/lit/ - Literature

>implying I've read it
>implying you've read it

>implying it's not meant to be taken as parody and an elaborate, extremely post modern take on the MFA vs NYC debate

Joyce is deliberately fucking with people who overanalyze literature, and he also thinks it's fun to write. imo.

>>4746412
I've had my fill of FW threads for some time I think
see >>>4731647

>>4746428
So upon completing this book, if I were to turn to Joyce and say, "Are you havin a giggle, mate?" he would honestly respond, "Yessir"?

>>4746435
Let me try to put this in terms suited to Finnegans Wake.

'"YarZff", Joyce wulde saye, verilye, "YarZffffffffhar". And untilgast theye wente to Castell Darketouthe, unto which Finnegan Finnegan Finnegan Finnegan dance dance Finnegan YarZffffhar "har", yes yes yes yes yes', etc.

(I have never finished reading anything by Joyce aside from his love letters, but this book intimidates me more than maybe any other English text)

Reading the first chapter will do that for you. You will get something out of it, i promise

>>4746423

>being this pleb

There you go OP

Read this and it will start to make sense, you wont understand everything but its worth it

>>4746597
I wish I'd seen the other thread earlier. I would have taunted him with his own vanity.

>>4746566
Yeah i dont get it
its not "unintelligible" it's just you run into ten references per paragraph all blended into an overarcing storyline that may or may not be chock full of its own symbology
Whats the line between inspiration and tedium, geez

>>4746690
>>4746566
D...does that mean Evangelion is the Finnegan's Wake of anime?

>>4746597
that's not really up to date

>>4746566

nice dubs, nigga.

>>4746698
Oh man, I have to watch Evangelion, every-fucking-where there's someone talking about it.

This looks promising.

>>4746701
Esplain?

>>4746698
No.

>>4746714
well its got references to everything mid-20th century sci-fi going in and out of its ass, half the people proclaim it to be incomprehensible 2deep4u garbage while the other half says its not incomprehensible and you're a pleb if you don't get what's going on
So...

>>4746566
>Reference to Jean Claude van Damme

It's a joke

>>4746724
Shit. What do you think about it?

>>4746715
supplanted by newer scholarship (it was written in the '40s). it's also the usual campbellian application of the monomyth framework

It's more of stutter drive of thoughts ever subsequent, conterminous as a whole if you take the map of passage. Imagine your own train and wreckage of contemplation, there is a plot in there, the thoughts become derails of less importance, important nonetheless, becoming the drive of your natural consciousness, keeping it more interesting, animate and alive.

>>4746566
I think it's undeniable that the book means something, but- am I the only one who finds the maximalist approach kind of off-putting?

It's like watching a guy trying to beat the world record for rap. It's impressive, but it's not very enjoyable or illuminating.

Well, it took me like two months to do Ulysses.
A couple weeks later, I picked up Finnegans Wake, read the first five to ten pages, googled some stuff, and said fuck it.
Will not read in my lifetime.

>>4746698
no. evangelion is shit

>>4746826
It's le epic trolling to english scholars.

At least that is what Wikipedia says, lol.

i heard it was translated into chinese. i'm still waiting for the english translation.

>>4746412
go fuck yourself imbecile

>>4746724
man, not really. it's pretty goddamn straightforward.

>>4746412
But Joyce's scat fetish letters were pretty damn meaningful. I mean, how many people are there who literally love every single aspect of their partner, including their farts and bowel movements?

>>4748437
>implying he didn't just always have that fetish

There's little gems in it, here and there.

Nothing memorable. It really is like the drunk ramblings of an Irishman.

btw, it's meant to be listened to not read

>>4746412
Just read Ulysses. at least that's comprehensible enough to be funny

>>4746826
considering you'd have to be a goddamn autistic savant to understand every reference and the overall story it is fucking off-putting.

wouldn't force myself to read any more then I have

>>4748437
>But Joyce's scat fetish letters were pretty damn meaningful.

This is why, despite having an actual degree in literature and being an actual professor, I resent /lit/ more often than not.

If Joyce's scat letters are art, then every time I wipe my ass I paint.

So, basically, reading this aloud (this is important) from start to finish, you viscerally experience the entire development of human consciousness and history, from the individual unconscious to the collective, from Primal Man/Infancy to Civilized Man/Adulthood, as it evolves through art/media/mythology. There’s more to it than that, and everyone gets his or her own individual “Wake” (trust me, it’s kinda spooky) but there ya go.

>>4746955
#rekt

Okay, so, I don't know if you're writing for a college course, or if you're just being a dick about the fact that James Joyce is Irish. Either way, that's a good place for me to start my explanation of why Finnegan's Wake is about much more than just the sort of gibberish that made up Joyce's fetish letters.

James Joyce was an Irishman. He is writing about Ireland, about the people of Ireland, and, particularly, about the plight of the Irish in that time. In that time there was a great potato famine (this is also relevant to Americans, as the famine caused the Irish to move to the United States in great numbers). There was also a great deal of clashing taking place between Catholics and Protestants, which there still is. You might say that the whole book is one big protest against the conservatism of the Catholic church. I don't know, though, because I feel somewhere deep in my heart that Joyce didn't really rebel against the church from which he was a part in his youth.

Another angel we could take here would be Modernism. Modernism, which has been defined millions of times, is defined often in literary circles as the type of experience that is so great it is incomprehensible and thus is saddening. Perhaps Joyce is saddened by the inability to put together on paper the world around him, as so many realists before him had been able to. Joyce was a regular movie theater goer, and it may be that the movies were an influence on his writing as far as the modernist perspective is concerned. I'd say that the mix of styles is enduring, because I appreciate challenging literature. If you think the book is just gobbledygood, then well, you're entitled to that opinion, snobbish as it may be.

>>4748681
>you'd have to be a goddamn autistic savant to understand every reference
Who honestly thinks they catch every reference in a conventional book in the first place?
FW is basically something that can reward the reader in proportion to what the reader brings to the party.

>>4750105
Thanks Patrick