"O foenix culprit! Ex nickylow malo comes mickelmassed bonum. Hill, rill, ones in company, billeted, less be proud of. Breast high and bestride! Only for that these will not breathe upon Norrônesen or Irenean the secrest of their soorcelossness. Quarry silex, Homfrie Noanswa! Undy gentian festyknees, Livia No-answa? Wolkencap is on him, frowned; audiurient, he would evesdrip, were it mous at hand, were it dinn of bottles in the far ear. Murk, his vales are darkling. With lipth she lithpeth to him all to time of thuch on thuch and thow on thow. She he she ho she ha to la. Hairfluke, if he could bad twig her! Impalpabunt, he abhears."
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| O Felix Culpa - is Joyce's choice a "happy fault"? |
Recently I have turned once again to James Joyce and "Finnegans Wake". First things first (not always the best policy I admit) it must be noted that it is not "Finnegan's Wake". No apostrophe. So more , "Hey, Finnegan:- Wake!" or the waking of Finnegan. There is much of HCE in the book. Those three letters continually appear under various guises, to the point where we have to acknowledge that Here Comes Everybody. According to various worthy students of Joyce, he was always seeking moments of insight, "epiphanies", when the mundane moments of everyday life suddenly take on a great depth - or height. From my Pure Land perspective, more enlightenment in and around the kitchen sink, rather than in the Zendo, the meditation hall. More kick up the arse than a wack with the keisaku.
Anyway, as said, trying once again to get into "Finnegans Wake", the unreadable book that took Joyce 19 years to write. I downloaded the Penguin version which offered an introduction, an introduction which has the merit of offering an alternative to actually beginning to attempt the daunting text. Putting off such even more, I wrote a review of the book and posted it on Amazon.
Here it is:-
"Well, first, this particular edition. Begins on the very first page by telling us that Joyce was the oldest often (sic) children. Is this a typo, or are Penguin getting into the spirit of the book? Anyway, whatever, this is certainly the best book I have never read. I have managed the first page or two, but the reality is that I enjoy books ABOUT Finnegans Wake rather than actually attempting to wend my way through it. One book about it informed me that each sentence, even each single word, could be seen as a microcosm of the entire text, so in that context why actually read it all. "riverrun" is enough. Then again, the word play is very enjoyable and the ABC of the book, and a Lexicon, offer endless interest and much humour. Apparently Joyce was heard by his long suffering wife Nora Barnacle late into many a night as he laughed aloud at his own jokes, setting his traps for the future literary critics to decipher, writing yet another un-understandable book that Nora wished was more "understandable" and thus more of a cash cow. But as I grow older I see more clearly that understanding life is a terrible trap - as thoughts, words and beliefs congeal and enclose the mind in circles of self-justification as the inevitable end approaches. But what end? The end of Finnegans Wake (not that I have ever reached it) takes us back to the beginning. As Joyce said about Ulysses as he faced the obscenity trials, "if Ulysses is unfit to read, then life is unfit to live". So life is to be lived rather than "understood". And Molly Bloom, in Ulysses, ends her monologue with a beautiful "Yes". Learning about Finnegans Wake, from various books, does help me to live, hopefully with compassion and not a little gratitude. Not least for the life and writings of James Joyce himself who gave us this last wonderful book using eyes that just might have reduced many others to night and despair. So buy a copy, if not to read it, then to have it on your bookshelf to impress the neighbours.
Absintheminded? Absent, mind drifting? Forgetful? Drunk? Or just a joke, all things, or nothing. Dig deep or skim the surface."
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| A taste of his own medicine |
Well, since then I have bit the bullet and reached page 16 of the book and actually enjoyed a few laughs along the way. What do I make of it? Gradually, from those few pages, and from all previous reading of his words and the words of others about Joyce's words, I learn and see that he never mocks the mundane, never jeers at any expression of humanity. Joyce tends to observe without judgement, reports it, conjures with it in an essentially egalitarian way, seeking moments that have been called "epiphanies", when the mundane is transported to another plane entirely - for those who see.
Moving on, another review I posted on Amazon, this of the book "Pervigilium Finneganis" which purports to be the Wake translated into Latin!
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| A Latin version for the totally insane |
"Well, here we have the Wake even more unreadable. In Latin. A good joke, and I tend to think that James Joyce would have seen the joke. Would he have enjoyed it? But a serious point is made (or not) in the introductory essay that proceeds the body of the text, which is well worth the small price of the entire book. A point made in other books on the Wake, including "A Word In Your Ear" by Eric Rosenbloom. That at some point you really do need an ejector seat and stop looking for more and more depth in the various tricks of the text. Don't fall for Joyce's attempt at immortality and become one who lives their life deciphering each and every word, then re-deciphering each word again and again, keeping you busy and away from life itself. I think Sartre had something to say about seeking to immortalise himself in literature and he chose to resist the temptation. Maybe Joyce did not, and Nora Barnacle should have had a word at some point.
But I do love James Joyce. It was the "Yes" of Molly Bloom that did it. But it is Yes to life, not yes to pouring over a book looking for clues that can then be used to impress the literati.
