Individual Presentations--Day One

Term paper presentations have begun! Today's presentations were all so good. I can't wait to see what the rest of the class does with their time. Here's a recap of today: (And I apologize in advance if I misspell anyone's names....)

Elissa--wrote about Beckett and his parrot joke, etc. There is happiness or humor in the negative as well

Maxton--will relate Haroun and The Following Story to his own journey through the class by relating his journey to that of Max in Where the Wild Things Are. He spoke about three major themes, separation, initiation, and return. Max read us the story just like storytime as a child, making sure everyone could see the pictures. Thank you Max! Dr. Sexson added that Max looks into the eyes of these wild things (in emergent literature) and learns to tame them.

Adam--Spoke about the Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis in which Christ lives an entire lifetime in his final moments on the cross. This is his last and greatest temptation. Adam says God and Satan use dreams as a language of communication and influence. Sexson adds, this is a gnostic fable or fantasy.

Bizz--drew a big X on the board just as Sexson did on "March 10th" =) then drew an inverted V next to it with the Big Bang being the point of the v and us being somewhere in the middle near the base. She said the universe is expanding downward. We seek the origin as a way of defining ourselves as individuals or as a race, but when we meet that origin we must only start over again. Does this mean our existence is meaningless? Bizz mentioned we are composed of hourglasses, tiny moments changing and repeating in differing orders and sequences. and It is not about redeeming past action through this return to origin but about choosing new actions. Our redemption is in our future not the past, which is always present.

Sarah Burke--wrote a short story based on the idea of "what I know now", relating that back to the themes in the class under the structure of an encounter in a coffee shop and Finnegans Wake. She says sometimes fiction is better than reality. Her story was.....honest. It was beautiful, full of feeling, smart in its construction....and there were layers of meaning. I loved it. Thank you Sarah for reading your beautiful story.

Brianne--did a rap! for the class. One of the themes I picked up on was the idea of divinity within the self. It was very brave of you Brianne, and we all enjoyed it immensely.

Jon Certo--related the 4 quartets to reggae music, specifically Bob Marley. He mentioned Marley's song "Exodus". He says he never realized the mysticism in the lyrics, never realized because he never truly listened.

Sam--wrote about Alchemy. She talked about an artist who transforms scrap metal into art. She mentioned another artist, Deborah Butterfield who uses driftwood to make sculptures and then casts them. Sam related this to Alchemy by talking about the transformation of "the rubbish of life into art" but one must not forget its origins. "ink and stink" from Finnegans Wake made an appearance in Sam's presentation. Alchemist turning his excrement into art by using it as ink (Shem-->Alshemist).

Zach Eggemeyer--wrote about Charlie Kaufman's films and the exploration of myths as paradigms to how we should live our lives. If our actions return and recur exactly as they did the first time, how much weightier are our actions? The plight of man and true weight of being is this. We must consider our actions as recurring eternally, giving our actions much more importance than we may immediately realize.

Alicia--wrote about Alchemy in relation to the 5 themes of the class. She did a lot of research into the history of Alchemy and presented some of us to that in her powerpoint presentation. One interesting idea: that we do not reincarnate into self-same physical beings but as energy forces on the same plane.

Doug--talked about tarot cards and the wheel of fortune. He mentioned a play, "Oh Fortuna" wherein each character is in a state of rising or falling much like the characters in the Tempest. Prospero is the only character that completes the circle and brings it back around. Doug explained the origin of the tarot cards and the major and minor arcana therein. He says each card is but a fragment in the story and each are dealing with an aspect of the human story of ascending and descending. The fool and the magician are one. Top and bottom (highbrow and lowbrow) are one.

Great job everyone on your presentations today! Good luck to everyone on Friday.

Group Presentations

Sadly, I have neglected this blog as of late.... I won't make excuses....too much. When everything in the world is due at once, time and commitments get reshuffled. I hope to make up for it this week if I can.

Well, we are through group presentations now. I thought I would recap some of the highlights.

On the first day of presentations, Groups 4 and 2 presented in that order. Group 4 had the theme of life as myth and dream as their focus. They performed a play involving most, if not all, of the elements discussed in class, a journey and a returning home. To recap this presentation would take ages, and I'm not sure I alone captured many vital details in my notes. Of note, however, was how this group used powerpoint and images, some moving and some still, to enhance their presentation, really embracing the hybrid nature of this class even in this, their final presentation.

