Friday 4 December 2020

3 November 2020, Online reading with the Thursday group

 The reading stopped at "... the sterres be." (624.9)

ALP has been asking her husband to get up as it is morning, saying that she wants to go for a walk with him to Howth. Now she offers an alternative. They could instead go to the coast and watch for the letter, that he has been waiting for, to be cast ashore in the bottle that is riding the waves, bob, boy, bottledby. She had written that letter which was about the man of her dreams (mains of me draims.) Once she met him, she had bottled the letter, screwed and corked it, dropping the bottle with the letter in the ocean at Boston, Mass (rather, Maston, Boss.) She is perhaps thinking of another letter too in which she had written about her hopes. She had buried that letter. In Book 1 (p. 110), we had read about the hen, Belinda of the Dorans, which had found the letter buried in a dump in the park.

Friday 27 November 2020

Thursday, 26 November 2020

 The online reading session stopped at "He's reading his ruffs." (623.20)

There was some discussion about the sentence, Aloof is anoof (623.19). Though the meaning of aloof was naturally clear to everyone, we got stuck with the word anoof. It could not even be identified at first as being a real word. A bit of research showed that anoof is indeed a word, a word in arabic. It means someone who is steady, who cares for others. In fact it is just the opposite of aloof.

What does ALP mean when she says this? Does she mean to tell him that though she is aloof, she, in fact, is anoof?Your guess is as good as mine! This is after all Finnegans Wake.

Wednesday 25 November 2020

Thursday, 19 November 2020

 The online reading session stopped at ". . . to ball you out." (622.24)

Wednesday 11 November 2020

Thursday, 5 November 2020

NOTE: The Monday's reading group has not been coming together since the pandemic hit Switzerland. Since the last week of October 2020, some of us have been participating in the virtual reading sessions offered by the Foundation on Zoom. These Zoom sessions take place on Thursday evenings starting at 19.00h. Participation is by prior registration only. Contact the Foundation if interested. More information is available in the post dated Monday, 18 October 2020.

The reading on 5 November 2020 stopped at "But let them." (620.32)

To learn more about reading Finnegans Wake the article "Fritz Senn and Finnegans Wake" is highly recommended. The article which is actually a transcription of an interview with Fritz Senn is available here!


Thursday 22 October 2020

Monday, 22 October 2020

 At the end of the first (for us) Zoom session, we had reached the sentence ending with

 " . . . opennine knighters."   (618.24)

Monday 19 October 2020

Monday, 18 October 2020

 IMPORTANT:

Please note that

  • All us from the Monday reading group are welcome to participate in the virtual reading group of Finnegans Wake on Zoom. This virtual reading group is the Thursday Finnegans Wake group and has been meeting on Zoom for the last couple of months. As this group has now reached about the place in the book* where we had stopped in March, we can also participate and read the book to the end. 
  • The reading group meets on Zoom at 19h every Thursday evening.
  • Participation is by prior registration only. To register contact the Foundation. 
    • eMail: info@joycefoundation.ch
    • Tel: 044 211 83 01
* Info on where the Thursday group stopped reading is available on the blog https://thursdayswake.blogspot.com

Sunday 15 March 2020

Sunday, 15 March 2020

IMPORTANT:

Please note that due to the Coronavirus spreading in Switzerland, the reading sessions of Finnegans Wake on Mondays are cancelled starting Monday, 16th March until further notice.

Tuesday 10 March 2020

Thursday 20 February 2020

Monday, 17 February 2020, Pages 609 - 611

The reading stopped at "... (obs of epiwo)." (611.24)

Last week we stopped at "The while we, we are waiting, we are waiting for. Hymn." Actually we (they, the Irish?, the world?) are (were) waiting for him (St. Patrick)! He came to Ireland in the 5th century. That he came is explained here in the conversation between Muta and Juva, whom we had met earlier on page 16 incarnated as Jute and Mutt. Typically another arrival is reported here to complicate matters. Of the arrival of the Archdruid/Bulkily/Balkelly/Burkeley. Buckley, we remember as the one who shot the Russian general. Berkeley is the 17/18th century Irish philosopher. So the pages have much of Berkeley's Theory of Vision woven into them. So the connection of the happenings of the 5th and 18th centuries is perhaps a way to show that history happens in cycles, as Vico said.

To me personally, the most interesting sentence on these pages is at the top of page 610: O horild haraflare! McHugh interprets this as 'Harald Fair Hair, the 1st king of Norway.' BUT, when we heard that ild means fire in Danish, the word haraflare took a totally different meaning for me. Hara is another name of the Hindu god, Shiva. He is also represented as Nataraja, the king of dance. Nataraja holds a flame in his top left hand, and a small drum in his top right hand. With the flame (fire) he destroys the world, with the waves of sound emanating from his drum, he recreates the world. Thus he is a - perhaps the - symbol of destruction and creation, of history and civilizations happening in cycles. It is this idea of Vicovian cycle that is after all behind Finnegans Wake!

