Every telling has a taling, and that’s the he and the she of it
Finnegans Wake, I.8
In many ways, Finnegans Wake is a book about storytelling. It’s a collection of stories. In some places, full stories are told from beginning to end; in other places, they abruptly start and stop, get interrupted, meld into other tales, or get lost in confusion (like the history of HCE in I.2-4).
Continue readingThis post follows up on Part 1 and Part 2 by reflecting on references to the fable in other parts of Finnegans Wake.
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 readingAs I discussed in “The Prankquean’s Riddle,” one of the issues raised by the riddle — “Why do I am alook alike a poss of porterpease?” — is the enigmatic question of identity.
Some ways of glossing the riddle include “Why do I look like you?” or “Why do I look like our children?” or “Why are we a family; what makes us a family (the Porter family, a pod of peas)?”
What is a family, anyway? What am “I,” that I can resemble or be something at all?
Continue reading
The Suspended Sentence 