Hi all! Back to our wicked ways, this time not only failing to get through our allotted pages, but failing even to end neatly at the end of a paragraph. (Oh well {to paraphrase Beckett}, ever tried, ever failed, try again, fail again, fail better!)
53.28 'best of redpublicans, at Eagle Cock Hostel' The political framework of FW and of HCE appears to be clarified (at least a little) in this section. We know that the Joyce's (father and son) sympathised with Parnell and venerated him as the best of Irish heroes (cf. 'Ivy Day in the Committee Room' from Dubliners and Ellman's biography). Previously, it had appeared as if HCE (and in general the male characters of the Wake) had a conflicted view of Irish nationalism. You'll remember that around 49 we encountered a character who fought with the British in the Crimean. I imagined that this was the fate of HCE; not just to betray his wife and family, but to betray his country as well. Yet, if HCE is the "best of republicans" we can maintain hope for him yet!
53.31 'starchboxsitting in the pit' Of course, I feel contradicted only lines later, with Joyce's allusion to Charles X's reported statement that he, "like all Frenchmen, only have a place in the pit". Whether HCEs transgressions approximate the French disregard for the proletariat it appears that someone is doomed.
Plenty of stutters to note: 53.36 'Chee chee cheers' and 'crow cru cramwells'; 54.03 'wowhere'; 54.28 'ohoh open'; 55.16 'pippa pointing'.
Some great number play to note on 54 as well. Aside from another invocation of 1132 ('Millecientotrigintadue', 54.120) discussed previously here, Joyce also identifies Halley's Comet as a mark of certainty, for it inevitably appears every seventy-six years ('like sixes and seventies as eversure as Halley's comet', 54.07).
55.22-7 For me the most exciting of passages, although not necessarily the clearest. We begin with 'Cycloptically', which immediately suggests to me cyclicity (Vico, eternal return, and so on). Yet at the same time, the Cyclops is evoked, no surprise considering the Greek references in the preceding pages. The cyclops, however, doesn't suggest repetition to me (perhaps the labyrinth is a possibility?). Joyce, only a few lines later, performs this cyclicity, describing how 'the clad pursue the bare, the bare the green, the green the frore, the frore the cladagain, as their convoy wheeled encirculingly abound the gigantig's lifetree', (55.25-7). This appears a primal performance of the simultaneous cyclicity and change that the eternal return (and Vico's ricorso) enacts. Conveniently, a bracketed interjection erupts lines later, admonishing us for not recognising 'repetition!' (55.29)
Comments and thoughts warmly welcomed. Thanks also to fweet for their nod and for directing some traffic this way.
We're meeting next on the Tuesday the 17th of July at 1pm to read from 55.30 to 58.23. Writing and Society will have moved to Building 3, so I'll update new room details when they come to hand. JG
Thursday 28 June 2012
Tuesday 19 June 2012
050.33 to 053.06
Greetings all! A rare meeting in which we actually read what we said we would...
As usual, the Wake served up to us another iteration of 'the haardly creditable edventyres of the Haberdasher, the two Curchies and the three Enkelchums in their Bearskin ghoats'. (51.13-5)
The section transformed from the theatrical (and musical) of the beginning of chapter three, Joyce incorporating the lines of two songs from Percy French (at 50.33-6), before becoming, more formally, the filming, broadcasting and televising we were anticipating.
I got the sense that HCE isn't the most comfortable in front of the camera... Aside from the fact that he appears to adopt 'the shape of the average human cloudyphiz' (50.35 to 51.01), which makes it very difficult to 'idendifine the individuone' (51.06), HCE also appears to be sensitive about having any of his faces on camera at all. The Spanish lines (52.14-6) poke fun at our man, and perhaps at the filmic medium as well.
51.21-27 clarifies this a little. HCE, in beginning to provide the 'fully armed explanation' (51.23-4), is simultaneously revealed for the chamaeleon-like abilities he has. He is a 'native of the sisterisle', but at the same time he has the 'ex-race eyes, lokil calour and lucal odour which are said to have been average clownturkish'. How ever many iterations we read we still know that HCE is on the nose!
Joyce's representation of HCEs appearance on camera doesn't appear to depart radically from the general presentation of the narrative as we have encountered it so far, unsurprising for a text that departs radically (in so many ways) from the conventions of language and the novel. There is a brief suggestion , however, that Joyce is aware of the radical advances that film allows for the arts. HCE (on 52.06-8) '[h]aving reprimed his repeater and resiteroomed his timespiece His Revenances, with still a life or two to spare' begs for compassion. The camera, however, is not the most compassionate of devices. One "shoots" a film (along with so many more martial metaphors (cf. Kittler in Gramophone, Film, Typewriter) which explains the merging of temporal and martial allusions within this section (especially the 'repeater' being glossed by McHugh as both watch and firearm). Further, the film allows the character to live in another temporal realm, and simultaneously to occupy a new created time and to exist forever in film. Bit of a confused thought I know...
