Greetings again after a brief interlude for conferences, semester breaks and the like.
In our new digs (3.G.42 for future reference) we got into the meat of the third section of book 1. As usual, some brief thoughts from me.
56.03-4: 'as pro tem locums timesported acorss the yawning (abyss)' Joyce's phrase here is immediately evocative, for me, of ideas that were addressed on the previous page (see here). As we circle around the real narrative of the Wake Joyce feeds us a series of philosophical insights that develop the broader theoretical focus of the text (or perhaps another of the theoretical focuses of the text). We know that Vico's ricorso is crucial (it's the first thing we encounter in the whole text, the beginning of the previous iteration of the whole ungainly beast!) and that the ricorso messes with time in a very peculiar manner. This may not seem immediately clear, but the observer/reader of the narrative being 'timesported' throughout the text appears to me to the be the most cogent temporal model for the Wake we have encountered so far. Excitingly, 'pro tem locums', 'holding the place for a time' (Joyce's variant 'pro tem locum') combines the spatial and the temporal, then it appears as if Joyce really does achieve something spectacularly complex in this novel: the coherent combination of space and time together, perhaps the most exciting of modernist experimentation in the wake of Einstein's special theory of relativity in 1905. N.B. that 'acorss', glossed by McHugh as the Dutch 'kors' sounds very close to the long sound of 'ricorso'.
56.20-30: '...Inn the days of the Bygning...some lazy skald or maundering pote, lift wearwilly his...eyes to the semisigns of his zooteac...' This whole parahgraphs is exciting, but the parallels to Dante (cf. 'Seudodanto!', 47.19) got me thinking again on the many ways in which HCE parallels Joyce himself, but more importantly, all writers. It's not too much of a stretch here to see HCE (during his wake), exiled to hell (van Demon's Land), sighing in despair at his entire fate, and contemplating like Dante, the realities of the world. In a text such as this, where the production of meaning is, even more than usual, placed upon the shoulders of the reader, it seems inevitable that the reader sympathises with HCE as he struggles himself with writing his fate. Of course, the letter that is crucial to the tale is another form of writing that HCE must interact with (or avoid) throughout the narrative. Allusions to Swift (especially Gulliver's Travels) appear crucial here also.
58.6-7: 'They have waved his green boughs o'er him as they have torn him limb from lamb.' Aside from the christological allusions that we discussed during our reading, another element of this sentence has occurred to me. McHugh's gloss of 'hollyday' as Ivy Day and the resultant link to Joyce's story from Dubliners and the general Joycean approval of Parnell seems pertinent, especially considering the sacrificial role Parnell played in nationalist politics of the period. Considering the way that Parnell was feted, there is also the sense here in which it is the vulnerable statesmen that is sacrificed, torn 'limb from lamb'.
Please feel free to comment below! All thoughts more than appreciated.
We're reading 58.23 to 61.27 next time. We haven't yet been able to lock in a day or time, so I will post here when both are confirmed. JG
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Thursday, 28 June 2012
053.07 to 055.30
Hi all! Back to our wicked ways, this time not only failing to get through our allotted pages, but failing even to end neatly at the end of a paragraph. (Oh well {to paraphrase Beckett}, ever tried, ever failed, try again, fail again, fail better!)
53.28 'best of redpublicans, at Eagle Cock Hostel' The political framework of FW and of HCE appears to be clarified (at least a little) in this section. We know that the Joyce's (father and son) sympathised with Parnell and venerated him as the best of Irish heroes (cf. 'Ivy Day in the Committee Room' from Dubliners and Ellman's biography). Previously, it had appeared as if HCE (and in general the male characters of the Wake) had a conflicted view of Irish nationalism. You'll remember that around 49 we encountered a character who fought with the British in the Crimean. I imagined that this was the fate of HCE; not just to betray his wife and family, but to betray his country as well. Yet, if HCE is the "best of republicans" we can maintain hope for him yet!
53.31 'starchboxsitting in the pit' Of course, I feel contradicted only lines later, with Joyce's allusion to Charles X's reported statement that he, "like all Frenchmen, only have a place in the pit". Whether HCEs transgressions approximate the French disregard for the proletariat it appears that someone is doomed.
Plenty of stutters to note: 53.36 'Chee chee cheers' and 'crow cru cramwells'; 54.03 'wowhere'; 54.28 'ohoh open'; 55.16 'pippa pointing'.
