Finnegans Dialect on the Burg Skern

I was jerst watching Snatched with Brad Pitt and the Pikey's. Erf we could only get Brad ter come

inter class and read Finnegans Wake for us, I think everything would be clear as crystal and no

questions would have to be arsked about the dialect or meaning of each individual word. I'm sure 

a good lot of ye have seen this movie and know the scene veerrry well. If ye havernt just sit back 

and enjoy the marny talents es well es good lurks of Mr. Pitt in arction.

Ye lek degs?

why yes I do!

~L.

Page 199

So instead of choosing the page number by randomly opening the novel, I asked an important person from my past to pick a number between 3 and 628 for me. I gave him no more details and just had him give me a number. "199, because I was just thinking about how dope Travis Pastrama's number is!" Not so epiphanic, but still he got the assignment done for me. I figured I would let someone who was so influential in my life pick the page that I am supposed to find myself, as well as probably him and the rest of the influential people, on. I've read the page over 3 times, and so far I am confused on life.

Iffy Talk

it's like this, and it's like that. in fact it's just how you like it. I type there for i am? or is the fact that i type no part of who i am? capital letters are breezed over in my motion, it's just how i learned. What is Iff supposed to write like? I'm not Iff i do not know what to say, how to say it, or when to say it. I guess it's one of those stream of conscious deals right? OR am i wrong? I look down at my phone to check a text, there's a dog hair inside my screen! Inside my screen? How on earth did it get there? It's for sure a Slinky hair, black and skinny, with a little wave to it. Slinky, how she has grown from the time I picked her up in Mammoth May 12th, 2005, my brothers 25th birthday. I'll be twenty-five this year too! what are the chances? 1 in 3, that's right! The text message says nothing, literally is just a blank message. Who sends blank messages...oh wait it's from my father. A fat finger slip I'm guessing. Yes, here's the next text..."Fat fingers. Sorry. Rain here, big mud slide, houses are evacuated. Snow there? Brrrrr stay warm!" sent from Papa.

The evacuation station...the station fire...

My house, my childhood home, threatened by fires no more than 6 months ago, on my 24th birthday actually. Weird, and now, now there are mud slids threatening to take my home down in the rain. What more could happen. La Crescenta, the only one in the world, the balcony to Southern California. My......... home, sweet home.

A Lifetime in One Moment

January 8th 2007, the day after my accident. The day the Earth stood still for me at least. I guess to tell you my lifetime moment I should give a short and sweet background. I was living in Reno at the time. Working at a Retirement Home and had a handful of season passes to the different mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe.

It snowed a few inches the day of January 6th, I got work off for January 7th to go ride at Northstar. I rode the day away. Then on the last run of my day, but not the last run I wanted my day to end on, I was hit. I was hit and flipped and broken, by some crazy Raiders fan from Oakland, CA. But i didn't know it. I had no idea what had happen to me.

Flash forward.

January 8th, 2007. I walk into work. But I was not scheduled for work. The nurse at the retirement home sees me walking around and asks me about my day snowboarding. "I haven't been yet, I'm supposed to go tomorrow." I was convinced that I hadn't been to Northstar, and that the day was Thursday not Saturday. I lost an entire day of my life without even knowing it!

So the moment of a lifetime came when I was strapped to a hospital gurney with my body completely immobilized, and a shot of morphine running through my veins. I had just gotten out of the CAT scan room where they had taken pictures of my brain. I over hear Mr. MD say,

"Her brain seems to be swelling, we might need to open her up and give the brain some room."
At that moment, I had the most surreal feeling flood my body. Words cannot explain. Tears began to stream down my face, no sound came with the tears, simply tears, tears, and more tears.

"What's wrong dear?" The nurse asked ever so politely. Silence, I had no words, I had only thoughts. Tears kept pouring out of my eyes. I couldn't stop them.

Finally, with my head stationary, and my mind focused on the one sentence I never thought I would truly ask another person, I asked the nurse, "Am I gonna die?" Her eyes widened and her mouth fell slightly open. I would hope that her training, she would have come across a book of questions like mine, and how to address the person behind the question.

"Don't you worry, you need to rest."

THAT'S IT! That's all that lady has to say to me! You need to rest! Well obviously I need to, and my body can't do much but rest when it's strapped to a wood-plank and a halo is placed around my head, with a shot of morphine forcing me to relax! The tears kept flowing. I was all alone, there was no one, no one to experience the inner thoughts, no one to pull those thoughts out of me. I was trapped, in the hospital and in my mind.

After what seemed like a lifetime and more, Mr. MD came in to talk about what was happening with me. My brain though it was swollen from the impact of hitting the front and back of my skull a number of times, had stopped, and there was just enough room to not have to saw my head open, exposing all my thoughts to the toxic air floating around that wretched hospital. I was held for a while longer, then sent home to enjoy my life.

