by Ted Gioia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, don\u2019t be afraid of the big bad Wake. Reading it is an
adventure, not a punishment. Consider it a rite of passage,
or as the literary equivalent of one of those extreme sports
they put on ESPN2 after midnight. It isn’t supposed to be easy,
but with the right frame of mind, it can be enjoyed. Even if you
fail to complete the course, you can walk away proud and with
something to show from the experience\u2014if only a Joycean
evocation of a thunderclap (see below). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did I say it wouldn’t be easy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My favorite Finnegans Wake<\/em> anecdote: On Good Friday in Gilbert concurred, but noted it was a “dog of a tongue”\u2014 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The good news is that there are still a few thousand native 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, it won\u2019t be easy. But a smart explorer always comes 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The single best piece of advice for reading\u00a0Finnegans Wake<\/em>: 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Definitely listen to Joyce reading a section from\u00a0Finnegans 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also consider going for group therapy. \u00a0No, not\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0kind of 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are two ways of approaching this book. You can Both of these approaches can be pushed too far. If you “There are no nonsense syllables in Joyce!” Joseph 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n James Joyce admitted as much. He claimed that his book Unfortunately our progress is slowing down. And I suspect 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My advice is to take a balanced approach. Do some 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also beware of searching too hard for hidden meanings in 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What happens when people scrutinize this text too closely? 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And here\u2019s the Joycean thunderclap I promised above. There Bladyughfoulmoecklenburgwhurawhorascortastrumpapornanen- Fortunately Joyce built various \u2018failsafe\u2019 mechanisms into For example, if you don’t understand the symbolism of In fact, the book doesn’t come to an end. It just connects 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joyce’s zeal for repetition and variation provide the key to 16. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When all else fails, try reading the word backwards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Doog kcul!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Bishop, one of the more skilled explorers in the Joseph Campbell breaks down this process into three Brooding is the most important part….<\/p>\n\n\n\n 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, even when you have finished your adventure, there will “Evilling chimbes is smutsick rivulverblott but thee hard Then again, when it comes to Finnegans Wake<\/em>, many by Ted Gioia 1. First, don\u2019t be afraid of the big bad Wake. Reading it is anadventure, not a punishment. Consider it a rite of passage,or as the literary equivalent of one of those extreme sportsthey put on ESPN2 after midnight. It isn’t supposed to be easy,but with the right frame of mind, it can<\/p>\n
the year 1938, the writer Jacques Mercanton paid a call on
his friend James Joyce. He found the author deep in
conference with lit scholar Stuart Gilbert\u2014Joyce was
distrubed that a passage in Finnegans Wake was “still not
obscure enough.” The solution: Joyce decided to add
some words from the language of the Samoyedic peoples
of Siberia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a punning reference to the Samoyed breed of canine.
Joyce, never to be outdone with a pun, agreed that the
language was indeed a “bitch.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
speakers of Samoyed in the world. Perhaps you will be
sitting next to one when you get to that part of the book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
with a toolkit. Look in the sidebar (or click\u00a0here) to find out
how I equipped myself for my exploration of\u00a0Finnegans Wake<\/em>.
Every adventurer needs to decide how much baggage to
bring along. \u00a0If you want to travel light, I would simply pack
a copy of\u00a0William York Tindall’s\u00a0guide to\u00a0Finnegans Wake<\/em>. \u00a0
It will fit in a pocket and won’t slow you down. \u00a0I needed
more tools, and so came with a lot more equipment. \u00a0
How adventurous are you? \u00a0How much support do you need?
Only you can decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
read it aloud<\/em>. \u00a0A friend gave me this tip before I started, and I
stuck with it for the entire course of the book. I don’t usually
read prose aloud, and there’s only one other long book that I’ve
read aloud from front to back (with the exception of those\u00a0Harry
Potter\u00a0and\u00a0Narnia\u00a0books I read to my children when they were
growing up), namely the King James version of the\u00a0Bible<\/em>. \u00a0\u00a0
Reading\u00a0Finnegans Wake<\/em>\u00a0aloud not only brings out the
visceral flow of the work, but it also unlocks many hidden
meanings. Joyce often disguises his puns and allusions
with peculiar spellings and verbal distortions. \u00a0Sometimes
these are hidden on the printed page, but are made obvious
when spoken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wake<\/em>. \u00a0You can find it on\u00a0YouTube<\/em>\u00a0(here’s the link).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
group therapy, but to one of the many\u00a0Wake<\/em>\u00a0cohorts where
you can \u00a0join other adventurers in reading and discussing
the book.\u00a0Here\u2019s a link to the online directory\u00a0of\u00a0Finnegans
Wake<\/em>\u00a0reading groups \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As you can see, you will find daring
literary explorers everywhere from Adelaide (Australia) to
Zurich (Switzerland).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
take an analytical approach, and focus your energy on
unlocking the many hidden meanings. Or you can view
Finnegans Wake<\/em> as a kind of music, and get carried
away on the flow of the words. As you can hear in
Joyce’s recorded reading, he emphasizes the music,
delivering the text in a sing-song chant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
get obsessed with unlocking the meaning of the text, you
will never finish the book, because even the most
determined Joyceans haven\u2019t come close to exhausting
the layers of hidden signification in this book. On the
other hand, if you just treat Finnegans Wake<\/em> as a melody
or chant, you will miss the ingenuity and intelligence that
Joyce packed into his prose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Campbell assures us. \u00a0I’m not sure I would go quite so far.