Group 2 did an EXCELLENT job with their video presentation of the 2o minute lifetime. The movie was fluid, it was multidimensional, humorous and instructive. As of last week, one could find the video on Youtube under "copy of film", but I'm not sure if it is still posted. This group also incorporated other aspects of class, the dream, characters come to life, t.s. eliot, etc. in their video. Great job Group 2!!

On the subsequent class day, Groups 3 and 1 presented their creations. Group 3 presented the theme of life as fiction and language in a video about a fictional support group, "Characters Anonymous". Each of the group members embodied one character from one of the works we read, struggling to discover the nature of his reality. They have to come to terms with the fact that they are fictional. How does this concept translate into our "real" world?

Group 1 presented the myth of the eternal return. From gas we come and to gas we return. They illustrated this through methane gas and in the lowbrow sense, farts. I wrote down one line, "from goo to you by way of the zoo" in my notes. Of note was the distinguished "Al Chemist" presenting to a class of english majors. Of course this concept of return relates back to T.S. Eliot (from fire to fire).

On the last day of presentations, Groups 5 and 6 presented. (finally some order to this numeric chaos!! =) Group 5 used movie clips to illustrate quotes from each section of the Four Quartets in order to represent the theme of Dolce Domum. This group set the mood with a table spread with candles. One will remember these candles were red and white. Coincidence??

Group 6 was my group. We had the theme of the eternal return.....again. If the groups had gone in order, this may have been more profound as we truly would be returning to our starting point once again in a cycle of recurrence. Alas, this was not the case. We did a skit centered around the idea of the sun's recurrence as a means of illustrating this theme. We brought in Vico with the idea of the descent of language from the language of the gods, to heroes, to chaos. Our versions of this was the god (Aaron) and his poetic verses on the sun, to the heroes (Brianne and Sarah....complete with towel capes and heroic underpants) relating their impressions of the sun, to Sarah Burke and myself who were stoners philosophizing in our own way about the sun and its meaning. The play started over twice (the return), only the second time, each group's reflections of the sun were more meaningful or with more insight (although the stoners didn't even notice the sun's temporary disappearance). Here we illustrate the eternal return, but each cycle brings us closer and closer to true understanding. James played our sun. How can one ever forget his rising out of the dark (trashbags) light in hand? What an image. =)

Great job everyone with the group presentations! Now on to the individuals!

Term Paper Topic

Well, our days are winding down to a close, and paper topics loom before us, frightening and captivating. If only there was more time..... My sister commandeered the Internet for most of last night, so I apologize for this blog being a bit late. However, here it is.

When thinking about possible term paper topics, I knew I wanted to write about Beckett. Earlier on in the semester, I wrote a blog...more like a rant of sorts, about people dismissing the darker side of life as "depressing" and moving on. I railed on those who would rather not feel these emotions, deny their existence, rather than walking through that avenue of fire to find the revelation and discovery on the other side. Some things are worth being felt....deeply. I really connected with Malone Dies. Though he strips away everything from his characters, I found this absence, this nothingness, was full. Just as when true silence abounds all around you and you feel it like a physical presence or force, I found this emptiness to be deafening.

In my paper, I will be adressing this process of kenosis or emptying out of self to reach the core. This term relates to alchemy in some ways, but is more connected to a process of awareness in my eyes as opposed to a process of purification, though this absolutely comes into play. There is a certain sense of endurance in Malone, a desperate clinging to life combined with unattachment and breaking down. I find the paradox of emptying self to find self incredibly engaging. In my paper I want to describe or dive into this process and see what results.

Finnegans Wake Annotated Page (457)

As always when reading Finnegans Wake, I realize there is no real means of full understanding. After annotating my page, page 457, I was by no means closer to understanding the page as a whole. I could only latch onto vague trends and other noncommittal understandings. There seemed to be a lot of sexual references on the page. One example, for instance, is "drawhure deelish." Hure is the German word for whore, quite literally meaning prostitute. Deelish, I considered to contain several puns, for instance, deal-->concerning money such as the deal between the prostitute and here customers, delicious, also dervish--> sources of wisdom in the middle eastern Sufi faith. Dervish means "one who opens doors" in Persian, and the whirling dervish is a dance to achieve religious ecstacy.

