Greetings from a slacker

Well, being back to work and taking a course on the Victorian novel has made Finnegan's Wake even more 'unreadable.' I haven't even had time to think about what I think about this book. Don't despair though. I will be back as soon as my course is finished and I have some time over the winter break to read.

Chatper 1 continued

Immediately after reading the first few pages I went to the Toronto Public Library website and put as many secondary sources on hold as I could find. So right now I am just waiting for them to come in. Over the past week or so I have tried reading a little more but I think I am doing myself a disservice because without some kind of help this book makes me hate myself and James Joyce. The Wake is many things, but a page turner is not one of them.

Chapter 1 pages 3-6

Not every page of the Wake will get as close a reading as the first few. For the most part I will comment on each chapter and look closer at parts that I feel are worth mentioning.

Pages 3-6: WTF is an understatement. I feel like my copy is missing the decoder ring that will help me navigate this thing. (If this is some elaborate subliminal message encouraging readers to drink their Ovaltine I will be very upset.) Here are some highlights:

Longest word: "bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohooredenrenthurnuk!" (3)
(and yes I do feel like a chump for taking the time to type that word correctly because I am pretty sure a cat came up with it while walking on the typewriter)

Most comprehensible sentence:
"(There extend by now one thousand and one stories all told, of the same)" (5).

Best alliteration:
"Hootch is for husbandman handling his hoe" (5).

As far as what this is about I don't know yet. I have a lot of questions though. Like how it was possible for JJ to reread his writing and understand himself. How did anyone edit this? Is this a joke, really?? I think this book would be most enjoyed if read aloud. The sounds made by the words roll off your tongue. If only they also made sense.

From the Introduction: Important to Note Before Beginning the Book Itself

Note: From here on out I shall affectionately refer to this book as the Wake and to James Joyce as JJ.

Although difficult with intense use of a thesaurus, at least the introduction is written in fluent English and was helpful in preparing me for the text itself. Here is what I have gathered so far:

1. This is not an ordinary novel. I need to throw all my preconceptions about what it means to read/understand/enjoy a novel if I am going to not hate myself for taking on this project.

2. This book is a contradiction is many ways. For example, it seems to ignore and have an aversion to the conventions of the English language; while at the same time, it explores and revels in all aspects of that language.

3. With his words Joyce tries to record the aspects of life that there are no words to describe: "That which is beyond language can only be indicated through language" (ix).

4. The Wake is meant to represent the Irish struggle for cultural independence and reverence through language and translation. The question: Does Ireland assert itself as a literary contender in its native tongue (Gaelic), or is it necessary to translate the texts into English to be taken seriously? If so, what is lost or gained in translation? What is lost or gained in yielding to conformity? This is the first aspect of the Wake I find myself relating to: Not just the struggle to find oneself amidst the pressures and expectations of society, but doing it with integrity.

5. There isn't really a story. Darn.

6. The story that does exist is centered around a "Fall" involving a father and his daughter, a park, indecent exposure, and voyeurism. Yikes.

7. It's OK to hate this book. After previewing parts of it, Stanislaus Joyce (JJ's bro) said it was a "rout of drunken words" and that in writing this his brother only wanted to show that he was a "super clever superman with superstyle." Zing.

From the Introduction: Words I don't know

Anodyne
Diachrony
Divagations
Fissiparous
Inchoate
Peripatetic
Postlapsarian
Putative
Shibboleth

I used to bake brownies for my students if I caught them using our vocabulary words outside the classroom in full sentences: "I think I might divigate from 5th period today; that class sucks." I'll bake a whole cake if I catch anyone using any of these words in anyway in my presence.

Pre-Reading

Before I get my hands dirty with the words on the page lets pre-read. (Side note: the water is not flowing in my apartment so my hands are actually already dirty but the back of the book does say it will "conjure up the dark underground worlds of sexuality and dreams," which leads me to believe dirty hands are a must, or at least an added bonus.)

Anyway... there are many copies of this "dazzlingly inventive" novel out there but I happened to purchase the one pictured here. If anyone cares, and so I don't get the Modern Language Association (or James) after me, here is the official works cited entry for this edition:

Joyce, James. Finnegans Wake. London: Penguin Books, 2000.

The Cover: Looks stormy, suggests some unrest, whose is unclear... I am guessing my own. The upper most part of the cloudy sky is brighter, lighter, and thinner in its cloud cover than the lower half of the cover. I feel the image's movement from clear to shadowed/light to dark/calm to stormy does not bode well. For what I am not sure, but in general I am not optimistic - Penguin Modern Classics is laying the pathetic fallacy on thick with this cover. Yikes, I would not want to be caught under this sky; the clouds at the bottom look like the after math of a newly erupted volcano - science projects aside, hot lava raining from the clouds = never good.

The Title: Finnegans Wake. First things first, the lack of punctuation is unsettling. How many Finnegans have died here? How many Finnegans are water skiing? How many Finnegans are being roused from restful (despite the cover) sleep? Stay tuned.

Finnegans Wake

A 50 page introduction, a lengthy suggested additional reading list,and the first letter of the first word on the first page is not a capital (!?): I am very very intimidated but not afraid. I chose to do read this; I want to do this. But why would you do something so time consuming, arduous, and potentially unrewarding you ask. Yes the guy at Book City did look into my eyes with respect and awe when I bought my copy. Yes, I will carry it around in my purse to impress learned pickpockets. And yes, I do expect to grow an inch taller as a result of the literary calcium I will have absorbed by the end of page 628 (I just peeked at said page and... no final period, what am I thinking?). But, the main reason I want to read the most difficult and incomprehensible text I can think of is to see what Finnegans Wake makes of me and what I make of it.