Tuesday, September 5, 2017

1st reading of Finnegans Wake - Completed 9/5/2017

Today I completed a 48 year goal - to read Finnegans Wake by James Joyce!

I have to say that this gave me a feeling like none other. As I read the final pages (the all-encompassing soliloquy of Anna Livia Plurabelle), a sense of great well-being came over me, a sense of the connectedness of all things - as trite as that may sound,  It seemed that I was ideally located in time and having a wonderful life with a wonderful wife and a wonderful family.  I felt really, really good.

The book, being absorbed with cycles has me contemplating my next passes through Finnegans Wake. I feel now that I have a nominal sense of the book, how to approach it, how to read it and mainly, how to enjoy it as a phenomenon of reading pleasure (on many levels).

My next move will be to listen through the book on Audible.com free trial (it is available there.)
Beyond that, I now have favorite parts and chapters to revisit at will.

Happy day!

Also, I finished 10 days ahead of my schedule and just in time for my start back to school tomorrow (two advanced poetry classes.)


Sunday, August 27, 2017

some meditations on page 555

This is the first page of the last chapter in book 3; the last chapter before the final, fourth book of the Wake.

It occurred to me as I read and re-read this page, my head filling with ideas and musings prompted by the words of the page, their lay-out and their brilliance that each page or each passage of Finnegans Wake is like a work of art, or poem to itself. Each passage benefits from rereading, analysis and enjoyment of the text's poetry, music and sheer depth.

This again brings me to what is so stunning about the book.  I have long thought of writing a long, integrated, single poem book, but what chance to I have to write something so wonderful as this?  It's a novel, a work of art, a poem, dream-literature, commentary on all of history and many more things. Its just overwhelming and seems IMPOSSIBLE.  Joyce's dogged persistence in his art is quite amazing to me, more and more as I proceed.  And I know, I will need to read it more and more, again and again to fully appreciate the Big Picture.

Friday, August 25, 2017

I found it! My favorite word in all of Finnegans Wake

Page 542

"interquackeringly"


"Sapphrageta and Consciencia were undecidedly attached to me but the maugher machrees and the auntieparthenopes my schwalby words with litted spongelets set their soakeye pokeys and botchbons afume: Fletcher-Flemmings, elisaboth, how interquackingly they rogated me, their golden one, I hesitant made replique: Mesdemdes to leursieuresponsor; and who in hillsaide, don't let flyfire till you see their whites of the bunkers eyes!"

I believe that this is HCE going on about his "indiscretion" in the park, addressing the intolerable four old judges.

interquackeringly is a disassembled and reassembled word, being the word "interrogated" with the "rogated" split off and placed two words later.  "Inter" is conjoined with "quackingly", giving the girls interrogating him the sense of a poultry flock.  Very crazy.

Saturday, August 19, 2017

pages 474 - 500 Book 3, Chapter 3

The four judges rip into Shaun / HCE, taking turns making very strange pronouncements as HCE goes to sleep / dies / enters a dream (take your pick)

Now that I am view of the end of FW, I am getting that vanishing point phenomenon. The more I read, the farther off the end seems.  I am down to the last 162 pages, I guess it is.  Its like the old saw from IT Project Management: "The last 10% of the project takes 90% of the time."   I am feeling that for sure.

On the plus side, the reading is still quite amazing.

From page 453:

"I'll make ye all an easter hummingsphere of myself the moment that you name the way."

"the rest of your blatherumskite"

"do you want trippings for when you've Paris inspire your hat?"

"communionistically"

"Deck the diamants that never die!"

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

end of book 3, chapter 2 164-274

We say a long goodbye to Jaun, sending him verbosely, musically out into night becoming day in Dublin.  This follows his sermonising and leave-taking.  Metaphorically, I guess, he is dying, it was his wake, too and that's it for him.

This chapter was very mellifluous with many gigantic run on sentences, some encompassing two pages and more, of Irish gab.

On we continue!

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Positive Benefits of Finnegans Wake pages 254 -264

continuing on mainly in soliloquy, first person, Jaun / Juan? lecturing of the young ladies

Some reflections on Finnegans Wake in general:

I note that my reading acuity and analytic ability has improved by the reading of Finnegans Wake. It requires such focus and be-here-now-ness that I think it has generally improved my ability to interpret and consume text.

When I now read other works, such as poetry and other novels, essays and articles, my comprehension is much improved by the improved focus that I have developed.  I can easily concentrate, uninterruptedly through pages of a text without diversion.  I have improved my acuity by reading the Wake.

FW requires you to attend to every word and not to assimilate general meaning from context.  Since nearly each word in the text is altered artistically in some way, one has to consider the words one-by-one and not as simply part of a sentence or clause.  In order to do justice to Joyce's work requires you to relearn how to read.  No more of that speed reading scanning.  Read-interpret, read-interpret, .... assimilate.  Its very different from immediate apprehension.

FW also requests of you a higher form of interpretation than most texts.  One needs to consider the current word on many levels - literal, narrative, historical, novel-context, dream vs. waking, mythical context, theoretical context (e.g. Vico, etc).   To read it, you have to adjust your mental focus across all of time and literature. Wow.

So, other texts, when consumed simultaneously, seem quite 'transparent' to use an au courant term.

Friday, August 11, 2017

Chapter 2, Book 3 p. 429 to 454 In which we enter first person

So here we have a first person narrative (for the first time, I think). It seems to slide between "Jaunty Jaun"  (a combination of Shem and Shaun?) and Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, but is indeed first person until there seems to be a re-institution of 3rd person on page 454.

The flow of the monolog is quite traversible to me, back into the barroom 'gift of gab' Irish musical monolog which travels from thought to thought, elaborating colorfully the thoughts (in dream) of the narrator, who is lecturing some young ladies on behavior in a very multivariate fashion.  Mind-boggling?  Yes, quite.

page 130

.........now you, Jaun, asking kindily (hillo, missies!) after there howareyous at all with those of their dolly-begs (and where's Agatha's lamb? and how are Bernadetta's columbillas? and Juliennaw's tubberbunnies? and Eulalina's nuggerfunnies?) he next went on (finefeelingfit!) to drop a few stray remarks anent their personal appearances and the contrary tastes displayed in the tight kittycasques and their smart fricky-frockies, asking coy after slow one had she rea Irish legginds and gently reproving one that the ham of her hom could seen below her hem and whispering aside, as lavariant, that the hook of her hum was open a bittock at her back to have a sideeye to that, hom, (and all of course just to fill up a form out of pure human kindness an in a sprite of fun) for Jaun, by the way, was by the way of becoming (I think, I hope he was) the most purely human being that ever was called man, loving all up and down creation...........