Along with several sexual, or at least sensual, references on this page, there are a lot of religious references as well. Could Joyce be meaning to draw a parallel between the two?? I think so. "penitent Ferdinand" could refer to Ferdinand in the Tempest, but perhaps more aptly refers to Ferdinand King of Leon and Castille and member of the 3rd Order of St. Francis. This king of Spain fought to free spain from the Saracens and married the pious daughter of the then King of Germany. Ferdinand dedicated multiple churches to the Blessed Virgin Mary, here contrasted with references to whores and prostitutes on this page.
The "Devil a curly hair" passage refers to The Devil and The Farmer, a short story from England in 1893 which tells of a wager a farmer made with the Devil. In order to escape the bet, he told the Devil he could not straighten a curly hair on an anvil. When the Devil could not, he left the farmer in peace.

One reference that I found particularly interesting as far as how Joyce transformed the language of the actual quote in the rhythmic way he does is the passage that goes, "a tear or two in time is all there's toot." Literally it sounds like" a tear or two in time is all there is to it". Could this refer to the loss of virginity? The words also refer to a passage in the Bible that goes, "a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak". This passage is from the Ecclesiastes 3:7 and speaks about the "vanity of human life".

The end of this page seems to be a conversation between a man and a woman. She "tactilifully grapbed her male corrispondee". Working with the word "tactilifully", I basically did a word association or simply stated, a calling to mind of similar words this could be referring to. I found, tacit-->unvoiced, unspoken, implied; tempus-->tempest, time, tempus fugit--> Latin for "time flees"; temptation; impetuous; tumultuous; turbulent. Also the word "grapbed" could reference "grappled" and quite obviously "bed".

The tone of this page seemed overtly sexual but also connected to religion. I found that marriage of seemingly opposing systems of thought intriguing. Of course there have always been saints who have referred to their relationship with God in sexual terms. See The Esctacy of St. Therese by Bernini below for a visual example of this concept. But Joyce does this in an entirely new and subtle way. I wonder what this means to the work as a whole. However, I know there is no "meaning", no final truth, no unifying theme. This continues to upset me about Finnegans Wake...I don't think I will ever be reconciled to the idea of a world without too many references and yet without universal meaning at all....

Pick a Blog, Any Blog

As always, there comes a point in the semester where Dr. Sexson asks us to specifically mention a fellow blogger's work that has influenced us in some way. And, much like every semester before, I am unable to choose just one person to recognize. Each and every blog has offered us something that we needed, and if any one of those blogs was missing, the map of the class would be altered irreparably. We would be at a loss. Sam's blog is a wealth of information, offering us a detailed record of Dr. Sexson's lectures as well as providing us all with so many outside references to dive into. Rio, our "resident geek", offers us an entirely new dimension to the class, transforming it from a simple lecture and note-taking atmosphere into an multimedia, interactive environment. Jon Orsi has gone mad, thankfully. His dedication to exploring certain themes or concepts in depth through the texts (especially Beckett) is something to be admired. James' blog reads as poetry and raises so many questions to ponder over. Sarah Burke's blog shows how much she is thinking about the themes in relation to life. I could go on and on, mentioning every blog and every classmate.

The wonderful thing about blogging in the class setting is that it allows us to see just how varied our classmates are. It allows us to learn from each other, to laugh even as we grow in all directions. Dr. Sexson's classes are far from the question-and-answer, fill-in-the-blank, mindless regurgitation of information courses that I have experienced in the class. We take charge of our own education , for ourselves, even as we follow our cult leader and his wisdom. =) I could hardly choose just one classmate, or one blog out of this riotous stream of information.

Define: Alchemy

"An Alchemist in his Workshop" by David the Younger Teniers

This week's assignment: to blog about what "alchemy" is.

Well, at first I thought I would search the internet for relevant videos and articles on the subject of alchemy, but a simple google search on multiple variations of this theme seemed useless. I was flooded with images with "healing properties", doomsday prophecies set to pictures, and historical presentations on how alchemy has been perceived throughout the ages. In the field of art, I came across countless images like the one above depicting an elderly scholar surrounded by the clutter, often with an apprentice of some sort, attempting to achieve some transformative power.

