Finnegans Wake Grappa discussion
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Finnegans Wake
Para and Secundo texts and books
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John Gordon's Finnegans Wake: A Plot Summary
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It has been over a year but I am back at this one. I remember liking it but not too much else about it.
So Gordon opens chapter one by interpreting riverrun as the French Reverrons which in English is "to meet again". He then agrees with Glasheen that the many voyages are "exiles who cross the sea to Ireland". If Joyce is writing the Wake to be biographical this is a great way to begin as he (Joyce) is the dreamer who is remembering his home and wishing to see (or meet) it once again.He then goes on to cite several examples of the first page being Joyce getting out of bed because he needs to releave himself. The Brekeks, Kekkeks, and Koaxs on the top of page 4 are the sounds of car horns from early morning traffic and air raid sirens.
It goes on from there but it is a very different take on things to be sure.
I like the French "to meet again" as a reading of the first word of FW - works perfectly with the recirculation of the whole work and matches the poetic tenor of the final lines. A way a lone a last a loved a long the - to meet again past Eve and Adam's.
" staple of other daysto rise in undress maisonry upstanded (joygrantit!), a waalworth
of a skyerscape of most eyeful hoyth entowerly" 4.34-36
Here we have a definite HCE at the bottom. Not only that it seems to be referring very strongly back to looking upon Howth Castle. In the beginning of this is "staple" being a tall tower and what Gordon points out is the fact that the maisonry is undressed would seem to be a naked tower or one that had not been dressed in stone (maisonry).
The Joyce apartment in Paris looked out upon the Effiel Tower which fits the very description of a naked building or tower. Could the dreamer (Joyce?) be looking out of his window in the morning at the Effiel Tower and remembering Howth back in Dublin?
McHugh also confirms the Effiel Tower in 4.35
Not to mention the crude double (triple/quadruple?) entendre there.
Gordon is becoming more and more amusing as he drifts further and further away from what anyone else who has ever read the wake believes.The famous tour through the museum in I.1 which most agree has to do with Napoleon and Wellington in Gordon's interpretation is actually a scene where the main character (I believe he thinks this is Joyce or posiibly HCE) goes outside, squats over a ditch, and has an explosive bowel movement.
He does back up his theories with examples and they are all sound but Wow! Just wow!
I guess it is the true power of the wake that one man's battle is another man's morning constitutional.
Mimesis is the introductions title and a more interesting and purpose-filled intro I cannot imagine.I had no idea what mimesis actually was but a quick Internet search and it is amazing what has turned up.
"It is quite an interesting take he has on things and he does go into much more detail than either Campbell/Morgan or Tindall on how the Wake connects to Joyce's real life.
Before his chapter breakdowns of the Wake itself he has a few chapters on where things take place and when and who is exactly doing what. "