We begin to worry about the author's and Jaun's intentions with the young ladies and about the paternalistic, unhealthy sexual viewpoint underlying.  This echoes the previous accounts of HCE's transgressions with young girls in the park, that landed him in court.

This passage on 441 caught my eye

La Dreeping! Die Droopink! The inimitable in puresuet of the inevitable! There is nothing to touch it, we are taucht, unless she'd care for a mouthpull of white pudding for the wih is on here rose marine and the lunchlight in her eye, so when you pet the rollingpin write my name on the pie.

and this on page 442 is just great:

(if I came any quicker I'll be right back before I left)

There's much more great stuff in this passage, but I will leave it at that.  I will enjoy revisiting all of this.  Very fluid, yet confounding.

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Book 3 Chapter 1 422 - 428 Good stuff!

I addressed the morning and early afternoon Foggily, editing poetry and absorbing more insane political aFnd baseball news. My little dogs laughed not to see such disport, but I did prepare a dish with a spoon for a crock pot pork chop extravaganza.

However, when I emerged from my personal murk, I went to Starbucks (the one in Flemington is such an entitled shit-hole, but oh well) and read the above 6 pages of the Wake.  Oh, joyous day!

Mainly, in this section, Shaun is excoriating Shem and its really good.  What really got me started was the inclusion of yet another 100 letter word (all of these denoting Thunder, Finnegans fall from the ladder and many other things:

"Ullhodturdenweirmudgaardgringnirurdrmolnirfenrirlukkilokkibaughimandodrrerin-surtkirinmgernrackinarockar!"

Later on we get this bit ( which addresses some turf I have been tending in my poetry )

"And the stellas were shinings. And the earthlight strewed aromatose. His pibrook creppt mong the donkness. A reek was waft on the luftstream.  He was ours, all fragrance. And we were his for a lifetime. O dulcid dreamings languidinous! Taboccoo!"

Amazing.

The chapter ends with a page long Irish blessing that rambles on and on.

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Book III, Chapter 1 pages 403 to 422

Shaun has a dialog with (I think) either "the People" or with an Incubus - maybe both.  And he holds forth on a variety of subjects, including an Aesop's Fable - the Ant and the Grasshopper.  This fable is elaborated very humorously (and I do mean elaborated.  

This chapter seems to be playing out in real time, not throughout all of history at once and in a fairly straightforward manner, as a dialog.  Shaun is asked questions and he answers them.

There's a lot of funny quotes, like "In the name of the former and of the latter and of their holocaust. Allmen"

Shaun is questioned about the letters and he dissembles. About this time, Shem shows up and they begin to dispute.

The language of this chapter, so far is fairly legible as it is all spoken and it doesn't go into a lot of diversions, diatribes and descriptions - it is relatively easy to follow and not get absolutely lost.

Friday, July 28, 2017

Finnegans Wake - the perfect pool book pp.339-370

This section, comprising another dialog, this time between Butt and Taff, is really thoroughly challenging and engrossing. I found that it was best read in solitude at the swimming pool on a very quiet afternoon, so that I could heads-down read aloud in my faux Irish accent with 100% concentration.

Although this is supposed to be one of the easier chapters, it isn't. It requires complete concentration to decipher the descriptions of Butt and Taff before each of them speaks and the utterances of the two.  This section you just have to ride along on.  I feel that I really need to read it again, probably a couple more times.

We are situated here in HCE's pub, listening to the dialogue, a dispute between the two brothers and some extensive, mellifluous description.

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Pages 332 - 338 chap 10 - focusing on p 332

So now, by way of personal autobiography, I'm a person who is lost (geographically) wherever it is that I am.  Sitting here at home, I really can't say offhand which way is North, South, East or West. Often, walking in my neighborhood, I  become disoriented as to direction.  This is a constant with me. I used to find new places by approaching in narrowing circles, continuing to observe till I came to the place I was seeking.

I have found an analog in Finnegans Wake. In it, I am always lost.  "Where am I?"  "Where are we going?"  "What is our destination?"  Each page, chapter and passage presents me with these conundrums.  I was just experiencing this on page 332.  I read over it, totally lost, then circled back and around several times picking up clues, piecing things together.  (As I say, every page of FW is like this.)  I found that we were again at the point where Finnegan is about to fall from the ladder and the pub is making commentary on him (H. C. Earwicker, the pub owner).

Some of the verbiage from page 332:

a new thunderword:  

Pappappaparrarassannuragheallachnatullaghmonganmacmacmacwhackfalltherdebblenonnonthedubblandaddydoodled

Some interesting other words and phrases from page 332:

gaauspices

plasheous stream

oathmassed fenians

cataraction

"While the cit was leaking asphalt like suburbiaurealis"

"mongan macmacmac whackthredebble non the dubbland addy doodled"

So, it seems to me that I have experienced frequently the following reading patterns with Finnegans Wake, multiple times:

          1. Travelogue (?)  Dwell on and circle around on a page or passage gathering more and more                   from the text as I inspect it.

           2. Read entirely for sound (the musical and sound quality of the text when read).  In this mode,                 content seems totally absent.

           3. Read for narrative - the text pushes the story along (albeit in an abstract fashion)

           4. Read for pure mental exercise - this happens quite a bit. You read along, deciphering word                  by word (some times word internals / phonemes / morphemes one at a time), paragraph at                    time.  This is like puzzle / research mode.  You read along, deciphering all the piece-parts.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Chapter : pages 281 - 298

Okay. Well now I seem to have stumbled across the most difficult (for me) page of the book so far, page 298.

It seems to me highly inscrutable, so I will need to go to the Annotations book and work through a bit at a time.  For instance: "Quicks herit fossyending. Quef! So post that to your pape and smarket!" It then sort of goes downhill from there.

