Surviving Finnegan

"The babbelers with their thangas vain have been (confusium hold them!) they were and went; thinggging thugs were and houhnhymn songtoms were and comely norgels were and pollyfool fiansees."

FW Fact: Scholars estimate Joyce worked between 60-70 different languages into the Wake. Just some of the languages used are Dutch, Norse, Lithuanian, Czech, Ukrainian, and Polynesian.

Fun FW Tip of the Day: Type the above FW quote into a Microsoft Word document and watch your Spellcheck freak out!!! :)

Surviving Finnegan

"And even if Humpty shell fall frumpty times as awkward again in the beardsboosoloom of all our grand remonstrancers there'll be iggs for the brekkers come to mournhim, sunny side up with care."

Yesterday was one of the happiest moments of my life, when Joseph Campbell's A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake arrived on my doorstep. And not a moment too soon. Ten pages into FW, I'm a little confused....but here's the kicker....not completely turned off to it. I can't explain it. After the lethargic plot of Kim, I'm so grateful to not have to think too much and try too hard to keep up with a plot that just reading words, even nonsense words, is somewhat of a relief.

I've read several blogs about FW over the past few days, all with varying degrees of advice for how to read the Wake. The most interesting suggestion I came across was to read the book out loud. The writer says that since Joyce was Irish, and the Irish tradition of storytelling is oral (think of an Irish pub and all the songs!), the book is meant to be read out loud, and if you do this, it will make more sense. And scarily, he's right. When I started to sound out some of the words I couldn't read, it was then that the syllables turned into something lucid.

Campbell's book so far is very interesting. I've realized there's not going to be much in terms of a plot with FW, but there seems to be so much under the surface that I don't want to miss anything good. Kind of like an archaeological dig. I like riddles and hidden things in literature so this is a bit fascinating to me. The Key is actually very easy to read. Hopefully this open-mindedness will continue.

Surviving Finnegan

"The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian mintrelsy."

Probably the best description of falling down since Eddie Murphy imitated his Aunt Bunny falling down the stairs in Delirious.

Update

I hope all of you are having as nice of weather where you are as we're having here. It's heavenly.

Kim is going very slowly. I chalk that up to several things. 1)The nice weather....being outdoors gives me less time for reading, although I spent about an hour out on the deck reading yesterday, 2)We're totally taken in by back episodes of Entourage and The Tudors, and 3)the story for whatever reason is just not captivating to me. Maybe, as with so many of the books I've read, the story will mercifully pick up steam in the last 1/3-1/4 of the book, but right now, it's just another picaresque hero on the lam, with all sorts of strange friends, getting into countless scrapes and somehow worming his way out of them. It's like Under the Net in India. I really like the lama's character, but as with so many of the stories I've read lately, Kipling decided to pull his character out mid-story.

Am also wondering how Kim, Augie March, and Brideshead Revisited could be higher on the ML list than Angle of Repose.

I realize that with every page I read of Kim, I am one page closer to Finnegan's Wake. When I start that one up, I will be adding a new daily featurette to Journeys, called Surviving Finnegan, where I will be sharing literary frustrations, incomprehensible quotes, and possible hypotheses on what the hell Joyce is thinking (or smoking), just to keep myself sane. :) Feel free to check in and share your Finnegan experiences. It'll be a blast.

Pam