Monday, 30 July 2018, Pages 481 - 483

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

As it is the annual workshop week at the Foundation

there will be no reading of FW on 6th August.

We shall continue with our reading of Finnegans Wake

on 13th August 2018.

We have stopped at ".... fifteen primes." (483.21)

The four old men are still poking the sleeping Shaun with questions. They also ask each other questions. After having posed many questions to Shaun about his father, they are now after his relationship with Shem.

The sentence, 'Me das has or oreils. Piercey, piercey, piercey, piercey!' is interesting as it hints at the myth of Midas, the miserly kind, and at Persse O'Reilly which is close to 'peace oreille' in French, meaning earwig. The connection between Midas and HCE becomes 'clear' after reading the story of Midas and his donkey's ears!

Monday, July 23, 2018, Pages 479 - 481

Our reading stopped at "... Mushame, Mushame!" (481.26)*

We are in chapter 3 of book 3, and, in my opinion, the opaqueness of the work has reached new heights! It is extremely challenging to understand who is talking to whom, and what is being said without the help of some secondary literature. For example, Joseph Campbell's 'A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake'.

At the beginning of this chapter, we found Yawn (aka Shaun), exhausted, grandly spawning across a hillock in County Meath. He was visited by four claymen, representatives of the general public, and of the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. (In fact we had met these Four earlier, for instance, as the Four Old Men in the pub and as the Four Massores, Mattatias, Marusias, Lucanias, Jokinias (Chapter 1, Book 2). These four now hold inquests and question Yawn about himself, about his 'relationship to the old criminal of the past.'** This refers to that incidence in the Phoenix park in which HCE is said to have been involved. What happens on the pages we read last week and today, deals with the questions asked by the four claymen and Yawn's answers to the same.

* Mesdames, Monsiers! (according to McHugh)
** Joseph Campbell, First page of chapter III

Monday, July 16, 2018, Pages 477 - 479

The last reading stopped at "... ab laut!" (479.33)

Monday, July 9, 2018, Pages 475 - 477

The last reading stopped at "... Hubba's up!" (477.10)