Chris Eagle on the Wake

Chris Eagle, a member of our reading group, will be presenting a paper, '"Creative Stuttering": On Speech Pathology in Deleuze and Joyce', on Wednesday 5 October from 11 to 12:30. This fits in perfectly with our next meeting, which begins at 1pm.

Abstract and details are below.

The Writing and Society Research Group

at the University of Western Sydney

is pleased to present

Chris Eagle

on “Creative Stuttering” : On Speech Pathology in Deleuze and Joyce’

Wednesday 5 October

11.00am-12.30pm

Building 1.1.119, Bankstown campus, Bullecourt Ave, Milperra

via the Henry Lawson Drive exit of the M5

In his essay “He Stuttered,” Gilles Deleuze lays out three different possibilities for the incorporation of stuttering effects into literary works.  The first is to transcribe stuttered speech directly into the text.  The second is to describe the stutter without actually transcribing it.  With the third possibility, what Deleuze calls “creative stuttering,” the writer need not portray a stuttering character at all since “it is no longer the character who stutters in speech; it is the writer who becomes a stutterer in language.”  As examples of this final and more radical possibility, Deleuze cites the styles of writers like Kafka, Beckett, Artaud, and Melville, among others.  It is safe to say that James Joyce's name is conspicuous in its absence from Deleuze's list of creative stutterers, and in this talk, I will address the extent to which Deleuze's three categories apply to Finnegans Wake.  My discussion of Finnegans Wake will focus primarily on those two scenes in which stuttering is foregrounded, the well-known Cad scene from Book I (pp. 35-36) and the Inquest scene from Book III (pp. 532-534). 

018.17 to 021.04

I'd have to say that yesterday's meeting was the most productive we've had so far—as you can tell by the fact that we basically worked our way through just the  two and a half pages!

We emerge, perhaps still coming out of the 'museyroom', into a world that is suffering under god's punishment after he destroyed the tower of babel, calling forth different languages into the world. Hence we are asked if we are 'abcedminded' (018.17). We are introduced to the 'meandertale' (018.22) which appears to be the eternally present crime of HCE.

Pages 18 and 19 reinforce the sensation of the importance of language, especially noticeable in Joyce's extensive use of alliteration and assonance. In 018.24-29 the repetition of sounds emphasises (according to McHugh) the "Buddhistic 12-fold chain of dependent origination", which, funnily enough, begins and ends with 'ignorance' and implies a cyclical view of human society just like Vico's New Science.

The pre-history of Ireland continues on 19, with HCEs crime made parallel with the invasion of Ireland by the Vikings. We're also given a series of references to St Patrick, who drove the snakes (presumably both metaphorical and literal) out of Ireland. Of course, Joyce's mention of snakes is fitting, considering the ambiguities of HCEs indiscretion, considering what HCE might 'have in [his] handself'. (020.21). The snake, whilst alluding to the serpent of christian theology, may also refer to HCEs characterisation of ALP who is referred to as a 'snaky woman' a page or so later. (020.33)

019.20-30 contains, aside from HCEs crime, a series of numerical references which are still partially unclear to me. Most interesting is  019.20, which we didn't look at in the meeting: 'Axe on thwanks on thracks, anxenwise.' McHugh suggests there is a mathematical clue hidden here with the first three 'ex' sounds producing (x+x+x) and 'axenwise' equalling (x+y). Then, according to McHugh, (and I don't know where he gets the values from), if x=1 and y=36, then (x+x+x)(multipled by)(x+y)(=)111. Then the next sentence 'One by one place one by three dittoh and one before' (019.20-21) seems to produce the 3 and 2 that were crucial to us last time (viz. 013.33 and 014.11). These numbers also replicate the scene in Phoenix Park, which is the site of HCEs indiscretion.

This similarity then reinforces the importance of the parabolic image I was talking about in my last post, which is replicated in the mirror image sentences of 018.33 and 34: 'Here say figurines billycoose arming and mounting. Mounting and arming bellicose figurines see here.'

20 and 21 continue on with the focus on the alphabet, with a dual range of references to Islamic theology and the German language. Joyce manages to slip in 'no more virtue in the alocohoran' (020.9-10), whilst considering Guthenberg's invention (cf. 'Gutenmorg' 020.07).

Finally, as HCEs crime emerges into the world, it appears as if the first iteration of its telling occurs as well. After all: 'eerie whig's a bit of a torytale to tell.' (020.23) {Everyone one's got a bit of a story to tell.} The allusions to whigs and tory's refer, I believe, to Gulliver's main satiric focus in his Travels, although I wonder if there is an application to Irish politics as well. We end with ALP (perhaps having pecked her way to finding a letter) meeting up with HCE on 021.03-04.

Next week we'll read the tale of Jarl van Hoother and the Prankquean, from 021.05 to 024.14. Next meeting 5 October, same time and place, and hopefuly co-inciding with Chris Eagle's paper on the Wake from 11. Check the Writing and Society page, for more details (although this still indicates Chris' paper will be next week).

I'd love to hear your comments, and to use this forum to expand our reading even further. It'd be great if you could 'follow' this blog as well (I believe there's a button for it somewhere!) JG

013.05 to 018.16

We're making some progress! Despite being over-ambitious in trying to read nine pages for this meeting, we did an admirable job to work through almost six.

The pages we looked at encompass what Joyce calls "the pre-history of Ireland" and the meeting of Mutt and Jute, respectively the Irish everyman and the Nordic invader.

13-14 seems to include a significant number of mathematical games, which are not immediately clear. So 013.14 "Dbln. W. K. O. O." hides a pseudo-mathematical pattern. As McHugh points out, if A=1, B=2, C=3 and so on, then DBLN (4+2+12+14) = 32. This then explains the following 'W. K. O. O.' because (23+11+15+15) = 64. So you double 'Dbln' to produce double the value of Dublin. Or something.

This produces further insight if we consider the dates that Joyce uses on 13-14: 1132 AD, 566 AD, a silent point, and the returning, up what I envisage as a parabolic figure, encased in the text. 1132 is double 566, but also includes other items of significance. According to Chris, 3 men and 2 women is the beginning of a society (hence relevant to the pre-history of Ireland) whilst the 11 signifies the beginning of a new society (as Lachlan pointed out, once you count to ten on your fingers you have to begin again). 1132 is also 4 times (x) 283 AD, the year that Finn MacCool died. fweet.org has a lot more to say on the motif of 1132.

I also really enjoyed the allusions to the Tower of Babel. 015.12-27 includes a series of references to the Babylonians, who were so proud of themselves that they sought to build a tower to the heavens. Of course, god didn't like this, and his punishment, aside from destroying the tower, was to scatter the tribes across the earth, and to give each tribe a different language, so that the world would be a confused place (still is...). This sensation is then partially repeated in the following paragraph (and across the dialogue between Mutt and Jute) as languages begin to clash; first with the shift from romantic language portmanteau's to linguistic references from the Low Countries. Just like Mutt and Jute struggle to find a common ground to understand each other.

We concluded with Lou and Miri reading the conversation between Mutt and Jute, which was hilarious.

For full and fair disclosure the Herald re-printed the Guardian's review of the Bowker biography of Joyce. Despite the unhappy headline, it is a more positive review. Find it HERE.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts, please comment below.

Next meeting will be 21 September, same time and place. We'll read from 018.17 to 023.16.

See you there! JG