Final Paper

A Little High Within the Low

While preparing his troops for battle in the movie Gladiator, Maximus Arelius makes a statement that pertains immensely to the themes and ideas discussed in Emergent Literature throughout the semester. His revelational statement is this, “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” Admittedly, what he says has the potential to come off as a stereotypical and somewhat insincere attempt to motivate a group of terrified men to charge headstrong into battle. However, it holds more truth than the average person could begin to fathom, especially with respect to literature. No work is entirely original. Even Shakespeare, the Master himself, found inspiration from other sources. Such borrowed elements, although reformed and re-voiced throughout history, are what echoes through eternity in literature. Ever since the invention of writing, similar themes and characters can be discovered throughout the spectrum of highbrow and lowbrow literature.

With the invention of cinema, came a new outlet through which a writer could express himself and tell his story. Because movies and television programs are performed from a written script, the same phenomenon resonates within their depths as well. Tim Burton’s Alice and wonderland is an excellent example of a lowbrow film that incorporates many of the themes found in highbrow writers’, such as T.S. Eliot and James Joyce, works. As Alice enters the mythical land of Underland, which she calls “Wonderland,” the viewer is mystified by the complexity of the ideas incorporated into the movie. Examples of the myth of eternal return, the twenty minute lifetime, life as fiction and language, the world as myth and dream, as well as dolce domum all reverberate throughout the film.

Examples of the myth of eternal return are quite possibly the most difficult to glean from the film, and those that are visible are in the most basic forms. From the time Alice is a young child to her nineteenth year, she is cursed by a reoccurring dream/nightmare. Unchanging, the dream continues to disturb and trouble her. Like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day, Alice must incessantly relive the same experience over and over and over again. Another example of the myth of eternal return, and its cyclical nature, can be found in the character of Absolum, an all knowing blue caterpillar that continuously smokes from a hookah. The form of which this theme takes in respect to him involves transformation, death, and rebirth. Towards the end of the movie, Absolum enwraps himself in a cocoon in order to undergo the transformation into a butterfly. When Alice asks him if he is going to die, he insures her that although this this life of his has come to an end, he is not going to die, but simply transform. As the cocoon engulfs him, his last words to Alice are, “Perhaps I will see you in another life.” This ties in with the notion that after death is a rebirth into a different state, which continues on eternally.

Although the twenty minute lifetime plays a very evident role in the film, it does so in an interesting way. Only moments pass in the “real world” from the time Alice falls down the rabbit hole to the time she reappears, yet days pass in Wonderland. From the beginning, it is relatively unclear whether the experience she has in Wonderland is actually real or not. Although her experiences seem to affect her in a very real way, the setting is rather unbelievable. The land is filled with flowers and animals with the ability to speak, dragon flies and horse flies that are actually shaped like dragons and horses, a caterpillar that smokes from a hookah, guards in the form of cards, and numerous other seemingly impossible things. However, it is obvious that Alice endures numerous trials and undergoes immense transformation during her time in Wonderland, and after doing so reemerges as a very different person. This portrayal of the twenty minute lifetime is unique in that it is forces the viewer to consider the idea of reality and what constitutes as “real” or not. It adds a depth to the movie that would not retain as much importance without the addition of the theme of the twenty minute lifetime.

Tying into, and expounding on, the idea of “reality” is the theme of life as fiction and language. Throughout the film, there are a number of instances that suggest that life is in fact a construct of society. Before Alice embarks on her mystical journey, she arrives at a spectacle with many people. Only after her arrival does she discover that the gathering is meant to be an engagement party for her and Haemish. When she realizes this she confides in her sister and tells her that she is not entirely sure that she wants to marry him. Her sister cannot understand why Alice would not, and after describing the social benefits of such a union says, “So, you’ll marry Haemish, you will be as happy as I am with Lowel, and your life will be perfect. It’s already decided.” Alice’s life has been created by society. Her future has been prewritten for her, and she is expected to readily accept that life and her role in it. Another example of prewritten history is evident in the oraculum, a manuscript that is described as “the calindrical compendium of Underland.” It is essentially a scroll that when unraveled, reveals the past, present, and future in the form of pictures. Although a number of characters attempt to alter what is shown on the oraculu, therefore re-writing history, everyone fails. Life according to this depiction is the performance of a script that has been written and finalized in advance. Like Harold in the movie Stranger than Fiction, humans are simply characters in a story that have no control over their actions or destiny.

Another way in which to view life is as a construction of language. One retains the ability to create a life for oneself, at least with respect to how others view it, through the stories which they tell. Alice creates a different persona for herself when she is accidently discovered by the Red Queen. She fabricates a story in order to save herself, and in doing so lives the life of the character she has created. Lowel, Alice’s sister’s husband, hides an aspect of his life through language. When Alice catches him kissing another woman in the garden, Lowel explains away the situation and branches off from” reality” in order to cover up his infidelities. Can such a life based on false pretenses be considered “real?” What if one truly believes that which one tells others? While considering this question, it is important to realize that that which everyone says is to a degree is subjective. Each person’s reality is somewhat different than their peers’, and language is a means through which people are capable of creating one’s own life and influencing others’.

Another way to view and question “reality” is through the scope of the world as myth and dream. As Alice plunges down the rabbit hole, reality and dream seem to become helplessly intertwined. It is unclear whether the land in which she finds herself is “real” or just part of the dream that she has had before. Throughout the majority of the movie this discrepancy is unclear even to Alice. Although it seems so real, she repeatedly makes comments indicating that she does not believe that her surrounding and experiences are real. Alice partakes in a number of activities, such as drinking a mysterious liquid out of a bottle that has “drink me” written on it, with this pretext in mind. Towards the end of the film she and the Hatter have a conversation about how the whole situation, even the Hatter himself, is a construct of her mind in the form of a dream. Yet, through this “dream” Alice transforms into a completely different person. Whether the experiences she goes through is that of a dream or not, they absolutely influence her life. Her past nightmares of the same mysterious world have obviously influenced her life as well. Whether Wonderland is a construct of her mind or not, it does play a significant role in her world and her own personal “reality.”

If life is a dream, and dreams are created by our minds, then do we have control over what occurs in them, and therefore have create our own destiny? The question of whether one has control or not over one’s life is also posed often throughout the film, and ties into both the world and myth and dream and life as fiction and language. At one point Alice says, “From the moment I fell down that rabbit hole I have been told what I must do and who I must be. I’ve been shrunk, stretched, scratched and stuffed into a tea pot. I’ve accused of being Alice and not being Alice, but this is my dream! I’ll decide where it goes from here! […] I make the path!”
This would seem to imply that one does hold power over one’s own destiny, and that through dream and language one can create a world of one’s own.

