Class Notes 2/5

Lecture Notes

Skin of Our Teeth is middlebrow, it won a Pulitzer Prize. It doesn't have the complexity of Finnegans Wake. Wilder was trying to make a Finnegans Wake version for the masses.
Campbell's Letter: message in a bottle. The letter in the bottle, Mrs. Antrobus's bottle, perhaps Finnegans Wake? Page 85 of the play, "Before I go I have a letter....I have a message..."
Campbell was impressed by the letter.

By the way, while reading The Skin of Our Teeth there were some lines that may have sounded familiar to us, like on page 104 Sabina says, "You'll die when you hear," and on page 196 of Finnegans Wake the washerwoman says, "You'll die when you hear." What are the chances that page 196 of FW is the page we will be looking at on Monday the 15th at the Bacchus at 7:30?!

Read Sarah's Blog: Listlessness

We looked at Umberto Eco's book, The Infinity of Lists. FW was in there a guess what pages were quoted??? Started with page 196 a list of places, rivers!!! What are the chances now?! Page 196. Almost serendipitous. I suppose we have to make some 'mysterious mental maneuver' to appreciate lists and the ordinary everyday things.

James the Rat found a good list in Finnegans Wake page 433.

March 12!! Deadline. Have your FW passage memorized so you can recite it without thinking about it.

We see now some blogs are getting some style with the Water Genie excess style. Keep it up.

Rabelais - Medieval Monk - reminds us of James Joyce
Wikipedia: François Rabelais (c. 1494 – April 9, 1553) was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor and Renaissance humanist. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, and both bawdy jokes and songs.

**The greatest list ever?! in Frog and Toad Together - a list of things to do today, Dr. Sexson's daughter reminded him of this. There is a post modern twist in the book. Here's a youtube clip for fun with the list (however it is not quite on par with Dr. Sexson's reading, maybe there is just something good and comforting about being read to.):