Turns out they were so concerned with my brain, they forgot to check the point of contact, my back had been fractured. Needless to say I have not been back to that same hospital since. One lifetime moment was good enough for me. I was treated for my back, and now I have nightmares of Swollen Brains in Raiders Jackets flying down the mountain straight for me.

~L.

The Looking-Glass of Haroun

http://www.poetry-archive.com/c/the_walrus_and_the_carpenter.html

A link to the poem Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll

A few semesters ago I took Oral Traditions with Dr. Sexson.  In that class we travelled through portals into new worlds with Lewis Carroll as our tour guide.  We went from one place in our memory theaters to another.  Our minds were open to the Doors of Perception and our thoughts blossomed with each portal we came across.  

And today I have found yet another portal while sitting on my couch reading Haroun and the Sea of Stories.  It would only make sense that in the Sea of Stories there would be some connection to the creator of portals in the literally world, Lewis Carroll.  His classic tale of Alice finding herself in the world of Wonderland, and venturing off into another de-mention has somehow found herself on the pages of this entertaining novel.  

As well, I know there is that connection to the Beatles song "I am the Walrus" and yes it is one of those lines that can open more than one door into your mind.  By one simple line I have now found myself in two worlds created by two separate units, and still have a thread that runs through both worlds as well as Haroun's world that eventually leads me right back to where I started from, thus completing the story of the Walrus and Haroun.

When pieces of literature come together, and create a spider web of imagination there seems to be no higher feeling in me.  I connect the low to the high and high to the low, and here is another connection for me to show.  haha well I can only imagine the other connections and portals that will be opened as this book unfolds.  

~L.

Musically Inside Haroun

Aaite all you music lovers out there. Haroun and the Sea of Stories has so many great lines in it that takes me back to times past, and takes me to places I will see in the future.  But one of my favorite songs ever has been quoted in this book, and though the line is a popular line and this low or highbrow story is no exception to the cliche one liners I hope some of you might have picked up on the line on page 70.  If not then venture to the end of this blog and you'll see the line, but first watch the video and see if you hear poetics, it not only is throughout this entire song but it's the last line of the song. (p.s. the lyrics are there too, so for all you readers :-) get your read on and jam out to the classic stylings of one of the greatest trio groups every to grace the Earth, The Fugees: Vocab.

Vocab

Yo, this is the Fugees
Refugees
About to take you on a journey
Into the dimensions of The Booga Basement
The Basement, word
Uhh

Hey yo, one two three! The crew is called Re-Fu-Ge-ee-es
An if yu come fa tes the rap stylee
Stop the violence and just bring it on, wiiild

Hey yo I, feel kind of melancholy people think they really know me
I keep a wrap about me while I'm driving daddy's Audi
I pay the toll fighting for my own soul
Cause the bourgeoise type of mental sucks like a flat comb
But I be baitin the rebel base to bass distort the EQ
The devil's wishin they could send me back to Mogadishu
Cause I've been wild since I was a juvenile
Afro-centric profile, back when righteous rap was your style
Now kids are whylin so I ask the bad black
Boogie bandit, what's the damage, gimme the estimate then
pray tell me when's the revolution will begin?
I turn on my TV I check out Farrakhan on CNN see
I'm like the phantom that's flying like the bird do
And things you never heard plus I come from the suburbs
Word to God, I heard you're acting kind of hard
And you got your skin scarred when they was shootin on the boulevard

(You got the vocab) I got the vocab
(Underground got the vocab) You know we got the vocab
(All my peeps got the vocab) Yeah, we got the vocab
[Lauryn] Aiyyo Praz, grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab

Then cast off from here to Mexico
You see my four-five-six a-be my Celo
And when I rest my head is on a pillow
Be-ba-dee-be, be-dee-be, be-dee-be-bo
You see the skills I manifest is very tho-rough
And if you don't believe me ask Freres Ja-cques
Mmmm, Freres Jacques, Freres Jacques
A dorme vous? A dorme vous?
WATCH OUT NOW! When I choose to speak
I'm forming the cipher fly East to the Five Percenter
Knowledge is born, to all beginners
Cast the first stone, if you feel you ain't a sinner, ahh
Say o-ur father, who art in heaven
Forgive the foolish rapper for he not know how Fugee be steppin
Correct and, stopped and kept in, nuff respect to the
DJ, that be selectin, the type of record ahhh

(You got the vocab) I got the vocab
(The click's got the vocab) You know they got vocab
(Brooklyn got the vocab) We got the vocab
[Lauryn] Aiyyo Clef grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab

