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.
No comments:
Post a Comment