Some have said that each word of the Wake is a microcosm for all words, so content yourself with its very first word, "riverrun". Maybe I will get past my current page 16; there are certainly a few laughs along the way to counter the tedium. And I do love books ABOUT the Wake. All are alternatives to Zen books, which are all seeking to encourage you to leap from the top of a 100 ft pole without a safety net. So leap! Don't let James Joyce have the last laugh."
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| John Lennon and Yoko after the "Yes" |
Well, as can be seen, there are repetitions in the first two reviews. But let them stand. Particularly of the "Yes", which is rich with the whole idea of one word being a microcosm for all others. I read once of John Lennon, speaking of the day that he met Yoko, at one of her art exhibitions. Entering one room he spied a ladder that rose up in the centre. There seemed no purpose to it being there. But John went over to it and climbed up. Reaching the top he looked up at a tiny word written on the ceiling......."Yes". He said that had the word been negative in any way then it would have probably been the end of any admiration for Yoko's work.
Here now is the third review, with more repetitions, this one of a Lextionary of Finnegans Wake:-
"Irrespective of any love for Finnegans Wake this is a very good book for any lover of the English language and its possibilities and potentials. To evolve and even enlighten! In Zen there is a well worn phrase, ubiquitous in primers, telling us not to mistake the finger that points for the moon itself. Yet digging deeper, others suggest that the moon and the finger must become one and the same - Dogen in fact, in his analysis of symbolism. Very egalitarian. I suspect James Joyce would agree, but hesitate in saying so, as I could just be lost in a maze, mistaking the finger for the moon!
Another thought is of each Religion having its own "ejector seat", some more violent than others. We are thrown out of the world where words and thoughts have congealed into a fashioned "self" that imposes itself upon the world; instead, the world, of acceptance, gift, grace, comes to us and we fall away.
Whatever, one of the most beautiful thoughts that pops now and again into my own mind is of James Joyce working on his "Work in Progress" (that was to become the Wake) long into the night, laughing to himself, keeping his wife Nora awake. The poor lady just wished that he would write something that others could understand! But laughter is the best medicine, comedy is divine, and the eyesight of James Joyce, the suffering endured from those eyes, and the ten operations upon them, would have reduced many to darkness and despair. Instead Joyce laughed, and passes on his laughter. As this Lextionary does, with the various words chosen from the Wake.
Thank you Bill Cole Cliett, and James Joyce. And yes, Nora Barnacle, long suffering but nevertheless a pillar of strength for her hubby. We all need our pillar."
Best to finish now. Just to add that Joyce saw most art as pornography, in as much as it elicited desire. Or again, as being didactic. Or both - didactic pornography. Joyce apparently admired Dante, whose written art sought rather to awaken. Which, as I see it, from the Pure Land perspective, calls us to recognise Reality-as-is as pure art. Reality is not to be judged. As Dogen has said, we must just see it and live. Again, Dogen:- "awakening is the function of Reality." It simply needs to be trusted.
Related Quotes (from the above three books):-
"Bloom (Leopold Bloom of Ulysses) is no perfect hero, but perfection is overrated. Give me a honest human being embracing their mundane humanity any day over a person striving after perfection".
"Joyce does not present us with the illusion of a perfect life in this book, a life without pain and sorrow, but in all his honesty Joyce shows us that life as it is and not as we think it should be is worth saying Yes to. The sorrows and difficulties faced in Ulysses are included in Joyce’s affirmation of life, because what good would such an affirmation be if it did not include all of life?"
"Joyce offers a new litmus test for what we call the hero, not gigantic feats of strength, but small and simple feats of kindness."
And a final quote from Joseph Campbell, from his book on Joyce, "Mythic Worlds, Modern Words":-
"It’s my feeling that our imagery has been deprived of its affect by our strongly rational tendency in the interpretation of images and by our religious traditions concretizing symbols, so that they refer, not past themselves to symbolic themes, but to historical events—when, for example, we interpret the resurrection of Christ as having been an historical event instead of seeing the resurrection as a psychologically crucial moment of crisis, this deprives the imagery of its affect".
Finally: -
"An epiphany was not a miraculous dispensation from above but, as Joyce defined it, an insight into 'the soul of the commonest object' "
(Kevin Birmingham, from "The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle For James Joyce's Ulysses.")
"Joyce does not present us with the illusion of a perfect life in this book, a life without pain and sorrow, but in all his honesty Joyce shows us that life as it is and not as we think it should be is worth saying Yes to. The sorrows and difficulties faced in Ulysses are included in Joyce’s affirmation of life, because what good would such an affirmation be if it did not include all of life?"
"Joyce offers a new litmus test for what we call the hero, not gigantic feats of strength, but small and simple feats of kindness."
And a final quote from Joseph Campbell, from his book on Joyce, "Mythic Worlds, Modern Words":-
"It’s my feeling that our imagery has been deprived of its affect by our strongly rational tendency in the interpretation of images and by our religious traditions concretizing symbols, so that they refer, not past themselves to symbolic themes, but to historical events—when, for example, we interpret the resurrection of Christ as having been an historical event instead of seeing the resurrection as a psychologically crucial moment of crisis, this deprives the imagery of its affect".
Finally: -
"An epiphany was not a miraculous dispensation from above but, as Joyce defined it, an insight into 'the soul of the commonest object' "
(Kevin Birmingham, from "The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle For James Joyce's Ulysses.")
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