Falling through the universe

After reading "my" brief essay about "The Dead" in the book that Dr. Sexson loaned out to me I am proud to say that our class is very badass. While the professional Loomis decifered very important aspects of the story, we found and highlighted many more important "daimonds" than he did and without too much repitition as well; however, I would like to take a moment to include just one more thought from Loomis's essay that will bring together much of what we are talking about into one symbolic image: The Snowflake. Dr. Sexson mentioned in class the notion of a wheel(or a "whirlpool" as C.C. Loomis puts it) and how all the spokes lead to one central point. To our benefit an upside-down Freudian iceberg was illustrated to show us the progression to epiphanies. Cleverly enough, Joyce decided to stay away from such presumptuous psycoanalytic babble and use a beautiful snowflake instead. As you can see the snowflake is close to that of a wheel with spokes and a point of still-connection, and is arguably the prettiest aesthetic symbol in the entire story. As such, the snowflake had many symbolic functions one of which has to do with creation. In order for a snowflake to form, lots of water molecules must be frozen together. Being frozen in "Ah" is one way in which we described the experience of an epiphanic moment. Also, many thoughts and emotions must come together to create our frozen moment, thus we have the molecules of the snowflake. Next, there is the idea that of Eliot's description of "faring forward, not farewell". Gabrial is not faring well in his precarious evening of egotism, but he is faring forward (I will explain further on Friday about this particular thought). Most importantly though, is the concept of impermance that resonates with a snowflake. So much can be experienced so quickly and just as soon as we have our epiphany... it has faded into the background. Just like a snowflake blows away or explodes on our windshields leaving only dripping water, the beauty itself is gone. What's more is the connection between the snowflake and Gretta's emotions are both fleeting moments in time, and yet, both are able to cause such dramatic changes in Gabrial (and through Gabrial on to the reader). Loomis points out the grand relationship that both man and snowflake share, which is: a "vision [that] progressess toward the ultimate image of the snow falling through the universe".