Just read what Derrida writes about Finnegans Wake.
You'll like it
--- NeaL Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
Greetings!!
A while back I decided I wanted the following text
on my gravestone:
He read Finnegans Wake twice.
Actually now it is around three times. And yes,
Roger, every single
word.
Story: When I was in high school I saw this army
movie with, I
think, Sinatra, who got beat up by the other
soldiers for reading
Ulysses, my kind of book I thought. It was the
middle 60's
and when I went to get the book in the library, I
found that
I had to be 18 to check it out. I was 16. Hmmm...
what else
has this guy written. Finnegans Wake was sitting
there,
and I didn't have to be 18 so I got it. At home I
opened
it up and I was really shocked. What is this? I
thought.
I started to read it, and for a very long time I
kept
starting to read it. At the most I got around 128
pages into it before I gave up. Over and over... It
wasn't
until in 1980, after spending a week in Ireland and
hearing
Dublin English, I was able to read Ulysses, without
many
crutches, only the Gilbert book at hand. Now after
reading
that book, I decided it was time to read FW. Over
three
months, I did it... Again with few crutches, as
before I
read FW I had read maybe 4 times the number of pages
about FW. It was amazing...
Theory: I believe that if you have any literary
pretensions
whatsoever, you will eventually encounter Joyce,
usually
Portrait, maybe Ulysses, and if you are brave FW.
One of
two things will happen when you encounter FW, a) you
will open it up, read a few lines, shrug, and never
look
at it again, or b) it will become a monkey on your
back,
a good monkey, but a monkey all the same. That's
what happened
to me and to many people I eventually met. Even
though you
may not understand all or much of it, you know that
this book
is a goldmine, maybe diamond mind, and for you FW
people
out there a "midden heap." After reading it a second
time
I found a class offered at UC Berkeley on FW taught
by
one of the best teachers I have ever had, John Reid.
He's
teaching it now. 50 pages a semester, three to five
pages
a week, with discussion, and reading it OUT LOUD,
which is
the only way to read it. From the class I found a
group of
people who have been meeting every week for around
15
years to share this book. As John says, Joyce seems
to
attract a good bunch of people. It's true...
Advice: In school we were always tested on
"reading comprehension." We had to know and
understand what we were reading while we read it,
or else When you read FW you have to let that
attitude go away, as you just enjoy the music of
the words. Listen... This is not to say that there
is
no meaning there. This is one of the most seriously
constructed, every letter in it's place, books ever
written. Joyce worried about hyphenation of words,
and what page number a sentence or word occurred.
Artifice? More than that... Joyce has packed so much
meaning there that it overflows, there is meaning
there for us all. Rorschach test? Maybe... But as
you
move through the book in its endless circle of words
-
last sentence - A way, a lone, a last, a loved, a
long the
first sentence - riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from
swerve
of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius
vicus
of recirculation, back to Howth Castle and environs.
(that was from memory, as this book creeps into your
very fiber)
meaning does come through as this is the story of
a family, all families, and each one of us. Ulysses
revealed the magic and wonder of plain everyday
life. FW reveals the interconnectedness and depth
of each one of us. And it shows how much music
there is around us if we listen. And it also shows
that language is a most amazing tool, quite
flexible, and in the right hands, magic.
Yeah, I love this book. Just writing this makes
me want to pick it up again for another trip
down the Liffey.
So... get a copy of the Annotations (Blue Death)
by McHugh, and a copy of FW, arm yourself
with a pencil to make your own annotations,
sit down and start reading it, out loud. And don't
worry about "getting it" because you will "get it"
over time, as it's music becomes your music. And
find other people to share the reading and
the discussion. This is a book to be shared...
__
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