11th century Chola bronze from the Met, NY
The Nataraja icon is perhaps the most well known statue of India. For example, Carl Sagan (1934-1966), the astronomer at Cornell University uses Nataraja as the inner cover illustration of his 1980 book, Cosmos. The neuroscientist, V. S. Ramachandran, Professor at the University of California San Diego, director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition, discusses this icon in his 2010 book, The Tell-Tale Brain. He refers to it as the symbol of cosmic dance!

Sunday 16 February 2020

Monday, 10 February 2020, Pages 607 - 609

Stopped our reading at "... we are waiting for. Hymn." (609.23)

The night is almost over. From sleep we are passing. The morning is here. When the messenger of the risen sun will appear, we shall know more. We are waiting for him.

Sunday 9 February 2020

Monday, 3 February 2020, Pages 606 - 607

We stopped at ". . . bowlers a rest!" (607, last line)

These pages are good examples of how the same words/sentences can be interpreted differently. It was clear to me that the sentence we started our reading today (The first exploder to make his ablations . . . /606.23 ) refers to HCE and the incidence in the Phoenix park. We had read of a trial on what HCE did/didn't do in the Phoenix park. But another interpretation was aired in the room that it refers to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Support to this interpretation is said to be lent by the sentence starting with "He comes out of the soil  . . . " (606.28). The meaning of the name 'Adam' is given here.

Joseph Campbell explains lines 607.7 to 607.16 thus:
"There are four town clocks which show Jacob (with pipe) and Esau (with borrowed dish) and then a procession of the apostles, at every hours of changeover; this hourly puppet procession represents the first and last riddle of the universe. It is the signal for Finnegan's wake, for the old Lord of Chapelizod to seek the shades of his retirement, and for young Chappielassies to tease their partners."

Friday 31 January 2020

Monday, 27 January 2020, Pages 604 - 606

The reading stopped at "Ah, fairypair!" (606.23)

These passages have to do with Kevin, of increate God the servant, . . .  a filial fearer . . . It describes in quite the circuitous manner typical of Finnegans Wake how he arose in celibate matrimony (the meaning of celibate matrimony beats me!) at matin chime and with a portable altare cum balneo (altar with a bathtub) reached/rowed to a lakelet where he built a small hut (honeybeehivehut) in which he dug a pit of the size of a seventh part of one full fathom and sat in the water meditating about baptism.

You can decipher more of these passages by reading this!

Saturday 25 January 2020

Monday, 20 January 2020, Pages 603 - 604

We stopped at ". . . what's that, what." (604.21)

How do you interpret the sentence, Bring us this days our maily bag? Apart from its biblical allusion, is it simply a way of asking Kevin, who is actually Shaun the postman, to bring us our mail/daily news/juicy news? Because we soon read, for instance, that hardworking straight walking . . . officials [are] butting their heads to the pillow . . . with the alter girl . . . and that the man was giddy on letties (ladies) . . .

The question is, amongst all these happenings, what is Coemghem (Kevin) doing? The vine has borne fruits but the public hatches (a hatch is an opening) are not yet open. The would be drinkers (besoakers) loiter on because they cannot yet enter. Irrespective of that the greek Sideral Reulthway (Railway) will soon be starting. None of this explains what Kevin is up to. Hopefully we shall find out about it in the next reading session.

Sunday 19 January 2020

Monday, 13 January 2020, Pages 601 - 603

Today's reading stopped at "... egglips of the sunsoonshine." (603.2)

Much of these pages have to do with Keavn (Kevin aka Shaun the post man) and the 29 biddies to whom he had once earlier given a moral talk.

[Joseph Campbell describes the coming of Kevin as follows:
"We now come to the first form that is to issue pristine from the life-fertile waters. It will be fair with the perfection of an as yet unbroken harmony. Luminous, first fruit of the womb of night, it will sit like Brahma on the golden lotus that blossoms from the navel of Vishnu*, the cosmic dreamer. Pure, with the innocence of sainthood, balanced in all virtues, the first child of the new aeon will be radiant with the dew of the dawn. . . . Who is he but saintly Kevin?"**
* See the photograph of the painting posted on 23 December 2019.
** A Skeleton Kex to Finnegans Wake, P. 281-2]

The idea is that  in the new order of things, in the new aeon of the universe, the father (HCE) will make place for the son (Kevin) to take over his place. As the dawn breaks, he is to establish a new land, near the Great Lakes (greyt lack), on the banks of Lake Erie (under wasseres of Erie). The 29 girls (innocent dirly dirls) sing a song that he should come forth (He. Only he.) The 29 churches of Dublin ring their bells: Prayfulness! Prayfulness!  (Note that 3 names are missing in the list given in the book.)

This moment is interrupted by the news reported by "Mike" Portland, an independent reporter: Pipe in Dream Cause, Uncovers Pub History. The Outrage, at Length. . . . and so on.

Friday 10 January 2020

Monday, 6 January 2020, Pages 599 - 601

The reading stopped at "Pfaf!" (601.3)

Apologies for not being able to post any summary of what was read. Hope to make it up next week!