Finnegans Wake p. 261-280

p. 261

"His hume."

A reference to David Hume, or the humors?

"Swiney Tod, ye Daimon Barbar."

Hey, it's Sweeney Todd, and not the dumb Tim Burton one.

"Ainsoph...groupname for grapejuice."

It's Aesop, and the fable about the fox and the grapes!

p. 262

"Swing the banjo, bantams, bounce-the-baller's blown to fook."

I like fuck represented as "fook".

p. 263

"let bygones be bei Gunne's"

Let the past be let go, and guns as well?

"emerald canticle of Hermes"

The green hymn of Hermes. Good stuff.

p. 264

"Fossilisation, all branches...Startnaked and bonedstiff. We vivvy soddy. All be dood."

The fossils are apologizing for being naked, bony, and stiff.

p. 265 

Just check out footnote 2. It's awesome.

p. 266 (nothin')

p. 267

"Veto but Nova will be nearing as their radient among the Nereids."

There will be a Nova as beautiful as the nymphs!

p. 268

"EARLY NOTIONS OF ACQUIRED RIGHTS AND THE INFLUENCE OF COLLECTIVE TRADITION UPON THE INDIVIDUAL."

Sounds like an sociology textbook.

p. 269

"There is comfortism in the knowledge that often hate on first hearing comes of love by second sight."

Love sometimes takes a second look. Maybe even a third.

"Every letter is a godsend, ardent Ares, brusque Boreas and glib Ganymeade like zealous Zeus."

Ooh, alliterative Greek gods!

p. 270 (nothin')

p. 271

"There's a split in the infinitive from to have to have been to will be."

Ooh, grammar humor!

p. 272

"Gringrin gringrin."

Lots of grinning.

p. 273

"Bumps, bellows and bawls...Shake eternity and lick creation."

So that's what the universe sounds like when it's getting its ass kicked.

p. 274

"As Shakefork might pitch it."

I'm calling him that from now on.

"All the world loves a big gleaming jelly."

No way. Screw jelly.

p. 275

"The Goat and Compasses ('phone number 17:69, if you want to know)"

Is this like a parody of a bible parable/verse? Corinthians? 

p. 276

"At Tam Fanagan's weak yat his still's going strang."

There he is again!

p. 277

"We drames our dreams until Bappy returns. And Sein annews."

We dream our dreams until happiness comes. Then sin renews once again?

p. 278

"Dear Brotus, land me arrears."

Dear Brutus, lend me your ears.

p. 279

Holy footnote, Batman!

"So sing loud, sweet cheeriot, like anegreon in heaven!"

Swing low, sweet chariot, like Anacreon in heaven!

p. 280

"A scene at sight. Or dreamoneire."

A scene at night. Or dreamland. Your choice.

Finnegans Wake p. 241-260

Not too much from these pages:

p. 242

"walk in her sleep his pig indicks weg femtyfem funts."

This sounds dirty.

p. 243

"ecrazyaztecs"

Ecclesiastes/The Crazy Aztecs?

p. 243 (nothin')

p. 244

"Ah, let's away and let's gay and let's stay chez where the log foyer's burning!"

Let's run away, let's go on a journey. But let's stay here. Reminds me of T.S. Eliot, "We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

p. 245

"have stopped squiggling about Junoh and the whalk and feriaquintaism and pebble infinibility and the poissission of the hoghly course."

Stop talking about Jonah and the infinite universe?

"Pouropourim"

Purim?

p. 246

"kerkegaard"

Soren Kierkegaard.

"they newknow knowwell their Vico's road."

Is Vico's road a circular one?

p. 247

"Kod knows. Anything ruind. Meetingless.

God knows, anything and everything ruined. Meaningless.

p. 248

"If you nude her in her prime,"

Nice line.

p. 249

"I rose up one maypole morning and saw in my glass how nobody loves me but you."

Such a cute line.

p. 250

"So now be hushy, little pukers!"

I'm calling someone a "little puker". Great pet name.

p. 251 (nothin')

p. 252

"Come, thrust! Go, parry!"

Aha! A swordfight!

p. 253

"and general thumbtonosery"

I love the expression, "thumbing their nose".

p. 254

"Finnfinn the Faineant"

Finn, again?

p. 255

"Calavera, caution! Slaves to Virtue, save his Veritotem!"

Take caution from skulls! Don't be a slave to virtue, save the truth of your totem. (That's my best attempt at translation.)

p. 256

"Four Massores, Mattatias, Marusias, Lucanias, Jokinias,"

Earlier we had the three musketeers, now there's the four, with D'artagnan.

p. 257 (nothin')

p. 258

"Azrael with our harks, by our brews, on our jambses, in his gaits."

Something cool about the angel of death, but I can't figure it out.

"And shall not Babel be with Lebab?"

I know that both are biblical terms, maybe they're both bad (Tower of Babel, and Laban, who made Jacob work for his daughters.)

p. 259

"Ha he hi ho hu. Mummum."

FEE FI FOE FUM!

p. 260

"Mater Mary Mercerycordial of the Dripping Nipples, milk's a queer arrangement."

This creates some weird imagery in my head.

Finnegans Wake p. 221-240

Here we go:

p. 221

"Time: the pressant."

This a wonderful line. Time is not only the present, it is also a present. Reminds me of the great children's movie, Kung Fu Panda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCLHzMSI5Qs&feature=related

p. 222

"Wedding of Neid"

A neid is a villan, or someone who's lost honor in a society. Someone dishonorable is getting married? Or is Ned getting married?

"An argument follows."

An understandable one? Nope.

"athletes longfoot."

Much worse than athletes foot.

p. 223

"With nought a wired from the wordless either."

There's too much going on in this sentence.

p. 224 (nothin')

p. 225

"Warewolff! Olff! Toboo!"

There's a werewolf (which are typically taboo), and it's howling to the moon!

"monbreamstone?...Hellfeuersteyn?...coral pearl?...He has lost."

Don't have our objects? You lose.

p. 226

"And among the shades that Eve's now wearing she'll meet anew fiancy, tryst and trow."

Eve's having an affair?

p. 227 (nada)

p. 228

"Shimach"

There's Shim again!