Finally, the theme of dolce domum is present within Alice in Wonderland as well. After going through trials and tribulations in Wonderland, Alice returns to where she had began. However, she returns to the party and “normal world” as a changed individual. It took leaving her world and experiencing something absolutely different for her to find herself and understand what it was that she wanted out of life. Her views on the world and the life that others wished upon her changed drastically, and she transformed from being a character in a life constructed for her by society into an individual who creates her own reality.

Although the themes are explored much differently, and at a much more basic level, echoes of T.S Eliot’s and other highbrow writer’s ideas pulse throughout Alice in Wonderland. They concepts may not be as deep and revelational, yet they are still thought provoking. Such themes and ideas will not be retained for eternity through these books and films alone. Alice in Wonderland serves as an example that shows that as time goes on, the same themes will be continuously integrated into new literature and media. Perhaps in an innovative way, but nothing is original.

Final Blog

To begin, as always I enjoyed this class immensely and am a little bit sad that this will not only be the last class that I take from Dr. Sexon, but the last class that I have with everyone else. It has been a journey like no other, and one that I will never forget. I will miss the truly revelational insights brought to class by each individual throughout the years. However, most of all I think I will miss having people to discuss literature that nobody else want or likes to read. Perhaps I will have to join a book club of some sorts.

I think the thing that I took the most out of this course was simply to forever question what is told to me and just reality in general. It all must be taken with a grain of salt. And although in the long run people place such a huge importance on what is real and what is not, all in all it is not that important. I have learned to question, but to not necessarily need to find an absolute answer, for nothing is absolute. I have most definitely gained a greater appreciation for highbrow literature, and hope to someday make it through Finnegans Wake. And in doing so, I don't believe I have lost my appreciation for the lowbrow. In fact, I think I may have found a greater appreciation for it because I feel like it is what you make it. One can find highbrow ideas within every lowbrow piece, and if one takes the time to look for them and ponder them, I think one can get just as much out of a lowbrow piece of literature.

I think I have learned more about myself from taking this class as well. By emptying out what I thought I knew (because I obviously knew nothing when it came to Eliot) I was able to find new facets of my being that I had not seen before. I am a firm believer that every book one reads has an effect on them somehow. Each piece of literature begs different questions and promotes different musings. It is through such thought, sometimes a way of no ecstasy, that one truly comes to understand oneself on a deeper level. This class, alongside the Nabokov class, has taught me patience and helped me build the ability to look deeper into the words in front of me. It has taught me that with each re-reading of a novel will come new discoveries and new insights. I have learned to never "judge a book by its cover," and recognise that even the lowest of the lowbrow material has value. And I hope I have learned some of what I need to remain and avid and informed reader from here on.

I suppose now that I am moving on I will have to look elsewhere for my literary fix, although I have an idea that Dr. Sexon will always be there to provide me with the stuff if absolutely needed.

Life is Funny

Yesterday we had individual presentations, which were very interesting by the way, and Maggie talked about the last few lines from "Little Gidding" in T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, and how the idea of the fire and the rose being one could be found throughout novels by Stephen King. She spoke about the rose symbolizing life and fire symbolizing rebirth. I thought what she had to say was interesting, but have never really read any Stephen King novels, so could not make the connection myself.

The following day I was taking a nap with the television on (it helps me sleep for some reason) and woke up to a crazy scene with a lady who looked like witch attacking a man. At first I thought it was a "Harry Potter" movie, and just ignored it. I was re-awoken by the sound of the television again few moments later and saw a girl on it using her mind to drop boulders on this huge mansion to of destroy it. Then there was a huge explosion and the house was engulfed by fire. The next scene was of the people who had been together in the house holding red roses and placing them by the house in remembrance of the friends that they had lost. The spirits of the lost friends could be seen in one of the windows of what remained of the house. They had crossed over into another world, the spirit world, and the roses represented them. Low and behold, when I looked at the information about the movie it was a Stephen King movie called "Rose Red." I just thought it was so funny that the day after she had talked about something like that in class, I would randomly get a glimpse of what she was talking about while waking from a nap. The way in which the world works is most definitely funny at times.

Group Presentations: Day 3

Group 5: Dolce Domum (To Arrive Where we Started)

As we walked into class on Monday, we were greeted by the warm glow of candle light in the classroom. This was the setting for Group 2's presentation. They too incorporated a video into their presentation, although unlike the preceding groups they had a mixture of video feed and live performance. One thing that I found interesting was that the video was not of themselves, but clips taken from various movies that each individual felt in someway connected to different parts of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. Along with the video segments they each read different quotes from the section that they were embodying. Each section had to do with the idea of dolce domum, or returning home or going back to an original state, as well. I liked how they too used elements of low brow to depict high brow literature. I recognized almost all of the movies, and some of my favorite clips came from "Gladiator," "American Psycho," and "American History X." There were a couple of quotes from "Gladiator" that I felt really resonated with the class. One was, "What we do in life echos throughout eternity." This fits perfectly with the idea of dolce domum as well as other themes of the class. Another was, "I knew a man that said death smiles at us all, and all we can do is smile back." Although this quote does not perhaps pertain to the class as much as the other, it is still strong and meaningful quote. One of the other clips that I found funny was the one from Hercules. It is interesting how such different kinds of clips can depict such similar issues and themes. The ending, "Fin....Again" taken from Finnegans Wake was perfect as well.

Group 6: Myth of the Eternal Return (again)

Group 6 was, ironically I may add, the second group to present on the myth of the eternal return. I thought it was funny when they mentioned that they had thought about repeating our play, therefore literally returning back to the first presentation, but decided not to. Their idea was a great one as well though, an probably much less boring than it would have been if they had done the same presentation all over again. Their presentation dealt with the rising and setting of the sun. There were three different main groups of people: the Godlike people, the heroes and the stoners. This was an obvious reference to Vico's ideas regarding the deterioration of language and humanity. The God, Aaron, gave speech that reminded me a lot of Shakespeare, and the mention of "pale fire" made me think of Timon of Athens. His advanced language continued to become obviously worse as it made it to the stoners, who were fluent speakers of the "dude language." Although everyone wrote their own parts, they all incorporated aspects (as well as quotes) from the novels we have read in class. This in a way represents eternal return as well, because as Maximus said in the Gladiator, "What we do in life echos throughout eternity." Words of great writers can be seen in echoing throughout the texts of their predecessors. This was a very funny presentation, and the reference to Dr. Sexon as a drug dealer again made me laugh. In fact, every part was humorous while educational to a degree.


Overall, I really enjoyed the presentations this semester and look forward to hearing everyone's individual presentations.

