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 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“Justice” is cruel authoritarianism when it’s not tempered by Mercy.
Mercy is wishy-washy weakness when it’s not balanced by Justice.
Thus the brothers, Shaun and Shem. At the end of Chapter I.7, Justius (Shaun) monologues, followed by Mercias (Shem).
Continue readingHCE’s fall results in his breaking into two halves, two “sons,” each with some of the qualities of the Father. Shem and Shaun are the introvert and the extrovert; the poet and the politician; the blasphemer and the priest; the oppressed and the oppressor; the shunned and the celebrated. And so on. They are the “contrary” forces that William Blake writes about.
They battle each other in conflicts that represent the wars of history and all interpersonal conflicts ever (which correspond to the brawl at Finnegan’s Wake in the song). But at the end of the day, they’re just two little boys scuffling.
Two early and significant explorations of the brothers occur in I.6 and I.4, the former a diatribe from Shaun about his brother, and the latter a description of a fight between early versions of the brothers before they fully divide from the father.
This post will examine the passage in I.6, and a future post will look more closely at the passage in I.4.
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The Suspended Sentence 