Some great number play to note on 54 as well. Aside from another invocation of 1132 ('Millecientotrigintadue', 54.120) discussed previously here, Joyce also identifies Halley's Comet as a mark of certainty, for it inevitably appears every seventy-six years ('like sixes and seventies as eversure as Halley's comet', 54.07).
55.22-7 For me the most exciting of passages, although not necessarily the clearest. We begin with 'Cycloptically', which immediately suggests to me cyclicity (Vico, eternal return, and so on). Yet at the same time, the Cyclops is evoked, no surprise considering the Greek references in the preceding pages. The cyclops, however, doesn't suggest repetition to me (perhaps the labyrinth is a possibility?). Joyce, only a few lines later, performs this cyclicity, describing how 'the clad pursue the bare, the bare the green, the green the frore, the frore the cladagain, as their convoy wheeled encirculingly abound the gigantig's lifetree', (55.25-7). This appears a primal performance of the simultaneous cyclicity and change that the eternal return (and Vico's ricorso) enacts. Conveniently, a bracketed interjection erupts lines later, admonishing us for not recognising 'repetition!' (55.29)
Comments and thoughts warmly welcomed. Thanks also to fweet for their nod and for directing some traffic this way.
We're meeting next on the Tuesday the 17th of July at 1pm to read from 55.30 to 58.23. Writing and Society will have moved to Building 3, so I'll update new room details when they come to hand. JG
53.28 'best of redpublicans, at Eagle Cock Hostel' The political framework of FW and of HCE appears to be clarified (at least a little) in this section. We know that the Joyce's (father and son) sympathised with Parnell and venerated him as the best of Irish heroes (cf. 'Ivy Day in the Committee Room' from Dubliners and Ellman's biography). Previously, it had appeared as if HCE (and in general the male characters of the Wake) had a conflicted view of Irish nationalism. You'll remember that around 49 we encountered a character who fought with the British in the Crimean. I imagined that this was the fate of HCE; not just to betray his wife and family, but to betray his country as well. Yet, if HCE is the "best of republicans" we can maintain hope for him yet!
53.31 'starchboxsitting in the pit' Of course, I feel contradicted only lines later, with Joyce's allusion to Charles X's reported statement that he, "like all Frenchmen, only have a place in the pit". Whether HCEs transgressions approximate the French disregard for the proletariat it appears that someone is doomed.
Plenty of stutters to note: 53.36 'Chee chee cheers' and 'crow cru cramwells'; 54.03 'wowhere'; 54.28 'ohoh open'; 55.16 'pippa pointing'.
Some great number play to note on 54 as well. Aside from another invocation of 1132 ('Millecientotrigintadue', 54.120) discussed previously here, Joyce also identifies Halley's Comet as a mark of certainty, for it inevitably appears every seventy-six years ('like sixes and seventies as eversure as Halley's comet', 54.07).
55.22-7 For me the most exciting of passages, although not necessarily the clearest. We begin with 'Cycloptically', which immediately suggests to me cyclicity (Vico, eternal return, and so on). Yet at the same time, the Cyclops is evoked, no surprise considering the Greek references in the preceding pages. The cyclops, however, doesn't suggest repetition to me (perhaps the labyrinth is a possibility?). Joyce, only a few lines later, performs this cyclicity, describing how 'the clad pursue the bare, the bare the green, the green the frore, the frore the cladagain, as their convoy wheeled encirculingly abound the gigantig's lifetree', (55.25-7). This appears a primal performance of the simultaneous cyclicity and change that the eternal return (and Vico's ricorso) enacts. Conveniently, a bracketed interjection erupts lines later, admonishing us for not recognising 'repetition!' (55.29)
Comments and thoughts warmly welcomed. Thanks also to fweet for their nod and for directing some traffic this way.
We're meeting next on the Tuesday the 17th of July at 1pm to read from 55.30 to 58.23. Writing and Society will have moved to Building 3, so I'll update new room details when they come to hand. JG
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
050.33 to 053.06
Greetings all! A rare meeting in which we actually read what we said we would...
As usual, the Wake served up to us another iteration of 'the haardly creditable edventyres of the Haberdasher, the two Curchies and the three Enkelchums in their Bearskin ghoats'. (51.13-5)
The section transformed from the theatrical (and musical) of the beginning of chapter three, Joyce incorporating the lines of two songs from Percy French (at 50.33-6), before becoming, more formally, the filming, broadcasting and televising we were anticipating.
