The Last Word, Part II

No, with the last post I hadn't fallen asleep on the keyboard. That very long "word" was used by James Joyce in what is possibly the most important work of literature, not just of the 20th century, but of all time. That horrific string of letters was meant to represent the demonic sounds that must have been present when Adam and Eve fell from grace in defiance of God's word.


There are few authors who have attempted anything as monumental as what Joyce did in Finnegan's Wake, a nearly impossible read that completely eliminates any boundaries of what we expect from a novel. It is written in a stream-of-consciouness form that more closely resembles real life than what we are used to. Think about it. Listen to the world around you. Does your life follow the very organized pattern of a book, or does each new moment take you to another unexpected adventure? As a listening assignment, one that again focuses on detail, take the time to actually listen to people's conversations. Make note of how many incomplete sentences you hear, how many unfinished thoughts and points, how incoherent much of what is said is. People will start a conversation on one topic, change the focus in the middle, forget what they were saying and remember an hour later. And that's how FW was written.

In addition, the concept of time is also missing. One day blurs into the next. The novel starts out in the morning, moves to yesterday, followed by a week from Wednesday. Nothing is linear. It is a truly encompassing work that we in both the 11th and 12th grade classes will attempt only in the most abbreviated way. We'll look at a few passages and try to obtain but a glimmer of the author's intent.

These last few posts are merely meant to change the way that you read and think. Get over things, novels, poems and your writing being linear. Good writing rarely starts at the beginning moving methodically to the end. That is not the way that life happens. Time is curved. Yesterday may not happen until tomorrow. Don't think that you missed something just because you don't understand it. Truly understanding literature and life is something that will constantly slip through your fingers, like time will (blink three times and you'll be old like me). But when something ends there is a new beginning. Your new beginnings start now and tomorrow and next week and yes, even after you blink three times.

Good luck in all your endeavors, I have confidence and great pride in all of you. Happy Holidays. This website will now begin to focus again on the AP courses for 2005. Feel free to join us, otherwise, see you in 2006!