"his farced epistol to the hibruws"

The great letter to the hebrews/highbrows?

p. 229

"S.P.Q.R.ish"

Rome, reminds me of Shakespeare's Rome; I.E., super-dramatic, kinda ridiculous Rome. Rome-ish/Rome-lite.

"Caxton and Pollock"

Jackson Pollock, anyone?

p. 230

"because all his creature comfort was an omulette finas"

All the comfort in life can be found in a finished omelet.

"With tears for his coronaichon, such as engines weep. Was life worth leaving? Nej!

Was life worth living/leaving?  Nej?

p. 231

"Wholly sanguish blooded up disconvulsing the fixtures of his fizz.

Sanguine is a color, as well as one of the four humors, typically representing full-bloodedness or courage. The sentence kinda reflects that.

p. 232

"When  (pip!) a message interfering intermitting interskips from them  (pet!) on herzian waves,"

This reminds me of something causing trouble with a radio frequency.

"Now a dash to her dot!"

Morse code?

"glaciator to submerger an Atlangthis"

Gladiator/Glacier to submerge in the Atlantis/Atlantic/Language?

p. 233

"chimista inchamisas"

Chemists in shirts?

p. 234 (nothin')

p. 235

"As we so hope for ablution."

So we hope.

"Their orison arises misquewhite as Osman glory, ebbing wasteward, leaves to the soul of light its fading silence (allahlah lahlah lah!), a turquewashed sky."

This makes me think about the sun going down.

p. 236 (nothin')

p. 237

"while, dewyfully as dimb dumbelles, all alisten to his elixir."

Fun wordplay!

p. 238

"May he colp, may he colp her, may he mixandmass colp her!"

Oooo.

p. 239

"When every Klitty of a scolderymeid shall hold every yardscullion's right to stimm her uprecht for whimsoever, whether on privates, whather in publics."

Sex. Again?

p. 240 (nothin')

My Passage, and Finnegans Wake p. 201-220

My lil' bit of the Wake that I'm going to memorize:

"It is a confoundyous injective so to say, Shaun th fiery boy shouted, naturally incensed, as he shook the red pepper out of his auricles. And another time please confine your glaring intinuations to some other mordant body. What on the physiog of this furnaced planet would I be doing besides your verjuice."

And now, more pages:

p. 201

"Only for my short Brittas bed made's as snug as it smells"

So, not very snug then?

"Tell me every tiny teign."

I imagine this line being said in a sweet Irish brogue.

p. 202

"Someone he was, whuebra they were, in a tactic attack or in single combat."

This sounds like a description of a great warrior.

"a wolf of the sea"

A reference to the Jack London book, The Sea Wolf?

"Tisn't only tonight you're anacheronistic!"

It's not only tonight that you're using things out of their time!

p. 203

"Alesse, the lagos of girly days!"

Logos?

p. 204

"Kissuahealing...O, wasn't he the bold priest?"

A priest who kiss heals? I should say he's bold!

"eau de Colo"

Fragrances, by Joyce.

p. 205

"lootin quarter"

Fun play on the Latin Quarter.

p. 206

"Euclid"

There he is again!

p. 207

"Spitz on the iern while it's hot."

Strike the iron while it's hot?

p. 208 (nothin')

p. 209

"And where in thunder did she plunder?"

I like this. Say it in a pirate voice.

"Out of the paunschaup on to the pyre."

Out of the frying pan/pawnshop into the fire/buyer?

p. 210

"a drowned doll, to face downwards for modest Sister Anne Mortimer"

All I can get from this is the part about Anne Mortimer.

p. 211

"Tristram"

There he is again!

p. 212

"life past befoul his prime."

Someone died before his prime/time. His life went past too fast. :)

p. 213

"So near and yet so far!" 

An iconic line.

"I told you every telling has a taling and that's the he and the she of it."

Everyone has a story, whether they're a man or a woman?

"O, my back, my back, my bach!"

Nice.

p. 214

"Oronoko!"

A reference I get! Aphra Behn!

"Ireland sober is Ireland stiff."

Is he saying that the Irish need to be drunk?

p. 215

"Anna was, Livia is, Plurabelle's to be."

Annabelle Lee!

p. 216

"Tell me, tell me, tell me, elm! Night night!

AIEEEEE!

p. 217-218

BLANK.

p. 219

"Somndoze massinees."

Sunday mass?

"Before all the King's Hoarsers with all the Queen's Mum."

Ah, Humpty has insinuated himself deep within the novel.

p. 220

"(Girl Scouts from St. Bride's Finishing Establishment, demand acidulateds)"

This sounds like a crack team of Girl Scouts "The Floras". AKA "The Girl Scouts from HELL!"

"HUMP"

There he is again!

"having partially recovered from a recent impeachment due to egg everlasting,"

He fell off a wall.

"Poopinheavin"

HA!

Finnegans Wake p. 181-200

p. 181

"[Jymes wishes to hear from wearers of abandoned female costumes,"

James Joyce? More self-reference?

p. 182 (nothin')
p. 183

"cutthroat ties...once current puns...godmothers' garters...princess promises...fresh horrors from Hades"

I don't know what this stuff really means, but the imagery it creates is fantastic!

p. 184

"Tulmult, son of Thunder,"

I'm getting two mythological characters here, Tiamat (a lord of chaos/sea from Babylonian myth) and Thor (the Norse god of thunder).

p. 185

"(did a piss, says he was dejected, ask to be exonerated),"

There's a ton of Latin surrounding this parenthetical, and this is what we get!?

p. 186

"transaccidentated through the slow fires of consciousness into a dividual chaos, perilous, potent, common to allflesh, human only, mortal)"

Is this some kind of philosophical statement about how we must transcend consciousness to become truly human?

p. 187

"Polthergeistkotzdondherhoploits"

I love it when this happens. Poltergeist, and a bunch of jumbled other words.

