1. Professor Fingleheim's first statement: 'Do not think so much and you will understand more' is not contradictory. Why?

Is it because:

a) when the mind is empty, you understand everything?

b) thinking impedes the power of comprehension?

c) by thinking less, the mind is more open to receive deeper impressions?

d) Fingleheim uses 'thinking' in a figurative sense?

e) by thinking less, one uses ones eyes more?

Discuss what does not apply and justify your choice.

2. His second statement: "Look, look, look, And you will see... !” is not commonplace and unoriginal. Why? Is it because:

a) "Look, look, look" means: each time one looks more deeply, one sees more?

b) Fingleheim says "Look, look, look" in conjunction with “Do not think so much”?

c) He knows that when one looks deeper and deeper one still discovers things and understands things more quickly?

d) He knew that they would think it unoriginal and therefore prove they were wrong in their first impression?

e) Simplicity always confounds complexity and always helps to discover the novelty in things?

Choose what you think is right and justify your answer.

3. When Fingleheim pointed to his ear and asked 'what is this' he knew his students would think : 'It is an ear.'

Why does he want to trap them?

What does he want to prove?

Does he want to prove that:

a) they are cretins?

b) they have not understood?

c) that they do not listen?

d) that they have no imagination?

e) they lack simplicity?

f) that one word cannot circumscribe the reality of something?

g) they should look look look and they will see?

h) they should not think so much and they will understand more?

Justify your choice.

4. By using the figures 6,000 strings, 18,000 musical boxes, Fingleheim shows the magnificent complexity of the human ear. Yet the last figure goes unexplained. Listen to the text again. Listen especially to the music at the end.

a) what does Fingleheim want to say, using this broken progression of numbers?

b) what does the music want to express?

5. Was Fingleheim right or wrong:

a) to bewilder his class.

b) to tell his students not to think

c) to say his ear is a harp

6. At the end of the year, Fingleheim gave his students two riddles:

1. The ear is an organ and at the same time a harp

1. how can a harp be an organ?

2. how can an organ be a harp?

2. The eye is organ and at the same time a lens.

1. how can a lens be an organ?

2. how can a lens be a light?

3. how many lights are there in your lens?

4. how many sounds are there in your harp?
   
   
   

Here are some of the answers he received:

Riddle 1

1. when it is an ear,

2. when the ear is seen through a microscope.

Riddle 2

1. when it is an eye

2. when it sees the ear as a harp and the eye as a lens

3. there are as many lights in my lens as there are sound in my harp.
   
   
   

What do you think of these answers?

6. Consider attentively Fingleheim's riddles and the students' answers. Then, using images, metaphors and comparisons, how would you (think Fingleheim would) present:

a. a big toe

b. the human brain

c. hair

d. the human heart

e. the mind

f. teeth

Justify your comparison.

For instance:

1. The brain is what ticks like a clock and fills the space between the ears.

2. The heart is an exploding sun but also a pump

3. The mind is a search-light or a sword