Hellllllllo, Julie!

Fun! I’m an interesting library! Ha, thanks. So what does work-in-arts-education entail, then? Teaching it to kiddos? Being a librarian’s lackey has the book-access advantage. I head up the library’s interlibrary loan department, which accounts for the number of articles I can readily get my hands on.

Righto, Joycean absorption of the world. That's well put. I think he certainly does relate it back to himself (he’s the primer for biographical studies). But if he didn’t “know people” as well as he did, the works probably wouldn’t have lasted as long as they have or will. I think he gives as much as he takes, to cliché my point up tidily. He’s definitely changed my way of reading and thinking forever, even outside of his works.

Lordy, 16!?! Christ, I apologize if I sounded like I was talking downwards. I’m so used to only meeting people who’ve only heard of FW. …16!?! I'm intimidated! Did it make much sense to you, at the time? At 26, just when I think I’ve made sense of half of the work, I stumble upon something new (generally out of Book II, although the Overture and III and IV kick me about at times), or read a critic’s subtle point, and I’m prepared to discard everything I think I “know” about FW. Oh! So you know the Tindall and Crispi/Slote works! …I just went through your library again, and there they are, laughing at me for skimming over.

I think I follow you on the evolution of language inevitably altering narrative techniques. I can imagine it does so in every way possible; from minor plot points to how the writer’s mind processed/innovated the intended form. I have an interesting book called The Story of English by Robert McCrum that somewhat plays with this idea. And although Ezra Pound never dealt with evolutionary linguistics, I’d bet he’d insert the findings into his own preference for teaching literature as a history of linguistic and narrative innovation. …Heh, I’m not sure if this is what you were getting at. But I do like the metaphor of a language evolving giving a performance (Chomsky would slap us both for using such a loose definition of “evolution” as applied to language). What brought you to the performance arts, in the first place?

Wow, you’ve studied Chaucer too, on top of it all? Nice! Talk about linguistic evolution. What attracted you to him? Joyce did read Chaucer, often (he probably loved that Chaucer preferred the continental accentual-syllabic metre as opposed to England's Anglo-Saxon variety). In a letter to Sylvia Beach, he called him “the father of English literature,” a phrase often quoted. Lucia even made illustrations for Chaucer’s ABC to the Virgin, which are kept at one of the Eastern universities. The only extended analysis I’ve seen of the Chaucer-Joyce connection appeared in European Joyce Studies #13: Medieval Joyce. In her essay “Joyce’s Other Father: The Case for Chaucer,” Helen Cooper traces what she thinks is a major Canterbury Tales influence on Ulysses, based in part on the knowledge we have that Joyce was rereading The Tales during his UL revisions. I’ve never seen any serious study of the Chaucer-FW connection. …Which is odd. Glasheen has one measly note for Chaucer. Atherton gives a tiny bit more. You’d think the poet of The Legend of Good Women would figure prominently in FW. Nothing specific comes to my mind, aside from just a general similarity. Well, there’s you doctoral thesis! Haha! Send it out to Zurich, get Fritz Senn’s stamp, and the university presses will be eating you up.

You can read Cooper’s essay online for free, here, if you're interested: http://www.rodopi.nl/senj.asp?BookId=JOY...

I’ve never taken on all of Nabokov. I enjoyed Lolita, thought many of his short stories were stellar. I take it you’re aware that they’re finally bringing out his locked up The Original of Laura manuscript, right? What do you think about that situation? I say publish it. When you’re a writer of that caliber, the world wants/needs your work, regardless of the unfinished quality of the draft. Max Brod easily comes to mind. How do you like Speak, Memory?