This is reputably one of the more difficult chapters of the book, therefore I would assume, one of the more difficult chapters of all time. I will soldier on.

This page is rather immune, even to reading aloud.  I can only read it very haltingly.  The syntax is all jobbed up.  Very strange.
.

PAGES 309-330 in the Tavern with Humphrey

This section is very humorous with people back in the tavern ragging on HCE.

I have to say, the section from page 326-329 is one run-on sentence that goes on for 3 pages and hundreds of words.

I just want to say how difficult something like this is to achieve with the humor, flair and meaning that Joyce brings to the page. I am continually being buffetted by Joyce in this book with this sort of recurring tour de force.

I keep thinking "THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! HOW DID HE DO THIS?"

Monday, July 10, 2017

Chapter 9, pages 260-280  pertaining to the children's education

So, this chapter focuses in on the medieval idea of education, being the "Trivium" and the "Quadrivium" and on the education of the children from the Children's Hour of the previous chapter.  It generally wanders off into the history of the world, creation and so forth.

The chapter has a "The House that Jack Built" (the repetititive memory-testing nursery rhyme) which shows up in variations throughout the section.

The section, in this regard, echoes Swift again, with the idea of a children's tale, but also in the use of extensive footnotes and annotations in a work of fiction.  This chapter has extensive footnotes throughout and annotates on the left and right margins, Shem commenting in the left margin, Shaun in the right margin.  I wanted to quote one footnote, which illustrates the creative nature of this conceit on Joyce's part. (Nabokov took this too its illogical extreme in his novel "Pale Fire"). Here is the footnote from page 279 of Finnegans Wake - its a real showstopper:

This is approximately one third of the footnote

1. Come, smooth of my slate, to the beat of my blosh! With all these gelded
ewes jilting about and the thrills and ills of laylock blossoms three's so much
more plants than chants for cecilies that I was thinking fairly killing times of
putting an end to myself and my malody, when I remebered all your pupil-
teacher's erringnesses in perfection class. You sh'undn't write you can't if you
w'uld'nt pass for underdevelopmented. This is the propper way to say that, Sr. If
its me chews to swallow all you saidn't you can eat my words for it as sure as .
there is a key in my kiss. Quick errit faciofacey. Whan we will conjugate to-
gether tolosher tomaster tomiss while morrow fans amare hour, verbe de vie,
and verve to vie with love ay loved have I on my back spine and does







Monday, July 3, 2017

Chapter 8 Anna Livia Plurabelle / Washerwomen and Book 1, Chapter 1 - The Children's Hour

Chapter 8 introduces us properly to Anna Livia Plurabelle, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker's female counterpart and analog to Eve, Iseult and other iterations.. A very lyrical opening, more poetic than other sections.  We then segue into dialogues and utterances of washerwomen along the Liffey, with the text changing in accordance with the distance across the river as we proceed downstream.

Book 2 Chapter 1 - introduces children to the novel - they play and talk prior to bedtime. The devil makes an appearance, trying to sway the children.  Some really incredible word invention breaks out on page 251 (as well as throughout).  Some examples:

autamnesically

apophotorejected

thisworlders

liquescing

angelhood

murkery viceheld

lapspan

wishmarks

monitorology

exaspirated                (exasperate + aspirate)

femaline                    (female + feline)

Some good stuff!

on page 254  we find the word  "ricqeracqbrimbillyjicqueryjocqgolicass"  which incorporates sexual intercourse and pregnancy

and then on page 257 we find "Lukkedoerendundandurraskewdlyooshoofermoyportertooryzooysphalnabortansporthaokansakroidverjkapakkapuk"  which includes about 10 ways of saying shut the door (to the devil) in a variety of languages.  Pretty good.

These portmanteau and hybrid words, especially the incredibly long ones are a hallmark of FW and keep the mind engaged on multiple levels throughout.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Chapter 7: Shem the Penman, June 14 Pages 169-195

finally, here we have a chapter that reads somedeal like a Less Unusual piece of novel writing, concerning "Shem the Penman", a shambling and brokedown character who is a writer and we understand to be a stand-in for Joyce.

The chapter starts out with very comical description of Shem and ends with his being regaled by a pair of clerics who run through his life from their point of view.  (at least, this seems to be what is happening.  Along the way we get descriptions of food, etc.

Here's some words for you:

bogoakgravy

foreconsciously

hailcannon

cherubcake

more later


Monday, June 12, 2017

June 12 - end of chapter 6, pages 161-168

Interestingly, a character "Margareen" is described, about which Joyce describes the composition of a piece of music, the composition method, etc.  This women is quested over by the triumvirate of Burrus, Caseous and Antoninus - known to us from Julius Caesar but here rendered synonymously as butter and cheese and Antoninus.  These three zip in and out of the text, unstick from time and perform various deeds throughout the Wake.  In these pages, the final questions and answers of Chapter 6 are answered - the questions and answers equally dense and perambulatory.  "Hm, what was the question again?" I feel myself asking over and over.

This segment continues the discussion of the Dime Cash problem, quite obtusely.  I read that even Campbell et. al. have pondered this topic of this chapter unsuccessfully.

A typically dense passage from this section:

 "   Now, while I am not out now to be taken up as unintention-
ally recommending the Silkebjorg tyrondynamon machine for
the more economical helixtrolysis of these amboadipates until
I can find space to look into it myself a little more closely first
I shall go on with my decisions after haveing shown to you in
good time how both products of our social stomach (the excellent
Dr Burroman, I noticed by the way from his emended food
theory, has been carefully digesting the very wholesome criticism
I helped him to in my princeps edition is all so munch
to the cud) are mutuearly polarised the incompatability of any
delusional acting as ambivalent to the fixation of his pivotism. "

1. Note that this is one single, run-on sentence.

2.  The parenthetical remark seems to pull us entirely away from
      the sense of the sentence.

3.  Dr Burroman, a version of Burrus (Brutus, butter, etc)

4.  Check out the word "mutuearly":  mutually / much early /
     mutually early

5.  Pivotism?  Ability to stand your ground, yet be flexible in
     response?


Sunday, June 11, 2017

June 11 - Chapter 6, pages 126-160

Suddenly, I am finding the text familiar enough for extended reading (at least 25 or more pages).