"Stand forth, Nayman of Noland (for no longer will I follow you obliquelike through the inspired form of the third person singular and the moods and hesitensies of the deponent but address myself to you,"

Joyce is telling Nayman of Noland that he's about to totally change the perspective from which the story is told. Very considerate of him, don't you think?

p. 188

"we all swim together in the pool of Sodom"

A reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities God destroyed. Now, is this a good or a bad thing, or just a fact of life?

p. 189

"thick as the fluctuant sands of Chalwador"

Can't find a definition for this word, but I'm assuming it's a pretty sandy place.

p. 190

"metamorphoseous"

Once again, a reference to Morpheus. Maybe this is referential to the novel, we transform into the world of dream.

p. 191

"bourgeoismeister"

I like this word.

p. 192

"pas mal de siecle, which, by the by, Reynaldo, is the ordinary emetic French for the grenadier's drip."

A lot of siecle (whatever that is), and I think Reynard is trying to surface again. There's just a lot of French allusion going on here.

p. 193

"Cease to be civil, learn to say nay!"

Good advice, sounds like something protesters would chant.

"And the good brother feels he would need to defecate you."

WHAT!?

p. 194 (nothin')

p. 195

"He lifts the lifewand and the dumb speak."

This is a really cool line, reminds me of Jesus. But what is a lifewand?

p. 196

"O/ tell me all about/  Anna Livia! I want to hear all"

This is a cool George Herbert-esque poem, and the next paragraph sounds a lot like a gossipy group of people.

p. 197 (nothin')

p. 198

"gay lord salomon"

I wouldn't say Solomon was "happy" gay, and I would say that if he is homosexual "gay", he's overcompensating quite a bit, seeing as how he had 700 wives.

p. 199

"Greenland's tay or a dzoupgan of Kaffue mokau"

Greenland tea, and a Cafe Mocha. The mocha sounds really good right now. :)

p. 200 (nothin')

WOO, PAGE 200!

Finnegans Wake p. 161-180

p. 161

"Burrus and Caseous...selldear to soldthere"

Once again, Julius Caesar.

"Burrus...is a genuine prime...Caseous...revise of him...not an ideal choose by any meals,"

Cassius is the opposite of Brutus.

p. 162

"hazzy hates to having a hazbane in her noze."

Hazzy hazzy hazbone.

"Deus v Deus!"

God vs. God!

p. 163 (nothin)

p. 164

"We now romp through a period of pure lyricism of shambred music (technologically, let me say, the appetising entry of this subject on a fool chest of vialds"

Now we're getting into the good part of the nonsense.

p. 165

"I should like to ask that Shedlock Homes person who is out for removing the roofs of our criminal classics by what deductio ad domunum he hopes de tacto to detect anything unless he happens of himself,"

I don't quite understand, but I caught the obvious Sherlock Holmes reference.

p. 166

"teaching His Infant Majesty how to make waters words."

I like. It reminds me of Haroun.

p. 167

"who kennot tail a bomb from a painapple when he steals one and wannot psing his psalmen"

I just like the part about pineapples and bombs.

"The thundering legion has stormed Olymp that it end."

Man has usurped the gods?

p. 168

"Sacer esto? Answer: Semus sumus!"

I know the first part means "Let him be accursed" in Latin. Dunno about the second part.

p. 169

"in the land of the space of today knows that his back life will not stand being written about in black and white. Putting truth and untruth together a shot may be made at what this hybrid actually was like to look at."

I thought this was an attempt to say that when we die, the words that talk about it are not enough. To add that color, truth and lies must be combined--we are turned into a story.

p. 170

"when the angel of death kicks the bucket of life,"

I like this, a nice changing of "kick the bucket".

"Shem was a sham and a low sham and his lowness creeped out first via foodstuffs. So low was he that he preferred Gibsen's teatime salmon tinned, as inexpensive as pleasing,"

Shem is apparently a pretty "low" dude.

p. 171

"O! The lowness of him was beneath all up to that sunk to!"

Shem was below all the levels that he sunk to.

p. 172

"[Johns...COMMUNICATED.]"

This whole passage is pretty cool, it's like a commercial for a butcher shop.

p. 173

"on your gullible's travels"

Haha, a Gulliver's Travels pun!

"with a meticulosity bordering on the insane,"

Was OCD a diagnosed disorder yet?

p. 174

"he was called in to umpire any octagonal argument among slangwhangers"

This just sounds funny.

p. 175

"Lefty takes the cherubcake while Rights cloves his hoof."

Left being good, (God gets the cherubs), Right being bad (Devil gets things with cloven feet)?

p. 176

"Hely Baba and the Forty Thieves"

Another Arabian Nights reference!

p. 177

"How a Guy Finks and Fawkes When He Is Going Batty,"

How a guy thinks and talks/Guy Fawkes?

p. 178 (nothin')

p. 179

"over was an aisling vision more gorgeous than the one before t.i.t.s.,"

Hehe.

p. 180

"the tetters on his tumtytum...the bats in his belfry, the budgerigars and bumbosolom beaubirds,"

This just cracked me up.

Finnegans Wake p. 141-160

p. 141

"Summon In The House-sweep Dinah?"

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah? This story takes on a whole new meaning after you read it in the Bible.

p. 142

"Who are those component partners of societate, the doorboy, the cleaner, the sojer, the crook, the squeezer, the lounger, the tourabout, the mussroomsniffer, the bleakablue tramp, the funpowtherplother, the christymansboxer,"

Who are the partners/speakers for all of the downtrodden (doorman, cleaner, soldier, etc.), I got a heavy Marxist vibe from this line.

"The Morphios"

The greek god of sleep and dreams. The Sandman.

"they think feeling"

I liked this whole paragraph, interesting to imagine a creature that thinks feelings. Maybe humans are like this?

p. 143

"What bitter's love but yurning, what' sour lovemutch"

Yearning makes you bitter? Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

p. 144 (nothin')

p. 145

"Bite my laughters, drink my tears. Pore into me, volumes, spell me stark and spill me swooning,"

This had a very poetic feel to it. Reminded me of a John Donne poem.

"Brimstoker and give him the thrall of our lives. It's Dracula's nightout."

Bram Stoker's Dracula would make people into thralls.

p. 146 (nothin')

p. 147 (nada)

p. 148

"Excuse me for swearing, love, I swear to the sorrasims their trons of Uian I didn't mean to by this alpin armlet."

