Thursday 23 November 2017

Monday, 20 November 2017, Pages 427 - 430

We finished chapter 1 of book 3, and have started with chapter 2 of book 3, reading till
"... allo misto posto .... " (430.10)

Shaun, who was bouncing in a barrel down the river Liffey, talking about his brother Shem to the 29 girls assembled on the banks, simply disappaled and vanesshed (disappeared and vanished) at the end of chapter 1.

He was just gaogaogaone! (gone!) And the night fell. And the stellas were shinings. And the earthnight strewed aromatose. (The stars were shining. The night strewed fragrance.) According to McHugh (Annotations to Finnegans Wake), Joyce was inspired for this passage by the aria, 'E lucean le stelle e ollezzava la terra...' sung by the painter Cavaradossi just before his execution by the soldiers of Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's opera, Tosca. Listen to Jonas Kaufmann singing the aria - an unforgettable experience - here, and read the lyrics in English translation and in original Italian here.

Though Shaun is supposed to have been gaogaogaone at the end of chapter 1, he is back as Jaunty Jaun as chapter 2 starts. He has started walking down the road, and has stopped at the weir by Lazar's Walk to loosen his heavy shoes. He is propped up against a warden of the peace, one comestabulish Sigurdsen (constable Sigurdsen), who looks like he has been buried upright like the Osbornes (don't know who these are!), a result of having finished on his own a bottle (monopolized bottle).  It is then he sees the 29 girls (hedge daughters) once again, who are keeping time with their 58 pedalettes.

Who are these 29 girls? One interpretation is that they are Shaun's sister Issy and her 28 classmates from St. Brigid's School. They also interpreted to represent one day each of the month February + 1 for the leap year. Why February? Because February 1st is the feast day of St. Brigid! Why St. Brigid? Because she is one of the patron saints of Ireland!


Sunday 19 November 2017

Monday, 13 November 2017, Pages 425 - 427

We read as far as "Ah, mean!" (427.8)

(It would be interesting to list all the ways Joyce uses to say 'Amen!')

Recalling what has been happening so far, we are in the dream world of Earwicker, who currently has been dreaming of his elder son, Shaun. Shaun is talking a lot, is giving almost a sermon to the girls assembled on the bank of the Liffey, down which he is rolling buoyantly backwards in a barrel, via Rattigan's corner ... in the direction of Mac Auliffe's, the crucet-house. (McHugh explains in his Annotations to Finnegans Wake that Sitric Mac Aulaf (Olaf?) gave the ground for the Christ College Cathedral in Dublin.)

Not only is Shaun's talk very negative about his brother Shem, he also praises himself quite a bit. (... it is an openear secret, ..., how I am extremely ingenuous at the clerking even with my badily left....). He considers himself the ormuzd (i.e, Ahuramazda, the Persian divinity of light) where as Shem is the hairyman (i.e, Ahirman, the Persian divinity of darkness and evil).

We are after all in the world of dreams!

Tuesday 7 November 2017

Monday, 6 November 2017, Pages 423 - 425

We stopped at "How's that for Shemese?" (425.3)

Shaun is still full of vitriol. He is telling the girls about the scandal concerning his father. Nobody really knows what exactly HEC did in the Phoenix Park. All we know is that HEC, two girls and three soldiers were there. Shaun says that after HEC returned home, while his wife, kept squealing down..., Shem laid out his litterery bed and noted down all that was said.

(Joseph Campbell says that this paragraph (p. 422 - 424) is a parody of Joyce's life.)

When the girls ask Shaun to tell them why Shem is excommunicated, why does he talk about his brother so, the answer Shaun gives is 'root language.' (By the way the thunder word that Shaun then pronounces - on page 424 - is made up of 101 letters, and not 100!)

Joseph Campbell comes to our rescue once again with the following explanation of this paragraph:
"Shaun's reason for hating Shem seems peculiar, even mysterious, until we probe deeply into its implication. The 'root language' of Shem is filled with thunder echoes of the divine judgement. Shem's words are the hammer of Thor which could destroy the civilisation of which Shaun is the representative. Joyce is here following Vico's notion that all language has its origin in man's effort to formulate the meaning of the primal thunderclap. Shem's language threatens to make that meaning clear, and is thus fraught with judgment on Shaunian society. Shaun's fear of Shem's language shows that he, Shaun, very well knows the secret and power of his brother."

References:
1.  'A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake' by Joseph Campbell, 2005 edition, Footnotes on P. 266
2. Read here about Vico's work, The New Science.
- Of particular relevance regarding the thunderclap is the section, 4. f. The Three Principles of History: Religion, Marriage and Burial 
3. Here is an interesting blog article on the thunder words of Finnegans Wake.



Saturday 4 November 2017

Monday, 30 October 2017, Pages 422 - 423

We stopped at "... muddyasss ribalds." (422.18)

Shaun is being quite rude about his brother Shem, who has penned the letter that Shaun tried to deliver. The girls listening to all this, ask him, whether he has not used language ten times worse than the pen marks and with such hesitancy by your ... brother? This makes Shaun even more voluble about the deficiencies of his brother and announces, 'If he waits till I buy him a mosselman's present!' (Mussulman's present: ... The pig!)

The girls then request Shaun to unravel the letter in his own sweet words, with yet another fable from Aesop.

Shaun's answer hints at the rumours of Phoenix Park scandal that has been following his father, Earwicker.

(Note: Reading Joseph Campbell's rendering of these pages help a lot to unravel the sentences and get  at their meaning!)