Yep, I'm still struggling. Today I plan on writing about class, stream of consciousness style, until some basic theme or focus comes about from all my rantings and when that happens I will have found my focus. Here it is. Drum roll please. The manifestation of my imagination and memory entwined together in the form of words on your monitor. Do not read on. My thoughts will most likely flow in a Joycean fashion.
themes. 20 minute lifetime, dulce domum, the myth or the eternal return/eternal recurrence, the world as myth and dream, life as fiction and language.
eternal recurrence is my favorite I think, being as how the 20 minute lifetime could be like a déjà vu of recurrence, or a parenthetically lived lifetime, or version of Plato's anamnesis. the eternal recurrence umbrellas the dulce domum as well seeing as how nearly every story and every life exists "to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time" otherwise we would never learn anything and, by a certain philosophy, never make it around the circle of time, through the underworld of night and back to the daytime to begin again and fin again repeatedly knowing everything as if it were new even though we've been here before. As Dr. Sexson says, you've all been here before, you're the same class I taught last year, and the year before and twenty years ago and we still haven't gotten it. But maybe we did but we're revisiting the place for the first time to say goodbye and move on, it's a loop from a singular point in all directions like a solar flare from the time line that Dr. Sexson is on. From his perspective we are a whir of the same people in the same events learning the same lessons over and over again, but perhaps we were gone for a long time and are just coming back to know it for the first time from a different perspective and that his time line is not the same as ours. Where he taught us all last semester we have lived out our entire lives, died, and have come back again to see the same thing from a new perspective. Like a reincarnation where the time line of the actual world is really only two seconds wherein our beloved professor is passing between worlds and we are his dream and through his dream are learning everything he can teach us in the best way possible to us. And since we have learned it once, we can die and be reborn the instant after we are born to live along side ourselves, and with ourselves but unrecognizable to ourselves because we are so different from being a lifetime ahead of the place we were. We could share the same classroom, even sit next to ourselves and be none the wiser since we are so far, a lifetime, or thirty lifetimes, ahead of our initial self. Learning again, the same things we were taught from a different perspective. But this is really all happening in a second. In another second when Alice wakes up and we are all snuffed out, where can we go to learn again but back to Alice in her new world and await for her to dream again.
Ah! "Dies" to switch tracks since I've concluded that stream. I will write more and blog after I have read this and turned it from a memory into an experience. Perhaps after analysis I can find another wormhole to slide down that parallels this one, but elaborates on it and enriches it.
For now, lunch.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Smartpen recording of the Dave Walker Band
Smartpen recording of The Dave Walker Band. No relevance to class, unless you find one, but these cats are a blast! Hope you enjoy it!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Questions
1) Name the Four Quartets
- Burnt Norton
- East Coker
- Dry Salvages
- Little Gidding
2) When I wake I cry to _____ again.
- dream
3) Memorize verbatim "We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all exploring..." Last page of Little Gidding
4) I only want to ______ you.
- Please
5) The last words of The Following Story?
- The Following Story
6) What river do they end up on in The Following Story?
- Amazon
7) What is the name of Neo's booksafe?
- Simulacra and Simulation
8) Symbols of life and death from Four Quartets?
- Rose and yew tree
9) What river related symbol represents Anna Livia Plurabell?
- The Delta
10) What's the Arabic word from the Alchemist that means it is written?
- Maktub
11) In Little Gidding, what does simplicity cost?
- Everything
12) Where does the main character in the Alchemist find the treasure?
- Under the tree
13) According to the Gnostics what did Jesus bring to mankind?
- Knowledge
14) What does Prospero say to Miranda to stimulate her memory?
- "What seest thou else in the dark backward and abysm of time?"
15) What is the essence of Alchemy according to Christina?
- The process of purification.
16) What little animal is in the garden in Burnt Norton?
- A bird.
17) What famous philosopher is Herman Mussert compared to?
- Socrates
18) Santiago de Compostela is what?
- Pilgrimage route in Spain.
