The Mookse and the Gripes takes place in FW I.6, the quiz chapter. This post explores this section of Finnegans Wake.
Continue readingThe Mookse and the Gripes, Part 1
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Tag Archives: Close Reading
The 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.
Continue readingMental Math
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 readingHe Lifts the Lifewand
…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 