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.

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