What do you think of Finnegan's Wake By James Joyce.

[nano-bug]

opinions?

[concordant]

Maybe if I had a Joyce scholar to explain it to me as I read I would.

Seriously, I’ve never gotten past the fifth page or so. Maybe I should try harder next time.

[Gobbo]

j squared is solid.

Haven’t read Finn’s wake though.

[Impenitent]

if finnegan wasn’t dragged behind the boat, he wouldn’t have left a wake…

-Imp

[concordant]

Gobbo, what’s J squared. I’ve never heard of it.

[Gobbo]

James Joyce = J^2 = J Squared.

[concordant]

J squared… and here I thought it was a cleverly named biography or something.

Well if anyone wants to give F.W. a try here’s the first page:

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend 	

of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to
Howth Castle and Environs.
Sir Tristram, violer d’amores, fr’over the short sea, had passen-
core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy
isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor
had topsawyer’s rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse 7
to Laurens County’s gorgios while they went doublin their mumper
all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to
tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a
kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all’s fair in
vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a
peck of pa’s malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory
end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.
The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-
nuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later
on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the
offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan,
erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends
an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes:
and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park
where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since dev-
linsfirst loved livvy.

And I took it from here, if anyone wishes to continue the dance past page one.

trentu.ca/jjoyce/fw-3.htm

[Colinsign]

Never read past the first page of The Wake…a literary experiment par excellence…pure madness…impossible to read…eye sore…

I would love to delve into it deeper = but I fear my life my be too short.

[Peter_Kropotkin]

After spending 6 months reading Joyce’s Ulysses,
I tried to read Finnegan’s and gave up after 10 minutes.
Ulysses was by a long shot the single hardest book I have
ever read and finnegan’s is harder.

Kropotkin

[tentative]

I spent two months reading and deciphering, and three months in a psyche ward getting over it. I’ve read the critiques by those who are supposed to know how to critique and they seemed just as confused as I was. Is it a great literary piece? Yes, but only for a handful of people, and I’m not one of them. Reading Finnegan is much like reading Tristam Shandy. Without a minutely detailed knowledge of all the political and cultural references made, almost impossible to understand.

[Faust]

Yeah, but all of Joyce is to be read aloud. That includes the easily-understood but nearly plotless Dubliners and Portrait. Every once in a while, Joyce writes a sentence that has no better. It’s reason enough to read him. My view is that this is the only reason to read him. He just doesn’t give a fuck. He’s not a writer at all, he’s a musician.

[Colinsign]

Ttrue enough…Joyce is a musician of the word…

Upon the surface Dubliners is actually quite dull - he wrote it in a style of ‘scrupulous meanness’ - at times his writing is so dry and esoteric to be a thoroughly depressing read, but he has insight and a precise pen when it comes to detail turn of phrase…

Uylssess is an impossiblity - but as a language game - as a musical play on words - it is fasinating. I don’t claim to understand it fully. But I appreicate its mastery.