Group Presentations: Day 2

Group 3 Presentation: Life as Fiction and Language

Like Group 2, Group 3 opted to make a movie to present to the class. It was quite funny as well, and was based on a group of people going through a 12 step program in order to accept that our lives are indeed fiction. The pamphlet was a good adition, and it was nice to see who all of the characters that each person played were. I have to say, my favorite was probably Prospero (who looked uncannily like Jesus). One of the questions that Doug, aka Herman Mussert, posed was, "Are we truly real, and what shapes our lives?" Although most people would probably not adhere to the idea that life is in all actuality "fiction," I think that in some ways it is a relevant question to ask. Some people seek an answer to this question through religion, and in many ways adhere to the concept that life is fiction. Some believe that each individual has a specific destiny, and that it is not something that one can stray from. Many believe that there is a higher being who has at least some sort of control over the lives of humans. This question in particular struck me as interesting. Other parts of the movie were simply comical relief. For example, the scene in which Shelby is sucking on the stones like Malloy. Max's interpretation of Neo was entertaining as well. Perhaps the funniest part, however, was when Dr. Sexon entered the room and said "you guys are hopeless." It was another well thought out and executed presentation, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Group 1: The Myth of the Eternal Return

Group 1 took a very different approach to their presentation. The name of their presentation was "The History of Gas and the Myth of Eternal Return." Rather than taking a highbrow approach to their presentation, they took a very low brow approach. In fact, the very lowest of the low: fart humor. Their point, although presented in a different way, was that the concept of eternal return can be seen in gas. "From gas we started and through gas we shall return." This is one of the things that was said, and interestingly enough it is a very valid point. I won't lie, I was not as big of a fan of the fart humor as some of the other members of the class obviously were, but it did serve to illustrate a point. Although Group 1 did not make as many literary references, they did make a few that tied into the class. For example, redemption through fire and the idea of P2C2E. One thing that they did do well was show where high brow and low brow meet. At the very least, one must admit it was an interesting presentation and most definitely unique.

Group Presentations: Day 1

Group 4: The World as Myth and Dream

This was my group's presentation. We decided at the first meeting that we wanted to somehow include a "dream" in our presentation, and after some discussion we decided that we wanted to do out presentation in the form of a play/skit. We discussed the different characters/personas from the novels that we have read throughout the class, and kind of decided which ones we definitely wanted to include. First on the list, of course, was Dr. Sexon. Others included a Santiago like character (John), an Ariel like character (Bizz), as well as a Prospheous like character (Zach). After making some basic decisions on the story line and what we wanted to include, Lisa did the wonderful job of coming up with the script. From there, bits and pieces were added and edited out. Each of us chose or were assigned a character for the play, and after a couple practices we presented. Basically, our play started out as if we were ending our presentation. In the last few moments, John falls asleep and awakes (along with the class) in a dream world. He is confronted by Ariel, King Prospheous' messenger, and embarks on a journey to end a horrible feud between two kings (Tweedle Shem and Tweedle Shaun). Throughout his journey he must face a number of obstacles, and in doing so discover his inner self. The catch is that once he has found the "stopping water" and given it to the warring kings, he is told that the feud was in fact a play, and not real. So there is kind of a fiction, within a fiction, within a fiction in our play...illustrating the difficulties of deciphering what is "reality" and what is not. At the end, John takes a pill (which was taken from "The Matrix"), and awakening from his slumber, returns back to class. Each character, exluding Dr. Sexon (perhaps) was based on one from one of the novels. Eliot's "You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstacy." was used as well. Not only did we try to incorporate characters from the different novels, but different themes as well.

Group 2: The 20 Minute Lifetime

Group 2's presentation was most definitely entertaining. I was amazed at how well the filming and editing of the film were. Zach's impression of Dr. Sexon was not only spot on in parts, but very funny as well. Their surrealist interpretation of the class in the form of a movie was very creative. I think the thing that struck me the most about the presentation was that it pretty much summed up the entire semester of Emergent Lit in 20 min, therefore holding true to its theme. Each part of the movie held so much significance to the class as a whole. Everything from the lists we wrote towards the very beginning of the semester, to Vico, Alchemy, the sucking stones, and even deja vu were covered. Quotes taken from "The Tempest," "The Four Quartets," and "Finnegans Wake" topped the whole thing off. I also thought it showed that a 20 min lifetime occurs in each one of Dr. Sexon's digressions in a fun and unique way. I was very impressed, and I liked that if left me thinking at the end. Like each text that we have read, every part contained a number of meanings and it was up to us to find and decipher them all.

Final Paper Topic

I had been having a hard time coming up with a paper topic for this class. Originally I had decided that I would simply write about what it was that I had learned in this class, and why it mattered. I had thought that I would focus mainly on reality, and how the class and the readings had in a way changed my sense of what exactly that word means.

However, after listening to group five's presentation I have changed my mind. In one of the scenes that was taken from the movie "Gladiator," Maximus Arillius was speaking to a group of men about to engage in battle and he said this, "What we do in life echos in eternity." For some reason this quote really stood out to me, and I feel like it can readily be applied to literature as well. Throughout the many classes with Dr. Sexon it has become blatantly apparent that nothing is original, and every piece of literature has elements, or "echos," of other works. Even the most high brow writers, such as Shakespeare, often take themes from previous low brow works. This is the theme I will write my paper on. However, I am going to write about "Alice in Wonderland" and discuss how the themes that we have discussed in class apply to the movie and how echos of the novels we have read have reverberated into the movie as well.

Test 2 Study Guide

1. Name Elliot's Four Quartets
-Burnt Norton
-Little Gidding
-East Coker
-Dry Salvages

2. "When I wake I cry to dream again" - Caliban (in Shakespeare's The Tempest)

3. Memorize verbatum: "We shall not cease from exploration/ And the end of all our exploring/ Will be to arrive where we started/ And know the place for the first time."

4. "I only want to please you" - Prospero (from The Tempest) and the lady in the airplane

5. What are the last words from The Following Story?
"the folloing story"

6. What river do they end up on in The Following Story?
The amazon river (the eternal return --> left and returned to the same place)

7. What is the name of the hollowed out book Neo keeps his money in in "The Matrix"?
Simulacra and Simulation

8. What are the symbols for life and death in Elliot's Four Quartets?
the rose (life) and the yew tree (death)

9. What river related symbol represents Anna Livia?
a delta (Δ)

10. What arabic word in The Alchemist means "it is written?"
"maktub"

11. In Little Gidding, what is the cost of simplicity?
everything --> "A condition of complete simplicity (costing not less than everything)" (59)

12. Where does the main character in The Alchemist find the treasure?
under the tree (at home)

13. According to gnostics, what did Jesus come to bring mankind?
knowledge (gnosis)

14. What does Prospero say to Miranda in The Tempest to stimulate her memory?
"What seest thou else in the dark backward and abysm of time?"