19) What is the glitch in the Matrix
- Deja vu
20) Mysterious mental maneuver?
- Vladimir Nabokov
21) According to Maggie, Shakespeare is to Prospero as Beckett is to____.
- Molloy
22) The hot babe in the desert in The Alchemist is whom?
- Fatima
23) Emerald Tablet, Elixir of Life, Philosopher's Stone (potentially the Emerald City)
24) Who else is on the boat with Mussert? (Which one of the people is missing from the list)
- pilot
- priest
- child
- teacher
- journalist
- academic
25) What language was the Alchemist originally written in?
- Portuguese
26) What is the Anima Mundi
- the Soul of the World
27) What two colors of the rose symbolize Alchemy?
- red
- white
28) What word in the Tempest is repeated more than any other?
- now
29) What game does Miranda and Ferdinand play at the end of the Tempest?
- Chess
30) What profession was Herbert Mussert?
- Classics Professor
31)According to Dr. Sexson, who do Miranda's nine attendants represent?
- The Muses
32) What Latin word does Mussert translate into time?
- dies
33) Exceptions to the rule of popular books being associated with low brow?
- Shakespeare
- The Bible
34) How long is the Following Story?
- two seconds
35) Who is in the leaves/apple tree in the Four Quartets?
- children
36) Phaethon drives fathers chariot.
- Enacted by Mussert
37) Mussert says "the world is a never ending ________"?
- cross reference
38) Release me from these bands with the help of your good hands.
- applause
- Burnt Norton
- East Coker
- Dry Salvages
- Little Gidding
2) When I wake I cry to _____ again.
- dream
3) Memorize verbatim "We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all exploring..." Last page of Little Gidding
4) I only want to ______ you.
- Please
5) The last words of The Following Story?
- The Following Story
6) What river do they end up on in The Following Story?
- Amazon
7) What is the name of Neo's booksafe?
- Simulacra and Simulation
8) Symbols of life and death from Four Quartets?
- Rose and yew tree
9) What river related symbol represents Anna Livia Plurabell?
- The Delta
10) What's the Arabic word from the Alchemist that means it is written?
- Maktub
11) In Little Gidding, what does simplicity cost?
- Everything
12) Where does the main character in the Alchemist find the treasure?
- Under the tree
13) According to the Gnostics what did Jesus bring to mankind?
- Knowledge
14) What does Prospero say to Miranda to stimulate her memory?
- "What seest thou else in the dark backward and abysm of time?"
15) What is the essence of Alchemy according to Christina?
- The process of purification.
16) What little animal is in the garden in Burnt Norton?
- A bird.
17) What famous philosopher is Herman Mussert compared to?
- Socrates
18) Santiago de Compostela is what?
- Pilgrimage route in Spain.
19) What is the glitch in the Matrix
- Deja vu
20) Mysterious mental maneuver?
- Vladimir Nabokov
21) According to Maggie, Shakespeare is to Prospero as Beckett is to____.
- Molloy
22) The hot babe in the desert in The Alchemist is whom?
- Fatima
23) Emerald Tablet, Elixir of Life, Philosopher's Stone (potentially the Emerald City)
24) Who else is on the boat with Mussert? (Which one of the people is missing from the list)
- pilot
- priest
- child
- teacher
- journalist
- academic
25) What language was the Alchemist originally written in?
- Portuguese
26) What is the Anima Mundi
- the Soul of the World
27) What two colors of the rose symbolize Alchemy?
- red
- white
28) What word in the Tempest is repeated more than any other?
- now
29) What game does Miranda and Ferdinand play at the end of the Tempest?
- Chess
30) What profession was Herbert Mussert?
- Classics Professor
31)According to Dr. Sexson, who do Miranda's nine attendants represent?
- The Muses
32) What Latin word does Mussert translate into time?
- dies
33) Exceptions to the rule of popular books being associated with low brow?
- Shakespeare
- The Bible
34) How long is the Following Story?
- two seconds
35) Who is in the leaves/apple tree in the Four Quartets?
