Finnegans Wake
question
Lots of Hate on Finnegans Wake!
Steve
Feb 13, 2013 05:00AM
I think it's interesting how many people feel well within their rights to call Finnegans Wake unreadable nonsense, accuse Joyce of being a diabolical charlatan, and revile his fans for being credulous poseurs. What is it about this wonderful book that inspires such hate?
I think fandom can be irritating, but Wake readers have always seemed like a good natured bunch. I've never heard any say that people who don't like Finnegans Wake are morons, or that people shouldn't read popular, entertaining fare like the Harry Potter books. The Wake fans I've run across have been intelligent, curious people who love discovering new things in this funny, fascinating literary puzzle.
One of the haters here excoriated Finnegans Wake for not being accessible enough to the average reader. What's the problem? If putting a little effort into a rewarding experience is too much trouble, by all means, avoid it. But don't make it sound like everyone else should share your reluctance, or risk being called 'elitist.'
Modern readers seem to have a real inferiority complex when faced with an author like Joyce who was profoundly intelligent. The notion of an author expecting his readers to be very well-read is downright self-defeating in our millennium. Was Joyce a show-off? Considering the way he flaunted his erudition, I suppose I'd say yes. But some of the best art in history was made by craven show-offs like Blake, Mozart, and Picasso. Calling Joyce a show-off is like criticizing a trapeze artist for the same crime.
Can't people get over their issues and come to terms with what Finnegans Wake is and isn't? If someone doesn't want to waste their precious time reading the Wake, why waste it posting long denunciations of the book and its relatively few fans?
I think fandom can be irritating, but Wake readers have always seemed like a good natured bunch. I've never heard any say that people who don't like Finnegans Wake are morons, or that people shouldn't read popular, entertaining fare like the Harry Potter books. The Wake fans I've run across have been intelligent, curious people who love discovering new things in this funny, fascinating literary puzzle.
One of the haters here excoriated Finnegans Wake for not being accessible enough to the average reader. What's the problem? If putting a little effort into a rewarding experience is too much trouble, by all means, avoid it. But don't make it sound like everyone else should share your reluctance, or risk being called 'elitist.'
Modern readers seem to have a real inferiority complex when faced with an author like Joyce who was profoundly intelligent. The notion of an author expecting his readers to be very well-read is downright self-defeating in our millennium. Was Joyce a show-off? Considering the way he flaunted his erudition, I suppose I'd say yes. But some of the best art in history was made by craven show-offs like Blake, Mozart, and Picasso. Calling Joyce a show-off is like criticizing a trapeze artist for the same crime.
Can't people get over their issues and come to terms with what Finnegans Wake is and isn't? If someone doesn't want to waste their precious time reading the Wake, why waste it posting long denunciations of the book and its relatively few fans?
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Steve wrote: "I think it's interesting how many people feel well within their rights to call Finnegans Wake unreadable nonsense, accuse Joyce of being a diabolical charlatan, and revile his fans for being credul..."
Hello Steve,
I do see your point, in fact, on a different but related note, I was watching some old comedy, like Yes, Minister and The New Statesman, recently, and it occurred to me that comedies such as those, the former in particular, would be impossible to produce nowadays. Why? Well, the humour is subtle and verbal. I think it is telling of how our mindset as changed, our expectations have changed: we expect to be entertained without committing to what entertains us. The same, I believe, applies to Literature, and to Finnegans Wake possibly more than any other text ever written: it is a book that demands a lot from readers, and fewer and fewer readers are willing to invest in reading new books, not just financially, I mean, but culturally.
On the other hand, Finnegans Wake, I believe, had a huge message for the literati that we have not picked up; a message that Joyce had intended, in my opinion: his genius had allowed him to see that had Modernism proceeded along the lines of extreme experimentation, Literature would have become not just elitist, but inaccessible to virtually anybody. My personal opinion is that he wrote Wake to put an end to Modernism itself (and have the final word, though this may be an unlucky turn of phrase). He wrote a text that is virtually unreadable, and he must have known this; although he was a prankster, in the noble sense of the word (Ulysses regularly has me in stitches with its humour), and there is, in my view, an element in Wake which finds amusement in showing what a colossal intellect Joyce had, he must have known that requiring to change the very nature of how we read to appreciate his last masterpiece was a tad too much for the contemporary mind, and the mind as developed seventy-five years now from its publication, as we still struggle quite heavily to appreciate Wake. I think Joyce put a hidden message, a message in absentia if I may say so, and that is that he was not just the peak, but also the end of the movement, and that Literature itself could not move forward from where he left it (and hasn't), yet, for people who understand his way of thinking, the rub is clearly solved, as he puts it in the best place to hide it from all: in plain view. Although Literature cannot move forward, it doesn't mean it can't move sideways...
Hello Steve,
I do see your point, in fact, on a different but related note, I was watching some old comedy, like Yes, Minister and The New Statesman, recently, and it occurred to me that comedies such as those, the former in particular, would be impossible to produce nowadays. Why? Well, the humour is subtle and verbal. I think it is telling of how our mindset as changed, our expectations have changed: we expect to be entertained without committing to what entertains us. The same, I believe, applies to Literature, and to Finnegans Wake possibly more than any other text ever written: it is a book that demands a lot from readers, and fewer and fewer readers are willing to invest in reading new books, not just financially, I mean, but culturally.
On the other hand, Finnegans Wake, I believe, had a huge message for the literati that we have not picked up; a message that Joyce had intended, in my opinion: his genius had allowed him to see that had Modernism proceeded along the lines of extreme experimentation, Literature would have become not just elitist, but inaccessible to virtually anybody. My personal opinion is that he wrote Wake to put an end to Modernism itself (and have the final word, though this may be an unlucky turn of phrase). He wrote a text that is virtually unreadable, and he must have known this; although he was a prankster, in the noble sense of the word (Ulysses regularly has me in stitches with its humour), and there is, in my view, an element in Wake which finds amusement in showing what a colossal intellect Joyce had, he must have known that requiring to change the very nature of how we read to appreciate his last masterpiece was a tad too much for the contemporary mind, and the mind as developed seventy-five years now from its publication, as we still struggle quite heavily to appreciate Wake. I think Joyce put a hidden message, a message in absentia if I may say so, and that is that he was not just the peak, but also the end of the movement, and that Literature itself could not move forward from where he left it (and hasn't), yet, for people who understand his way of thinking, the rub is clearly solved, as he puts it in the best place to hide it from all: in plain view. Although Literature cannot move forward, it doesn't mean it can't move sideways...
Ulysses is accessible to the average reader. The Wake takes an extraordinarily different kind of person to trek through it.
I haven't read Finnegans Wake, yet; but I thoroughly enjoyed Ulysses. That was over four years ago, and I still vividly remember passages from the book. A couple of great secondary books to read along with Joyce are The Making of Ulysses by Frank Budgen. I read that book online. Nora Barnacle: The Real Life of Molly Bloom by Brenda Maddox was also fascinating. Nora, by the way, refused to read Ulysses and thought that Finnegans Wake was his best book.
agreed. Ulysseys I flew through no problem and excitedly grabebd wake. I was churning through it with the idea of trying to hear it all in an irish accent whilst reading, which worked a treat - until i hit the Homework section.
