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!