15. What is the essence of alchemy according to Christina?
it is a process of purification

16. What little animal is in the garden in Burnt Norton?
a bird

17. What is the nickname given to Herman Mussert by his students?
Socrates (due to the way he looks -->ugly)
* also goes by the pseudonym Dr. Strabo for his travel guides

18. Santiago de Compostela
-->The camino de Santiago is a collection of pilgramage roots all ending at Santiago de Compostela in Spain (taken to experience transcendence) , also called the path of St. James
--> Santiago is the name of main character in The Alchemist who goes on a journey to find his "personal legend"

19. What is the glitch in the matrix?
déjà vu (Neo experiences it with a black cat)

20. answer: "Mysterious mental maneuver"
--> from Vladimir Nabokov's Transparent Things
--> also used to separate the two parts in Noteboom's The Following Story

21. Shakespeare is to Prospero, as Becket is to Malloy (according to Maggie)

22. What is the name of Santiago's desert girl?
Fatima

23. What is:
The emerald tablet:
The Elixir of Life:
The Philosopher's Stone:

24. Who else is on the boat with Herman Mussert?
- child
- priest
- teacher
- academic
- pilot
- journalist

25. What language was The Alchemist originally written in?
Portuguese

26. What is "anima mundi"?
"soul/spirit of the world" --> The Alchemist

27. Which 2 colors symbolize alchemy (the rose)?
red and white (from the wiki article)

28. What is the most repeated word in The Tempest?
"now"

29. What game are Ferdinand and Miranda playing?
chess

30. What is Mussert's profession"
latin teacher, teacher of the classics, and travel guide writer

31. According to Dr. Sexon, what to Miranda's attendants symbolize mythologically speaking?
the 9 muses

32. What is the latin word meaning "time?"
"dies"

33. What are the two exceptions to the rule that low brow books are popular and high brow books are not popular?
(1) the bible and (2) Shakespeare's writings

34. How long is The Following Story; how much time passes?
2 seconds (one for each part)

35. Who is in the foilage in Burnt Norton?
children

36. What story from Ovid's Metamorphosis does Mussert play out for his students?
Phaethon driving his father's chariot

37. Mussert - "The world in a never ending cross reference"

38. Prospero - "Release me from these bands with the help of your great hands"
--> asking the audience to clap if they liked the show (in the end of the book/play)

Reality?

Once again I seem to be finding elements of the class in everything that I watch, whether it is high brow (ish) or low brow. The themes seem to find their way, in some manner or another, into almost everything.


The most recent film in which caught my attention was "Pan's Labyrinth." It is a great movie, I absolutely recommend it to everyone, especially if you have any interest in Spanish or the civil war that took place there. It is about a little girl who has grown up in the midst of a war, has dealt with abuse from her step father, and who loses a mother. In order to cope with the horrors surrounding her, she creates her own little world in which she is a kind of hero. I think it ties in really well with the theme of Life as Myth and Dream. For her, it is very real. However, for everyone else it is simply fairy tale talk. It begs the question, what is real? Is a world that has been constructed by one's mind but still effects one greatly real? Or must it be something that is agreed upon by everyone? If that is the case, is there such a thing? For the little girl, life was what she imagined. Although most people would call her delusional or say that she is living in a dream world, are we all not to a degree?

A low brow television show was the next place that I found a questioning of reality. In one episode of CSI a man is accused of murdering his brother, and when questioned about it the man tells a heartbreaking story. Moments later his entire story is shown to be a lie. He then goes on to create a different reality through the use of his words and imagination. Pretty much all of what he says does not hold true to the evidence that has been collected, and at one point one of the officers says, "Well you are just one fistfull of lies wrapped in another." The murderer's response is, "It's the truth, I swear to God, even if it never really happened." This reminded me of the theme Life as Fiction and Language. Although his lies were uncovered, people make up or embellish on stories every day. Such "lies" may not have actually occurred, but by telling someone they did, and making them believe that they did, the lies become an actual part of someone's reality.

This is something that I have been thinking about a lot as well. If a good portion of everyone's "reality" is based on what others say or what they see in the media, but a good portion of that is biased and not wholly "truthful," than what is real? Nobody's realities can be real if they are based significantly on things that never occurred or occurred in a different way. If there are a number of witnesses to a crime, it is guaranteed that all of them will have seen and will recount something slightly different. If there was an absolute truth or reality, than how can this be the case? So many people take what others tell them to be an exact truth, but I think that one must always keep in mind that it is not. One must always question the reality of others, and even one's own reality because after all, it is just as biased as everyone elses.

The Following Story

I simply find this book extremely amusing. There have been numerous instances, which I will discuss in more detail in a moment, that have caused me to laugh out loud and in doing so procure odd looks from my peers.

Herman Mussert is just such a strange and awkward character. When he awakes in a completely different city than he has fallen asleep in, he immediately tried to rationalize it. He began by convincing himself that he was not dead because he had the ability to think. Mussert then tried to figure out if he was in fact himself in another place, or if he had inexplicably become someone else. His reaction to the whole situation, one which should cause panic and confusion, was so odd. In fact, it kind of reminded me of the main character in Kant's Metamorphosis. Noteboom actually includes the idea of metamorphosis throughout the book as well, and even with regards to a beetle, although not a dung beetle like that in Kant's book. Actually, he talks about a sexon beetle, which of course was kind of funny as well since our professor's name is Dr. Sexon and he somehow inadvertently seems to find his way into many of the books we read.

I think the thing that I found most funny about Mussert is his blatant awkwardness when it comes to human contact. He is so in tuned and emotionally connected with literature, but when it comes to humans he has no idea how to act. Sex is almost a painful thing for him to think about because the thought of physical human contact is so foreign and awkward for him. It is during scenes depicting such awkwardness that made me laugh the most. For example, he describes the sound made by a can opener tearing through the metal of a can as "one of the most sensual experiences he knows" (9). How is that in any way sensual? Most people find that noise irritation at best. His description of Latin and literature is much more sensual then his interaction with women. He compares his fingers to "a bunch of child molesters on the run from an institution" (22) when it came to people, but the caress of a page of a book was much different for him. Mussert feels like he is at home within his books, almost like he is part of them. He completely disconnects himself from people throughout the book. An example of this can be found on pg 28:

"So-called real life had only once interfered with me, and it had been a far cry from what the words, lines, books had prepared me for. Fate had to do with blind seers, oracles, choruses announcing death, not with panting next to the refrigerator, fumbling with condoms, waiting in a Honda parked in a Lisbon hotel. Only the written word exists; everything one must do oneself is without form, subject to contingency without rhyme or reason."

