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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!