None of these images or ideas seemed to align with the idea of alchemy as we discussed it and as I believe it to be in relation to ourselves and our world. Alchemy, simply said, is the power to transform. It is the quest to control one's environment, the quest to control and transform the self. When one thinks about the stereotypical idea of turning lead into gold, one must think of it as a simple metaphor. This is what we must do for ourselves....as an action and a process. We must transform the low-brow into the high-brow, and I think that is the goal of this class. How do we move from the state of lead, of demotic language, to a state of gold, into the realm and language of the gods?

I think the vital difference between an "alchemist" as Coelho would define him and the average man is the mentality of control and observation. We often become restricted by our surroundings, believing the illusion we have been born into, illusions such as place and specific identity. Without going into the "soul of the world" and "personal legends", I think it is safe to say that the process by which we break out of these restrictions or limitations is the process by which we become, rather than passive observers in our lives, truly active, engaged, and creative controllers of our own selves. Call it a transformation of soul, call it a hero's journey, the process remains the same. It is the shift of values, the shift between worlds by a P2C2E, the waking up to our simulation and the act of revelation. This is "alchemy," the active recognition and taking part in a process of realization and transformation.

The Throwing of Books

This semester seems to be one of book throwing. Now, I know for English majors, the very idea of hurling a book across the room at full speed and considerable force seems reprehensible, even an act of sacrilege. But I confess! I have committed this blasphemy several times this semester. I think the first book that I threw across my living room was that of Finnegan's Wake. I was frustrated with a language that wasn't language and yet all language. I was frustrated at not being able to read. In conventional terms. I don't really blame myself for that one though; Sexson warned us this might happen.

Next, I threw Beckett.....lovingly. I had just read a particularly mundane passage in Molloy and frustratingly let the book fall to the floor with a satisfying thud. The important thing about Beckett though, is that I picked it back up. And I loved reading Malone Dies.

After throwing a Shakespearean play the other day (I'm beginning to detect a trend: This class is bleeding into others) after muddling through its lengthy introduction, I picked up The Alchemist. Mere hours later, I had the unmistakable feeling that this would follow the others. Turning the pages with restrained vehemence, I voiced my opinions to my sister and roommate. She had already laughed at me when, without provocation, I had thrown the book I was reading previously at least four feet to a clatter of pages on the floor. Now she laughed again. I'm glad I was some sort of amusement for her, at least. =)

I didn't like The Alchemist because it didn't engage me. It read like a self-help book with talk of "Personal Legends" and the "Soul of the World" etc. I noticed that after each revelation that Coelho presented, the narrative voice would change to describe in great detail how the boy now believed this, was certain of that. It seemed to me that Coelho presented the idea and then took the reader, embodied in the boy, and told that reader "you belieeeeeve me......you belieeeeeve", like a sorceror or a simple trickster whose trick was all too evident. Without a doubt, the greater themes of definitions of place and of dreams are of vital importance in anyone's life. Truly, we can often only know a place by leaving it, or at least by having a mentality that allows one to distance oneself from attachment and self-limitation. However, in the Alchemist I feel this theme is diluted or diffused even as it is staring me in the face like a brick wall. Is there anything wrong with wanting to find the truth for oneself, in wanting a book to engage me and entrap me like, say, a Nabokov novel??

I suppose I have become spoiled by a semester of reading Nabokov. I want to be so engaged in the details and their relation to the whole, grand master scheme that I almost physically cannot put the book down. I want to know there is something more beneath the surface, something tangible and concrete, even if that "reality" is an illusion as well. I am quite content to peel back the layers of one of his novels incessantly. As horrifying as it is to say this, I simply don't feel that connection or sense of being vividly engaged with the material this semester. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the low-brow is too obvious to be compelling, and the high-brow, such as Finnegans Wake, is like a fearsome giant looming over me. I have no weapons. I feel the works of Nabokov are every bit as difficult and meaningful, if not more so, than what we are reading.

I'm frustrated and wondering, why do I feel the constant need to throw something at the nearest wall?? I think Beckett may be my saving grace in the end, but only because Malone Dies gripped me. I simply don't know what to do about the throwing of books. Quite frankly, I don't think they can take much more abuse. =)