Homework, with all it's footnotes and asides, derailed me completely, it couldn't be read aloud, it could be heard, and it seemed designed to trip you up
so saying, it's been 9 years since my last attempt so if i can find my copy i'll have another crack at it sometime soon
Homework, with all it's footnotes and asides, derailed me completely, it couldn't be read aloud, it could be heard, and it seemed designed to trip you up
so saying, it's been 9 years since my last attempt so if i can find my copy i'll have another crack at it sometime soon
I would say that Ulysses is a difficult read to get the most out of it, but fairly easy to get something out of it. Wake is difficult on both ends, and someone who truly reads it will devote a lot of time and concentration on it. If people aren't down for that, I understand, but I think it'd be foolish for someone to shrug off exactly WHY so many devote their time to reading and studying it. There is clearly something there, however difficult it may be to access.
I'm reading "Finnengans Wake" right now (pp 25 -- nearly through section I.1), and I've found it funny. It takes work, but I compare it to "Alice in Wonderland" since things makes sense, but barely. However, unlike the relatively straight-ahead narrative of Alice, Joyce's language obscures an unclear, dreamlike story further.
There have been times when my side splits because of the language. Love the puns, the clever word-plays, and concepts packed deep into other concepts that, when combined, create a third aural meaning.
And this word play is not just cheap trickery, but seems to mimic how our thoughts flow when we are sleeping (or, perhaps, btween sleeping and waking). For instance "penisolate War." Which suggests "peninsular war." Yet combines penis, isolation and war -- and creates a great compact version of human male's great past time -- killing other males, which tends to isolate us from each other.
I think of things like this as "packing meanings." Similar to an information packet of a code kernel in computer and information theory.
But I do get lost at times in the references. Still, just like with Ulysses, I find it profitable to realize "I'll never be able to learn everything Joyce knew. Nor, for that matter, could he learn everything I knew."
Ask me again in a few months -- for there is no doubt it will take me a long time to read this work.
There have been times when my side splits because of the language. Love the puns, the clever word-plays, and concepts packed deep into other concepts that, when combined, create a third aural meaning.
And this word play is not just cheap trickery, but seems to mimic how our thoughts flow when we are sleeping (or, perhaps, btween sleeping and waking). For instance "penisolate War." Which suggests "peninsular war." Yet combines penis, isolation and war -- and creates a great compact version of human male's great past time -- killing other males, which tends to isolate us from each other.
I think of things like this as "packing meanings." Similar to an information packet of a code kernel in computer and information theory.
But I do get lost at times in the references. Still, just like with Ulysses, I find it profitable to realize "I'll never be able to learn everything Joyce knew. Nor, for that matter, could he learn everything I knew."
Ask me again in a few months -- for there is no doubt it will take me a long time to read this work.
I'm a huge Joyce fan. Finnegans Wake and Ulysses are two twin peaks in literature that I just personally enjoyed so much. What saddens me is the hate for these books, and the reverse snobbery and ostracisation that attempts to belittle readers of these books as frauds and snobs. I love these books, I will continue to recommend them, but the world in general takes offence. Pity.
I gave up on Finnegans Wake but I had some good moments with it.
I was reading about 4 page a night for about a month. It was all my simple brain could handle. Each time I read it out loud and to myself and tried so hard to figure out what was going on. Halfway through chapter 2 I stopped.
My family and I was out camping and truly this is the most fun I have ever had with a book. We are all book lovers and I had brought this just to be funny. Never before had I acted so self important, but after sitting by the fire for a while, once the kids had departed, I stood up and announced that I would do a reading.
The family was surprised, but then shocked when I proceeded to read the mumbo jumbo with great authority. Non of them believed that I had read the book. Accusations of drunkenness and worse were thrown at me and so I passed the book out. Each in turn did their damnedest to read the book and slowly they realized the extent of the prank. Joyce was pranking them through me.
To me that was why it was written. To allow simple people like myself to get a laugh at high art once and a while. I think it was a prank and if you take it seriously you lose out on the opportunity of the joke.
I don't hate it but I can't read it. I got one part of it - the prank. The rest I will leave to smarter people with much more time.
P.S. I have always thought it would be fun to do a reading at every family event. Like a tradition. So far not everyone agrees with me.
I was reading about 4 page a night for about a month. It was all my simple brain could handle. Each time I read it out loud and to myself and tried so hard to figure out what was going on. Halfway through chapter 2 I stopped.
My family and I was out camping and truly this is the most fun I have ever had with a book. We are all book lovers and I had brought this just to be funny. Never before had I acted so self important, but after sitting by the fire for a while, once the kids had departed, I stood up and announced that I would do a reading.
The family was surprised, but then shocked when I proceeded to read the mumbo jumbo with great authority. Non of them believed that I had read the book. Accusations of drunkenness and worse were thrown at me and so I passed the book out. Each in turn did their damnedest to read the book and slowly they realized the extent of the prank. Joyce was pranking them through me.
To me that was why it was written. To allow simple people like myself to get a laugh at high art once and a while. I think it was a prank and if you take it seriously you lose out on the opportunity of the joke.
I don't hate it but I can't read it. I got one part of it - the prank. The rest I will leave to smarter people with much more time.
P.S. I have always thought it would be fun to do a reading at every family event. Like a tradition. So far not everyone agrees with me.
Hubbardston Nonesuch
Michael, that is probably the best possible way to experience the Wake. Reading out loud with a group of drunk people. I've always wanted to make a re
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As mentioned above, I think hearing the Wake read is the best way to experience it (save for the homework section, which is impossible to listen to in the audiobook version). I like to play this for anyone who is looking to take the plunge... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU97T.... If only he did read the entire thing!
Also, for those struggling with it, I suggest the same as I've suggested to those who struggled with Ulysses - if a part bogs you down, just move onto the next. It's a book, the previous part will still be there (and you're honestly not hurting yrself too much by reading the Wake out of order). Forge through if only for the "end," which is a beautiful, flowing piece of writing that brings to mind Molly's soliloquy in Ulysses, but which I find much more powerful. You can definitely see Beckett nicking a lot of his later, sparser style from this section.
Also, for those struggling with it, I suggest the same as I've suggested to those who struggled with Ulysses - if a part bogs you down, just move onto the next. It's a book, the previous part will still be there (and you're honestly not hurting yrself too much by reading the Wake out of order). Forge through if only for the "end," which is a beautiful, flowing piece of writing that brings to mind Molly's soliloquy in Ulysses, but which I find much more powerful. You can definitely see Beckett nicking a lot of his later, sparser style from this section.
I feel ya, Steve. Nobody looks down on anybody for not liking FW. I read it over about 7 years, on & off, of course. There's a lot to muddle through, and then there's a lot to spark off something in your mind. The fact is, it's one man's cream-dream-stream. We all have our own personal FWs inside of us, and that's the power of the book.
Joyce, man of Letters, fluent in Languages, Traveler in circles high and low and places near and far, Scholar of knowledge, Prophet to Mankind.
