What is the Matrix?

"The matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth." -Morpheus

What seest thou else…?

So I used the line: "what seest thou else in the dark backward and abysm of time?" on a few people this weekend. The responses were pretty much the same, a version of "what the hell does that mean?" I also tried convincing my friend of the beauty in the lines of Caliban's in which he says: "the clouds methought would open and show riches ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked, I cried to dream again." My efforts were, however, in vain. It seems that one either gets it or does not, either they can see the beauty or they can not.

The Airplane Lady’s Auschwitz Story

I was absolutely torn when Dr. Sexson told us that the lady's story about Aushwitz was only a story. It was funny to find that Dr. Sexson felt the same way that I did about such a thing. Who makes up a story about the Holocaust and tells it as a part of their life? Who does such a thing just to amuse a stranger? I still do not know whether or not to believe that the story she told was true or not. There is humor to be found, however, in fact that the story was so seductive that I was able to be drawn in and crushed by being abandoned at the end of it.

Inventories

My school bag contains the following items: notecards, a wallet, a check book, a thumb drive, a daily planner, an empty sandwich bag, a scratch sheet of paper with passwords on it, gum, pencils, pens, hi-liters, pencil sharpener, 6 books including Finnegans Wake and The Four Quartets, 2 notebooks, and my ipod shuffle.

The Inner Light

I should not be surprised to find themes of the class apparent in an episode of Star Trek, and I am not. I seem to see the themes everywhere and in everything these days. The 20 minute lifetime is experienced by Captain Picard when he realizes that he had experiences an entire lifetime in a span of time in which he had only been out for 25 minutes. In his 25 minute lifetime his daughter tells him: "you know about it father. You've already seen it." This reminds me of the lines in Eliot that the end of our exploring shall be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time. The theme of dolce domum is also evident in that Picard has trouble coming to terms with the fact that he is home. He does not seem to know the place for the first time, yet.

The Skin of our Teeth

As I read The Skin of Our Teeth I really liked all of the references to historical figures such as the Sabine women, Cain, and the Ice Age. It was a revelation to find out that this play is a ripoff of Finnegans Wake. I honestly did not see the connection until Dr. Sexson pointed it out in class. I did kind of pick up on the stream-of-consciousness technique, but I failed to connect it to Joyce's book.

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.