- children
36) Phaethon drives fathers chariot.
- Enacted by Mussert
37) Mussert says "the world is a never ending ________"?
- cross reference
38) Release me from these bands with the help of your good hands.
- applause
Monday, April 5, 2010
Apologies & Class Notes!
My smartpen died in class. I forgot to charge it, my apologies.
Wednesday, Jenny Lynn will be taking blackboard notes for the Friday test. Bring questions!
Next week we will be beginning the group presentations!
By Monday blog your thesis statement for your personal paper for class, written on any theme from class or "what I know now that I didn't know before and the difference it makes."
The Following Story pages to view:
1) P. 39 Beetles and rat
2) P. 48-9 Metamorphosis
3) P. 53 Ditto
4) P. 55
5) P. 64 Memory
6) P. 89 Crito/Socrates
7) P. 106
8) P. ? Santiago de Compostela (pilgrimage from The Alchemist as well)
9) P. 98 "The World is a never ending cross reference."
Two parts of The following Story:
Part 1: Dying
Part 2: I'm on a Boat! (couldn't help myself.)
The link from class to The Following Story Blog again.
Memorize passage from The Following Story, the passage that goes; "This is, I believe, it: not the crude anguish of physical death but the incomparable pangs of the mysterious mental maneuver need to pass from one state of being to another.
Easy, you know, does it, son."
Sarah - Mirrors and memory. (Sorry I missed the page)
Douglas, p. 50 tracking tense. "We are a cluster of composite..." (Memorize) The only time that I is used is when the reader is being addressed.
Thomas - Self-loathing, Beckettesque. Nooteboom was actually influenced by Beckett.
The lifetime in a moment, as promised by Dr. Sexson that the 20 minute lifetime would actually be an instant lifetime.
Lisa - silence and storytelling or dream. P. 106 "I know now that I didn't know then"
Experiences are only events until you reflect on them.
P. 89 - Death of Socrates.
Socrates - "Ones life is complete at every moment, therefore don't wait until sunset to take the hemlock, take it now. What do you have to gain?" Similar to Henry V, the death of Fallstaff.
"I owe a cock to Aesculapius."
Wednesday, Jenny Lynn will be taking blackboard notes for the Friday test. Bring questions!
Next week we will be beginning the group presentations!
By Monday blog your thesis statement for your personal paper for class, written on any theme from class or "what I know now that I didn't know before and the difference it makes."
The Following Story pages to view:
1) P. 39 Beetles and rat
2) P. 48-9 Metamorphosis
3) P. 53 Ditto
4) P. 55
5) P. 64 Memory
6) P. 89 Crito/Socrates
7) P. 106
8) P. ? Santiago de Compostela (pilgrimage from The Alchemist as well)
9) P. 98 "The World is a never ending cross reference."
Two parts of The following Story:
Part 1: Dying
Part 2: I'm on a Boat! (couldn't help myself.)
The link from class to The Following Story Blog again.
Memorize passage from The Following Story, the passage that goes; "This is, I believe, it: not the crude anguish of physical death but the incomparable pangs of the mysterious mental maneuver need to pass from one state of being to another.
Easy, you know, does it, son."
Sarah - Mirrors and memory. (Sorry I missed the page)
Douglas, p. 50 tracking tense. "We are a cluster of composite..." (Memorize) The only time that I is used is when the reader is being addressed.
Thomas - Self-loathing, Beckettesque. Nooteboom was actually influenced by Beckett.
The lifetime in a moment, as promised by Dr. Sexson that the 20 minute lifetime would actually be an instant lifetime.
Lisa - silence and storytelling or dream. P. 106 "I know now that I didn't know then"
Experiences are only events until you reflect on them.
P. 89 - Death of Socrates.
Socrates - "Ones life is complete at every moment, therefore don't wait until sunset to take the hemlock, take it now. What do you have to gain?" Similar to Henry V, the death of Fallstaff.
"I owe a cock to Aesculapius."
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
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