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
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
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