Both FINNEGANS WAKE (FW) and Ulysses are situated in Dublin (Ireland) and though both books were written on the European continent, Joyce memorializes his birth home. FW is Joyce's continuation of Ulysses on a grander scale: Bloom becomes All-Men (HCE) and Dublin becomes the World. Joyce's Ulysses (Bloom) is an energetic man hopping out of bed, plunging into the Dublin day, waging battles real and unreal, exhausted by controversy and rejuvenated by love (Molly). Joyce's FINNEGANS WAKE is man (HCE) ever-living, man of all wisdom, man of all compassion, man of all understanding, man of all time - Joyce's FW protagonist is Finnegan, who (re)incarnates to HCE, who will (re)incarnate to Shem and Shaun.
Reading FW is entering the "mind of James Joyce", who for two decades assembled his masterpiece - the mind of Joyce is the "library of mankind" he has reordered dictionaries, encyclopedias, and volumes of knowledge to reveal a mandala of Mankind's thoughts, conscious and unconscious, a revelation. FW is a volume to be Read and Read again for 10,000 years.
*4) FW ends "book IV" (Vico's chaos) with a half sentence "A away a lone a last a loved a long the" - the first words of FW is the second half of the sentence "riverrun,...".
1) The first chapter of FW's "book I" (Vico's theocratic) describes 1) Finnegan's passing (pedantic fall), Joyce's God "thunderclap" restarting "book I" from ending "book IV" and 2) transition from Finnegan (as protagonist) to HCE. The first 4 chapters of "book I" introduces readers to the father (protagonist HCE, his syncretic history / "folk" hearsay) and the second 4 chapters of "book I" are devoted to the mother (HCE's wife ALP, her syncretic history / "folk" hearsay). Finnegan represents the archaeological "past", the place held by forefathers - forefathers with the wisdom of the history of all men and times. Finnegan passes his baton (his place in the fabric of the universe) to HCE now present in time with his particular past. The parents (HCE & ALP) are the "present anchored by their particular pasts" in FW.
After 4 billion years of biological evolution, Here we are!, well, Where are we?, and, Where did we come from?; Our individual particular consciousness has been inherited from the past (a temporal space in an expanding consciousness), and, Biological evolution has divided us by sex (which induces Social evolution) to procreate offspring to fill our temporal consciousness when we expire:
- A Dublin wake for Finnegan (who passes, the past), the spurned Prankquean (complement of male invader), and the disembarking of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker (HCE, the present) and family. HCE's history, his shameful voyeuristic encounter in Phoenix Park (sexual trysts), his consequential undoing and its memorialized retelling "The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly". HCE is arrested (for late night disturbances at his tavern/home, unable to enter his front gate/door just like Bloom in Ulysses), tried (HCE's Dzogchen Buddhist stance) and jailed (for his own innocent protection from the public). HCE is resurrected from a metaphorical coffin (just like Bloom's underworld excursion in Ulysses ch Hades) and a revealing letter is introduced. Letter revealed from his wife Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP, HCE's Muse), written by his son Shem (Joyce), appropriated / carried by his twin brother Shaun is discussed. Analysis of the ALP letter and the informing parable of "The Mookse, the Gripes and Nuvoletta" (Shaun/space, Shem/time, Iseult). Shem's artistic nature as an enlightened "revealer", who shares ALP's sensibilities and reveals her letter(s). Two washerwoman gossip over ALP & HCE, ALP is HCE's soulmate (his better half and defender), and ALP's quashing of rumors of HCE.
2) FW's "book II" (Vico's aristocratic) devotes itself to HCE & ALP's children: Shaun (extrovert, man of the world - like Sartre's BEING in "Being and Nothingness") carrier of the letter(s) and builder, Shem (introvert, artist - Sartre's NOTHINGNESS) revealer of the letter(s), and Iseult (daughter). The children are the "present future" of FW.
Biological and Social evolution engenders parental responsibilities, to successful offspring, to continue and expand consciousness:
- Shaun (Chuff), Shem (Glugg) and Iseult play (children's world) in front of the family tavern/home challenging games parodying their parent's lives. Shaun (Kev), Shem (Dolph), and Iseult ridicule their dated orthodox lessons and arrogant ossified professor (the past, adult world), Dolph's sexual revelations antagonize a perplexed Kev who blackens Dolph's eye, Issy self-reflects and writes letters, the children will move past their parents to their own individual intellectual lives. HCE & ALP's children grow up (the present) in a raucous Feast of eating, drinking, storytelling, and a "free and open discussion of ideas" in the family tavern (HCE's ship) interrupted by "media announcements", HCE's defends himself with a self-deprecating apologia and latter his drunken collapse after the close. MaMaLuJo (ever-present local social Dharma), HCE asleep on the floor dreams of his (children's collegiate future) transferred romantic love, the tale of the interrelationships between King Mark/HCE, Tristram/Shem (and Shaun/Morholt) and the two Iseults (Queen ALP wife/mother and Princess daughter).
3) FW's "book III" (Vico's democratic) devotes itself to "what will be of" HCE & ALP's children's - the baton will be passed on (again) from HCE & ALP to: Shaun, Shem and Iseult (daughter). The children's "influences upon the world" is the "future generation" (presently unknowable) of FW.
Our offspring will inherit and evolve their Own individual particular temporal consciousness within their local (social Dharma, MaMaLuJo) community despite our efforts, our thoughts, our hopes, our dreams:
- HCE rises from the tavern floor to go upstairs to bed with ALP, he dreams of (his desired children's future adulthood) Shaun's unfolding career (carrier of the letter) promulgating its contents from his child's ship (a barrel) and a prophetic Aesop's fable "The Ant, the Grasshopper, and the girls" (Shaun/space, Shem/time, the girls), Shaun's initial debacle. HCE dreams of a (more realistic future) mature Shaun's (second coming, Juan) adulthood of sermonizing (the letter) before his daughter Iseult and her 28 playmates, Issy moves to womanhood and Shem (Dave) is designated as Shaun's paraclete. HCE dreams of his life's enduring "sins of the father" (contents of the letter, on his children's future) on Shaun's (Yawn, he too will recede into the archaeological past) life examined and prosecuted for the imperfect beliefs he inherited and promulgates (letters) by Four Old Inquisitors (MaMaLuJo, and Brain Trusters a higher authority), HCE is innocent, his life virtuous. HCE's dreamtime breaks, the interrupting nightmare cry of Shem (Jerry, who intrudes/interrupts his parent's sexuality / revelations), once Shem is comforted, HCE & ALP return to bed for late-night intercourse unsuccessful spiritually (transactional, condom male orgasm, female orgasm) and a nap.
*4) FW ends "book IV" (Vico's chaos) with HCE & ALP's lovemaking dissolution dream - awaiting Joyce's God "thunderclap" at the beginning of FW's "book I". A supposition may be made that Joycean Nirvana is attained by HCE (via Dzogchen Trekchö) and ALP (via Dzogchen Tögal) - realizing the heart of enlightenment in the present moment, transcending all defilements and fixations (beyond all dualistic polarities) so that their rainbow bodies are realized, unification with the Unmanifest (creation, incarnate conception) and Reincarnation (the baton has been passed on again) - Danis Rose and John O’Hanlon 2010/12 edition reveals the 4 stages of Trekchö and 4 visions of Tögal.