And if film allows the creation of multiple times it also facilitates the construction of multiple worlds, hence the invocation of 'probable words, possibly said' (52.32).
We're meeting next Wednesday (27 June) at 2 pm to read 53.07 56.19. Onwards with the 'humphriad'! (53.09)
As usual, the Wake served up to us another iteration of 'the haardly creditable edventyres of the Haberdasher, the two Curchies and the three Enkelchums in their Bearskin ghoats'. (51.13-5)
The section transformed from the theatrical (and musical) of the beginning of chapter three, Joyce incorporating the lines of two songs from Percy French (at 50.33-6), before becoming, more formally, the filming, broadcasting and televising we were anticipating.
I got the sense that HCE isn't the most comfortable in front of the camera... Aside from the fact that he appears to adopt 'the shape of the average human cloudyphiz' (50.35 to 51.01), which makes it very difficult to 'idendifine the individuone' (51.06), HCE also appears to be sensitive about having any of his faces on camera at all. The Spanish lines (52.14-6) poke fun at our man, and perhaps at the filmic medium as well.
51.21-27 clarifies this a little. HCE, in beginning to provide the 'fully armed explanation' (51.23-4), is simultaneously revealed for the chamaeleon-like abilities he has. He is a 'native of the sisterisle', but at the same time he has the 'ex-race eyes, lokil calour and lucal odour which are said to have been average clownturkish'. How ever many iterations we read we still know that HCE is on the nose!
Joyce's representation of HCEs appearance on camera doesn't appear to depart radically from the general presentation of the narrative as we have encountered it so far, unsurprising for a text that departs radically (in so many ways) from the conventions of language and the novel. There is a brief suggestion , however, that Joyce is aware of the radical advances that film allows for the arts. HCE (on 52.06-8) '[h]aving reprimed his repeater and resiteroomed his timespiece His Revenances, with still a life or two to spare' begs for compassion. The camera, however, is not the most compassionate of devices. One "shoots" a film (along with so many more martial metaphors (cf. Kittler in Gramophone, Film, Typewriter) which explains the merging of temporal and martial allusions within this section (especially the 'repeater' being glossed by McHugh as both watch and firearm). Further, the film allows the character to live in another temporal realm, and simultaneously to occupy a new created time and to exist forever in film. Bit of a confused thought I know...
And if film allows the creation of multiple times it also facilitates the construction of multiple worlds, hence the invocation of 'probable words, possibly said' (52.32).
We're meeting next Wednesday (27 June) at 2 pm to read 53.07 56.19. Onwards with the 'humphriad'! (53.09)
Thursday 7 June 2012
048.01 to 050.32
Greetings. We've graduated onto the third chapter of the Wake, simultaneously cracking the fifty page mark! A few thoughts from me on what was at first glance a relatively straightforward section but on closer examination proved confusingly opaque.
The first part of chapter three sees HCEs "version of the story filmed, televised and broadcast" (lii). The short part we read for this meeting didn't necessarily get us up to those events, but we did observe that Joyce was laying the groundwork for an exploration of the theatre, and of performance. Thus, from the clearing of the throat on 48.01 to 48.04, the theatre is invoked, with allusions to theatres and performances in Dublin.
As the reader has worked out by now, one of the main concerns of FW is an analysis of some objective idea of truth. I wouldn't necessarily assume that the theatre would be the best means of conning the truth out of someone; however, the theatre here (and the performance) is doubled with the idea of the courtroom (in which, presumably, one is likelier to have easier access to the truth).
Thus, 48.07 'Vergobretas' occured to me as thematically crucial to the pages we read. A "vergobret" according to McHugh was a chief magistrate in Gaul, invoking the idea of the court. Simultaneously, 'vergobretas' includes "veritas" the Latin for "truth". This then leads me to the Latin phrase "in vino veritas", "in wine, truth". This appears relevant (at least to me) because of the series of drinkers and drunkards we've encountered in the previous pages. Perhaps the combination of performance and the courts creates the conditions for the truth to finally come out about HCEs indiscretion ('which, thorough readable to into from and, is from tubb to buttom all falsetissues, antilibellous and nonactionable' (48.17-18)). Nonetheless, a sense of vertigo might also be experienced...
