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!