Finnegans Wake

During last Tuesday's class I was completely enchanted with the way Professor Sexson had recited parts of Finnegans Wake to the class, and found myself craving more. Though I was too tired to tackle reading it myself, I found a recording of Finnegans Wake being read on Youtube, and sat down for a listen. I quickly became almost entranced with the words, and taking the advice that had been offered in class I did not attempt to make sense, but rather let the words lap over me softly like a piece of music. In the way that a mother reads to a child, I put myself in the position of the child; listening to the story halfheartedly while I focused more on the soothing and melodic pulse of my new Youtube mother's voice.

It was comforting in class to be told to "not get distracted by sense". I recently took a Victorian poetry course whilst studying abroad in Istanbul, Turkey. One of the assignments given by the professor was to analyze and interpret The Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll. This poem was particularly fun to look at, seeing as I have had it memorized for as long as I can remember and have fond memories associated with this beautiful piece of nonsense. The reaction of the rest of the students was a much less pleasant one consisting of frustration, and one student actually being brought to tears. I can see how troubling this type of literature might be, especially for a non-native English speaker, and this could have been remedied by the professor offering the same advice as Professor Sexson offered while looking at Finnegans Wake. Sometimes it is more important to look beyond sense and view these types of works more in the category of music.