Ever-living Tree of sentient life (time/compassion) and Immutable stone (space/law). Should we Aspire? Aspire to what? To that which manifested consciousness:
- The converging 4 stages of Trekchö and 4 visions of Tögal: The night has passed (all dissolves), the Lotus blooms (sunrise), a Christ/Krishna "Saint Kevin" is born illuminated by light (an aeon begins). Muta (native docetism) and Juva (invading didicism) observe Mankind's existential struggle "Archdruid vs St. Patrick" (Unmanifest / spiritual vs Manifest / deities/idols). "The Revered Letter" (FINNEGANS WAKE / Joyce's West/East Tibetan bardos). ALP (& HCE's) Nirvana revelation (Creation, Incarnate conception and Reincarnation), to end/restart again (Shiva's trident ending the world) "Save me from those therrble prongs!".
Cosmic interplay of the Two Girls: Maya (Iseult/Nuvoletta reflection) - Thaya (Iseult/Nuvoletta) and Three Soldiers: Tamas (Burrus/Shiva) - Rajas (Caseous/Brahma) - Sattvas (Antonius/Visnu); the "shameful" voyeuristic encounter in Phoenix Park ("book I ch 2", "The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly") is Bloom’s major transgression against his marriage bed (Ulysses ch Nausicaa) with Gerty McDowell (and other sexual trysts, in a "garden") who revealed herself to Bloom "she leaned back and the garters were blue to match on account of the transparent . . . she leaned back ever so far...she let him and she saw that he saw...because he couldn’t resists the sight of the wondrous revealment...looking and he kept on looking, looking...a sigh of o! and everyone cried O! O! in raptures..."(366-67), Bloom acknowledges “Still it was a kind of language between us.”(372) and "look and suggest and let you see and see more and defy you if you’re a man to see that and, like a sneeze coming; legs...Wonder how is she feeling in that region... (373-4). Joyce acknowledges that the "revealment" has activated Bloom, the origins of sexuality are women's invitations / revealments. That which cannot be "recorded" (physical occurrences: sights, sounds, tastes, smells, touch... in time and space) are revealments, Mankind's "unrecorded human thoughts and dreams". Joyce established in Ulysses "his revelations" of mankind's hitherto unrecorded conscious and unconscious "thoughts and dreams".
The Letter is all-letters, the "writings of all mankind" (thoughts we live by, define us, ultimately our undoing) including Joyce's: "seductive letters" ending in a trial in Ulysses (ch Circe), songs and verses "The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly", the West's backward disunited corrupted truths (book II ch 2) of human consciousness, HCE's Apologias (muse ALP), and FW (Joyce's comprehensive West/East Tibetan bardos) the "Truths that have as yet to reach Mankind". Joyce has a "historically traditional" revelation of the relationship between the sexes: "women activate men" and women compose and write letters (Gerty McDowell, Martha, Molly, and ALP, etc.), while men provide content and build things (Finnegan, HCE, Shaun, etc.) - consequently women are the Muses (and repositories) of Mankind's "thoughts and dreams, history and gossip". "The letter" is within ALP's consciousness (and unconsciousness), within her repository: she is the Muse of past letter(s), HCE's Apologias, and FINNEGANS WAKE (Joyce's West/East Tibetan bardos) - just as Picasso' women were his Muses. (Men) Joyce (and Shem) don't create letters they "reveal letters" from Mankind's collective consciousness (and unconsciousness).
continued...
Both FINNEGANS WAKE (FW) and Ulysses are situated in Dublin (Ireland) and though both books were written on the European continent, Joyce memorializes his birth home. FW is Joyce's continuation of Ulysses on a grander scale: Bloom becomes All-Men (HCE) and Dublin becomes the World. Joyce's Ulysses (Bloom) is an energetic man hopping out of bed, plunging into the Dublin day, waging battles real and unreal, exhausted by controversy and rejuvenated by love (Molly). Joyce's FINNEGANS WAKE is man (HCE) ever-living, man of all wisdom, man of all compassion, man of all understanding, man of all time - Joyce's FW protagonist is Finnegan, who (re)incarnates to HCE, who will (re)incarnate to Shem and Shaun.
Reading FW is entering the "mind of James Joyce", who for two decades assembled his masterpiece - the mind of Joyce is the "library of mankind" he has reordered dictionaries, encyclopedias, and volumes of knowledge to reveal a mandala of Mankind's thoughts, conscious and unconscious, a revelation. FW is a volume to be Read and Read again for 10,000 years.
*4) FW ends "book IV" (Vico's chaos) with a half sentence "A away a lone a last a loved a long the" - the first words of FW is the second half of the sentence "riverrun,...".
1) The first chapter of FW's "book I" (Vico's theocratic) describes 1) Finnegan's passing (pedantic fall), Joyce's God "thunderclap" restarting "book I" from ending "book IV" and 2) transition from Finnegan (as protagonist) to HCE. The first 4 chapters of "book I" introduces readers to the father (protagonist HCE, his syncretic history / "folk" hearsay) and the second 4 chapters of "book I" are devoted to the mother (HCE's wife ALP, her syncretic history / "folk" hearsay). Finnegan represents the archaeological "past", the place held by forefathers - forefathers with the wisdom of the history of all men and times. Finnegan passes his baton (his place in the fabric of the universe) to HCE now present in time with his particular past. The parents (HCE & ALP) are the "present anchored by their particular pasts" in FW.
After 4 billion years of biological evolution, Here we are!, well, Where are we?, and, Where did we come from?; Our individual particular consciousness has been inherited from the past (a temporal space in an expanding consciousness), and, Biological evolution has divided us by sex (which induces Social evolution) to procreate offspring to fill our temporal consciousness when we expire:
- A Dublin wake for Finnegan (who passes, the past), the spurned Prankquean (complement of male invader), and the disembarking of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker (HCE, the present) and family. HCE's history, his shameful voyeuristic encounter in Phoenix Park (sexual trysts), his consequential undoing and its memorialized retelling "The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly". HCE is arrested (for late night disturbances at his tavern/home, unable to enter his front gate/door just like Bloom in Ulysses), tried (HCE's Dzogchen Buddhist stance) and jailed (for his own innocent protection from the public). HCE is resurrected from a metaphorical coffin (just like Bloom's underworld excursion in Ulysses ch Hades) and a revealing letter is introduced. Letter revealed from his wife Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP, HCE's Muse), written by his son Shem (Joyce), appropriated / carried by his twin brother Shaun is discussed. Analysis of the ALP letter and the informing parable of "The Mookse, the Gripes and Nuvoletta" (Shaun/space, Shem/time, Iseult). Shem's artistic nature as an enlightened "revealer", who shares ALP's sensibilities and reveals her letter(s). Two washerwoman gossip over ALP & HCE, ALP is HCE's soulmate (his better half and defender), and ALP's quashing of rumors of HCE.