I got the sense that HCE isn't the most comfortable in front of the camera... Aside from the fact that he appears to adopt 'the shape of the average human cloudyphiz' (50.35 to 51.01), which makes it very difficult to 'idendifine the individuone' (51.06), HCE also appears to be sensitive about having any of his faces on camera at all. The Spanish lines (52.14-6) poke fun at our man, and perhaps at the filmic medium as well.
51.21-27 clarifies this a little. HCE, in beginning to provide the 'fully armed explanation' (51.23-4), is simultaneously revealed for the chamaeleon-like abilities he has. He is a 'native of the sisterisle', but at the same time he has the 'ex-race eyes, lokil calour and lucal odour which are said to have been average clownturkish'. How ever many iterations we read we still know that HCE is on the nose!
Joyce's representation of HCEs appearance on camera doesn't appear to depart radically from the general presentation of the narrative as we have encountered it so far, unsurprising for a text that departs radically (in so many ways) from the conventions of language and the novel. There is a brief suggestion , however, that Joyce is aware of the radical advances that film allows for the arts. HCE (on 52.06-8) '[h]aving reprimed his repeater and resiteroomed his timespiece His Revenances, with still a life or two to spare' begs for compassion. The camera, however, is not the most compassionate of devices. One "shoots" a film (along with so many more martial metaphors (cf. Kittler in Gramophone, Film, Typewriter) which explains the merging of temporal and martial allusions within this section (especially the 'repeater' being glossed by McHugh as both watch and firearm). Further, the film allows the character to live in another temporal realm, and simultaneously to occupy a new created time and to exist forever in film. Bit of a confused thought I know...
And if film allows the creation of multiple times it also facilitates the construction of multiple worlds, hence the invocation of 'probable words, possibly said' (52.32).
We're meeting next Wednesday (27 June) at 2 pm to read 53.07 56.19. Onwards with the 'humphriad'! (53.09)
As usual, the Wake served up to us another iteration of 'the haardly creditable edventyres of the Haberdasher, the two Curchies and the three Enkelchums in their Bearskin ghoats'. (51.13-5)
The section transformed from the theatrical (and musical) of the beginning of chapter three, Joyce incorporating the lines of two songs from Percy French (at 50.33-6), before becoming, more formally, the filming, broadcasting and televising we were anticipating.
I got the sense that HCE isn't the most comfortable in front of the camera... Aside from the fact that he appears to adopt 'the shape of the average human cloudyphiz' (50.35 to 51.01), which makes it very difficult to 'idendifine the individuone' (51.06), HCE also appears to be sensitive about having any of his faces on camera at all. The Spanish lines (52.14-6) poke fun at our man, and perhaps at the filmic medium as well.
51.21-27 clarifies this a little. HCE, in beginning to provide the 'fully armed explanation' (51.23-4), is simultaneously revealed for the chamaeleon-like abilities he has. He is a 'native of the sisterisle', but at the same time he has the 'ex-race eyes, lokil calour and lucal odour which are said to have been average clownturkish'. How ever many iterations we read we still know that HCE is on the nose!
Joyce's representation of HCEs appearance on camera doesn't appear to depart radically from the general presentation of the narrative as we have encountered it so far, unsurprising for a text that departs radically (in so many ways) from the conventions of language and the novel. There is a brief suggestion , however, that Joyce is aware of the radical advances that film allows for the arts. HCE (on 52.06-8) '[h]aving reprimed his repeater and resiteroomed his timespiece His Revenances, with still a life or two to spare' begs for compassion. The camera, however, is not the most compassionate of devices. One "shoots" a film (along with so many more martial metaphors (cf. Kittler in Gramophone, Film, Typewriter) which explains the merging of temporal and martial allusions within this section (especially the 'repeater' being glossed by McHugh as both watch and firearm). Further, the film allows the character to live in another temporal realm, and simultaneously to occupy a new created time and to exist forever in film. Bit of a confused thought I know...
And if film allows the creation of multiple times it also facilitates the construction of multiple worlds, hence the invocation of 'probable words, possibly said' (52.32).