This is more a frame of mind than anything. I think I have finally caught up with the flow of things and rhythm of the stream of consciousness and the run-onned-ness of the sentences.  I guess its just getting familar after a long break-in period (for my brain).

Chapter 6 is quite interesting, starting with a series of questions, the first being "Who?"  Joyce goes on answering this question for 13 pages very humorously, before giving the ultimate answer, "Finn MacCool".   This question and answer section is quite hilarious.

The chapter then veers off into an encounter (from translation) between the Mookse and the Gripes in which the discuss and argue on many things, not the least of which is the theory of relativity (the Dime Cash problem).  The expands out circularly.

A couple more Joyce-words:

"Muddlecrass"
"Tellesphorously"

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

chapter 5 of book 1 - pages 116-126 "Letter Making"

I have to say - this section got to me a lot more than anything previously in the wake. It is highly comprehensible to me, I "get" the time jumps now and the actions of the characters in their separate timeframes.  I have great confidence in the Wake going forward.

A couple of really nice words from this section:

chaosmos

bestteller

really, really cool. James, may I borrow these, please?

This section holds forth Very Entertainingly on lexicography, "letter-making", legibility, penmanship, writing materials, the history of printing and so on - throughout time.  We have the introduction of the topic of "SIGNAS"  M (and the pyramid character), the association of M to Earwhicker (the trilithon, or stonehenge sort of construct, but in typeface).  We hear talk of the "truth letter", variant texts and the inherent inaccuracy of representation.  I just really love this section - need to reread and reread.

Medieval book making and the Book of Kells are both discussed. Tristan and Iseult are mentioned, along with Romulus and Remus.

One particularly great image is of whispering words through a hole in your hat, such that when whispered in, the words may come back out in any order.  This idea, for me, encapsulates the poet, the priest, the barroom tale teller and the magician.  It also incorporates the "telephone" idea and the inaccuracy of all retold tales.

At the end of the chapter, we are introduced to "Shem the Penman".

A long section that blew my mind, from page 121 begins thus

"which paleographers call a leak in the thatch or the Aranman ingperwhis through the hole of his hat, indicating that the words which follow may be taken in any order desired,"

ALL HAIL THE WAKE!

Monday, June 5, 2017

chapters 4 and 5, p. 93-117 - Days 12-15 (?)

(Parenthetical Apology:  My blog maintenance has suffered in the last week from work (wine shop), babysitting, attendance at the Rutgers Writers Conference, reading in Chaucer (Parlement of Fowls) and so forth.  My logging in terms of "Days" is losing accuracy. I may change the labeling to date of the post.  However, the Wake continues to inform my waking and unwoken hours. It is an incredible phenomenon of lingual fluidity and a master-course in inventive poesy, sentence structure and composition. Each page calls upon me as a reader to be a creative interpreter, translator, philosopher, poet, linguist. Nearly ever sentence stuns, surprises, amazes and informs me. Each day my appreciation for Joyce as a consummate, passionate artist grows.)

The end of chapter 4 continues the discussion of the trial and failings of Humphrey, in vivid Dublinesque.

Entering chapter 5, we get a blast of detail about Anna Livia Plurabelle, the female side of the Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker story.  Page 104 - Joyce writes;

"Her untitled mamafesta memorializing the Mosthighest has gone by many names in disjointed time"

He then gives us a dizzying, almost 4 pages of alternate names, titles and epithets for Anna Livia Plurabelle in an italicized list. This list does indeed swerve through disjointed time,, describing her over time and from many contexts.

On page 109, we get reintroduced to "the Letter" as an entity in the long riddle of the FW history - this is the letter that indicts Humphrey, along with many other manifestations.

On page 113, Joyce gives us another gigantic, wonderful compound word:

 "Thingcrooklyexineverypasturesixdixlikencehimaroundhersthemaggerbykinkinkankanwithdownmindlookingated"

Let me pause and say how much Joyce is crushing it with touches like this.  As I read along and I hit such a word and try to read it aloud, the following things happen:

1. its a sort of singing breath exercise to pronounce such a word.
2. its a sort of pronunciation puzzle, it takes many tries to even make your way through it, either
a. read silently or b. read aloud.  It reminds me of a rock climbing sequence.
3. putting meaning to the word.
4. putting context to the word
5. Interpreting the word - is this another onomatopoeic approximation of thunder (like page 1)?

Pretty interesting, pretty complicated.

Also, there is the wonderful fragment from page 115 (for example):

"And it is surely a lesser ignorance to write a word with every consonant too few than to add all too many. The end? Say it with missiles then and thus arabesque the page. You have your cup of scalding Souchong, your taper's waxen drop, your cat's paw, the clove or coffinnail you chewed or champed as you worded it your lark in clear air. So why, pray, sign anything as long as everyword, letter, penstroke, paperspace is a perfect signature of its own?"

this is a wonderful passage on composition, letter writing, words and written art............perhaps

I am stunned anew on every page.

Saturday, May 27, 2017

Day 11 - Chapter 4 p 81-92

Speculations on the origins and activities of Humphrey are discussed by a variety of persons. The narrative slides backward and forward in history, as usual.  Anna Livia Plurabelle begins to enter the text in  a variety of guises.  Also, the introduction of a letter is brought into the text.

In this section, the individual sentences seem to make sense, but do not build upon each other in any sort of logical fashion. This is an interesting effect, if disoritenting.  I like the word "myrrhmyrrhs" (murmurs).  Such a word (one of many) really takes you around the corner and back in a short number of letters.

I am beginning to formulate a philosophy of flexibility relative to spelling and syntax on the basis of this book and Chaucer.  Limiting spelling and syntax limits what we can think, limits us (perhaps).

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Day 10: Chapter 4, pages: 75-81 Underworld

This section begins with a tour (via Humphrey's interior voice) of the underworld (traditional in the epic).  It starts with the holes of the graves and extrapolates wildly an underground scene and then moves along to mortuary architecture descriptions. The scene telescopes wildly between current day to classical past, etc.

