Finnegans Wake II.2 — the study chapter — ends with the children being called to dinner after their homework. They had been outside to play (II.1), they studied (II.2), and now it’s time to eat. The scene is about to shift to the tavern downstairs, where their father is working and a feast is underway, including the feast of storytelling (II.3).
This post looks closely at the final page of II.2.
Continue readingThe 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 readingFinnegans 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 reading…and the dumb speak.
Finnegans Wake is the closest I’ve ever seen to capturing on the page the very essence of what language is — in this book, arguably no one is speaking but language itself, to itself, unmasking the process by which language, the chattering river of the unconscious mind, produces selfhood.
The “quoiquoiquoiquoiquoiquoiquoq” that ends Chapter 7 is, presumably, the speaking of the dumb. The “dumb” are all those who are unable to speak, but the word might also denote people who are not all that intelligent. Yet even people who lack intellectual accomplishments still, in terms of the Wake, embody the same Eternal story. And so the artist allows them to speak, through him.
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The Suspended Sentence 