Laughter in Middle-earth: Humour in and around the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien (2016) edited by Thomas Honegger and Maureen F. Mann

Book review of Laughter in Middle-earth (2016), edited by Thomas Honegger and Maureen F. Man

Bardian, Vol. 20, No. 6 (December 6, 1940)

https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/bardian/1133/thumbnail.jp

Beyond Irony: The Unnamable\u27s Appropriation of Its Critics in a Humorous Reading of the Text

In traditional Beckett criticism, the most conventional interpretation of the narrator\u27s activity in The Unnamable posits that the narrative is attempting to establish his own self-identity, but [h]is search for self-knowledge has failed because it has produced only fiction (Solomon 83). Another variety of this interpretation poses the Unnamable\u27s dilemma in Existential language: Existence affirms merely that something is; essence denotes what it is ... By the time we reach The Unnamable, the collapse of essence is virtually complete; the voice is a mere existence crying out that it exists (Levy 104). As Dennis A. Foster argues in his Lacanian reading of The Unnamable, which includes an evaluation of the critical exegesis surrounding the text, the traditional critic produces and image of narrative authority and then, identifying with that textual authority, (the critic) transfers and assumes the text\u27s struggles as her own interpretative difficulties. In other words, the critic creates in her reading a coherent subjectivity that allows her to find in Beckett\u27s works that the difficulty, even impossibility of telling a story makes his refusal to lapse into a despairing silence only further evidence of his heroic humanity, makes Beckett a paragon of a modernist man (Foster 96)

Using the Hurdy-Gurdy to Create Alternative Musical Scores

The musical work which is described in much of this thesis involves an instrument from Hungary, one that was made for me, called a bass hurdy-gurdy. Professional artists and musicians participated in experiments in three-dimensional musical scoring. These experiments are recounted in detail, including improvisation, jazz, drone, found objects and, of course, extended techniques on the hurdy-gurdy. Whereas musical expression and education normally rely more on traditional ideals such as traditional notation, voice leading, song-form, technique, prestige, and nationalism, this research uses more unusual materials such as found objects, fragments of ideas, humor, unexpected scenes, even tree branches—giving this collection of works a Bohemian and ephemeral kind of sensibility. Musicians were then given a chance towards the end to offer text feedback, all of which is included in this written document. Also included here are my photographs, as well as links to how it sounded. Presented here are lesserknown methods of composition that will be thought of as: alternate musical scoring