3/22/2005

It's our first class period back after spring break. I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing week. We're closing in on the end of the semester now. :O)

Remember: Oral recitations of epic poems to one's soulmate will begin Thursday the 24th.

Today we discussed Dr. Sexson's "Re-membering Finnegan." Jeremy and Valerie began the period by wowing us with their recitation of part of the Prank Queen section of Finnegans Wake (no apostrophe please).

First we discussed the notion that Finnegans Wake (hereafter called Wake) was composed in a hypertext. That is, each layer is somewhat like a transparency upon another layer, in which the top text will every now and then have a 'hot' section/word. Click on that 'hot' section and you are transported somewhere else. Now, obviously, there was no Internet in Joyce's day, but Dr. Sexson relates that Joyce spoke about writing in layers. For example, the short phrase "riverrun past Eve and Adam" brings up issues of etymology, language associations, and intertextuality that one could explore further if one were so inclined. However, Sexson notes that this is more than a scholar's game. It is a major paradigm shift in communication. This, in a way, is a precursor to the shift from print to electricity.

Gestures are prior to writing and oral cultures make use of this. They know that something is lost when the gestures are not included in an oral performance.

No apostrophe in the title be cause an apostrophe is possessive. It claims ownership and has everything to do with the alienation and solitariness of the modern writer. Taking out the apostrophe, Wake is made communal and everyone can participate in it.

Wake contains everything. All the rivers of the world, all the fairytales, and all the big stories. However, it is still intelligible and accessible because Joyce makes reference to things and people with whom we are familiar. For example, Humpty Dumpty and his fall are within Wake. Although they seems a simple allusion within the text, Joyce's inclusion of them brings up our other associations with falls: Adam and Eve, Alice in Wonderland, Troy, Wallstreet, Newton's Apple.

Cyberspace has made Wake relevant and has had the power to awaken what we have forgotten.

Joyce's alphabet is "all for a bit" and he contends that the introduction of the alphabet alienated us from the way speech dances and relates to pictures.

The major difference between the Museum of the Rockies and the Altamira Caves is that at the MoR, there is a detached feeling. We cannot experience the knowledge, we only experience walking through the museum. At the Altamira Caves, however, something was inscribed on young initiates' nervous systems and they were left forever changed.
DON'T TOUCH vs. MUST TOUCH TO GET IN-TOUCH.

apotheosis: the divinization of a human being has something to do with Yates' notion of the movement from the practicality of memory to the mysticality of memory.

1st layer of dreams--> PERSONAL
Next layer---> COMMUNAL

Key: Electricity brings Wake to life.