We're meeting next Wednesday (27 June) at 2 pm to read 53.07 56.19. Onwards with the 'humphriad'! (53.09)
Thursday, 7 June 2012
048.01 to 050.32
Greetings. We've graduated onto the third chapter of the Wake, simultaneously cracking the fifty page mark! A few thoughts from me on what was at first glance a relatively straightforward section but on closer examination proved confusingly opaque.
The first part of chapter three sees HCEs "version of the story filmed, televised and broadcast" (lii). The short part we read for this meeting didn't necessarily get us up to those events, but we did observe that Joyce was laying the groundwork for an exploration of the theatre, and of performance. Thus, from the clearing of the throat on 48.01 to 48.04, the theatre is invoked, with allusions to theatres and performances in Dublin.
As the reader has worked out by now, one of the main concerns of FW is an analysis of some objective idea of truth. I wouldn't necessarily assume that the theatre would be the best means of conning the truth out of someone; however, the theatre here (and the performance) is doubled with the idea of the courtroom (in which, presumably, one is likelier to have easier access to the truth).
Thus, 48.07 'Vergobretas' occured to me as thematically crucial to the pages we read. A "vergobret" according to McHugh was a chief magistrate in Gaul, invoking the idea of the court. Simultaneously, 'vergobretas' includes "veritas" the Latin for "truth". This then leads me to the Latin phrase "in vino veritas", "in wine, truth". This appears relevant (at least to me) because of the series of drinkers and drunkards we've encountered in the previous pages. Perhaps the combination of performance and the courts creates the conditions for the truth to finally come out about HCEs indiscretion ('which, thorough readable to into from and, is from tubb to buttom all falsetissues, antilibellous and nonactionable' (48.17-18)). Nonetheless, a sense of vertigo might also be experienced...
We struggled with much of 49, unable to establish clearly who '[h]is husband' was and the outline of this character (49.02). We do know he sold out to the English (49.03) at the end of the Crimean War. I can report that the conflict occured in the 1850s and pitted the Russians over a coalition of western European forces for control and influence over the Ottoman Empire.
49.36-50.01: 'indentity of undiscernibles' McHugh glosses this phrase as relating to Leibni(t)z and his proposal that everything in the world was absolutely original and discrete. The relevance of this for me is not specifically in the reference to Leibniz's ideas, but rather for the idea of truth that can be extrapolated from this it. It appears as if Leibniz's concept anticipates a justification for HCEs actions. My hunch is developed further by the nearby reference to...
50.19 'Padre Don Bruno' otherwise known as Bruno of Nola. This is the philosopher and mathematician of 'Dante . . . Bruno . Vico . . Joyce' fame. (This is the title of Samuel Beckett's essay on FW, mostly constructed from hints given to Beckett by Joyce.) {The dots in the title are said to indicate the periods of time between each of the individuals, with one dot approximating a century.}
Bruno extended Copernicus' work, arguing for infinite possible worlds in the universe, and presenting the sun as one of a network of infinite range, rather than the be all and end all of the universe. Sadly, Bruno was burnt at the stake for heresy.
It perhaps speaks ill for our esteemable character HCE, if his transgressions are paralleled with Bruno's: the ending could be messy!
Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
We're meeting to read 50.33 to 53.06 on Monday the 18th of June at 1 pm (n.b. the change of day). I'll send an e-mail next week to confirm. JG
The first part of chapter three sees HCEs "version of the story filmed, televised and broadcast" (lii). The short part we read for this meeting didn't necessarily get us up to those events, but we did observe that Joyce was laying the groundwork for an exploration of the theatre, and of performance. Thus, from the clearing of the throat on 48.01 to 48.04, the theatre is invoked, with allusions to theatres and performances in Dublin.
As the reader has worked out by now, one of the main concerns of FW is an analysis of some objective idea of truth. I wouldn't necessarily assume that the theatre would be the best means of conning the truth out of someone; however, the theatre here (and the performance) is doubled with the idea of the courtroom (in which, presumably, one is likelier to have easier access to the truth).
Thus, 48.07 'Vergobretas' occured to me as thematically crucial to the pages we read. A "vergobret" according to McHugh was a chief magistrate in Gaul, invoking the idea of the court. Simultaneously, 'vergobretas' includes "veritas" the Latin for "truth". This then leads me to the Latin phrase "in vino veritas", "in wine, truth". This appears relevant (at least to me) because of the series of drinkers and drunkards we've encountered in the previous pages. Perhaps the combination of performance and the courts creates the conditions for the truth to finally come out about HCEs indiscretion ('which, thorough readable to into from and, is from tubb to buttom all falsetissues, antilibellous and nonactionable' (48.17-18)). Nonetheless, a sense of vertigo might also be experienced...
