I haven't written in my blog very much recently because I am confused about what to write. Everyday when I go to class I find myself more and more confused, not by the material but rather by most of the other people in the room. I find myself thinking that they are obnoxious and elitist, which is how low brow views highbrow. Yet, I wouldn't call myself lowbrow necessarily. I find that I do not struggle to understand concepts in this highbrow cult oops I mean class or with the texts we are reading. I struggle with FW but then who doesn't?
My confusion stems from this: why am I better than other people who aren't highbrow? Or if I am not highbrow why are all of you better than those who are lowbrow? Why is getting addicted to literature better than getting addicted to meth. We are all destroyed either way.
I love reading and I am very much so addicted to literature, recently Samuel Beckett. I get lost is the readings of this cult, oops there I slip again I mean this class. I often see the incredible coincidence of these texts in the world around me and thus I assign more meaning to these worldly things. Yet these things do not make the world more inspiring to me. There is still so much that cannot be included even in a piece of literature that includes everything like FW. I cannot say that, although I've been somewhat addicted to these texts, I've ever not been able to walk away if I could go outside instead. Why be trapped in an addiction of fabulous ideas and wonderful life connections. What is the point of understanding of partially understanding the mysteries and ideas shown in the highest texts if you don't have your own experience to connect them to? So what if I've read FW or Samuel Beckett? I'd rather be able to say "I have lived."
My ultimate questions are: What is so highbrow about reading literature when you could experience it yourself? Why is reading highbrow literature better than living life? What is the point of sitting and reading someone else's view on the world and society when you could go out and see it for yourself?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The Language of the Dude
The demonic language or what Professor Sexson calls "dude language" is far more prevalent in our culture than the high brow language that we find in Finnegans Wake. It is hard sometime to even get the "dude speakers" hear you as you speak with big vocabulary words. Intrigued by this I decided to listen in on some of the residents in Roskie Hall while they were playing the all popular COD-MW II (Call of Duty-Modern Warfare II). As I was walking down the hall toward their rooms I heard two friends, we'll call them "Forrest" and "Ryan" having a brief conversation:
Forrest: Ahhh, wha'ed you do that for man, I'm on your freaking team.
Ryan: Sorry brother, my bad couldn't see you.
Forrest: Douche, hey watch behind you
(sounds of rapid fire)
Ryan: Got the bastard, thanks for the heads up man
Forrest: Man I've got so much homework
Ryan: F*** it, you can do it tomorrow
(sounds of rapid fire)
Ryan: F my life, this game f***ing sucks man
Forrest: That douche is totally just squat killing (not totally sure on this one)
(knock on the door from me)(more rapid fire)
Ryan: Yeah
Me: Hey guys could you keep it down a little bit it's quite hours
Forrest: Oh yea sorry dude we'll shut the door
It makes me wonder am I really a "dude" but beyond that what would Joyce think (WWJT)?
I think he would laugh and go back to cackling evilly over Finnegans Wake (which is the laughter I imagined when Dr. Sexson said he laughed as he wrote it.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
New Blog or Old Blog
As I set up this blog for this class I find myself thinking, haven't I done this before? and the answer in more than one ways is yes. This is the second blog I've set up for Lit 436 but I'm also pretty sure that I have done this same blog before. I decided to get fancy and as I set up my own personal settings I decided to start my blog with a picture of a sunset, or is it a sunrise? You might never know. Is the sun just rising out of it's nightly underworld journey or is it just beginning that arduous task. It made me laugh because it doesn't really matter the picture is beautiful either way and if what we've been talking about in class is true then it doesn't matter where in the cycle I start because everything is circular and everything is repeated. Every ending is a beginning and every beginning is an ending. That's a line in a song I think, called "Closing Time" by Semisonic check it out. My favorite line comes at the end of the second verse "Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end" it's also quite fittingly at the very end of the song. They also say that closing time is "time for you to go out to the places you will be from" yet another beginning coming from an ending. The Eternal Return shows us that everything returns to exactly where it once was. Everything returns to it's own beginning at its end. SPOILER ALERT: the seven book Dark Tower Series by Steven King (READ IT!!!!!!) is close to Finnegans Wake it that the last lines of the last book MATCH the opening lines of the first book driving the reader almost insane. The Eternal Return shows that we continually circle through the motions of our lives and the reset button is what we are striving for though we don't know it. Steven King does imply by a slight change that it is possible to get out of this eternal cycle and that is what Nietzsche would call "being." So even though I can logically defer that I have set this blog up before it kinda feels like the same thing over and over again maybe with slightly variations but not really.
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