Hey, you got anything to say on the subject matter of the video, or is it all this new age ‘I’ve got an opinion and I’m entitled to it no matter how little experience I have of life or reflection I’ve put into whatever the teacher told me I have to read?’

“Critical but specific?” Specific about what, may I ask?

What do you have to say about Joyce, Case? Have any thoughts on the subject? Or is it the old Homer parallel business the professor in front of the room droned on about? Or is Joyce beyond you? Have you read any Joseph Campbell, anything at all actually that relates to our life right here and right now, as Joyce actually does.

Too much me? There has to be more me, and more you too if you ever get around to actually formulating a thought of your own on the subject besides “you’re so mean” and “that’s not fair!”

Life moves on, and life is really what I’m pointing at with this stuff. Taking Joyce off his pedestal and back where he belongs, down in the street and walking the fields with you and me and anyone else who’s willing and able enough to truly go it on their own.

“Art… is the very central expression of life. An artist is not a fellow who dangles a mechanical heaven before the public. The priest does that. The artist affirms out of the fulness of his own life, he creates…” Thus saith Stephen Dedalus in Stephen Hero, but of course who has read that? It’s not part of the cannon, not taught in school.

This place isn’t for everyone, Case. I’ve been honest and open about that. It’s not for the spoonfed, not for those who’ve sat in a classroom in order to get the credits and the degree. It’s for those beyond that, out the other side and still curious. I’m talking a curiosity like hunger.

More and more I realize that’s not the age we live in now, and I’m alright with that. But here at the Cafe at any rate that sort of ethos still applies. It’s like a Zen master smacking an obtuse would be student with his staff. He’s saying, with action more than words, “wake up you silly little fool, listen deeply and there might be something beneath the surface worth hearing, if you’re up to it that is.”