Groundhog’s Day

My Groundhog's Day was very uneventful. It began at 11 am when I woke up in bed, I slept in because I closed the bar last night and I don't have class until 2pm. I showered and ate some cereal for breakfast. I watched sportscenter then I walked up to campus for my 2pm class. Class was boring, we talked in our groups about our projects. I walked home and cooked some macaroni and cheese for dinner. After dinner I finished reading The Following Story then I watched television for about 2 hours before I went to bed. Pretty uneventful.

Ben Leubner: Goodsafefirelamp!

I really enjoyed Ben Leubner's lectures about Finnegans Wake. He gave me a lot of insight about how one should go about reading the book. To be quite honest, when I first looked at the book I was a little scared. I had no idea how I was going to go about wrapping my head around such a book. Dr. Leubner's advice and insight was a relief. I find comfort in the idea of reading the book for the simple pleasure of the sound of the words. It was also a revelation that Joyce's words are not simply babbling but clever puns and misspellings that have meanings within the words; Goodsafefirelamp! meaning God Save Ireland, for example. The fact that we as a class spent the entire hour looking at a couple of lines in this massive book gives me an entirely new respect for the book.

Iffspeak in Finnegans Wake

The part of Finnegans Wake that sounds like Iffspeak that I found was on page 153: "My, my, my! Me and me! Little down dream don't I love thee!"

The Following Story

I really enjoyed reading The Following Story. It was a kind of surreal read as I did not know at first how to take the narration. Was Herman Mussert sleeping, dead, a figment of someone's imagination? I also found it very interesting that this book seemed to relate to all of the themes of the class, this may be because lately I find myself looking for these themes in everything I do and see. The most obvious of the themes so far in my reading is that of dolce domum. As Herman Mussert talks about his life you can tell that he wants to return to something familiar.

Finnegans Wake

The page I have chosen to master/own is page 605. I chose the following passage:

"Yad. Procreated on the ultimate ysland of Yreland in the encyclical yrish archipelago, come their feast of precreated holy whiteclad angels, whomamong the christener of his, voluntarily poor Kevin, having been graunted the praviloge of a priest's postcreated portable altare cum balne.

I chose this passage because as I was flipping through the pages I noticed my name at the bottom of page 605 and I was intrigued.

Haroun and the themes of the class

All of the themes of the class can be seen in Haroun and the Sea of Stories. The myth of the eternal return and Dolce Domum can both be found in Soraya's return home. The 20 minute lifetime is seen as the entire time spent in Kahani actually takes place during one dream of Haroun's. Life as fiction and language is found in Rashid's skills as a story-teller. Finally, the world as myth and dream is obviously seen in Haroun's dream about Kahani.

Vico and the 20 minute lifetime

I can not remember any experience that could be called a 20 minute lifetime. When I think of a 20 minute lifetime, I think of one seeing his life flash before his eyes, so to speak. I have never had such an experience that I can remember. This does not mean that it has not happened to me, only that I can not think of such an instance, with the exception of dreams. I often have dreams in which it seems like a lifetime goes by and I wake to find that I had only been sleeping for less than an hour.