I started to notice here that the sentences would start one place, very firmly, then end up totally elsewhere.  This is done in a very unobtrusive, yet disorienting "rabbit hole" manner.  I guess that is to be expected in the underworld, where the mole holes, rabbit holes and tunnels abound.  The sentences are organic and unified and yet, very unpredictable in their trajectories.  More Joyce fireworks.  One particular long sentence I noticed:

"Best. This wastohavebeen underground haven, or mole's paradise which was probably also an inversion of a phallopharos, intended to foster wheat crops and to ginger up tourist trade (its architecht, Mgr Peurelachasse, having been obcaecated lest he should petrifake suchanevver while the contractors Messrs T.A. Birkett and L.O. Tuohalls were made invulnerably venerable) first in the west, our misterbuilder, Castlevillanous, openly damned and blasted by means of a hydromine, system, Sowan and Belting, exploded from a reinvented T.N.T. bombingpost up ahoy of eleven and thirty wingrests (circiter) to sternbooard out of his aerial thorpeto, Auton Dynamon, contacted with the expectant minefield by tins of improved ammonia lashed to her shieldplated gunwale, and fused into the tripupcables, slipping through tholse and playing down from the conning tower into the ground batter fuseboxes, all differing as clocks from keys since nobody appeared to have the same time of beard, some saying by their Oorlog it was Sygstryggs to nine, more holding with the Ryan vogt it was Dane to pfife."

This section seemed to me more English Language than some of the previous.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Day 9 Finnegan's Wake - Book 1, Chapter 3 p 66 -74

So this was an interesting portion of the proceedings. In particular, the section where an American Hog Caller begins to declaim - a particularly interesting section of text, an extended italicized list on pages 71 and 72.  This list of very humorous names rivals the best lists of Dickens.  I particularly like that it goes on and on and on, mixing every sort of fanciful name that you can't even imagine. Some of the hogs: Hoary Hairy Hoax (could be Trump, almost), the Ace and Deuce of Paupering, Grunt Owl's Factotem and Vee was a Vindner.

The section in general deals with the trial and incarceration of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker.


FOR THE BIRDS

Something I notice, is that when I read Finnegan aloud, my two parakeets, Jack and Jorma, go berserk. The squawk, chirp and flap the whole while.  The power of Joyce.

My Irish brogue has become studied.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Daily Summary                   Day 7 Reading Finnegans Wake  
Chapter / Pages :                48-60
What happens?                   Various personages weigh in on the doings of HCE.  Those persons seem to resemble HCE.  An opinion (book written in 1939) on television killing telephony is given.  This is quite curious looking back on this.  The trial and incarceration of HCE are discussed at length.
Experience of the text:      I was struck by the language of this section particularly.  The discursiveness and multi-voicing is quite good, this comes out in reading aloud, which creates a real sonorous trance state.  

I have altered my reading procedure to read silently first, then read aloud. This notably improves my ability to read the text aloud.
Procedure:                           1. First reading –  silent reading, no annotations    2. Second reading –  read aloud  3. Third reading – silent read through with annotations.                                                        

Discussion:                          
The following quote seems to be almost written about 2017:
“Thus the unfacts, did we possess them, are too imprecisely few to warrant our certitude, the evidencegivers by legpoll too untrustworthily irreperible where his adjugers are semmingly freak threes but his judicandees plainly minus twos.” 
This section is about the untrustworthiness of reporting and judicial processes.  “unfacts” are currently all to
going on right now.

I wanted to note today that the sense of awe about Joyce's accomplishment here is growing upon me daily. As I contemplate the whole of the composition, I find myself disbelieving that he was able to do this.  As I break down sentence after sentence, each with multiple eras in time and invented words, allusions, etc I am in awe.  And each sentence, when spoken correctly, is so amazingly put together, melodious and poetical.
As I say, Joyce's accomplishment here is progressively stunning.






Monday, May 15, 2017

First Six days - short summary

I started reading Finnegans Wake earlier than I planned in my initial calculations and schedule. Originally, I intended to start today - May 15th - but decided to get an early start.  Good detour in the plan, I think.

The book is proving to be more approachable than I originally thought.  Since I could locate NO ONE who has ever read the book, I was assuming it to be completely unreadable. This is not exactly true. It's challenging, even requiring much rereading, look-ups and intermittent analysis and reflection, but I am able to progress through it.

My decision to start early will allow me more in-progress review, so that's good.  I now feel sure that I will be able to finish by September. (doubt before this).

6th Day - End of Chapter 2 of Book 2

Daily Summary                    Reading Finnegans Wake
Chapter / Pages :                37-47
What happens?                   The stranger spreads disinformation about Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker’s supposed sexual misadventures in the park.  This information revises itself into the music hall song, “The Ballad of Persy O’Reilly” which is printed as sheet music and in full ballad stanzas at the end of Book 1’s Chapter 2.  There is a great deal of Dublin place-naming and experience rolled into the description of the various characters in this section.
Experience of the text:      Very fluid text – from page 39 to 44 there are 4 sentences, each very long with many, many clauses.  There are around 450 words per page, so those 4 sentences average 110 words per sentence. They are very long sentences, in the way that the word on page 1 is long (approximately the same number of letters as there are words in these sentences.).  Interesting.  The reading in this section seems increasingly easy to traverse than previous. Chapter 2 concludes and it has been much more legible than Chapter 1. Although, I will say, it still registers somewhere between at 25 and 50% comprehension.  So, still very challenging, although, like Jabberwocky, you seem to glimpse the authorial intent fairly well. Very humorous and melodic. The text demands much rereading.
Procedure:                           1. First reading – aloud    2. Second reading – read with annotations / gloss  and the Skeleton Key text by Campbell 3. Third reading – silent read through following first two readings.                                                        
Discussion:                          

Poor HCE, his misadventure in the park is defined, memorialized and transmitted as song – it has become part of local color, history and popular culture, a sort of microcosm of Finnegans Wake – also a song, a myth, etc.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Fifth day - concerning Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker in the park

Daily Summary                    Reading Finnegans Wake
Chapter / Pages :                30-36
What happens?                   After ‘the Fall’, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker comes to town and is discussed and shown in some detail. He meets a fellow with a pipe, who appears to be the devil and to whom he describes his activities in the park (garden) – the fellow gets information from him that he twists to his purposes.  HCE is also shown to be “Here Comes Everybody” and Hag Chivyvas Eve. His pedigree is discussed in some detail.
Experience of the text:      This section of text registers much more as English, much more legible than the previous chapter.  The sentences seem to follow logically from each other in a manner more sensible, although the sentences seem much longer, with more discursiveness than “normal” sentences. The text seems to have a more fluid sensibility than the previous.
Procedure:                           1. First reading – aloud    2. Second reading – read with annotations / gloss  and the Skeleton Key text by Campbell 3. Third reading – silent read through following first two readings.                                                        
Discussion:                          
I am anxious as to the fate of HCE, having come into the picture just after the fall and after misadventure in the park / garden and meeting with the devil.


Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Day 4 - Finnegan awakes from the dead at his wake - arrival of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker by boat

Daily Summary                    Reading Finnegans Wake
Chapter / Pages :                22-29
What happens?               Back at the wake scene, the word for whiskey is mentioned and the dead Finnegan, being waked, awakens. This is unacceptable, so the “wakers” gradually cajole Finnegan to lie down and sleep again, he will be better off than he would be joining the living.  Also, one thinks, the partying would be disrupted if he doesn’t go back to death. 
At the same time, Finnegan’s usurper, Earwicker is arriving by boat.

Experience of the text:      I have the sense, very clearly, that with each repeated reading of any given section of the text, you can render a completely alternative reading. This is quite an unusual phenomenon.  For instance, the first time through the “waking of Finnegan”, I didn’t read it as that, but more as a discussion on education.  When I went back and re-read, I saw it for what it is (the waking Finnegan).
A second long invocation of thunder occurs, the word used to describe this “Perkodhuskurunbargg….etc.”   is a bit shorter than the thunder on the first page.  The word for whiskey “Uhsqueadbaugham!” awakens Finnegan.   These funny sort of words stand out in the text, requiring translation, but are not really translateable.
The parts of the text where characters interact and converse with each other are much more easily legible than the descriptive passages.
Procedure:                           1. First reading – aloud    2. Second reading – read with annotations / gloss  and the Skeleton Key text by Campbell 3. Third reading – silent read through following first two readings.                                                        
Discussion:                          
I have to admit some negativity at this point as my head bounces off the floor of FW on initial reading of each passage.  But when I revert to the annotations, read up in Campbell and return to the text, it starts to come together and I feel happy with the whole project.
The book is certainly unlike a novel. More, it is like a medieval history written partly in extreme poetry. It is starting to become something of a familiar, or a friend.  The page layout, the long, crazy sentences are becoming more expected.

I think that in seeing things recycle, thunder, the fall, Finn, Finnegan, HCE, etc the book becomes more transparent. Slowly, slowly it reveals itself.

Monday, May 8, 2017

Day 3 Reading Finnegans Wake - Jute and Mutt, the Comet, Finn McCool falls

Daily Summary                    Reading Finnegans Wake
Chapter / Pages :                16 - 22
What happens?                 The dialog of Mutt and Jute (Mutt and Jeff comic strip), representing 562 AD (the comet) and 1132 (the death of Finn McCool and other things) is joined.  These two are talking across time, an ancient of early medieval to a later medieval man talking in Dublins of very different eras. Some of the cataclysms of history begin to converge in the text.
562 A.D.  The Great Comet that destroyed Britain – nothing grew for 7 years after.  Jutes, of course were a tribe of people in ancient Britain and Ireland)         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZQKpsy2OgM
1132 A.D.  Much ado in Finnegans Wake  (from Wikipedia) 
  • 1132 A.D. O'Hanlon, Life of St Laurence O'Toole II: "Laurence ... O'Toole was born in the year 1132". St Laurence O'Toole was the patron saint of Dublin → Henry II of England, who is often coupled with Laurence O'Toole in FW, was born in 1132 (actually 5 March 1133, but 25 March was observed then as New Year's Day)
§  1132: 1132 = 283 x 4. In the Annals of the Four Masters, the death of Finn MacCool is dated to 283 A.D. In Joyce's manuscripts File:MMLJ.png is the siglum for the Four Old Men
§  1132 feet per second: the speed of sound in air
§  32 feet per second per second: acceleration due to gravity at the surface of the Earth, and therefore an integral part of the law of falling bodies → symbolic of the Fall of Man, it recurs throughout Ulysses as well as FW
§  Romans 11:32: "For God has consigned all men to disobedience that he may show his mercy to all"
§  11: in the denary system of numbers, 11 represents the beginning of a new cycle

Experience of the text:  In reading aloud this section, I am starting to get more at the Irish “lilt” of the language.  I find that I need to read it in a slow, “stately” rhythm, following the natural phrasing.  I found this in Chaucer as well.  I need to fall into the metrical nature of the text, pronouncing carefully (iambic pentameter – sort of mode) and then the inner Irish voice naturally asserts.  The reading aloud of the text creates a unique psychological state, another voice in the room (Joyce, I guess).  It’s a unique experience to read FW.  The text emerges sonically as familiar and yet very unfamiliar.  I find myself thinking “Oh, yeah, this is familiar to me” and then, immediately: “What? Wait. What is he talking about here?”  These two feelings toggle in and out rapidly – familiar / unfamiliar.  Very unusual, and again, akin to reading Chaucer.
The assimilation of the material into a coherent, continuous narrative in my mind is TENTATIVE.  Probably intentionally (on Joyce’s part) I am experience the Wake as akin to a river – I’m watching objects pass by in the stream, recognizing some, not recognizing others and my mind is trying to associate them all together.  This is like attempting to eat a meal from a trough with a rapid current with a fork without getting sloppy and wet.
Procedure:                           1. First reading – aloud    2. Second reading – read with annotations / gloss  and the Skeleton Key text by Campbell 3. Third reading – silent read through following first two readings.                         I’m sticking with this.  I think its getting me about 25% of the way to full cognition of the Wake.  I’m seeing this is a book you have to read forever to really “get”.                               
Discussion:                          
I started reading FW a week early to get my bearings before “seriously” getting into it.  I think this was a good decision. By the time of my Planned Start (May 15), I will be fully engaged with the text and perhaps feeling less hopeless, less the drowning man.