2) FW's "book II" (Vico's aristocratic) devotes itself to HCE & ALP's children: Shaun (extrovert, man of the world - like Sartre's BEING in "Being and Nothingness") carrier of the letter(s) and builder, Shem (introvert, artist - Sartre's NOTHINGNESS) revealer of the letter(s), and Iseult (daughter). The children are the "present future" of FW.
Biological and Social evolution engenders parental responsibilities, to successful offspring, to continue and expand consciousness:
- Shaun (Chuff), Shem (Glugg) and Iseult play (children's world) in front of the family tavern/home challenging games parodying their parent's lives. Shaun (Kev), Shem (Dolph), and Iseult ridicule their dated orthodox lessons and arrogant ossified professor (the past, adult world), Dolph's sexual revelations antagonize a perplexed Kev who blackens Dolph's eye, Issy self-reflects and writes letters, the children will move past their parents to their own individual intellectual lives. HCE & ALP's children grow up (the present) in a raucous Feast of eating, drinking, storytelling, and a "free and open discussion of ideas" in the family tavern (HCE's ship) interrupted by "media announcements", HCE's defends himself with a self-deprecating apologia and latter his drunken collapse after the close. MaMaLuJo (ever-present local social Dharma), HCE asleep on the floor dreams of his (children's collegiate future) transferred romantic love, the tale of the interrelationships between King Mark/HCE, Tristram/Shem (and Shaun/Morholt) and the two Iseults (Queen ALP wife/mother and Princess daughter).
3) FW's "book III" (Vico's democratic) devotes itself to "what will be of" HCE & ALP's children's - the baton will be passed on (again) from HCE & ALP to: Shaun, Shem and Iseult (daughter). The children's "influences upon the world" is the "future generation" (presently unknowable) of FW.
Our offspring will inherit and evolve their Own individual particular temporal consciousness within their local (social Dharma, MaMaLuJo) community despite our efforts, our thoughts, our hopes, our dreams:
- HCE rises from the tavern floor to go upstairs to bed with ALP, he dreams of (his desired children's future adulthood) Shaun's unfolding career (carrier of the letter) promulgating its contents from his child's ship (a barrel) and a prophetic Aesop's fable "The Ant, the Grasshopper, and the girls" (Shaun/space, Shem/time, the girls), Shaun's initial debacle. HCE dreams of a (more realistic future) mature Shaun's (second coming, Juan) adulthood of sermonizing (the letter) before his daughter Iseult and her 28 playmates, Issy moves to womanhood and Shem (Dave) is designated as Shaun's paraclete. HCE dreams of his life's enduring "sins of the father" (contents of the letter, on his children's future) on Shaun's (Yawn, he too will recede into the archaeological past) life examined and prosecuted for the imperfect beliefs he inherited and promulgates (letters) by Four Old Inquisitors (MaMaLuJo, and Brain Trusters a higher authority), HCE is innocent, his life virtuous. HCE's dreamtime breaks, the interrupting nightmare cry of Shem (Jerry, who intrudes/interrupts his parent's sexuality / revelations), once Shem is comforted, HCE & ALP return to bed for late-night intercourse unsuccessful spiritually (transactional, condom male orgasm, female orgasm) and a nap.
*4) FW ends "book IV" (Vico's chaos) with HCE & ALP's lovemaking dissolution dream - awaiting Joyce's God "thunderclap" at the beginning of FW's "book I". A supposition may be made that Joycean Nirvana is attained by HCE (via Dzogchen Trekchö) and ALP (via Dzogchen Tögal) - realizing the heart of enlightenment in the present moment, transcending all defilements and fixations (beyond all dualistic polarities) so that their rainbow bodies are realized, unification with the Unmanifest (creation, incarnate conception) and Reincarnation (the baton has been passed on again) - Danis Rose and John O’Hanlon 2010/12 edition reveals the 4 stages of Trekchö and 4 visions of Tögal.
Ever-living Tree of sentient life (time/compassion) and Immutable stone (space/law). Should we Aspire? Aspire to what? To that which manifested consciousness:
- The converging 4 stages of Trekchö and 4 visions of Tögal: The night has passed (all dissolves), the Lotus blooms (sunrise), a Christ/Krishna "Saint Kevin" is born illuminated by light (an aeon begins). Muta (native docetism) and Juva (invading didicism) observe Mankind's existential struggle "Archdruid vs St. Patrick" (Unmanifest / spiritual vs Manifest / deities/idols). "The Revered Letter" (FINNEGANS WAKE / Joyce's West/East Tibetan bardos). ALP (& HCE's) Nirvana revelation (Creation, Incarnate conception and Reincarnation), to end/restart again (Shiva's trident ending the world) "Save me from those therrble prongs!".
Cosmic interplay of the Two Girls: Maya (Iseult/Nuvoletta reflection) - Thaya (Iseult/Nuvoletta) and Three Soldiers: Tamas (Burrus/Shiva) - Rajas (Caseous/Brahma) - Sattvas (Antonius/Visnu); the "shameful" voyeuristic encounter in Phoenix Park ("book I ch 2", "The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly") is Bloom’s major transgression against his marriage bed (Ulysses ch Nausicaa) with Gerty McDowell (and other sexual trysts, in a "garden") who revealed herself to Bloom "she leaned back and the garters were blue to match on account of the transparent . . . she leaned back ever so far...she let him and she saw that he saw...because he couldn’t resists the sight of the wondrous revealment...looking and he kept on looking, looking...a sigh of o! and everyone cried O! O! in raptures..."(366-67), Bloom acknowledges “Still it was a kind of language between us.”(372) and "look and suggest and let you see and see more and defy you if you’re a man to see that and, like a sneeze coming; legs...Wonder how is she feeling in that region... (373-4). Joyce acknowledges that the "revealment" has activated Bloom, the origins of sexuality are women's invitations / revealments. That which cannot be "recorded" (physical occurrences: sights, sounds, tastes, smells, touch... in time and space) are revealments, Mankind's "unrecorded human thoughts and dreams". Joyce established in Ulysses "his revelations" of mankind's hitherto unrecorded conscious and unconscious "thoughts and dreams".
The Letter is all-letters, the "writings of all mankind" (thoughts we live by, define us, ultimately our undoing) including Joyce's: "seductive letters" ending in a trial in Ulysses (ch Circe), songs and verses "The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly", the West's backward disunited corrupted truths (book II ch 2) of human consciousness, HCE's Apologias (muse ALP), and FW (Joyce's comprehensive West/East Tibetan bardos) the "Truths that have as yet to reach Mankind". Joyce has a "historically traditional" revelation of the relationship between the sexes: "women activate men" and women compose and write letters (Gerty McDowell, Martha, Molly, and ALP, etc.), while men provide content and build things (Finnegan, HCE, Shaun, etc.) - consequently women are the Muses (and repositories) of Mankind's "thoughts and dreams, history and gossip". "The letter" is within ALP's consciousness (and unconsciousness), within her repository: she is the Muse of past letter(s), HCE's Apologias, and FINNEGANS WAKE (Joyce's West/East Tibetan bardos) - just as Picasso' women were his Muses. (Men) Joyce (and Shem) don't create letters they "reveal letters" from Mankind's collective consciousness (and unconsciousness).
continued...