He is just so awkward! Everything about him is awkward. I can't imagine having him as a teacher. It cracks me up.

20 Minute Lifetime in Other Works

It is funny how once certain themes or ideas are brought up in class they seem to pop up everywhere. Since we have started discussing the idea of a 20 minute lifetime in T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets and Notebooms The Following Story it seems like I see it incorporated into films and books everywhere.

To begin with, we watched a Star Treck episode in class that was based on the theme. Although it was mos definitely a low brow version of the 20 Minute Lifetime, it did illustrate it well. I enjoyed watching it in class. It is always kind of nice to see both sides, the high brown and low brow versions, in order to gain a better grasp on the idea. At times the high brow versions complicate things to such a degree that it is difficult to fully understand them. That was most definitely not the case with the Star Treck version. In fact, one could pretty much guess what was going to happen before it did. Again, it was a nice break and fresh of breath air.

Another novel that the theme of the 20 Minute Lifetime can be found in is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude. John Orsey brought this up in class briefly, and it reminded me of it. Throughout the book there are notes regarding past scenes that flash in Aureliano's mind as he stands in front of a firing squad awaiting his death. Although these memories do not comprise the whole novel as Mussert's do in The Following Story, there are multiple mentions of the vast amount of time that streams through his head right before death is supposed to come to him.

A movie in which the 20 Minute lifetime plays a huge role in is "Contact." Jody Foster plays a woman who has been attempting to make contact with beings from outerspace for a long time, and finally does. When contact is made, a set of directions for constructing a vessel is sent to earth. Two prototypes are made, and Jody Foster takes her place in the second one. As the vessel is started she witnesses all kinds of amazing things and even makes contacts with an "alien" (who has taken the form of her father) in a virtual reality constructed in a certain way to make her feel most comfortable. She is able to speak with him and discuss what is out in space and who the aliens are. She then returns to earth, and in doing so the vessel crashes. When she returns and speaks with her colleagues they don't believe what she has said because to them it looks as if the shuttle never took off and in fact simply fell strait through the machine. What they saw occur in mere seconds really lasted 18 hours for the character that Jody Foster plays, and there is blurred footage that proves it. It is most definately a low brow example as well.

Two other films that incorporate the same theme are the new "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz."

30 Words from Finnegans Wake

I have decided on the 30 words (38 actually) that I am going to memorize from Finnegans Wake. Unfortunately I won't be there to present in class, but will be taking part in the riverrrun project to make up for it.

My passage is from page 213 and goes as follows:

"Well, you know or don't you kennet or haven't I told you every telling has a taling and that's the he and she of it. Look, look, the dusk is growing. My branches lofty are taking root."

I chose this section because I feel like it is quite pertinent to the class, or that at least it can be decipher in such a way to make it pertinent to the themes of the class. "Every telling has a taling," to me, seems to imply that behind every story that has ever been told, there is some sort of fictitious element or "tale." This could pertain to literature or a story that a friend simply tells another friend. His "branches lofty taking root" could be his story beginning to take hold. The themes that I see most within this little section are Life as Myth and Dream and Life as Fiction. If every story has some bases on a "non-truth" so to speak, than how can life be based on truth. The elements of fiction that accompany every story culminate into a life more based on fiction than "truth," if there even is such a thing. Truth is something that is in the eye of the beholder, and that varies from person to person. Therefore, the stories that they tell and the things that talk about, hold some sort of subjectivism and lack in absolute "truth."

There Will be Neither Fin Nor Again...

When I first perused the syllabus for this class and read that all one had to do in order to get an A in this class was finish Finnegans Wake, I was all for it. Even if it was a difficult book, a semester to do it would absolutely be enough time. Well, I was wrong. One semester could not possibly provide anyone with enough time to get through the book and grasp any meaning whatsoever. Yes, one may be able to read (which is much different than pronounce I might add) all of the words in the novel during that time, but that is not the same thing as reading the book. There is so much thought put into a single page of Joyce's book that one could spend several months decoding even that. In fact, we have a blog assignment to attempt to decode one page and it will most likely take mos people the full semester. After taking the class on Vladimir Nabokov last semester I felt quite accomplished, and thought that if I could get through his novels (on a still admittedly superficial level), I could get through anything. ames Joyce takes high brow literature to an entirely new level. Although I do intend to continue to attempt to make my way through Finnegans Wake, I am by no means under the illusion that I will finish it anymore. Even if one were to read every page of the novel, it would still be impossible to do so because the end is in fact the beginning of the novel, and the beginning its end. So the joke is on anyone who thought that they would attempt such a feat. It is impossible...so you might want to start catching up on the other readings and work on getting an A the way one would in a "normal" class taught by Dr. Sexon. Which of course isn't normal at all...

Test 1 Study Guide

Below are the questions from class that need to be remembered for the test.

1. dolce dumum: home sweet home

2. What kind of litterature goes on during plerosis (the filling up)?
comedy and romance

3. What/Who does Mama Lujo refer to in Finnegans Wake?
Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John

4. What does "God safe firelamp" sound like in Finnegans Wake?
"God save Ireland"

5. Who are the five main characters of Finnegans Wake?
1. HCE
2. ALP
3. Shem
4. Shaun
5. Issy


6. Name 2 of the 4 imaginary lands mentioned at the begining of Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
1. Zemla
2. Zenda
3. Xanado
4. Zafar

7. How does Malloy get into communication with his mother?
By knocking on her skull

8. What happened to Moran's son?
We don't really know for sure

9. $ in "Malloy"
--> gives son 4 pence for bike
--> an indication of the deteration of the character as even material wealth deteriorates by end

10. The begining of "East Coker," in the Four Quartets, begins with what theme from class?
*Myth of Eternal Return
--> memorize the first 3 lines of East Coker: "In my begining is my end. In succession/ Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,/ Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place/ Is an open field, or factory, or a by-pass.