I am also reading up a bit on Joyce on the side. His approach to Finnegan is interesting.

Friday, May 5, 2017

Second Post - May 5

Daily Summary                    Reading Finnegans Wake
Chapter / Pages :                10 - 16

What happens?                   The scene has moved to a crazy Dublin Museum (also the Wake) which details a great deal of recent and ancient history of Dublin. The hyperactive narration of a guide leads us through the museum.

Experience of the text:      I find that the text continually admits, then ejects me from it. Cognitively, I am “in” the text, experiencing what is happening, and then I am “out” of the text, totally perplexed. I toggle back and forth between these two states.  This, I find, is part of the humor and attractiveness of the text, strangely enough.  (The phrase, “Drinking from a fire hose” comes to mind.)
Again, the idea of circularity and fragmentation figure largely in the reading experience.  Already, I see things re-occurring in the text. Also, I experience much of the text as pulses of coherency – sentences don’t presage what follows them nor extend what immediately went before.  This suggests dream logic.

Procedure:                           1. First reading – aloud    2. Second reading – read with annotations / gloss  and the Skeleton Key text by Campbell 3. Third reading – silent read through following first two readings. 
                                                       
Discussion:                          
Here is a sentence, picked at random. Page 10, first full sentence:
“Toffethief, that spy on the Willingdone from
his big white harse, the Capeinhope.”
I chose this at random to illustrate the overall density, and shall I say, the depth of the text.  Any sentence that you select illustrates many key aspects of Joyce’s intent.  But first, let me try to break this down a little bit.   “Willingdone” is at once “Wellington” who saved the world from Napoleon and was Britain’s biggest hero.  This opening section goes on extensively about “Willingdone” and “Lipoleum” as existing in a series of displays in a museum.  This topic is run through EXTENSIVELY. “Willingdone”, aside from being Wellington, signifies intent, heroism and courage: “willing it done”.  We can read both connotations as existing at the same time in this, and other sentences as a parallelism, which is par for the course in FW.  “Toffeethief” limns an Irish song of some sort, “Toffee was a Welshman, Toffee was a thief”.   “His big white harse”, is a continuation of the trope of Willingdone (and Lipoleum) being on horseback (as in heroic paintings), i.e. ‘a big, white horse’.  But also, it reads in the sense of a “hearse” for Finnegan, his wake and all.  “Capeinhope” is simultaneously, “Copenhagen” (extending the Norse trope of the book, England and Ireland having been heavily affected by the Scandinavians in their history) and also, “Cape of Good Hope”, which figures in British colonial expansion.
So we see that one minor, random sentence is something of a microcosm for a lot of the undertow and tropes of Finnegans Wake.
A major concern of Joyce’s, hinted at by this text is his exile to France from Ireland.  Wellington and Napoleon are backdrop to his (and Europe’s) recent history and a matter of direct personal concern to him, having switched alliance (?) and country from Ireland/Britain to France.
Now, again, trying to absolutely pin down the action captured by the sentence is no trivial matter.  Who, what, when, why is the Toffeethief spying on Willingdone from his white horse / hearse?  This is happening in the present, but also, in more than one past – the Norse invasions, the British colonial explorations, the Napoleonic Wars.  The text is germane to many circular, recursive events and is holographic, in a sense.  Each sentence contains a view of an array of the total events.

The analysis of even one sentence launches crazed, fevered ideas and associations, as in the above.  Is this what Joyce intended and planned?  I think it is.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

First Official blog post - May 3, Chapter 1, pages 1-8

Daily Summary                   “Reading Finnegans Wake” -  May 3, 2017

   riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend          
   of bay, brings us by a commodious vicus of recirculation back to    
   Howth Castle and environs.    
      
From page 1, Finnegans Wake, 1939 by James Joyce     
Note: the first sentence is famous a continuation from the last page of the novel, establishing circularity and recursion as the novel’s defining trope.
                                                                                        
What happens?                   
As the book opens, Finnegan the Hod Carrier has fallen from a ladder and is presumed dead.  A wake for Finnegan begins. The general environment of Dublin is described.   Finnegan is also conflated with Finn McCool, the giant of Irish myth, whose (fallen) body lies beneath Dublin.

Experience of the text:      
I read the text aloud, using my best “Irish” voice.  This works much better in terms of “heard meaning” than my normal voice. In this way, the experience mimics the reading of Chaucer (a Middle English / French / English voice used there.)   Much more meaning comes out of the text in spoken version than read quietly as both texts rely heavily on vernacular, musicality and poetics. Reading FW aloud is a real kick, a challenge of interpretation and impersonation.  The language varies from soothing and beautiful to harsh and to nearly incomprehensible.
My psychological appreciation while reading goes from elliptical (circularity and repetition are noted) to fragmentary (information accrues in fragments spread through the text) to legibility (I “get” what is happening right now).  These senses during the reading create a very different brain sense than is usual in fiction, it is more akin to poetry.   (Can you say, “non-linearity”?)
The text assumes circularity and cycles of life and history. It seems to span history (Irish, Western, Biblical) and compress all history into a parallel repeating cycle.
 