...restarted
Evolution of Everyman: every man will aspire to godhood during their lifetime, as Icarus flew too close to the sun, every man will aspire to dominate their profession (Joyce in writing FW) or dominate the world of men (Egyptian pharaohs, Roman emperors, Russian tsars, etc.) yet they will fall, taken down by someone, "how Buckley shot the Russian General". The children: Shaun, Shem and Iseult will evolve (in book II) from children's games parodying their parents; to youngsters studying their forefather's past lessons; to adults participating in the "rustle bustle" of present life, aspiring to their own godhood (as HCE has), yet they too will experience the fall (dismembered by those around them); after the fall (but before the end/restart) they will dream of what might have been (not their current life) but when they were young, and when love was young.
Imparted Dream gifts: HCE dreams of how he may influence his children's loves (book II ch 4); HCE dreams of how his children's future may be an extension of his life (book III ch 1); HCE dreams of how his children's future may be influenced by his parenting (book III ch 2); HCE dreams of how he has prepared his children to defend themselves from their family inheritances, ALP (his soulmate) is invited into his dream (to defend him) as is his cherished Iseult (book III ch 3); HCE (& ALP) lovemaking dissolution dream of the past dissolving and the new day arising (book IV).
If Joyce intended "HCE day" similar to "Bloomsday" (roughly 24 hrs): FW starts in "book I ch 3" with HCE arrested in front of his tavern/home, like Bloom unable to enter his front door (but HCE does not enter his home through the back door) - instead HCE is arrested for disturbances in hours before dawn. Then "book I ch 4" HCE's conscious/awake or unconscious/dream psychological travails of past guilts (underworld coffin, Ulysses ch Hades) while incarcerated in early hours of morning. Followed by "book I ch 2" HCE walks home through Phoenix Park accosted for the time of day (12 noon) which threatens (real/unreal memories, Ulysses ch Nausicaa) his innocent well-being. These 3 chapters in FW are Joyce's major rework to incorporate Vico's revelation of restart / recirculation into FW - Joyce rewrites 3 chapters of Ulysses: When He is denied Her front door, He is in Hell (on earth), when released (from Hell) His odyssey to Her begins again (with His ever-present accompanying internal travails) for She always knows when He is worthy of Her acceptance (their Paradise).
Then "book I ch 1" Finnegan's afternoon wake at HCE's tavern. Inside HCE's tavern (his ship) his patrons talk about his family, truthful (letters, Norwegian Captain and the Tailor's Daughter) and fabricated stories (book I:5-8 and book II:3); while the children (Shaun, Shem and Iseult) are in and out of the family tavern/home all day taking their lessons (book II:2) and playing about with their friends (book II:1); HCE, as proprietor, defends himself with a self-deprecating speech before his drunken collapse late night (book II:3). HCE dreams on his tavern floor (book II:4); then dreams in his bed (book III:1-3); before intercourse with his wife ALP (book III:4). HCE & ALP's lovemaking dissolution dream (book IV) to awaken to a new day, a supposition may be made that Joycean Nirvana is attained by HCE unification with the Unmanifest (creation, incarnate conception) and Reincarnation (the baton has been passed on again), awaiting Joyce's God "thunderclap" at the beginning of FW's "book I".
Joycean Nirvana lies on the surface of FW's text (mandala, available to all) - excavating below the surface of the text reveals the arguments that support the Nirvana (present granular mindfulness) and refutes all institutional/religious dogma and authoritarian oppression (Wellington Museum's militarism expressed as instrument of people or oppression by rulers). Joyce reveals what may be Dzogchen "Father Tantras" or "Maha Yoga" (in book I, ch 1-4); Dzogchen "Mother Tantras" or "Anu Yoga" (in book I, ch 5-8); while identifying Shem as receptive to "Ati Yoga" or Non-Dual Tantras (Tiberiast Duplex, in book I, ch 6); the answer to the Riddle(s) the "Tiberiast Duplex" is Shem (Joyce) who is the Enlightened One. A supposition may be made that: the Children learn in "book II" Dzogchen Semde (Mind/Time Series) self-knowledge (awareness) and Dzogchen Longde (Space Series) evolution-knowledge (primordial wisdom, rigpa); and that HCE intends (dreams) in "book III" to impart Dzogchen Mannagde (Secret Instruction Series) Self-Liberation-knowledge to his Children.
What does it all Mean: Joyce's gift to Mankind is that Life recirculates. Unlike Joyce's Ulysses (based on Homer's Odyssey) life does not end with woman (in Molly's bed): night passes, the morning arises, and all dissolves to recirculate and restart again - some actors leave the stage and are replaced / (re)incarnated by a "younger version of their former self". Joyce changes from Ulysses by using Giambattista Vico's framework of recirculation for FINNEGANS WAKE - Finnegan (re)incarnates to HCE, as Shaun (most like HCE) will largely be a (re)incarnation of HCE, Shem (most like ALP) will (re)incarnate some of HCE but also some of ALP, and Iseult will largely be a (re)incarnation of ALP - however, Iseult will choose a man much like HCE (who is (re)incarnated through his daughter) as Shaun will choose a woman much like ALP - while Shem may become the next Joyce. FW is the "thoughts and dreams, history and gossip" of all Mankind.
FW is aural (oral) history like Homer's Odessey and Celtic folktales - when one pronounces (phonology) FW's words (aloud) there are more languages than just English; also, when one reads (morphology) FW's words almost all the words are "portmanteaus / neologisms" which gives each of FW's "polysynthetic words" many meanings (impermanence, Heisenberg uncertainty), each FW sentence dozens of possible messages, each FW paragraph hundreds of possible readings, Joyce's rendering of a more expansive English language and multiplicating universal book with coalescing syncretic themes/stories (that responds to each reader's inquiries). Joyce schooled in Christian Jesuit metaphysics (pushed down into the mindfulness of human consciousness) breathes in the spirit of expansive Celtic (Irish) community tavern life where man's stories of life are told. Tavern life teaches the evolution of Joyce's ten God "thunderclaps" (one hundred lettered words) pushing man's evolution forward from cave man's tales to modern tv media tales. Inside the tavern man learns of the purely human (animal) fall, taken down by another human(s) - like animal taken down on the African savanna. A granular reading of FW can render FW as an updated John Milton's Paradise Lost (regurgitated knowledge from the tree, to affirm man's damnation); however, Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species was published in 1859 and Joyce in FW book II clearly walks Shaun, Shem and Iseult through their earthly evolutionary lifetime travails, our mortality is a consequence of Life's evolution. Every page of FW speaks to man's evolution (unconscious biological, conscious social, aspirational personal) and to Life recirculating (West meets Dzogchen East a "meeting of metaphysical minds") that binds humanity together into the future. Dzogchen (beyond all dualistic polarities) the heart of human consciousness - Joyce's underlying (subcutaneous) arguments refute the "Western curse of metaphysical/mythological damnation", the curse does not exist in the Eastern mind. Like "counting the number of angels on the head of a pin" (Aquinas 1270) Joyce provides a granular reading of FW as a "defense against all Western adversity" for our conscious and unconscious Western travails. HCE's angst is caused by his community that imposes a Western curse (damnation) upon him that man is not guilty of. To experience Joycean Nirvana, a defense against this man-made guilt is required - for as Zoroaster revealed cosmogonic dualism, evil is mixed with good in man's everyday (universal) travails (even the Dalai Lama must defend Nirvana rigorously from the most populous authoritarian state in human history).
