We stopped the reading at "... as per periodicity; ..." (577.20)
HCE may be as hale as his ardouries, she (ALP) may be as verve as her veines, but as Joseph Campbell writes "the passage ... (p. 572 - 76) is probably the strangest and most complicated in the book*." How true this statement is!
What we have read makes us realise that we are witnessing some kind of bizarre drama in the dream world, in the subconscious state of HCE's mind. On the previous pages there was an account of incest and many kinds of permissiveness in the family. This drama in which the family assumed Roman identities finally unfolded as a court case. This is apparent on one level of reading.
On another level of reading - according to Campbell - these pages explore the history of Christianity in the British Isles. In his words, "The Irish Catholic wife (now called Ann Doyle) is found to be the junior partner of a great corporation (the Roman Catholic Church) known as Tangos, Limited. The senior partner of this firm ... is variously known ... as Brerfuchs, Breyfawkes, Brakeforth, and Breakfast. The junior partner (Ireland) is variously known as Warren, Barren, Ann Doyle, Sparrem, and Wharrem. Now it seems that a rival firm (the Anglican Church), known as Panto, Limited, was formed ..."
The strangeness is obvious in that on these pages both conjugal love and Christian faith are simulaneously examined, explored, mimicked, turned and twisted till one is left exhausted at the end of reading.
*A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, p. 270
HCE may be as hale as his ardouries, she (ALP) may be as verve as her veines, but as Joseph Campbell writes "the passage ... (p. 572 - 76) is probably the strangest and most complicated in the book*." How true this statement is!
What we have read makes us realise that we are witnessing some kind of bizarre drama in the dream world, in the subconscious state of HCE's mind. On the previous pages there was an account of incest and many kinds of permissiveness in the family. This drama in which the family assumed Roman identities finally unfolded as a court case. This is apparent on one level of reading.
On another level of reading - according to Campbell - these pages explore the history of Christianity in the British Isles. In his words, "The Irish Catholic wife (now called Ann Doyle) is found to be the junior partner of a great corporation (the Roman Catholic Church) known as Tangos, Limited. The senior partner of this firm ... is variously known ... as Brerfuchs, Breyfawkes, Brakeforth, and Breakfast. The junior partner (Ireland) is variously known as Warren, Barren, Ann Doyle, Sparrem, and Wharrem. Now it seems that a rival firm (the Anglican Church), known as Panto, Limited, was formed ..."
The strangeness is obvious in that on these pages both conjugal love and Christian faith are simulaneously examined, explored, mimicked, turned and twisted till one is left exhausted at the end of reading.
*A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, p. 270
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