James Joyce would have been the last author to dismiss
nonsense. \u00a0Even Campbell, although he made his best effort
with his book\u00a0A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake<\/em>\u00a0to discern
Joyce’s intentions, frequently must have despaired over
the many opaque passages. But after 75 years of textual
scrutiny, we can confidently assert that Joyce inserted levels
of signification in this book that no one was likely to
comprehend in his own lifetime. And we can safely disregard
the verdict of Joyce’s friend-and-adversary Oliver Gogarty,
who declared that his former roommate had perpetrated “a
gigantic hoax…one of the most enormous leg-pulls in history.”
Joyce labored over this text for seventeen years, and he
put far more into\u00a0Finnegans Wake<\/em>\u00a0than anyone has yet
extracted from it. \u00a0He had confidence that \u00a0this novel would
be studied by later scholars, and deliberately put in
ingredients that would challenge and delight them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
would “keep the critics busy for three hundred years.” Okay,
we’ve been at it for 75 years\u2014so we are 25% of the way
through the project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
that Joyce put a few mysteries in the book that no one will
ever notice, let alone solve, even with infinite time and
Google’s best search algorithms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
research before tackling each chapter in Finnegans Wake<\/em>.
And then try to make the actual reading of the chapter into a
kind of musical performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
this text. Some people will tell you that Joyce anticipated
everything from television to atomic power in this novel.
If you scrutinize it too much, you will be convinced that
Joyce predicted Twitter (see page 9, line 16 of Finnegans
Wake<\/em>), as well as Google (page 620, line 22), email (page
575, line 16) and friends with benefits (page 360, line 16).
Although, in the latter instance, be aware that Joyce has
trouble distinguishing between secret hookups and the
Egyptian deity Sekhet Hetep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Check out this collection of possible symbols and allusions
in the first sentence of the novel. As you will see, scholars
have seized on dozens of “clues” in this sentence. Clearly
Joyce intended many, perhaps most of these, but you will
also get a sense of how you can overreach in finding patterns
and meanings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
are ten of these thunderings in Finnegans Wake<\/em>, but this is the
salacious one, suitable for entertaining bohemian and louche
party guests:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
nykocksapastippatappatupperstrippuckputtanach.
<\/em>14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
his text. So if you miss something the first time around, you
will get another chance to grapple with it later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wellington and his monument in chapter one, you will get
another chance at the end of the book\u2014and along the way,
you will find references to Wellinghof, Wellingthund,
Wellingtonia, wellingtonorseher, Wei-Ling-Taou,
wheywingingly, Whiddington, etc. etc. Sooner or later,
you will figure it out. If you didn’t grok the story of Buckley
and the Russian general at its first telling, you might latch
on to it the second, third, fourth or fifth time it enters the text.
If you struggle with the conversation between Mutt and Jute
in chapter one, it will get re-echoed in later dialogues
between Butt and Taff and Muta and Juva. And even if
you still don\u2019t comprehend their conversation at that point,
you can take some comfort in knowing that they didn’t either
\u2014see, among other things, Joyce is playing on the idea of
a dialogue between the deaf and the mute. If you can\u2019t figure
out the details of the hero’s scandalous indiscretion in a
public park the first time around, it will get told and retold
many times in the pages ahead. If you miss a pun, there
are still thousands more waiting for you before Finnegans
Wake<\/em> comes to an end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
back to the beginning. So the truest statement once can
make about this novel is: Whether you understand it or not,
it will come back again. To some extent, that\u2019s the ‘meaning’
of the book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
unlocking the more difficult passages in Finnegans Wake<\/em>.
When lost in one of these apparently impenetrable sections
of the novel, look for the recurring signposts. When Joyce
wants to call your attention to something, he doesn’t just
mention it once, but will usually insert several telltale words,
puns or phrases. These will usually be clustered together in
close proximity, and juxtaposed with other recurring symbols.
With each repetition in the book, these markers take on
deeper meaning and new associations. Once you under-
stand their bearing on the passage in question, you will notice
other resonances that you missed at first. Puns and wordplay
will become obvious. The meaning of previously obscure
phrases will become clear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
deeper caverns of Finnegans Wake<\/em>, offers similar advice.
Don\u2019t read this novel “linearly and literally,” he suggests.
Instead, “we interpret it as we might interpret a dream, by
eliciting from the absurd murk a network of overlapping
and associatively interpenetrating structures.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
parts: “(1) discovering the key word or words, (2) defining
one or more of them, so that the drift of Joyce’s thought
becomes evident, (3) brooding awhile over a paragraph,
to let the associations running out from the key centers
gradually animate the rest of the passage.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
still be terrain left unexplored. There is always a deeper
cavern still hidden in darkness. If you can decipher the
easier passages, you can go for harder ones. And if you
master those, you will find still more formidable passages
awaiting your interpretation. Eventually you might even be
able to answer Joyce’s question when he asks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
casted thereass pigstenes upann Congan’s shootsmen
in Schot- tenhof, ekeascent?” (Finnegans Wake<\/em>, page 538).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
questions are best left unanswered. Some, in fact, are
a real bitch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"