We struggled with much of 49, unable to establish clearly who '[h]is husband' was and the outline of this character (49.02). We do know he sold out to the English (49.03) at the end of the Crimean War. I can report that the conflict occured in the 1850s and pitted the Russians over a coalition of western European forces for control and influence over the Ottoman Empire.
49.36-50.01: 'indentity of undiscernibles' McHugh glosses this phrase as relating to Leibni(t)z and his proposal that everything in the world was absolutely original and discrete. The relevance of this for me is not specifically in the reference to Leibniz's ideas, but rather for the idea of truth that can be extrapolated from this it. It appears as if Leibniz's concept anticipates a justification for HCEs actions. My hunch is developed further by the nearby reference to...
50.19 'Padre Don Bruno' otherwise known as Bruno of Nola. This is the philosopher and mathematician of 'Dante . . . Bruno . Vico . . Joyce' fame. (This is the title of Samuel Beckett's essay on FW, mostly constructed from hints given to Beckett by Joyce.) {The dots in the title are said to indicate the periods of time between each of the individuals, with one dot approximating a century.}
Bruno extended Copernicus' work, arguing for infinite possible worlds in the universe, and presenting the sun as one of a network of infinite range, rather than the be all and end all of the universe. Sadly, Bruno was burnt at the stake for heresy.
It perhaps speaks ill for our esteemable character HCE, if his transgressions are paralleled with Bruno's: the ending could be messy!
Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
We're meeting to read 50.33 to 53.06 on Monday the 18th of June at 1 pm (n.b. the change of day). I'll send an e-mail next week to confirm. JG
Thursday, 24 May 2012
044.24 to 047.29
Greetings! We've made it to the end of Chapter Two, having read 'The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly' for this week, an interesting version here. It's very exciting to feel as if we're making real progress through the Wake. Some thoughts below...
'The Ballad' appears, at least in one sense, to recapitulate the general narrative of the first two chapters. Beginning with HCEs misdemeanour (cf. 47.02: 'to go and shove himself that way on top of her'; although much more than a little misdemeanour in this iteration) in Phoenix Park, we also have reiterated the religious and political elements of the Parnell narrative, parallelling HCEs own transgressions.
45.28 'Balbaccio, balbuccio!' A delightful insult of HCE for his stuttering ('fafafather' (45.13), 'chaw chaw chops' (45.29), 'hippopopotamuns' (47.08)), combining, according to McHugh, the "diminutive" and "perjorative" suffixes of the Italian.
46.09-11 'bom...Bimbam...bum' A strange similarity to Beckett's play What Where in which the four characters are named Bam Bem Bim and Bom.
Joyce also retells the tale of the Viking invasions (46.18-24), as the language shifts from a generally romance-based etymology to that of the low countries. There's a surreal exchange between the invading character (with family in tow) speaking with Dublin's Poolbeg Lighthouse.
Song-wise, it all appears to end quite poorly for HCE. A dispute with ALP is brooding, and ALP is also the pesky earwig in HCEs ear. He also appears to be threatened not only with fire ('we'll bonfire all his trash, tricks and trumpery' (46.06)), but the citizens want to kill him outright and bury him in Oxmanstown so that 'not all the king's men nor his horses / Will resurrect his corpus' (47.26-7).
I do, however, have a question on the significance of the invocation of four great writers at 47.19: 'Suffoclose! Shikespower! Suedodanto! Anonymoses!' Are these names invoked because their characters succumb to tragic (and often gruesome) fates? or is there perhaps a further significance that I can't perceive?
We're meeting on the 5th of June at 1 pm to tackle the beginnings of Chapter Three, from 48.01 to 51.20. All welcome of course, both to join our group or to comment below. JG
'The Ballad' appears, at least in one sense, to recapitulate the general narrative of the first two chapters. Beginning with HCEs misdemeanour (cf. 47.02: 'to go and shove himself that way on top of her'; although much more than a little misdemeanour in this iteration) in Phoenix Park, we also have reiterated the religious and political elements of the Parnell narrative, parallelling HCEs own transgressions.