We struggled with much of 49, unable to establish clearly who '[h]is husband' was and the outline of this character (49.02). We do know he sold out to the English (49.03) at the end of the Crimean War. I can report that the conflict occured in the 1850s and pitted the Russians over a coalition of western European forces for control and influence over the Ottoman Empire.
49.36-50.01: 'indentity of undiscernibles' McHugh glosses this phrase as relating to Leibni(t)z and his proposal that everything in the world was absolutely original and discrete. The relevance of this for me is not specifically in the reference to Leibniz's ideas, but rather for the idea of truth that can be extrapolated from this it. It appears as if Leibniz's concept anticipates a justification for HCEs actions. My hunch is developed further by the nearby reference to...
50.19 'Padre Don Bruno' otherwise known as Bruno of Nola. This is the philosopher and mathematician of 'Dante . . . Bruno . Vico . . Joyce' fame. (This is the title of Samuel Beckett's essay on FW, mostly constructed from hints given to Beckett by Joyce.) {The dots in the title are said to indicate the periods of time between each of the individuals, with one dot approximating a century.}
Bruno extended Copernicus' work, arguing for infinite possible worlds in the universe, and presenting the sun as one of a network of infinite range, rather than the be all and end all of the universe. Sadly, Bruno was burnt at the stake for heresy.
It perhaps speaks ill for our esteemable character HCE, if his transgressions are paralleled with Bruno's: the ending could be messy!
Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
We're meeting to read 50.33 to 53.06 on Monday the 18th of June at 1 pm (n.b. the change of day). I'll send an e-mail next week to confirm. JG
The first part of chapter three sees HCEs "version of the story filmed, televised and broadcast" (lii). The short part we read for this meeting didn't necessarily get us up to those events, but we did observe that Joyce was laying the groundwork for an exploration of the theatre, and of performance. Thus, from the clearing of the throat on 48.01 to 48.04, the theatre is invoked, with allusions to theatres and performances in Dublin.
As the reader has worked out by now, one of the main concerns of FW is an analysis of some objective idea of truth. I wouldn't necessarily assume that the theatre would be the best means of conning the truth out of someone; however, the theatre here (and the performance) is doubled with the idea of the courtroom (in which, presumably, one is likelier to have easier access to the truth).
Thus, 48.07 'Vergobretas' occured to me as thematically crucial to the pages we read. A "vergobret" according to McHugh was a chief magistrate in Gaul, invoking the idea of the court. Simultaneously, 'vergobretas' includes "veritas" the Latin for "truth". This then leads me to the Latin phrase "in vino veritas", "in wine, truth". This appears relevant (at least to me) because of the series of drinkers and drunkards we've encountered in the previous pages. Perhaps the combination of performance and the courts creates the conditions for the truth to finally come out about HCEs indiscretion ('which, thorough readable to into from and, is from tubb to buttom all falsetissues, antilibellous and nonactionable' (48.17-18)). Nonetheless, a sense of vertigo might also be experienced...
We struggled with much of 49, unable to establish clearly who '[h]is husband' was and the outline of this character (49.02). We do know he sold out to the English (49.03) at the end of the Crimean War. I can report that the conflict occured in the 1850s and pitted the Russians over a coalition of western European forces for control and influence over the Ottoman Empire.
49.36-50.01: 'indentity of undiscernibles' McHugh glosses this phrase as relating to Leibni(t)z and his proposal that everything in the world was absolutely original and discrete. The relevance of this for me is not specifically in the reference to Leibniz's ideas, but rather for the idea of truth that can be extrapolated from this it. It appears as if Leibniz's concept anticipates a justification for HCEs actions. My hunch is developed further by the nearby reference to...
50.19 'Padre Don Bruno' otherwise known as Bruno of Nola. This is the philosopher and mathematician of 'Dante . . . Bruno . Vico . . Joyce' fame. (This is the title of Samuel Beckett's essay on FW, mostly constructed from hints given to Beckett by Joyce.) {The dots in the title are said to indicate the periods of time between each of the individuals, with one dot approximating a century.}
Bruno extended Copernicus' work, arguing for infinite possible worlds in the universe, and presenting the sun as one of a network of infinite range, rather than the be all and end all of the universe. Sadly, Bruno was burnt at the stake for heresy.
It perhaps speaks ill for our esteemable character HCE, if his transgressions are paralleled with Bruno's: the ending could be messy!
Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
We're meeting to read 50.33 to 53.06 on Monday the 18th of June at 1 pm (n.b. the change of day). I'll send an e-mail next week to confirm. JG
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