This post reflects on my last post and briefly offers an alternate way of conceiving the equations that I discussed there.
Continue readingBound to Bind Beholders
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Author Archives: Matthew Leporati
Mental Math
The math problem comes in Finnegans Wake II.2 occurs right after Shem/Dolph shows his brother how to draw the two interlocking circles that I discussed in my last post. This post explores the math problem itself.
Continue readingHit the Books
Finnegans Wake II.2 is the study chapter. After coming in from playing, the children are apparently doing their homework: it’s Joyce’s chance to parody school books, as he writes the chapter sort of like a textbook with marginal comments and footnotes.
This post focuses on the end of the chapter, where the brothers work on a math problem, and then Shaun punches Shem, only for the latter to forgive him.
Continue readingWon’t Someone Please Think of the Children?
The Children’s Hour (Finnegans Wake II.1) is a lovely little chapter.
The structure is simple: Shem and Shaun – under the guise of Glugg and Chuff – are playing a game with Issy, who appears as Izod and the Floras (the flower girls, the 28 girls who are aspects of her, a “month’s bunch of pretty maidens” – associated with the monthly, lunar cycle – which makes Issy the 29th, the leap year girl).
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The Suspended Sentence 