45.28 'Balbaccio, balbuccio!' A delightful insult of HCE for his stuttering ('fafafather' (45.13), 'chaw chaw chops' (45.29), 'hippopopotamuns' (47.08)), combining, according to McHugh, the "diminutive" and "perjorative" suffixes of the Italian.
46.09-11 'bom...Bimbam...bum' A strange similarity to Beckett's play What Where in which the four characters are named Bam Bem Bim and Bom.
Joyce also retells the tale of the Viking invasions (46.18-24), as the language shifts from a generally romance-based etymology to that of the low countries. There's a surreal exchange between the invading character (with family in tow) speaking with Dublin's Poolbeg Lighthouse.
Song-wise, it all appears to end quite poorly for HCE. A dispute with ALP is brooding, and ALP is also the pesky earwig in HCEs ear. He also appears to be threatened not only with fire ('we'll bonfire all his trash, tricks and trumpery' (46.06)), but the citizens want to kill him outright and bury him in Oxmanstown so that 'not all the king's men nor his horses / Will resurrect his corpus' (47.26-7).
I do, however, have a question on the significance of the invocation of four great writers at 47.19: 'Suffoclose! Shikespower! Suedodanto! Anonymoses!' Are these names invoked because their characters succumb to tragic (and often gruesome) fates? or is there perhaps a further significance that I can't perceive?
We're meeting on the 5th of June at 1 pm to tackle the beginnings of Chapter Three, from 48.01 to 51.20. All welcome of course, both to join our group or to comment below. JG
Thursday, 10 May 2012
042.17 to 044.21
Hi all. We grappled with a much more manageable two pages this week, and had a great time doing so. A few thoughts from me that appear (at this moment) relevant:
42.17 "lieder" When we discussed how we would approach the lead in to 'The Balled of Persse O'Reilly' Lou observed that the final paragraph before the song appeared to owe much to songwriting and musicality in general. I think that we lucked out beginning where we did, because 'lieder' in the first line of our reading is the German for 'songs.' So, we are immediately inducted by Joyce into a musical register.
42.20 "(Eleutheriodendron! Spare, woodmann, spare!)" A very neat metaphor for freedom that is initially developed from the comparison between HCE and ALP pursued in the previous couple of lines, then reiterated by the linking of freedom and the tree (both from the Greek). Also of note: Beckett's first play (written in 1947, published after his death in 1995) is Eleutheria.
This short section suggested to me a strong similarity to the 'Circe' section of Ulysses, in which Bloom's wanderings through the night are slowly populated by more and more characters (including all those who have previously appeared in the text; cf. "supercrowd" (42.22)) before the entire scene explodes in rhapsody. This build up to celebration (or a song in FW's case) appears to owe much to musical theatre in which characters slowly gather on stage, the narrative continuing, until a musical cue (like 44.23) stops time, and all the characters present sing a song.
Although the temporal structure of FW is in no way clear to me yet, the temporal disruption of the 'The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly' definitely suggests that time is not simple within the novel. Staggering observation I know... However, the temporal disruption of musical theatre is doubled here by the various other disruptions of space and geography that Joyce includes. Most notably on 42 and 43 what began in the previous pages as a group of drunks badgering HCE for drink quickly expands to include all of Dublin, then the UK, and into Gaul and (ancient) western Europe.
Our next meeting is on 22 May at 1 pm, reading from 44.24 to 47.29 (the end of chapter two). Progress is being made!
As usual, I plead for comments, which can be entered below this post. I'd also appreciate you 'following' my blog. This will get you regular updates and more (perhaps). There's a button somewhere on your right for it. Finally, Lou sent me this link, which encapsulates some of the many emotions I've had whilst reading the Wake. http://biblioklept.org/2012/05/07/finnegans-wake-with-bunny/ Check it out!
JG
42.17 "lieder" When we discussed how we would approach the lead in to 'The Balled of Persse O'Reilly' Lou observed that the final paragraph before the song appeared to owe much to songwriting and musicality in general. I think that we lucked out beginning where we did, because 'lieder' in the first line of our reading is the German for 'songs.' So, we are immediately inducted by Joyce into a musical register.
42.20 "(Eleutheriodendron! Spare, woodmann, spare!)" A very neat metaphor for freedom that is initially developed from the comparison between HCE and ALP pursued in the previous couple of lines, then reiterated by the linking of freedom and the tree (both from the Greek). Also of note: Beckett's first play (written in 1947, published after his death in 1995) is Eleutheria.
