So, I should have been useful today, but I wasn't. I went home and watched Finding Forrester. FANTASTIC movie, by the way. It's about a 16 year old boy from the Bronx who secretly likes writing, who accidentally meets an old, crotchety writer (Sean Connery) who helps him to improve his writing and his life.
So it's an wonderful, inspiring, and often funny movie. But in one shot, they were showing a huge stack of books in this sixteen year old's room. There were a lot of classic authors, hard books--but one of the books they showed was Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce.
My British Literature class read an excerpt, a brief excerpt from that book. Everyone struggled with it, and the teacher even confessed that he's never really delved into Joyce. Joyce is obstinately difficult, but Finnegans Wake is by far his craziest and most dense writing.
I don't care how smart the kid was, I don't even believe one in a million sixteen year olds could get through that book.
I know it's just a movie, but it's frustrating when teenagers that young are portrayed as smarter than all the college students I know. Then again, perhaps I'm just below average :P I know I'm a bit of a sham of an english major. I wish there were such a thing as a fantasy major! I'd be in my element then!
If you want to hear just how crazy Finnegans Wake is, click here.