I don't know exactly what's going on here, but it makes me kind of uncomfortable.

p. 149

"The speechform is a mere surrogate."

Once again, language is a poor method to express dreams and feelings.

p. 150

"though the reason I went to Jericho must remain for certain reasons a political secret"

Ooh, like a secret agent?

p. 151

"since his man's when is no otherman's quandour (Mine, dank you?) while, for aught I care for the contrary?"

I don't know exactly what this means, but it sounds like some kind of cool revolutionary statement. Like Ayn Rand or something (blegh).

p. 152

"when I have to sermo with muddlecrass pupils...snifflynosed, goslingnecked, clothyheaded, tangled in your lacings, tingled in your pants"

I'm going to talk down to you middle class folk now. I like all the "adjectives" going on in this passage.

p. 153

"My, my, my! Me and me! Little down dream don't I love thee!"

He loves the sleep of dreams? 

p. 154

"Well, sour? Is this space our couple of hours too dimensional for you, temporiser?"

I feel like this is a jab at the perception of literature as something that should be temporal/linear, as opposed to the dimensional text that it is.

p. 155

"by Neuclidius...by Orasmus"

The conflict between mathematics and theology maybe? This reminds me of a speech Captain Picard gives in one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Where Silence Has Lease." Here's the speech in all its campy glory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GLU6wgTvL8

p. 156

"Wee, cumfused the Gripes limply, shall not even be the last of the first, wee hope, when oust are visitated by the Veiled Horror."

Sounds like an alien is talking. And what is the Veiled Horror? Death?

p. 157 (nada)

p. 158

"A domad Accanite, were not amoosed and the Gripes, a dubliboused Catalick, was pinefully obliviscent."

I think I'm getting Italian Catholic from this, but I'm not sure.

"shades began to glidder along the banks, greepsing, greepsing, duusk unto duusk,"

OOOOOOOooooooo...I'm a ghoooooost.

"Then there came down to the thither bank a woman of no appearance (I believe she was a Black with chills at her feet)"

What does this mean? Is it a political commentary?

p. 159

"she made up all her myriads of drifting minds in one. She cancelled all her engauzements. She climbed over the bannistars; she gave a childy cloudy cry: Nuee! Nuee!"

She made a decision. A decision to scream "Nuee!"

"I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!"

This sounds like the voice of the river.

p. 160

"You will say it is most unenglish and I shall hope to hear that you will not be wrong about it."

Joyce hopes that no one thinks of his book as a piece of "english literature".

Finnegans Wake p. 121-140

p. 121

"hetarosexual (used always in two boldfaced print types--one of the as wrongheaded as his Claudian brother, is it worth while interrupting to say?"

I feel like something profound is being said here, but I'm missing it. Does mention the poet Claudian though.

p. 122

"the aphasia of that heroic agony"

This is a reference to the tradition of gesture, aphasia being a condition that renders one incapable of speaking language unimpared.

"O'Remus pro Romulo"

Another Remus and Romulus reference.

p. 123

"and why spell dear god with a big thick dhee (why, O why, O why?)"

A valid point. Why not spell "dear God" "O God"?

"the vaulting feminine libido of those interbranching ogham sex upandinsweeps sternly controlled an easily repersuaded by the uniform matteroffactness of a meandering male fist?"

Huh?

p. 124

"(sic) in iSpace?!"

I know this was impossible, but this just makes me think of Apple products.

"So be it. And it was."

Kind of like this book. Magical Realism?

p. 125

"Maybe growing a moustache, did you say, with an adorable look of amuzement?"

I agree, mustaches are adorable.

p. 126

"So? What do you no tonigh, lazy and gentleman?"

Sounds like a stand up comedian, "what'dya say what'dya know?"

p. 127 (nothin')

p.128

"no notion of shopkeepers feel he'd rather play the duke than play the gentleman;"

Is there a Shakespeare reference at work here?

p. 129

"Suiss family Collesons whom he calls les nouvelles roches"

The Swiss Family Robinson is "new rocks"?

p. 130 (nothin')

p. 131

"taught himself skating and learned how to fall;"

I like this, sounds like something either really inspiring or a bad indie song lyric.

p. 132

"Raglan Road"

Perhaps a reference to Lord Raglan? Who just so happened to talk about hero myths?

"doughtier than death;"

What a great metaphor!

p. 133

"ex-gardener (Riesengebirger), fitted up with planturous existencies would make Roseoogreedy (mite's) little hose;"

I just like saying "planturous existencies".

p. 134

"or quick quits to hush the buckers up;"

Do I detect a swear word?

p. 135

"he crawls with lice, he swarms with saggarts;"

Somehow, saggarts sounds much worse than maggots.

p. 136

"leapt the Inferus"

Inferus means down to Hades in Latin. Also, they're in Harry Potter.

p. 137

"Miss MacCormack Ni Lacarthy"

I get a jumble of Lacan and McCarthy.

"not forgetting the time you laughed at Elder Charterhouse's duckwhite pants and the way you said the whole township can see his hairy legs;"

This is a surprisingly straightforward line; it also reminds me of the stereotypical "you're on stage in your underwear" dream.

"corn o' copious"

Nice.

"peddles in passivism"

I can think of too many people who do this.

p. 138 (nothin')

p. 139

"Answer: Finn MacCool"

Wait, we have answers now?

"If hot Hammurabi, or cowld Clesiastes"

References to two venerated texts, Hammurabi's Code (Law) and Ecclesiasties (Wisdom).

p. 140

"boost of having...extensive public park...expensive brewing industry...the most expansive peopling thoroughfare in the world...Delfas"

Sounds like a travel commercial for Belfast.

Finnegans Wake p. 101-120

p. 101

"So tellus tellas allabouter."

I thought this was a fun play on words.

p. 102

"Then who butt Crippled-with-Children would speak up for Dropping-with-Sweat?"

I don't know if this is an attempt to imitate Native American names, but it makes an interesting point: who fights for those who cannot fight for themselves?

p. 103

"babalong"

Babble/Babel along.

p. 104-107

"In the name of Annah the Allmaziful, the Everliving, the Bringer of Plurabilities, haloed be her eve, her singtime sung, her rill be run, unhemmed as it is uneven."