Right now, I’m reading FW criticism, of course! Ha. I’d put off reading John Gordon’s Finnegans Wake: A Plot Summary until now, as I didn’t quite understand how a plot summary would at all be feasible for FW. But Gordon is obsessed with Joyce’s realism and feels that FW operates under the same style. So far, he’s taken what might be called a fairly conservative approach to the book, insomuch as he even thinks “riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s…” is literally a subconscious reflection on the dreamer’s part of his room’s furniture, layout, etc. Gordon essentially feels that HCE is the book’s dreamer, a point I’m still not sure I agree with. But he has a chapter devoted to the Dreamer question, which I haven’t got to yet. I may have spoken too soon.

Wow, it’s late. I have a way of going and going, don’t I? Lovely chatting, though!

~Alex

posted by ImNotDedalus at 3:54 am (EST) on Jul 22, 2008

Hi, Julie!

Thanks for the compliment! Joyce aside, I notice we share a number of titles. You really do have an incredible library. Wow, taking on Joyce inside Academia! Exciting time to be reading FW in grad school, what with the important work being done on the notebooks/manuscripts. Ha, fulfilling his prophecy, you are. I'm just a Distinguished Librarian's Lackey who's obnoxiously addicted to The Joyce Game (as Glasheen wonderfully called it). It's probably more than a bit foolish, as all of my reading reflects back to him in one way or another, be it a specific Joyce-critical work or a barely related title that will illuminate one or two allusions. Meh, who cares? I love it. (There's actually so much more I want to purchase...I'm actually expecting a few titles in the mail, this week).

I think you should definitely make that rainy day today, Rain Maker. Especially if you're back in school. But especially that it will give me someone to talk Joyce with. I'm a selfish man, I am. Heh. Right now, three major Joyceans--Vincent Deane, Daniel Ferrer, and Geert Lernout--are editing/transcribing the FW Notebooks housed at Buffalo University (hey, you're in NYC, right? You've got geographical access! The best kind of axis, that is).

FW Critical recommendations... I dunno, have you read FW yet? It depends on the area of FW you're most interested in, I s'pose. If you're looking for a general introduction, I'd recommend William York Tindall's Reader's Guide to Finnegans Wake over the oft-recommended Skeleton Key. The SK just gets too much “wrong” (as applicable as the word is to the study of literature) for my tastes, even though I love Joseph Campbell. Tindall is symbol-heavy, but he's a good start.

The essential reference guide is still Roland McHugh's Annotations to Finnegans Wake, now in its 3rd edition. Even in the recent addition, though, I think it still needs drastic updating, particularly in light of the recent notebook revelations. Atherton and Glasheen and Mink are still essential, too. Clive Hart's Structure and Motif in Finnegans Wake is illuminating, but even Hart lived to change his mind about much of his text..."lived" might be incorrect. Ha! I hope I didn't linguistically murder the man before his time!

There's the manuscript-study area I keep mentioning. One of the most important books written about FW in the past two decades came out last year: How Joyce Wrote Finnegans Wake, edited by Luca Crispi (one-time director of the rare manuscript department of the National Library in Dublin, IIRC) and Sam Slote (important Joycean of the current generation). David Hayman's First Draft Version of FW is still important, too. Danis Rose & John O’Hanlon’s Understanding FW is based, in part, on their own important (and sometimes controversial) manuscript study. Manuscript study is a bit odd, though. Clive Hart raised an important objection, I think, to the field. What Joyce once wrote but replaced, although illuminating in FW at times, is probably irrelevant. Kind of like cheating.

Then there are the studies of Catholicism in the Wake, Irish history/mythology, Shakespeare at FW, etc., etc. So much. Best be careful, that book has a way of owning the few readers that get beyond the first 30 or so pages. What Joyce have you read?

Lordy, I've rambled. Sorry! Are you in school now or beginning in the fall? Do you know who you'll be reading yet? Hell, what are you reading out of that fabulous library of yours, right now?

Talk to ya'!
~Alex

posted by ImNotDedalus at 11:51 pm (EST) on Jul 21, 2008

Hiya!

Interesting Joyce selection (I imagine that he'd be incredibly surprised to see The Cat and the Devil published; he'd ask to see the proofs, add 13,000 revisions, and raise the price. Hehehe).

