This series of posts looks at the famous closing monologue of Finnegans Wake.
Continue readingLeafy Speaking, Part 1
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Category Archives: Overview
Four Zoas, Five Senses
The Four Old Men appear throughout Finnegans Wake in a number of guises. Campbell and Robinson list some of these appearances as four judges, four winds, Four Master Annalists of Ireland, Four Waves of Ireland, Four Evangelists, four Viconian ages, and four chroniclers.
This post discusses the Four Old Men and elaborates the connection Joyce draws between them and William Blake’s Four Zoas. I consider how both sets of symbols can be attributed to four of the five senses, the fifth sense (touch) being attributed to their combination or that which underlies the four (HCE or, in Blake, Albion). My speculations are tentative and incomplete, but they may be an interesting jumping off point for future thoughts on the subject.
Continue readingSure in Language Strange
My title is a quote from the Keats poem “La Belle Dame Sans Merci.” I was thinking of this haunting ballad — which depicts a female figure ensnaring a knight — around the same time that I was first seriously contemplating the speech of Issy in I.6, the quiz chapter. Like the Belle Dame, Issy is a sort of temptress figure.
This post looks at some highlights of Issy’s speech and thinks about Issy as a character in Finnegans Wake.
Continue readingThe Baffling Yarn Sails in Circles
Finnegans Wake II.3 is the longest chapter in the book: it’s nearly 1/6 of the length of the whole work. It’s also the densest chapter. The study chapter (II.2) may be the hardest to read, but I think this chapter is as dense as it gets. Words seem more packed with meaning than usual. The narrative, such as it is, continually confuses the present with the past. More so than any other chapter, it is a microcosm of the whole book.
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