This sounds like a prayer to Allah.

These are my favorite titles from the next few pages:

"Rockabill Booby in the Wave Trough, Cleopater's Needlework Ficturing Aldborougham on the Sahara with the Coombing of the Cammels and the Parlourmaids of Aegypt, A New Cure for an Old Clap, Twenty of Chambers, Cowpoyride by Twelve Acre Teriss in the Unique Estates of Amessican, A Pretty Brick Story for Childsize Heroes, and Buttbutterbust."

p. 108

"Now, patience; and remember patience is the great thing, and above all things else we must avoid anything like being or becoming out of patience."

Never forget, kids, don't ever let being human get in the way of you being patient!

"radiooscillating epiepistle to which...we must ceaselessly return,"

Eternal return, anyone?

"sence of inverted commas (sometimes called quotation marks) on any page that its author was always constitutionally incapable of misappropriating the spoken words of others."

I like this bit as well, don't know why though.

p. 109 (nothin')

p. 110

"where the possible was the improbable and the improbable was the inevitable."

This makes me think of a world unbound by the "impossible".

p. 111

"if a negative of a horse happens to melt enough  while drying, well, what you do get is, well, a positively grotesquely distorted macromass of all sorts of horsehappy values and masses of meltwhile horse."

I think this might be referring to photography, and how if the negative becomes messed up, it becomes a facsimile of something real.

p. 112

"You feeling like you was lost in the bush, boy? Bethicket me for a stump of a beech...what the farest."

This makes me think of an old, vulgar woodsman or something.

"What bird has done yesterday man may do next year, be it fly, be it moult, be it hatch, be it agreement in the nest."

Our potential as human beings is unlimited.

p. 113

"Treetone with one Ysold,"

Shout back to Tristram at the beginning of the book.

"Cadman"

Is this a reference to Caedmon's hymn?

p. 114 (nada)

p. 115

"So why, pray, sign anything as long as every word, letter, penstroke, paperspace is a perfect signature of its own? A true friend is known much more easily, and better into the bargain, by his personal touch, habits or full or undress, movements, response to appeal for charity that by his footwear, say."

We know our friends better by how they behave than how they dress.

p. 116

"We tourned our coasts to the good gay times."

Does this mean we turn our backs to the good times?

p. 117

"jambebatiste to a brulobrulo!"

Aha! A Vico reference!

p. 118 (nothin')

p. 119

"by the light of philophosy, (and may she never folsage us!) things will begin to clear up a bit one way or another within the next quarrel of an hour"

Philosophy (if she never forsakes us), gives us a bit of clarity in our jumbled, confusing lives.

p. 120

"prepronominal funferal,"

There's the funferal again!

Finnegans Wake p. 81-100

Yay! The 100th page of goobledegook!

p. 81

"If this was Hannibal's walk it was Hercules' work."

I don't know what this means exactly, but it's a reference to Hannibal Barca, and Hercules, maybe a tribute to the military shenanigans of Hannibal, and the Labors of Hercules.

"headandheelless chickenstegg bore some Michelangiolesque resemblance"

Some kind of weird egg thing resembling a work by Michelangelo? Which one?

p. 82 (nada)

p. 83

"Adam and Eve's in Quantity Street"

I wish I knew what this meant, because it sounds really cool.

p. 84

"uncertain weapon of lignum vitae"

A really hard, dense wood I guess.

p. 85

"When the prisoner, soaked in methylated, appeared in dry dock, appatently ambrosiaunrealised"

I'm getting that some dude showed up drunk, apparently unaware of ambrosia (the food and drink of the gods).

p. 86

"...christies and jew's totems...pikey"

There some kind of slang commentary going on here, I think.

p. 87

"he would be there to remember the filth of November,"

I guess Joyce was not a fan of the Gunpowder Plot.

"Use the tongue mor! Give lip less!"

Talk more, but be more respectful?

p. 88

"That he was only too cognitively conatively cogitabundantly sure of it because, living, loving, breathing and sleeping morphomelosophopancreates, as he most significantly did,"

He was too aware of life, his existence?

p. 89

"Sacred avatar, how the devil did they guess it!"

How did they guess that a god had descended from heaven? (Hinduism) Did the devil help?

"Quare hircum?"

This just sounds cool, something from Hiberno-English. "Very hircum?"

"danzzling on the age of a vulcano?"

I like this, dancing on the volcano's edge.

p. 90

"And Camellus then said to Gemellus: I should know you? Parfaitly. And Gemellus then said to Camellus: Yes, your brother?"

Romulus and Remus? The supposed founders of Rome, who enacting a kind of Cain and Abel thing.

p. 91

"before the dorming of the mawn, he skuld never ask to see sight or light of this world or the other world or any either world,"

I just like this line when you change it "morning of the dawn".

p. 92 (nada)

p. 93

"latten stomach even of a tumass equinous"

A reference to Thomas Aquinas?

"Drinkbattle's Dingy Dwellings"

I laughed.

"And so it all ended."

Every now and then, there a line that is very clear. I like it when this happens.

"Timm Finn"

There's a folk singer who's named this now. It might be a reference to a ballad or something.

p. 94

"A pair of sycopanties with amygdaleine eyes,"

This was funny, considering the actual definition of sycophant.

"Dirty Daddy Pantaloons...behind the war of the two roses,"

A reference to the War of the Roses?

p. 95

"Gobugga ye, sez I!"

This dialect cracked me up.

"pure mountain dew than enrich my acquaintance with that big brewer's belch."

Eww.

"analists"

WORDPLAY!

p. 96

"Well, even should not the framing up of such figments in the evidential order bring the true truth to light as fortuitously as a dim seer's setting of a starchart might (heaven helping it)"

Ooo, more self-reference. Sarcasm about the nonsense that people believe instead of the things in this book.

p. 97

"Reynard is slow!"

A slow fox! And it reminds me of that thing you see when you learn to read, "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."

p. 98

"Big went the bang then wildewide was quiet: a report: silence: last Fama put it under ether."

This part reminds me of the theory of the Big Bang. I think this was around when Joyce was writing.

