Finnegans Wake Grappa discussion

Shem the Penman! Whom it is argued is a thinly-guised Joyce-- fishy disfigured exile & lowlife, alcoholic addict ne'er-do-well half-blind coward and deadbeat? or most brilliant Bard to outdo even Shakehisbeard hisself and penner of the mamafesta?? Here's where to discuss:

I'll put it here.

ALP, HEC, Shem & Shaun, as indicated in the report of the failure of delivering a letter in III.1, page 420 (326R) ::

"Letter, carried of Shaun, son of Hek, written of Shem, brother of Shaun, uttered for Alp, mother of Shem, for Hek, father of Shaun. Initialled. Gee. Gone. 29 Hardware Saint." ETC

As stated above, Shem is understood by readers of the Wake to possess affinities with the master author himself, Joyce. Some fun evidence of this lies embedded on pages 186-187 of the OUD, non-Restored, the section that tells of Shem making the ink from his own excrement and then writing "over every square inch of the only foolscap available, his own body". Scattered within these two pages are numerous titles of stories from Dubliners:

-A Little Cloud-"the Fickle Crowd", "in little clots"

-Ivy Day In The Committee Room- "sexth day of Hogsober" (Ivy Day, 6th of October), "livingsmeansuiniumgetherum"

-The Sisters- "Petty constable Sistersen"

-The Encounter- "that wrongcountered"

-Eveline- "eveling"

-The Boarding House- "his boardelhouse"

-Grace & After the Race (a two for one!)- "after the grace"

-A Painful Case- "the painful sake"

-Counterparts- "countryports"

-The Dead- "the dead med dirt"

-Two Gallants- "bringer at home two gallonts"

-Araby- "arrahbejibbers"

-A Mother- "What mother?"

And following these come the names of Joyce's early publishers, Brown and Nolan (who are everywhere throughout the Wake)- "Brawn is my name... Nayman of Noland"

All of this is courtesy of McHugh's annotations, and I may have missed a few. Joyce in Shem! Allmen.

Geoff wrote: "As stated above, Shem is understood by readers of the Wake to possess affinities with the master author himself, Joyce. Some fun evidence of this lies embedded on pages 186-187 of the OUD, non-Res..."

Yeah, I think the correlation is pretty clear. The whole of that section felt very much like Joyce both mocking himself and riffing on others criticisms of him (and, of course, simultaneously demonstrating why they are wrong). I think it is impossible not to see strong autobiographical elements throughout the Wake, and I don't think recognizing them in any way hinders our ability to also see the Universal.