Joyce's FW celebrates the Joys of Christian/Buddhist diversity of humanity (expansiveness of human consciousness: Gnostic Norwegian Captain, Shem, Archdruid), Brahma (Finnegan, HCE, Shaun), Divine Women (ALP, Iseult, Nuvoletta), his family - and the Sufferings of the inescapable "evil" of Shiva (Buckley), the debilitating harmful sterile intrusive authoritarian institutionalizing damnation (MaMaLuJo, St. Patrick) by Augustine, the manufactured clerical corruption identified by Luther (since 367 AD) and the burdens of "survival of the fittest" anxiety (modern commerce) met with a Dzogchen Buddhist stance. The (innocent infant) Norwegian Captain (Krishna, HCE), occasionally defensive (Shiva, HCE), though concretized (Brahma, HCE) by community family life (MaMaLuJo) - through spirits (drink) HCE can access his spirituality (dreams) and through spiritual (cutting through) love-making with ALP (direct approach) can access (their Krishnas) unification with the Unmanifest. Joyce was a Prophet who consumed Man's conscious and unconscious "thoughts and dreams, history and gossip", efforts and failings - to reveal the joys and sufferings of Mankind.
Hermes Trismegistus reveals in the Corpus Hermeticum the Unmanifest to his son Tat; however, Maha-Visnu's unlimited universes (sometimes manifest and sometimes unmanifest) predates Western revelations by centuries. Unmanifest "spiritual" God (Visnu) is omniscient compassionate eternal. Manifest universes consist of Equilibrium (Visnu), Creation (Brahma) and Destruction (Shiva) - Shiva is a ''temporal manifestation of Visnu'' whose destructions are manifest and cannot interact with the Unmanifest. Zoroaster revealed Cosmogonic dualism where inescapeable manifest "evil" (Shiva) is mixed with good (Visnu and Brahma). The 39th Festal Letter 367 AD expunged Unmanifest spirituality from Christ's message (Nag Hammadi manuscripts, spiritual revelations beyond the orthodox cannon). Doctrines of Augustine: dogmas of original sin, infant damnation and predestination were brought to Ireland by St Patrick, consequently extinguishing Unmanifest spirituality, sentient's place in the fabric of the temporal universe (preexistence and reincarnation). All Manifest gods are deities/idols (creations of man) - only the Umanifest (untouched by man) is affirmative by definition (our universe's reality: its matter, its laws & consciousness manifest). Joyce returns Mankind to the path to the Unmanifest.
Joyce's FW message: Christian/Buddhist omniscient compassion (Christ/Krishna) is eternally joyful and recirculating. Affirmative family (HCE/Brahma, ALP/Divine woman & children) existentiality: life's biological evolution (sex), modern survival (money), constraining community (Dharma, social evolution) are constantly assaulted by inescapable "aggressive insidious vile" corrupt soul(less/sucking) ossified demonic antipathetic attacks. Joycean Nirvana is attained via the Christian/Buddhist affirmative middle way, "beyond polar opposites" the path of Christ/Buddha.
JCB
Evolution of Everyman: every man will aspire to godhood during their lifetime, as Icarus flew too close to the sun, every man will aspire to dominate their profession (Joyce in writing FW) or dominate the world of men (Egyptian pharaohs, Roman emperors, Russian tsars, etc.) yet they will fall, taken down by someone, "how Buckley shot the Russian General". The children: Shaun, Shem and Iseult will evolve (in book II) from children's games parodying their parents; to youngsters studying their forefather's past lessons; to adults participating in the "rustle bustle" of present life, aspiring to their own godhood (as HCE has), yet they too will experience the fall (dismembered by those around them); after the fall (but before the end/restart) they will dream of what might have been (not their current life) but when they were young, and when love was young.
Imparted Dream gifts: HCE dreams of how he may influence his children's loves (book II ch 4); HCE dreams of how his children's future may be an extension of his life (book III ch 1); HCE dreams of how his children's future may be influenced by his parenting (book III ch 2); HCE dreams of how he has prepared his children to defend themselves from their family inheritances, ALP (his soulmate) is invited into his dream (to defend him) as is his cherished Iseult (book III ch 3); HCE (& ALP) lovemaking dissolution dream of the past dissolving and the new day arising (book IV).
If Joyce intended "HCE day" similar to "Bloomsday" (roughly 24 hrs): FW starts in "book I ch 3" with HCE arrested in front of his tavern/home, like Bloom unable to enter his front door (but HCE does not enter his home through the back door) - instead HCE is arrested for disturbances in hours before dawn. Then "book I ch 4" HCE's conscious/awake or unconscious/dream psychological travails of past guilts (underworld coffin, Ulysses ch Hades) while incarcerated in early hours of morning. Followed by "book I ch 2" HCE walks home through Phoenix Park accosted for the time of day (12 noon) which threatens (real/unreal memories, Ulysses ch Nausicaa) his innocent well-being. These 3 chapters in FW are Joyce's major rework to incorporate Vico's revelation of restart / recirculation into FW - Joyce rewrites 3 chapters of Ulysses: When He is denied Her front door, He is in Hell (on earth), when released (from Hell) His odyssey to Her begins again (with His ever-present accompanying internal travails) for She always knows when He is worthy of Her acceptance (their Paradise).
Then "book I ch 1" Finnegan's afternoon wake at HCE's tavern. Inside HCE's tavern (his ship) his patrons talk about his family, truthful (letters, Norwegian Captain and the Tailor's Daughter) and fabricated stories (book I:5-8 and book II:3); while the children (Shaun, Shem and Iseult) are in and out of the family tavern/home all day taking their lessons (book II:2) and playing about with their friends (book II:1); HCE, as proprietor, defends himself with a self-deprecating speech before his drunken collapse late night (book II:3). HCE dreams on his tavern floor (book II:4); then dreams in his bed (book III:1-3); before intercourse with his wife ALP (book III:4). HCE & ALP's lovemaking dissolution dream (book IV) to awaken to a new day, a supposition may be made that Joycean Nirvana is attained by HCE unification with the Unmanifest (creation, incarnate conception) and Reincarnation (the baton has been passed on again), awaiting Joyce's God "thunderclap" at the beginning of FW's "book I".