"The war is in words and the wood is the world."

The war is in words, and the wood/war/words are in the world?

p. 99 (nothin'.)

p. 100

"Achdung!"

A cute little play on German, "Warning, poop!"

"as a tesseract"

Fancy math stuff.

The Water Genie and the NOVA Special.

Sitting in class the other day, minding my own business, doing no one any harm, keeping to myself, when all of a sudden the professor puts on this video. It's mind stimulating and thought provoking (it's about the development of a child, with John Lithgow as a narrator), and I'm enjoying it, when all of a sudden BAM, ZAM, KABOOM, there's a woman lying on a table, bearing a child, giving birth--I mean there is a baby coming out of her VAG--

That's enough of that. I am still recovering, recuperating, and repossessing myself.

Finnegans Wake p. 61-80

p. 61

"...her vowelthreaded syllabelles:...evew..wepotew...sheew gweatness...twadgedy...Nevewtheless...considewed...fow..."

I love the wordplay here, sounds like a 2-year-old is attempting to communicated complex concepts with me.

p. 62

"humping a suspicious parcel"

I just love the naughty parts of this book.

p. 63 (nada)

p. 64

"A pinch in time of the ideal, musketeers! Alphos, Burkos, and Caramis,"

I really like this reference to Athos, Porthos, and Aramis from Alexander Dumas's The Three Musketeers. I don't know what the second two are, but the first is Greek for leperosy.

p. 65

"and he would like to canoodle her too some part of the time for he is downright fond of his number one"

I just like the word canoodle.

p. 66 (nada)

p. 67

"Because it is a horrible thing to have to say to say to day but one delilah, Lupita Lorette, shortly after in a fit of the unexpectedness drank carbolic"

There is a biblical reference here that is eluding me.

p. 68

"Aslim-all-Muslim"

This is a cool phrase, a combination of Aslim Taslam with Muslim, creating something like accept all Muslims. Which I like.

"violence to life, limb and chattels, often as not, has been the expression, direct or through an agent male, of womanhid offended, (ah! ah!), has not levy of black mail from the times the fairies were in it, and fain for wilde erthe blothom followed an impressive private reputation for whispered sins?"

This a really cool section. I don't know if understand it, but I translate the first bit as violence for life, health and property. I also like the part about whispered sins.

p. 69

"drema of Sorestost Areas, Diseased."

Is this a reference to Sophocles?

p. 70

"Titus,"

Weirdest play ever.

p. 71-2

"to be kept on file of all abusive names he was called...Wheatears...Grease with the Butter...Swad Puddlefoot...Eggs...Thunder and Turf Married into Clandorf...Bad Humborg...Mister Fatmate"

I love all these names! Next time I need an insult, this is where I'm going. Especially "grease with the butter".

"reconnoitring through his semisubconcious"

Once again, Joyce is being self-referential, oooh, we're in dreamland.

p. 73 (nada)

p. 74

"Liverpoor? Sot a bit of it! His braynes coolt parritch, his pelt nassy, his heart's adrone, his bluidstreams acrawl..."

This last paragraph is cool, personifying Liverpool (I think).

p. 75

"lililiths undeveiled"

Ooo, an extrabiblical reference!

p. 76

"obedience of the citizens elp the ealth of the ole...Let us leave theories there and return to here's here."

Cool philosophizing, why are we always obedient to the citizens of the "Earth of Old", and then a U-turn reminding us we need to get back to the nonsense.

p. 77

"inhumationary bric au brac for the adornment of his glasstone honophreum"

Something about decorating a coffin with junk?

p. 78

"embalmed, of grand age, rich in death anticipated."

Cool line.

p. 79

"(called after the ugliest Danadune)"

It rhymes with Xanadu!

"King Hamlaugh's gulden dayne"

Hamlet was a Dane, right?

p. 80

"Mithra...Shiva...Posidonius O'Fluctuary! Lave that bloody stone as it is!"

References galore, and another to Sisyphus!

Finnegans Wake p. 41-60

p. 41

"to the thrummings of a crewth fiddle which, cremoaning and cronauning, levey grevey, witty and wevey, appy, leppy and playable, caresses the ears of the subjects of King Saint Finnerty the Festive..."

These lines made me happy, and kind of reminded me of someone playing the fiddle.

p. 42

"(who saith of noun?)"

Once again, I took this as a philosophical statement. Who says what a noun is? Or, Who says what an object, person, or thing "is"?

"his lay of the vilest bogeyer but most attractionable avatar the world has ever had to explain for."

This is a story I want to hear, the one about the most evil being, who is also the most attractive.

p. 43 (nothin')

p. 44

"Ardite, arditi! Music cue."

I like how this jumps into a song, and I also discovered the meaning of one word, Ardite, which is "with fire" in Latin. So the song needs to be sung with a lot of intensity.

p. 45

Here we go!

"...penal jail of Mountjoy..."

Sounds like a really fun place to go.

"immaculate contraceptives"

Hehe.

"And religious refore, Hideous in form."

This just made me think of the Protestant Reformation. Good times.

p. 46

"Saw his black and tan man-o'-war. (Chorus) Saw his man-o'-war. On the harbour bar."

For some reason, my mind went to dirty places when I read this. I guess I'm just perverse.

p. 47

"For to go and shove himself that way on top of her..."

Wait, nope, I may not have been that far off before.

"That's able to raise a Cain."

I really like this line, really open to interpretation. Maybe it's referring to the rarity that humans are raised from the dead, or maybe it's just really hard to resurrect someone who's killed his brother.

p. 48

"Of the persins sin this Eyrawyggla saga (which, thorough readable to int from and, is from tubb to buttom all falsetissues, antilibellous and nonactionable and this applies to its whole wholume)"

Once again, Joyce is being self-referential, and one of the things (I think) he's saying is that though you can read this book from beginning to end, don't expect for it to make sense as a work in its entirety.

p. 49

"as had the brief thot but fell in till his head like a bass dropt neck fust in till a bung crate (cogged!)"

