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.

No comments:

Post a Comment