his brother when he was 5. After his brother died his family moved to Naumburg with his grandmother and aunts. While there he studied at the Domgymnasium and Schulpforta. Schulpforta was a very exclusive school at Pforta Monastery. He then moved to Bonn, Prussia to attend the University of Bonn. He then moved to Leipzig, Prussia to attend Leipzig University. Leipzig had the largest railroad terminal in Europe at the time. He then moved back to Naumburg for military service but had to get a medical discharge after falling off of a horse. He then went back to the University of Leipzig and got a doctorate without even finishing a thesis or the required extra dissertation. Leipzig University was a center of education for elites in the Balkan states. He then went on to be a professor at the University of Basel in Switzerland. He was a Professor of Philology. He left for roughly half a year in 1870 to become a medic in the Franco-Prussian War, he had to get a medical discharge once again after contracting dysentery and diphtheria. After this, he returned to Basel and eventually became the Chair of Philology. During the time he had returned Basel opened Switzerland’s first zoo. Reflecting on his time in academia he said “What is the task of higher education? To make a man into a machine. What are the means employed? He is taught how to suffer being bored.” After that he started moving around for his health. He lived in many areas towards the end of his life eventually going to live with his sister in Weimar. It was a hub of music and had Germany’s first orchestral school.
Both of my mystics spent much of their life in the university system. Despite this, both heavily criticized these systems. Both felt that the higher education system drained the life out of people. They were also both born into Christian faiths and both were pushed away from these faiths, although Eliot felt a push into more conservative versions of the faith while Nietzsche was pushed away from it entirely.
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