Double reference, I think, to a bung (something used to plug a container) and scatology.

p. 50

"tabularasing his obliteration"

This statement is pretty good, referring to Tabula rasa, the idea that we fill our "obliterated" minds with information and experience, rather than it being inborn.

p. 51 (nothin')

p. 52

"a bit duskish and lavored with a smile"

This is some wonderful descriptive language.

p. 53

"Irish visavis"

An Irish face-to-face, if I translate properly. Now what is that?

"Chee chee cheers for Upkingbilly"

Three cheers, and the word is repeated three times.

p. 54

"Any dog's life you list you may still hear them at it, like sixes and seventies at eversure as Halley's comet, ulemamen, sobranjewomen, storthingboys and dumbgirls, as they pass its bleak and bronze portal of your Casaconcordia"

I equated this to humans howling their way through life, until they find their "house of harmony". Casa = house, concordia = harmony.

p. 55

"indeedust...Life, he himself...kills him verysoon, if yet not after"

Loved the meaning I interpreted from these lines: Life kills you sooner, if not later.

p. 56 (nothin')

p. 57

"Before he fell hill he filled heaven"

Is this a reference to Lucifer, filling heaven before his is cast down?

"Thus the unfacts, did we possess them, are too imprecisely few to warrant our certitude."

My new favorite line. We believe we posses the "facts", but there's way to few of them to warrant how certain we all are about everything.

p. 58 (nothin')

p. 59 (zip)

p. 60

"That perpendicular person is a brut! But a magnificent brut! 'Caligula'"

This line is just packed, Alliteration, Shakespeare references, and Caligula.

Phew..

Finnegans Wake p. 21-40

These pages were a little tougher for me, and I didn't get as much from them. Like I said, I probably won't pass Dr. Sexson's test, but I'm doing this for my enjoyment. Still truckin' though.

p. 20 (forgot to put this in the last post)

"The moviebles are scrawling in motions, marching, all of them ago, in pitpat and zingzang for every busy eerie whig's a bit of a torytale to tell."

All things, especially animate ones, have a story to tell?

"You can ask your ass if he believes it."

This cracked me up.

p. 21 (nothin')

p. 22

"Stop domb stop come back with my earring stop. But the prankquean swaradid: Am liking it."

 Don't really know what's going on here, but it sounds like the "prankquean" is going around pranking people. This part reminds me of her tickling someone.

p. 23 (nothin')

p. 24

"Now be aisy, good Mr. Finnimore, sir. And take your laysure like a god on pension and don't be walking abroad."

Probably the best simile ever.

p. 25

"No, nor a king nor an ardking, bung king, sung king, or hung king."

All right, all right, I get it--no kings.

"Mick Mac Magnus MacCawley"

The alliteration made me giggle.

p. 26

"And that there texas is tow linen."

I imagine this line being said in a Texas drawl.

"For we have performed upon thee, thou abramanation, who comest ever without being invoked, whose coming is unknown, all the things which the company of the precentors and of the grammarians of Christpatrick's ordered concerning thee in the matter of the work of thy tombing."

This line makes me think, once again about the inevitability of death. However, it is steeped in Biblical references, and the second half makes me think that Christ will come and defeat death.

p. 27

"'Twould dilate your heart to go."

Instead of break your heart, your heart swells and explodes. Nice.

p. 28

"There'll be bluebells blowing in salty sepulchres the night she signs her final tear. Zee End. But that's a world of ways away...Finn no more!"

This seems like an end of this part of the dream, as we change to another part.

p. 29 (nothin')

p. 30

"(we are back in the presurnames prodromarith period, of course just when enos chalked halltraps)"

This is like a history teacher introducing a new part of history, before names mattered apparently.

p. 31

"smiled most heartily beneath his walrus moustaches and"

This reminded me of The Walrus in Haroun.

"Comes the question are these the facts of his nominigentilisation as recorded in both or either of the collateral andrewpaulmurphyc narratives."

I thought it was funny what I wrote in the margins of my book: "Are these him as gentile or Andrew Paul Murphy." Apparently, this book is making ME go crazy.

pg. 32

"this man is mountain and unto changeth doth one ascend."

This line is inspiring to me, it reminds me of one of my favorite essays, "The Myth of Sysiphus", by Albert Camus. Through repeated climbing and change we ascend our mountains, only to find another. We are the mountain. Oooh, philosophy.

pg. 33

"A baser meaning has been read into these characters the literal sense of which decency can safely scarcely hint."

In other words, what people think about these characters is so dirty that it can't be written down. (I think).

pg. 34

"Slander, let it lie its flattest, has never been able to convict our good and great"

I think this line speaks for itself.

pg. 35 (nothin')

pg. 36

"fibfib fabrications"

Ooh, a triple lie!

pg. 37 (nothin')

pg. 38 (nothing to speak of)

pg. 39 (nada)

pg. 40 (zip)

Until next time!

Finnegans Wake p. 3-20

So, I've decided to accept Dr. Sexson's challenge to read Finnegans Wake. I will not, however be so presumptuous as to say that I will read and understand the novel. That would take someone who is much smarter than I; However, I want to study children and young adult literature in graduate school, and since this is the "supreme work" of children's literature, I figured I better take a crack at it.

I found a passage in the introduction that changed my attitude towards reading this terrifying novel:

"If, however, one surrenders the need to be master of everything--or even of most things--in this strange and magnificent book, it will pour forth lots of rewards." (ix)

SO, I'm going to read each page, and try and get from it what I can. Then I'll blog about it in 20 page increments, noting what I found on each page. It may be completely off the wall, but I'm having a blast, so--yeah. I doubt I'll be able to pass the "A" test Dr. Sexson mentioned in the syllabus, but what the heck.

By the way, this book is FUN.

So, page 3:

"riverrun, past Eve and Adam's"

If you didn't know this, this part is a continuation of the last sentence of the book, you can get that cyclical stuff going on. Plus, I like the sound of a "river running past Eden".

"to wielderfight his penisolate war:"

I liked this, I thought *giggle* it was talking about wars, and penises (kind of a manly thing?).

"The fall...is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy."

This line had some meat to it. I related it to the fall (perhaps of satan) of man into the realm of death, and how we are given different ways to deal with death throughout our lives.

