We are to read The Dead for discussion on Friday. One of the things that it would probably behoove us to do is to consider how Joyce got from the stories in Dubliners(the style of which he described as characterized by "scrupulous meanness") to Finnegans Wake, which is may be scrupulous as well(but sure as hell doesn't seem like it)and might make an unsuspecting reader think that the writer is mean for having written gibberish to be deciphered. But how did it happen, and is there a difference really? And I have got to say that Jennie Lynn reciting the last few pages of Finnegans Wake was extraordinarily impressive, and that it was really rather beautiful. As though it becomes like music rather than words and you don't care if it makes sense anymore and just listen to how it sounds.

And I do have to say that I rather like that the motto for MSU comes from a poem of epiphanic despair(No Worst, There is None) written by a depressive Jesuit priest and lyric poet.