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.