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