Procedure:                           
1. First reading – aloud    2. Second reading – read with annotations / gloss  and the Skeleton Key text by Campbell 3. Third reading – silent read through following first two readings.   I will take several days for the initial (7 pages) reading, to break in and familiarize myself.                                               
Discussion:                         
I think the start-up reading will cost more time than successive days’ readings.  Like Chaucer, it will take me time to regularize the text into clear meaning for me.  As I move forward, I anticipate that, as with Chaucer, the text will become less opaque and even gradually become fully legible.  Another similarity to Chaucer is the fluidity of spelling and syntax – both artists liberally deploy orthographical variety to aid in their sonic, logical and shadings of meaning. 
This is a very beautiful text in many ways.  I come to this reading with a great deal of feeling already for the opening, which I have read often in the past.  I think it challenges the great openings of literary history – Chaucer’s General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales;  Milton’s opening to Paradise Lost, Genesis. 
The text slips without notice between times and (equivalent) characters. This is an extreme version of this technique, somewhat of a staple amongst the modernist (Faulkner, Woolf). The text also seems to be overall a stream-of-consciousness dream narrative (this again echoes Chaucer and his dream narration).  Above all, the book, like Joyce’s Ulysses is pinned to and exists in Dublin; name-checking and describing it in all possible detail.  (note to self: get that detailed Dublin map!)
The opening includes the famous 101 letter word which combines languages and approximates the sound of thunder / the voice of God when Finnegan falls from his ladder.  This is replicated in Sylvia Plath’s novel, the Bell Jar.  Her character reads this just before going into a deep psychological depression. 
After the first day’s reading, I’m feeling pretty invincible.  The Literature Professors with who I have discussed this project agree that it’s a good approach (pages per day, spread over the summer, take a systematic approach). They each gave me good advice – read it aloud, seek help (ha ha!), and “you can do it!”  It is notable that none of them have read it!  Also, Joel Stein helped me out with a link to the original Finnegans Wake Society in Manhattan, and I am planning on attending their next monthly meeting. 
I am undecided about seeking a recorded full Finnegans Wake, but I might listen to fragmentary recordings such as James Joyce’s.  (His voice will help refine my adopted Irish voice, no doubt).
All this said, it is a challenging text that will consume many brain cells and that will rearrange many brain molecules.  What a writer!


Thursday, April 20, 2017

The Plan

I shall plan to read Finnegans Wake from the week starting May 7 through the week starting September 10.  This is 19 weeks.  The book has 628 pages.  This makes for 33 pages per week.

This seems to be easily possible.

Between now (4/20/2017) and May 7, I hope to complete Campbell's Skeleton Key and a couple of other strategy books, compile some word lists and persona lists.  I have the online gloss, will have the annotations and should have a good idea of the book's outline and general gist(s?) by the time I start "reading" proper.

I will be reading my 1967 Viking Press version of the book ($2.25 cover price), the same one I first attempted to read when I was 19 years old, and dipped back into in the 80s, when I was in my 30s.  I am now 66 years old, will be 67 when I finish it in September.  Hopefully, I know quite a bit more than I knew back then, which presumably gives me a better chance at success.  Also, before I somewhat foolishly thought to read the bare text without 'stooping' to secondary resources.  But, as the philosopher Dirty Harry would say, "A man's gotta know his limitations."  I will use the secondary resources to enable me to read the thing.  Tempus fugit.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Advice from my Modernist Professor at Rutgers: Listen to as much of Finnegans Wake as possible or read aloud.  Since Joyce is capturing spoken language in his writing and / or stream-of-consciousness (as spoken word in the head), more meaning is naturally revealed this way. Good idea.

Also, its a good idea to take advantage of such online communities dedicated to FW - these likely will be more useful than the existing print research AND more up to date.

The spoken word approach to Ulysses is very successful. I listened to Ulysses the first time through on a complete book-on-tape and what she says is true. It's pretty legible on hearing.

Online gloss to Finnegan's Wake - this should be useful:

http://finwake.com/

I also have a book of annotations.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Blog posting claptrap setup over, I can start posting as necessary.

Some decisions I made are:

1. I think that my study of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales this semester at Rutgers will help in reading of FW (Finnegan's Wake).  The texts bear some similarities: they are part English-as-we-know-it, part 'foreign' English and part other languages, some lost to us.  With Chaucer, I have access to Middle English dictionaries, the Oxford English Dictionary, text glosses, books and articles.  All of this is helpful as an aid to the actual reading of the text.  The reading is the main thing - let your brain assemble, assimilate and synthesize the material.  Use the adjunct materials to inform the reading.

I will use this sort of material in reading FW.  At my disposal, I have online dictionaries, the Rutgers University Library (BIG Joyce and FW section.)

At first, I thought I would read FW first and then abet the reading. This seems inadvisable. I have tried this in the past, and while this has its charms, it doesn't bode well for a totally meaningful absorption of the material.  I need to bring tools along on the expedition.

Instead, I will read up first - texts that reflect on general approaches to FW - like A Skeleton Key to Finnegan's Wake, the Finnegan's Wake Experience and the Decentered Universe of Finnegan's Wake. These general outline sort of works will help me prepare a word list, some understanding of the structure and an idea of the general plotting of the book.  Then, I will begin reading.

2. Parallels to Middle English study seem appropriate.  Much of the charm of FW is its Sound and language, punning, wordplay and merging of languages.  Therefore, all of the things I found in Chaucer's text - the variance between the reading experience to the recitation experience to the listening experience will come into play here.  (time to start looking for sound files of FW).  The mixture of reading, reciting and listening to FW will create an environment for understanding it - I hope.  Both texts require some degree of blind faith in order to tackle them.

3. Assuming that FW is legible, given the proper strategy and tools.  Also, I am assuming this is a task worth doing.  I noted that Ulysses, by Joyce was well worth the effort. For it, I combined reading with a complete book on tape - hearing the language was essential in that case. Things that didn't gel on the page were totally comprehensible when heard.

I will reflect on these assumptions in the blog as I proceed.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Initial Blog - amateur reader tackles James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake as a summer reading project

You can all join in and read along with me on this, should you want to do so.

I have long PINED to be a reader, in the real sense, of James Joyce's seemingly impenetrably dense tome, Finnegan's Wake. I have tried on several occasions, only to be defeated by the overwhelming force of his vocabulary, allusions, images and thought.

Now I have determined that I will read it straight through, come what may, understand what I may, not understand what I may.

Ground Rules for myself:

1. Start by May 15, 2017, complete by September 1, 2017.  (This may not sound ambitious, but believe me, it is!)

2. Read a minimum mandatory number of pages per day.

3. Post daily findings from readings, Monday through Friday each week.

4. Invite others to read in parallel and comment along with me on my Finnegan's Blog blogsite.

5. Not go insane in doing the above (again, this may not sound ambitious.......)

My first step was setting up this blog.  My next step will be some planning (pages / day, etc.) and roping others into my crazed project.

Sincerely

John F Browning