This post looks at the Enlightened Nonsense of Finnegans Wake, in sharp contrast to boring and childish citations and recitations of discourse.
Continue reading“Humph is in His Doge”: Tired Discourse and Enlightened Nonsense
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: Shem and Shaun
Sockdaloger
In I.1, there’s a brief catalogue of all the goods that go into ALP’s “nabsack.” This includes
boaston nightgarters and masses of shoeset
I always just took this to be a reference to Boston, Massachusetts, a place that many Irish people emigrated to, mixed with garters and shoes.
But it’s also, the annotations inform me, chaussettes, the French word for socks.
Continue readingMerry Christmas, 2024
Among the gossipers telling tales of HCE, one woman
hoped Sid Arthar would git a Chrissman’s portrout of orange and lemonsized orchids with hollegs and ether, from the feeatre of the Innocident, as the worryld had been uncained.
“Chrissman’s portrout” is at once Christmas present, Christmas portrait, Christmas porter, and Christmas pardon. It also contains the word “trout,” recalling how Finn MacCool gained knowledge by eating a fish (cf. Issy in I.6, “It’s only another queer fish or other in Brinbrou’s damned old trouchorous river again”).
Continue readingIn the Sunnyroom
As a follow up to my last post, I wanted to look closely at part of a sentence in The Ondt and the Gracehoper. Years ago, I felt compelled to make notes on this sentence — which describes the Ondt “swarming of himself in his sunnyroom” — when I was living in a house with a sunroom.
Continue reading
The Suspended Sentence 