Check it out, here we go
Back in Eighty-TREE, no one wanted to be NAPPY
I turn on my TV, it's a dreadlock for FREE
Kill the gimmick
It's nonsense, it's no sense or value
a rapper, disaster, nobody ever told me that
"Roxanne, you don't got to work for money no more!!"... and...
Back in the days I used to listen to Kool G Rap
Way back when before guns became gats and
Run-D.M.C. used to ask Mary was she buggin?
I loved P.E., they kept me concious of what I was saying
Afrika Bambaata, Poor Righteous Teacher
Got within myself so it made me a Five Percenter
Say La-Di-Da-Di, UHH! we like to party but
my jam was BDP, with My Philosophy
Say Grandmaster Flash, MC Melle Mel
Then LL Cool J came with Rock the Bells!
See I'm the one for the crew, like a Jew is a Jew
Like Apollo got the moon, like the men who got the blue
Like the Fu got the Manchu, Chaka got the Zulu
Hawaii got the Honolulu
I got the rap lieu, so skippedy-de-bop-bop you don't stop
You do the rock-rock from hip-hop through be-bop
from be-bop to bee-bee

(You got the vocab) I got the vocab
(Boogie Down got the vocab) You know they got the vocab
(Black people got the vocab) Word, we got the vocab
[Lauryn] Aiyyo peeps, grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab

(You got the vocab) Yeahh, we got the vocab
(Queens got the vocab) You know y'all got the vocab
(Uptown got the vocab) Yeahh, they got the vocab
[Lauryn] Aiyyo, bros grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab

(DC got the vocab) Word, y'all got the vocab
(Virginia got the vocab) Aiyy, I know y'all got the vocab
(Oakland got the vocab) Word, they got the vocab
[Lauryn] Aiyyo, sisters grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab

"Haroun sat astride Butt the Hoopoe and started at the bottle in his hand.  Just one sip, and he could regain for his father the lost Gift of the Gab!" --Rushdie (pg. 70).

Everyone has it, we have to look for that gab that is a gift to all of us.  I don't know what it is but every time I hear the line "gift of gab" I have to think of the deepest, darkest, inner workings of our minds and the lines that come out with effortless ease.  We pass over lines in books that we think means nothing to us, but another reads the same line and finds an endless wealth of knowledge and connections.  There is nothing more than a book that can connect to your soul, and reference the things most near and dear to your soul.  Though writers are not aware of the connections to the millions of readers they have, they know that connections lye much deeper than the individual.  It is a blend of spirit and soul, and I for sure have connected with this book not only for the line that reminds me of heartfelt meaningful music, but for the multiple connections that I have skipped over but others have connected with. Connect not only with your relationship to this book, but connect to the relationship that others are having with this book. 

ooo la la la, music is all we need to connect us to another de-mention and another high or lowbrow genera that we have yet to discover and experience.  

~L.

English Majors, the Odd Stepchild

Lowbrow is to Highbrow as Popular is to obscure.
Lowbrow : Highbrow :: Popular : Obscure.



Lowbrow is everything we all want to see, and have seen, as well as the trashy/cheesy stuff we have seen, and wish we hadn't seen, but have seen it because everyone else has seen it, and we want to be somewhat in that loop of lowbrowness.

Whereas highbrow could be all that stuff we desire to know about, but can't seem to find it on our radar because it is so obscure and so underplayed that no one not even Professor Sexson knows about. Now who am I kidding when I say that Professor Sexson doesn't know something. He is the low and the highbrow of MSU.

As English majors we look for the highbrow because it makes us well versed in literature. We look for the odd stepchild book because we too feel as though we are that stepchild in a sea of Business, Psychology, Engineering, and Agriculture majors. We need the obscure and the less known to define our individuality. But we also look for the lowbrow, because if we want to succeed we must be up to date with what is new and exciting, as well as classic and a must read. English majors, we have the most diverse major of all! We have the whole world in our hands! Now all we need is to harness our low and highbrows and use them for the good of our fellow literature lovers, bring the obscure into the population and bring the population to the obscure.

~L.

The Beginning

"A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle, and a conclusion" Aristotle wrote in his work Poetics. Does this mean that Finnegans Wake is not a whole? Or does it make the story the ultimate whole to all other stories written? How can a complete book begin in the middle of a sentence and end the same way? I get that it's a complete continuous circle but it is still confusing! Why Joyce. WHY? If Aristotle is right in saying that every whole has a beginning, middle, and end, then this book seems to not be a whole. Perhaps in the next 15 weeks I will discover the whole in which the wake of Finnegan is, and will then have my eyes opened to a structured chaotic world that James Joyce has so kindly put together for us and our reading pleasures.

I had a feeling that before my college career ended I would have to read this chunk of literature for a class, how exciting.

~L.