11. Who was the German philosopher that was responsible for the rethinking of the myth of eternal return?
Frederick Nietzsche

12. Nietzsche said, "The closest approximation of coming into being" (I'm what is was in reference to though)

13. portmanteau: when two words are combined to make another word that infers multiple meanings
--> image of a portmanteau brief case with two separate compartments

14. metathesis: corpse + crops = cropse

15. What is the name of the maid in the Skin of Our Teeth? What does it refer to historically?
Her name is "Sabina", and it is a reference to the Sabine women (the abduction of Sabine women by Romans for wives)


16. 4 elements in the Four Quartets
1. Air (Burnt Norton)
2. Earth (East Coker)
3. Water (Dry Salvages)
4. Fire (Little Gidding)

17. Who is Maggie from the Skin of Our Teeth compared to in Finnegans Wake?
Analivia Plurabell

18. Henry = Cain (scar on his forehead is in a "c" shape)

19. demotic language: "dude language"; language of the common men
-->Giambatista Vico's decline of ages/language *gods-heroes-men-chaos-

20. What happens in the space between "the" and "river run..."?
*the whole day
*the completion of the novel through the completion of the sentence

21. What does P2C2E mean?
Process too Complicated to Explain

22. Haroun and the Sea of Stories is profoundly referential to other pieces of literature, to what 4 digit number does Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Finnegans Wake refer to?
1001

23. What is the name of the song played in class to introduce Finnegans Wake?
The Ballad of Tim Finnegan

24. FINNEGAN'S WAKE...what is wrong with this?
There is no apostrophe, indicating it is referring to multiple people, not just one person

*Be familiar with the terms in the glossary of Haroun and the Sea of Stories

*Review the class notes found in Sam Clanton's "master" blog

Lists and Water Genie Talk in Finnegans Wake

Among the jumble of incoherent words in Finnegans Wake are numerous lists. A list of rivers can be found on page 196. Another example can be found on page 169, and goes like this.

"Shem's bodily getup, it seems, included an adze of a skull, an eight of a larkseye, the whoel of a nose, one numb arm up a sleeve, fortytwo hairs off his uncrown, eighteen to his mock lip, a trio of barbels from his megageg chin (snowman's son), the wrong shoulder higher than the right, all ears, an artificial tongue with a natural curl, not a foot to stand on, a handful of thumbs, a blind stomach, a deaf heart, a loose liver, two fifths of two buttocks, one gleesten avoirdupoider for him, a manroot of all evil, a salmonkelt's thinskin, eelsblood in his cold toes, a bladder tristended..."

Although lists have a tendency to be tedious, I didn't find them to be tedious at all in this novel simply because they are so abstract. Joyce's unique use of adjectives and abstract notions catches one's attention and actually makes them interesting. Another author who uses a lot of lists in his works is Vladimir Nabokov. There is the example of the classlist in Lolita, as well as numerous lists of relatives and events in his biography. Lists and inventory can also be linked to the Water Genie in Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Lists can be found throughout literature.

Endless Knick Knacks and a Bottomless Bag

As anybody who knows me would attest, I could quite possibly live out of my purse for weeks at at a time. It is filled to the brim with random and wondrous things, and weighs more than a newborn baby. Because its weight has been contributing to back issues, and due to the fact that it takes me AT LEAST 15 min (on a good day) to locate my keys within the abyss every morning I have finally decided the time has come to relieve it of some of the extraneous items. Whats has given me the extra motivation to tackle such a task? An assignment for this class of course!! What a great inventory it shall make.

Hereafter I shall list all of the items in my bag in the order of which they were removed during the organizational process.

An empty plastic arrowhead water bottle, pair of knockoff sunglasses, purple brush, 2 sticks of deodorant (powder burst and berry blossom), half empty pack of orbit gum, bottle of tylenol extra strength, mint flavored floss, Aqueous Kiss tanning lotion, old string cheese stick, mauve headband, bottle of melatonin, W2 from work, unopened pack of extra gum, ipod touch, 1 orange sock, my wallet, pair of tanning eye protection, ipod usb connection cord, 4 empty gum packs, midol, hemp face lotion, oral fixation chai flavored mints, scotch tape, mauve clutch (in which was my co-op gift card, drivers license, debt card, msu catcard, turquoise ponytail holder, two lip glosses, 1 gum wrapper, 1 rubberband, and $45.00), used $15.00 itunes gift card, pressed powder, sudafed, 8 packs of lunesta (each with two in them), mini sewing kit, unopened pack of melon trident gum, coverup stick, 1 highlighter, 9 mechanical pencils, 2 pens, tweezers, 6 hair ties, book of checks, 2 rubber bands, 8 tubes of lip gloss/chapstick, 3 eyelash curler pads, pair of crystal earrings, silver cigarette case (in which was 5,000 colones - Costa Rican currency, a photocopy of my passport and drivers licence, 1 gum wrapper with a phone number on it, 3 random white pills, a day pass to volcan poas, and an atm receipt) a tangled necklace, double sided tape, 1 floss stick thing, 1 random phone number on a matchbook cover, sherlock home movie ticket stub, book of Eli movie ticket stub, victoria's secret tag, a yellow business card, pair of winkees, 10 random pieces of gum (tossed those), 4 grocery receipts, 1 ziplock sandwich bag, 1 9mm hollow point bullet, 12 bobby pins, $19.74 in coins, endless gum wrappers and scraps of paper, and some dirt.

Needless to say, I HAD a bunch of unnecessary crap in my purse. It is however now only equipped with about half of that...just in case of an emergency.

Groundhog's Day

Although we were instructed to pay uncanny attention to every detail on Tues February 2nd (aka groundhog's day) and to blog about it, I realized quite early on that if I were to do so I would have to write a book length account. Therefore, I have chosen to give an account of the day only up until 9:24 am.


As we were instructed to do, I set the alarm on my blackberry for 6:00 am on the evening of the 1st so as to wakeup at the same time as Bill Murray in the movie. However, due to my mother's affinity for waking up early in the morning, I was woken by the flick of a light around 5:15 am instead. I guess I should note that due to a number of reasons, I had fallen asleep on my mother's couch the night before and it was there that I awoke so early the next morning. Annoyed that it was so early, I proceeded to place the miniature decorative couch pillow over my face in order to block out the light so that I might sleep a little longer. At 6:00 am I was again brought out of wondrous slumber by the sound of my alarm: the song good morning beautiful by Steve Holy (every girl should wakeup to such a song, it helps start the day out right). After the five seconds it took to reach my phone, and the two seconds it took for me to decide that the snooze button was most definitely my best option at the moment, I reset my alarm to 8:30 am. You see, I had planned on going to the gym since I was so rudely asked to wakeup at 6:00 (I mean seriously, there is a reason I am not taking an 8:00 am class this semester...I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON!!!), however I quickly decided that it would be better to go after my first class anyway because I had five hours to kill before my second, and last class, of the day. And so, after checking the texts I had received the night before while sleeping, although not taking the time to respond to them, I then went back to sleep. Or that was the intention at least. Instead I laidthere mulling over how exactly I was going to execute the plans for today (which of course is stupid because nothing ever goes as planned).