"tumptytumtoes"

This just made me laugh.

p. 4:

Not much here, just:

"Helviticus committed deuteronomy"

I'm guessing that is some reference to the Bible, maybe a play on the word Leviticus.

p. 5:

I got nuthin'

p. 6:

"Dimb! He stottered from the latter. Damb! He was dud! Dumb!"

This line is neat, there's two meanings going on here, but I like this one I made up: "Ding! He stumbled from the ladder. Damn! He was dead! Dumb!"

"Sobs they sighdid at Fillagain's chrissormiss wake,"

People sigh/cry at both christenings and wakes? And these things are filled again? (Eternal return?)

"With their deepbrow fundigs and the dusty fidelios."

A shot at the highbrows, with their dusty folios?

p. 7

"oboboes shall wail him rockbound (hoahoahoah)"

I liked this one, it was an onomatopoeic attempt to mimic an oboe.

"Grace before Glutton"

My favorite line so far. Two meanings: say grace before you eat, and Grace is a quality that should come before gluttony.

"by the mund of the magazine wall, where our maggy seen all,"

This one's just fun to say.

p. 8

"Mind your hats goan in!"

I don't know exactly what that means, but I know that a Goan is the name for people who live in Goa.

"Tip."

This word shows up throughout the page, reminds me of someone playing basketball.

"Sexcaliber hrosspower."

Six cyllander horsepower, maybe? Combined with some kind of penis joke?

p. 9

"Ayi, Ayi, Ayi!"

Lil' bit o' Spanish.

p. 10

"Willingdone"

This line gets repeated like a billion times, this one reminded me of a horse race.

"Phew! What a warm time we were in there but how keling is here the airabouts!"

After the rapidity of the last paragraph, it's nice to take a break.

p. 11

"With Kiss. Kiss Criss. Cross Criss. Kiss Cross. Undo lives 'end. Slain"

This line was kind of fun and goofy until the Undo part, which made me think of the tragedy of the futile loss of life in war, etc.

p. 12

"high improvidence that's what makes life-work leaving and the world's a cell for citters to cit in."

This made me think of Biblical Providence, which is the goal of life (to some; and it makes death not so bad). But it also makes our lives cells.

p. 13

"So This Is Dyoublong? Hush! Caution! Echoland!"

I saw this as "Dublin? Do you belong? Shh! I'm from England!" I guess they didn't get along historically, but I have no idea what's with the capital letters. (Capital?)

"They will be pretumbling forover."

We are perpetually tumbling through life, woefully unprepared.

"Baalfire"

Reminded me of one of the false gods in the bible.

p. 14

"(Silent.)"

I thought this was kinda cool, maybe a throwback to oral storytelling.

p. 15

"Cull me ere I wilt to thee...Pluck me whilst I blush!"

I was thinking Petrarchian love poetry when I read this.

"Fleppety! Flippety! Fleapow!"

All I could think was "Bippity Boppity Boo!"

I've got nothing for p. 16-17.

p. 18

"This ourth of years is not save brickdust and being humus the same roturns."

Reminded me of one of my favorite poems, "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

"The meandertale, aloss and again, of our old Heidenburgh in the days when Head-in-Clouds walked the earth. In the ignorance that implies impression that knits knowledge that finds the nameform that whets the wits that convey contacts that sweeten sensation that drives desire that adheres to attachment that dogs death that bitches birth that entails the esuance of existentiality."

Whoa.

That's all I got from 3-20. 21-40 tomorrow, hopefully.

Haroun and The Following Story

Some I really like Haroun and The Sea of Stories, it's right up my alley--magical, flowing prose with an epic story and lots of fun introspection into characters and the idea of stories themselves. Here's some of my favorite quotes:

'Khattam-Shud,' he said slowly, 'is the Arch-Enemy of all Stories, even of Language itself. He is the Prince of Silence and the Foe of Speech. And because everything ends, because dreams end, stories end, life ends, at the finish of everything we use his name. "It's finished," we tell one another, "it's over. Khattam-Shud: The End."'

 This particular quote is fantastic! I like the message here, but what I like even more is the emphasis put on words. "Stories, Language, Arch-Enemy, The End," all these words are capitalized. I think this drives home one of the best parts of the story, the incredible power and importance of stories.

"...the Ocean of the Streams of Story was much more than a storeroom of yarns. It was not dead but alive."

 I love the references to the cyclical nature of stories, and how they morph and change to match current fashions. Once again, the importance of stories!

"Iff replied that the Plentimaw Fishes were what he called 'hunger artists'..."

Nice reference to Franz Kafka's "A Hunger Artist". Intertext is great.

"Dark, my sirs, has its fascinations: mystery, strangeness, romance...'"

Love this line, reminds me of the one in Harry Potter when Dumbledore tells Harry that we don't fear the dark, we fear the unknown--I guess we love it too...

"You think it's easy for a girl to get a job like this? Don't you know that girls have to fool people every day of their lives if they want to get anywhere?"

 This is one of my favorite things about "lowbrow" literature, and children and young adult literature. The subtle insertion of lines like this gives a maturity that people often take for granted. Who would have thought feminist sentiment would have appeared in such an innocent book?

"There lies a world, a story-world, that I cannot Rule at all"

God, the power of stories, does it ever get old?

My favorite part of the book though, starts on page 205, when Rashid tells Haroun's story. I am a sucker for frame narratives (my favorite movie is Big Fish) and this is just the icing on the cake of a great novel, nothing like being immortalized as a character in a story.

The Following Story reminded me a lot of Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf. The way the writing kind of meanders about is definitely a unique style, though it's not exactly my cup of tea. I did, however, enjoy immensely the last pages where the reader begins to understand what the boat is, and the work becomes magical in its descriptions of the last moments of the characters on it. Hopefully, when something better to say about it comes to mind, I'll blog it.

Highbrow vs. Lowbrow

First of all, I'm super stoked for this class! I find the ideas of what is "highbrow" and "lowbrow" very fascinating. The defense of the "lower" mediums of television and pop culture is one of my favorite topics to discuss.

And being Star Trek's #1 fan, my mind is blown that we're using an episode from "The Next Generation"!

That's all I've got for now.