This short section suggested to me a strong similarity to the 'Circe' section of Ulysses, in which Bloom's wanderings through the night are slowly populated by more and more characters (including all those who have previously appeared in the text; cf. "supercrowd" (42.22)) before the entire scene explodes in rhapsody. This build up to celebration (or a song in FW's case) appears to owe much to musical theatre in which characters slowly gather on stage, the narrative continuing, until a musical cue (like 44.23) stops time, and all the characters present sing a song.
Although the temporal structure of FW is in no way clear to me yet, the temporal disruption of the 'The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly' definitely suggests that time is not simple within the novel. Staggering observation I know... However, the temporal disruption of musical theatre is doubled here by the various other disruptions of space and geography that Joyce includes. Most notably on 42 and 43 what began in the previous pages as a group of drunks badgering HCE for drink quickly expands to include all of Dublin, then the UK, and into Gaul and (ancient) western Europe.
Our next meeting is on 22 May at 1 pm, reading from 44.24 to 47.29 (the end of chapter two). Progress is being made!
As usual, I plead for comments, which can be entered below this post. I'd also appreciate you 'following' my blog. This will get you regular updates and more (perhaps). There's a button somewhere on your right for it. Finally, Lou sent me this link, which encapsulates some of the many emotions I've had whilst reading the Wake. http://biblioklept.org/2012/05/07/finnegans-wake-with-bunny/ Check it out!
JG
Friday, 27 April 2012
038.09 to 042.16
Greeting all. We made significant process in our last meeting, moving through almost 5 (!) pages! As usual, a few brief comments from me, and as usual, I'd appreciate any comments. Let me know what I've missed, what I misunderstood, what I didn't get at all...no claims to understand absolutely here.
38.23: 'the gossiple so delivered in his epistolear' McHugh tells us that the gospel and the epistle are the opposite sides of a Christian altar. Not really what we were interested in though. I really appreciate Joyce's means of building up layers of allusions miles before the fact; that is, the 'gossiple' and the 'epistolear' both seem to question the truth of the written document, a fact that will be important to us when we come across a letter again...
39 and 40: No specific references here, but a more general comment on Joyce's references to horse racing. Joyce has shown his interest in the sport of kings previously (see 'Lotus Eaters' in Ulysses). There's almost a sense of repetition here, with a cast of characters remonstrating and sympathising after being unsuccessful on the punt. Except perhaps for W.W. (Winny Widger (39.11)), who 'goes through the card', which, according to McHugh is to get up on every race at the meet.
40.05: 'alcoh alcoho alcoherently' I've previously posted on stutters within the text (motivated much by Chris Eagle's work on same) but I've got to say I think this is the best stutter I've come across so far.
42.09-10: 'I want money. Pleasend.' A moment very reflective of the author, who lived for the best part of his life in a hand to mouth existence. From memory, this was one of JJ's less polite means of requesting a top up from his brother Stanislaus when things were getting tight.
We're meeting on the 8th of May to read from 42.17 to 44.21. As usual all are welcome. Please comment below!
JG
38.23: 'the gossiple so delivered in his epistolear' McHugh tells us that the gospel and the epistle are the opposite sides of a Christian altar. Not really what we were interested in though. I really appreciate Joyce's means of building up layers of allusions miles before the fact; that is, the 'gossiple' and the 'epistolear' both seem to question the truth of the written document, a fact that will be important to us when we come across a letter again...
39 and 40: No specific references here, but a more general comment on Joyce's references to horse racing. Joyce has shown his interest in the sport of kings previously (see 'Lotus Eaters' in Ulysses). There's almost a sense of repetition here, with a cast of characters remonstrating and sympathising after being unsuccessful on the punt. Except perhaps for W.W. (Winny Widger (39.11)), who 'goes through the card', which, according to McHugh is to get up on every race at the meet.
40.05: 'alcoh alcoho alcoherently' I've previously posted on stutters within the text (motivated much by Chris Eagle's work on same) but I've got to say I think this is the best stutter I've come across so far.
42.09-10: 'I want money. Pleasend.' A moment very reflective of the author, who lived for the best part of his life in a hand to mouth existence. From memory, this was one of JJ's less polite means of requesting a top up from his brother Stanislaus when things were getting tight.
We're meeting on the 8th of May to read from 42.17 to 44.21. As usual all are welcome. Please comment below!
JG
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