Around 8:20 I finally gained the motivation to get out of "bed," and was greeted by the wagging tale of one of my chihuahuas and the expectant look indicating that he wanted me to throw the raggedy snake toy for him. Instead I rubbed his belly and made my way upstairs to asses the damage that had taken place over the night. Upon glimpsing the disaster that was my hair in the mirror, I threw it up in a ponytail and called it good. Motivation tends to be spotty at best when I a tired, and my hair most definitely was not the first thing on my mind. In fact, this assignment was and concentrating on remembering everything until I could write it down. I toothpasted my toothbrush, noticed it had a hair on it, most likely Kahlua's judging by the color and length of it, removed the hair, and brushed my teeth.


After the grooming activities required of me by society's dislike for strange smells and grungy appearances, I stumbled down to my room to pick out the clothing I would wear for the day. I chose to wear the close I would wear to the gym to my first class as well (you have no idea how uncomfortable women's jeans and high heels can be). The outfit consisted of a pair of black sweats, a predominantly black rolling stones t-shirt and a mismatched pair of ankle height socks. I planned on wearing my slippers to class, since gym shoes are not supposed to be worn on the gym equipment, but couldn't find them, so I slipped on my gym shoes without taking the time to untie the laces. I through a change of cloths as well as shampoo and conditioner in a bag for after the gym and gathered my school books together. After organizing my necessities for the day, I took them to my snow dusted car and returned to the warmth of the house.


Breakfast was the next thing on the agenda. I took a piece of bread from the refrigerator, placed it in the toaster, and then searched the pantry for other breakfast items. About two minutes later I checked on my toast, realized it was not ready yet, and grabbed a cheese stick and fruit rollup to top me off. It was then that I understood why the toast was still not toast, I had forgot to push the button down...oops. So I did that, and stood and watched as the top browned. I topped it with peanut butter and made my way to my car once again. I made it about two feet backwards before I remembered that I had forgotten my notebook in the house, and made my way again to the house. As I left I grabbed a pack of gum off the table (which I realized was probably my sister's and that I would most likely hear about it later) and a bottled water and jumped back into my car.


The radio was set to 99.9 and the song Redneck Yacht Club was blaring from my three good speakers and crackling out of my fourth. The songs that ensued did so in this order: Redneck Yacht Club, Twang, Honkey Tonk Attitude, No One Else on Earth, Single White Female, and lastly Big Green Tractor. While jamming out to the country music flowing throughout my car, I hit the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 13th stoplights on my way to school. I also noticed a cop just pulling away from an unfortunate driver right next to the 3rd stoplight and shortly after, two Mormon missionaries walking down the left side of the street dressed for success. After failing to stop for a girl at the first crosswalk on campus (oops) and stopping for another farther down the road, I made it to the police station parking lot with little trouble and began my walk to class at 9:24.

I suppose if I were in Bill Murray's situation I could take some of what I noticed and amend my actions for the day. For example, I would make an effort to push the toaster button down the first time. I probably would get up a little bit earlier and try to leave a little bit earlier too (I was a little bit late for class), but keep in mind where the cop was. I would have grabbed my notebook the first time and as well as stopped for the first person I didn't for. Not gonna lie though, I am quite glad I am not and will most likely never be in that kind of situation. Phew!

Ben Leubner Day 1

To begin with, it amazes me just how knowledgeable Ben Leubner is, especially with respect to such a difficult novel. Anybody that is dedicated enough to spend so much time trying to decode such a ridiculous jumble has my respect. I found his lecture both very interesting and informative.


One thing that I learned, that I absolutely did not know and probably would not have figured out had he not told us, is that Finnegans Wake is essentially in its most basic form a letter. I thought the notion about the book mirroring the path of the sun was interesting as well. It is obvious that it is meant to be follow a circular path rather than linear due to the fact that the last word and the first word of the novel go together. However, the way he explained it was very interesting and different. It is as if the novel that we read is what occurs from sunrise to sunset, and perhaps the darkness is filled with our thoughts and questions.

I was particularly struck by something that he said, although I am not really sure what or how to think about it. Leubner said, "We impose on language cumbersome things, such as making sense." It seems funny because why would one have words if not to make sense? But at the same time, I think that finding in exact truth is something embedded in human nature. One is never satisfied with questioning something, one needs to formulate an answer. I think this is one thing that is so problematic for people when reading Finnegans Wake because there really is no one answer. Every word is so ambiguous, and although one may be able to find some meaning, I think it is more often than not unsatisfactory. There is not finding the actual meaning in Joyce's novel, because there is just too much to be found. I think sometimes one must be happy with having new questions brought to mind, and pondering them, but not needing to find the absolute answer. Words must not always make sense, and sometimes if they do one moment they may not another moment. Like Dr. Leubner said, it is meant to be read collectively...not word by word, at least not for general readers. It is what we learn about ourselves that really matters. Or at least that is what I believe. I also thought it was funny that Joyce said it should take a person as long to read a book as it took for the author to write it. Which would imply that one should take seven years to read Finnegans Wake. If I had the patience and time to read one novel for that ungodly amount of time perhaps I would, but I most definitely don't...so I will stick with taking what I can out of it for now.

Surfing the Wake, Water Genie Style

James Joyce is absolutely, unquestionably, without a doubt one of the highest of the highbrow authors within this vastly immense spherical world. Finnegans Wake is a novel on a level of its own, untouched by, reigning over, and putting to shame all other literary pieces. The mumbo jumbo, mish-mash, enigmatic jigsaw puzzle of words that grace each page holds innumerable meanings. One would be lucky, no fortunate, or perhaps divinely blessed if one were able to disentangle even the minutest crumb of meaning from his work. It is the language of the lofty, almighty, and all encompassing gods splashed vigilantly on the page through the magically creative hands of a mortal being. The journey required will be too dark, daunting, demoralizing, and disheartening for most. However, the few and far between that can scale the rocky and treacherous obstacle put before them by Joyce will ascend to a higher level of being. The level of the literary gods, the deities of language, the sorcerers of letters. Read Joyce, and you will attain the rank of a high brow reader...the most sought after, dreamed of, and worth killing for achievement of a literary scholar.

High Brow vs. Low Brow

On the very first day of class we were asked to blog about our understanding of the terms "high brow" and "low brow" in terms of literature as well as film. Well, seeing as I have never really thought about the difference...I suppose it is something to be thought about. So, since I cannot really explain what I don't know...I guess I will put out some thoughts that come up in my mind when I hear the terms high brow and low brow.

