I had the opportunity recently to visit the Great Jones Distilling Company in Manhattan and take a tour of their distillery. [No, they are not sponsoring this post] It was a marvelous time — an excellent tour I took with a friend — at the first distillery opened in Manhattan since prohibition (and it opened in…2021!).
The experience put me in mind of references to distilling in Finnegans Wake, which is what this post will be about.
Continue readingThis post looks more closely at the word “Amsad,” which appears in III.3 as an anagram for other words that I quoted in my last post.
Continue readingThis post reflects on the motif of looking and watching in Finnegans Wake.
Continue readingAbout two years ago, I was writing a piece where I wondered if my creativity had gone out. Perhaps, I speculated, I had become nothing more than a “keeper of the flame” that burned back in the day, editing my old pieces of writing, planning to publish my older work, etc.
But then I was struck by the thought that my creativity hadn’t left me at all. I was writing so many new, creative things still, especially when it came to explicating Finnegans Wake. Why couldn’t scholarly writing be considered creative as well?
I’m not tending a flame, I thought. I’m the kindling. The fire burns from inside me, not unlike a phoenix.
This post looks at this idea in HCE’s speech in II.3, where he defends the Russian General.
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The Suspended Sentence 