How is Joyce and the Joyceans? Is it a collection of essays or papers presented at a symposium? Any good? I'm not familiar with it.

Always lovely chattin' about the Irishman. See ya'!

posted by ImNotDedalus at 1:50 pm (EST) on Jul 21, 2008

It was a pretty adventurous book club, but it did take some selling to get them to read Sinclair.

I've been meaning to get City of Disappearances - I'm sure I'd like it. I enjoyed Edge of the Orison, and it reminded me (again) that I need to tackle Joyce one of these days. Dubliners is about as far as I've gone. I've been reading the Letters of Groucho Marx, and there's some funny stuff about Joyce in there (believe it or not). Apparently Thornton Wilder believed that Groucho was referenced in Finnegan's Wake. There's also a brief correspondence between Groucho and Peter Lorre (!) about Ulysses.

posted by sb3000 at 11:46 am (EST) on Jan 15, 2008

My Sinclair semi-obsession dates from a trip to London about five years ago. I came across Lights Out (on Amazon, I think), and read it before, during, and after my week in London. From there, I just kept going. I convinced my former book club to read White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings (it was also my first time reading it), and they voted it "Worst Book of the Year".

I'd like to get some of Sinclair's more recent poetry collections (esp. The Firewall), but they seem to be very scarce in the US. Also hoping to get back to London, preferably after the exchange rate improves.

posted by sb3000 at 1:54 pm (EST) on Jan 14, 2008

Hi Palimpsestuous,

I was wondering where you got your copy of Tish and Pish. I adore Stephen Fry, and would love to get my grubby little mitts on a copy of it.

Thanks!

posted by dmtmusic at 3:22 pm (EST) on Aug 24, 2007

Thank you Julie! I have to admit that I gave up on his "Lights Out for the Territory" but maybe I need to give him another chance. In any case, thanks for the suggestion.

Sean

posted by twacorbies at 7:28 pm (EST) on Jan 12, 2007

Just had to give you a shout out since your user name is a play on my favorite word. I think I left my heart in London too- I buy too many books wherein I retrace long days crisscrossing the city. I even find myself thumbing through London A to Z from time to time to see if my memory holds up. Ackroyd's "London" is a great one to open to any old random page and start reading. I just finished reading "The Italian Boy" which features a lot of detail about Spitalfields, Covent Garden, Whitechapel et al. in the 1830's.

Cheers,
Sean

posted by twacorbies at 10:50 pm (EST) on Jan 10, 2007

Hi Julie, A link for this just arrived in my inbox, it made more sense than it would have done a couple of weeks ago... www.britac.ac.uk/events/2006/hyperides/f...

posted by magus at 4:46 pm (EST) on Nov 8, 2006

I only got a hundred pages or so into “Swanns Way”, but still have memories of it, and a couple of quotes in my journal. After so many plaudits, I think I was disappointed it didn’t grab me more consistently; perhaps I should have done a little judicious skimming too. I do remember feeling a real empathy with many of the ideas, and the thoughts. The perception that seemingly trivial episodes can bring back such acute memories of happiness or despair, is perhaps one of the tenets that distinguish humanity.

Anyway, between us, we’ve convinced me to have another go.

Glad to know your heart is in the right place – London ;-)

posted by magus at 6:07 pm (EST) on Oct 15, 2006

Hello palimpsestuous, Can’t sleep, and dipping into random libraries. You have some lovely books that I keep adding to my Amazon wish list. We share some of my favorites too; “The Hours” (a great book, and perfect movie – “Wonder Boys” was another), lots of Murakami and Evelyn Waugh, “Ghostwritten”, “Moab”…

Have you finished “Swanns Way”, I keep being told much I should love being lost in Proust, but haven’t managed it yet – must try harder

(I’m about to look you up in my dictionary).

posted by magus at 7:55 pm (EST) on Oct 14, 2006