Joycean Nirvana lies on the surface of FW's text (mandala, available to all) - excavating below the surface of the text reveals the arguments that support the Nirvana (present granular mindfulness) and refutes all institutional/religious dogma and authoritarian oppression (Wellington Museum's militarism expressed as instrument of people or oppression by rulers). Joyce reveals what may be Dzogchen "Father Tantras" or "Maha Yoga" (in book I, ch 1-4); Dzogchen "Mother Tantras" or "Anu Yoga" (in book I, ch 5-8); while identifying Shem as receptive to "Ati Yoga" or Non-Dual Tantras (Tiberiast Duplex, in book I, ch 6); the answer to the Riddle(s) the "Tiberiast Duplex" is Shem (Joyce) who is the Enlightened One. A supposition may be made that: the Children learn in "book II" Dzogchen Semde (Mind/Time Series) self-knowledge (awareness) and Dzogchen Longde (Space Series) evolution-knowledge (primordial wisdom, rigpa); and that HCE intends (dreams) in "book III" to impart Dzogchen Mannagde (Secret Instruction Series) Self-Liberation-knowledge to his Children.
What does it all Mean: Joyce's gift to Mankind is that Life recirculates. Unlike Joyce's Ulysses (based on Homer's Odyssey) life does not end with woman (in Molly's bed): night passes, the morning arises, and all dissolves to recirculate and restart again - some actors leave the stage and are replaced / (re)incarnated by a "younger version of their former self". Joyce changes from Ulysses by using Giambattista Vico's framework of recirculation for FINNEGANS WAKE - Finnegan (re)incarnates to HCE, as Shaun (most like HCE) will largely be a (re)incarnation of HCE, Shem (most like ALP) will (re)incarnate some of HCE but also some of ALP, and Iseult will largely be a (re)incarnation of ALP - however, Iseult will choose a man much like HCE (who is (re)incarnated through his daughter) as Shaun will choose a woman much like ALP - while Shem may become the next Joyce. FW is the "thoughts and dreams, history and gossip" of all Mankind.
FW is aural (oral) history like Homer's Odessey and Celtic folktales - when one pronounces (phonology) FW's words (aloud) there are more languages than just English; also, when one reads (morphology) FW's words almost all the words are "portmanteaus / neologisms" which gives each of FW's "polysynthetic words" many meanings (impermanence, Heisenberg uncertainty), each FW sentence dozens of possible messages, each FW paragraph hundreds of possible readings, Joyce's rendering of a more expansive English language and multiplicating universal book with coalescing syncretic themes/stories (that responds to each reader's inquiries). Joyce schooled in Christian Jesuit metaphysics (pushed down into the mindfulness of human consciousness) breathes in the spirit of expansive Celtic (Irish) community tavern life where man's stories of life are told. Tavern life teaches the evolution of Joyce's ten God "thunderclaps" (one hundred lettered words) pushing man's evolution forward from cave man's tales to modern tv media tales. Inside the tavern man learns of the purely human (animal) fall, taken down by another human(s) - like animal taken down on the African savanna. A granular reading of FW can render FW as an updated John Milton's Paradise Lost (regurgitated knowledge from the tree, to affirm man's damnation); however, Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species was published in 1859 and Joyce in FW book II clearly walks Shaun, Shem and Iseult through their earthly evolutionary lifetime travails, our mortality is a consequence of Life's evolution. Every page of FW speaks to man's evolution (unconscious biological, conscious social, aspirational personal) and to Life recirculating (West meets Dzogchen East a "meeting of metaphysical minds") that binds humanity together into the future. Dzogchen (beyond all dualistic polarities) the heart of human consciousness - Joyce's underlying (subcutaneous) arguments refute the "Western curse of metaphysical/mythological damnation", the curse does not exist in the Eastern mind. Like "counting the number of angels on the head of a pin" (Aquinas 1270) Joyce provides a granular reading of FW as a "defense against all Western adversity" for our conscious and unconscious Western travails. HCE's angst is caused by his community that imposes a Western curse (damnation) upon him that man is not guilty of. To experience Joycean Nirvana, a defense against this man-made guilt is required - for as Zoroaster revealed cosmogonic dualism, evil is mixed with good in man's everyday (universal) travails (even the Dalai Lama must defend Nirvana rigorously from the most populous authoritarian state in human history).
Joyce's FW celebrates the Joys of Christian/Buddhist diversity of humanity (expansiveness of human consciousness: Gnostic Norwegian Captain, Shem, Archdruid), Brahma (Finnegan, HCE, Shaun), Divine Women (ALP, Iseult, Nuvoletta), his family - and the Sufferings of the inescapable "evil" of Shiva (Buckley), the debilitating harmful sterile intrusive authoritarian institutionalizing damnation (MaMaLuJo, St. Patrick) by Augustine, the manufactured clerical corruption identified by Luther (since 367 AD) and the burdens of "survival of the fittest" anxiety (modern commerce) met with a Dzogchen Buddhist stance. The (innocent infant) Norwegian Captain (Krishna, HCE), occasionally defensive (Shiva, HCE), though concretized (Brahma, HCE) by community family life (MaMaLuJo) - through spirits (drink) HCE can access his spirituality (dreams) and through spiritual (cutting through) love-making with ALP (direct approach) can access (their Krishnas) unification with the Unmanifest. Joyce was a Prophet who consumed Man's conscious and unconscious "thoughts and dreams, history and gossip", efforts and failings - to reveal the joys and sufferings of Mankind.
Hermes Trismegistus reveals in the Corpus Hermeticum the Unmanifest to his son Tat; however, Maha-Visnu's unlimited universes (sometimes manifest and sometimes unmanifest) predates Western revelations by centuries. Unmanifest "spiritual" God (Visnu) is omniscient compassionate eternal. Manifest universes consist of Equilibrium (Visnu), Creation (Brahma) and Destruction (Shiva) - Shiva is a ''temporal manifestation of Visnu'' whose destructions are manifest and cannot interact with the Unmanifest. Zoroaster revealed Cosmogonic dualism where inescapeable manifest "evil" (Shiva) is mixed with good (Visnu and Brahma). The 39th Festal Letter 367 AD expunged Unmanifest spirituality from Christ's message (Nag Hammadi manuscripts, spiritual revelations beyond the orthodox cannon). Doctrines of Augustine: dogmas of original sin, infant damnation and predestination were brought to Ireland by St Patrick, consequently extinguishing Unmanifest spirituality, sentient's place in the fabric of the temporal universe (preexistence and reincarnation). All Manifest gods are deities/idols (creations of man) - only the Umanifest (untouched by man) is affirmative by definition (our universe's reality: its matter, its laws & consciousness manifest). Joyce returns Mankind to the path to the Unmanifest.
Joyce's FW message: Christian/Buddhist omniscient compassion (Christ/Krishna) is eternally joyful and recirculating. Affirmative family (HCE/Brahma, ALP/Divine woman & children) existentiality: life's biological evolution (sex), modern survival (money), constraining community (Dharma, social evolution) are constantly assaulted by inescapable "aggressive insidious vile" corrupt soul(less/sucking) ossified demonic antipathetic attacks. Joycean Nirvana is attained via the Christian/Buddhist affirmative middle way, "beyond polar opposites" the path of Christ/Buddha.
JCB
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