Let us begin with highbrow...
-something most people generally like to avoid
-very difficult to understand, and extremely time consuming
-Vladimir Nabokov, T.S. Eliot, Shakespeare, James Joyce
-elitist
-old
-although perhaps very well known, not actually read by many people, and sometimes known to few people
-foreign (not from the US), especially French
-not funny

And low brow...
-popular
-easy to understand and enjoy
-often comical
-Dan Brown, South Park, J.K Rowling

Finnegan's Songs

So when we were sitting in class on Friday listening to the Ballad of Tim Finnegan part of an old children's song popped into my head. I remembered that it included the name "Finnegan", repeatedly in fact, but could not remember if it was about Tim Finnegan or not. After doing some online searching I found that it was not about Tim Finnegan, but in fact about an old man named Michael Finnegan. (ring any bells?) Although it is not about Tim, I do believe it is a low brow version of a song that does in fact fit the theme of eternal return to some degree.

Here are one version of the lyrics and a you-tube video of a man singing one version of the song as well:



There once was a man named Michael Finnigin,He grew whiskers on his chinnigin,Shaved them off and they grew innigin,Poor old Michael Finnigin. (Beginnigin)

There once was a man named Michael Finnigin,He got drunk from too much ginniginSo he wasted all this tinnigin,Poor old Michael Finnigin. (Beginnigin)

There once was a man named Michael Finnigin,He went fishing with a pinnigin,Caught a fish but he dropped it innigin,Poor old Michael Finnigin. (Beginnigin)

There once was a man named Michael Finnigin,Climbed a tree and barked his shinnigin,Took off several yards of skinnigin,Poor old Michael Finnigin. (Begirinigin)

There once was a man named Michael Finnigin,He kicked up an awful dinniginBecause they said he must not sinnigin,Poor old Michael Finnigin. (Beginnigin)

There once was a man named Michael Finnigin,He grew fat and he grew thinnigin,Then he died, and had to beginnigin,Poor old Michael Finnigin. (Beginnigin)



Again, this song is most definitely a low brow example of the theme of eternal return, and perhaps not a great one at that, but it does represent that never ending cycle. Although he shaves his whiskers, they grow back again and again. The repetition of "again" over and over seems to indicate that it is an eternal cycle and will not be broken. The last verse of the song seems to indicate a never ending cycle as well: after death one must begin all over again. Tim Finnegan is brought back to life from death, and so must we all be in some form or another just to do the same thing over and over again.

Giambattista Vico

I thought that the little that Dr. Sexon mentioned about Gimbattista Vico in class was interesting, especially regarding "dude language" and the three stages that language goes through. Since I have never heard of him before, I figured I would expound on what was said a little bit more and provide a link that allows for further exploration of the subject.

Vico was not only an italian philosopher, but a rhetorician , historian and jurist a well. He published a number of books describing his philosophies over the years. An interesting note is that he held little prestige while he was alive, and like so many other famous writers and artists was not highly recognised until after his death. The book in which he discusses his idea of the cycle of three ages about which we talked in class is called Scienza Nuova. Although the fact that the language used by people from each stage was mentioned, the details were not. Each stage is characterized by certain linguistic features. "The giganti of the divine age rely on metaphor to compare, and thus comprehend, human and natural phenomena. In the heroic age, metonymy and synecdoche support the development of feudal or monarchic institutions embodied by idealized figures. The final age is characterized by popular democracy and reflection via irony; in this epoch, the rise of rationality leads to barbarie della reflessione or barbarism of reflection, and civilization descends once more into the poetic era" (Wikipedia).

In his most famous work, Verum Factum, Vico claims that truth is verified through creation or invention, and not through observation. This idea directly conflicts with the notions set forth by Decartes. This work later influenced Scienza Nuova.

His works have influenced a number of other philosophers and writes (James Joyce being one of them).

For more information on Vico...

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vico/

My 20 min Lifetime

It's hard for me to fathom experiencing such a 20 min lifetime as character in a novel or movie does. I don't think I have ever in my life experienced such a thing, at least not in the way that one generally thinks of it. I remember reading a piece of literature at some point within my college career, and it was about this very thing. The entire story took place in the time it took for a man to fall to his death by hanging. In the piece, whose name I don't remember unfortunately, he basically created the life he would live if the rope from which he was supposed to hang would break. Years go by, and the reader is lead to believe that the rope did in fact snap, but at the end the reader is realizes that the whole thing was a figment of the man's imagination that occurred in less than a second's time. He did in fact die, and the lifetime of experiences were in fact fictitious.

Although I will be the first to admit that I often feel like much more time has passed than really has during tests or boring lectures, it by no means the same kind of thing. That could perhaps be called the 15 minute hour. I suppose the closest that I have ever come to experiencing a "20 min lifetime" like phenomenon would have to have been in a dream. In fact, in many respects I have most likely encountered many in the form of dreams. Unfortunately, I have not been blessed with the ability to remember many of my dreams....so recounting one is rather difficult. I do not pretend to know the exact statistics, but supposedly people have numerous dreams every night. If my theory holds true, this would imply that a person experiences a number of lifetimes within a single night. Imagine the amount of lives one would experience within a lifetime here on earth. Who is to say that the life we are living now is not part of such a dream, and we will wake up in an hour or two? Everybody has experienced a dream at least once in their life that seemed so based in reality that they could swear that it had really happened. Perhaps such "dreams" are the actual moments of reality that do occur between other dreams. It is an interesting thing to think about. What we think we know, may not in fact be based on truth at all. Experiences that we are sure we have had, may have simply occurred within out imagination. This can be tied in with another theme from class....life as myth and dream. How does one know what is real and what is not? How does one know with absolute certainty that the "life" we are living now is not only a figment of our imagination? I don't have the answer to that question yet...but does it really matter anyway? This is why I am not a philosophy major and am and English major...I need not concern myself with such travesties. I enjoy whatever "reality" I may be in at a given moment, and that is enough for me.

Class Expectations

As anyone who has taken one of Dr. Sexon's classes before should know, it is pointless to come up with class expectations because he always blows them out of the water. Not only do we often discuss things that are not even briefly mentioned on the syllabus, but every student gains a greater knowledge about a variety of things. Each class I have taken from him is more enjoyable than the last, and he continues to surprise me with the amount of knowledge he has retained over the year. Therefore, the only expectations that I feel I am capable of making at this point are these:

1. I expect to be enthralled, entertained, educated, and at times exasperated.

2. I am sure to gain a greater knowledge base regarding literature and how to go about dissecting and reading it.

3. I am hoping to make it through Finnegan's Wake, but may fail, and will definitely face points of frustration.

4. Lastly, I expect to enjoy the class immensely and perhaps make another friend or two.

Again, I feel those are really the only expectations that I can have at the moment. I am looking forward to enjoying the class and broadening my knowledge and view of the world of literature. Good luck to everyone and I look forward to seeing what everyone else has to say throughout the semester!