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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 31 KB, 261x392, finnegans-wake.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10944579 No.10944579 [Reply] [Original]

Even having read Joyce's previous work multiple times?

>> No.10944617

you will never penetrate, son

>> No.10944623

>>10944579
The book? Depends how pointy your dick is. The text? No way.

>> No.10944631

>>10944579
Somebody on /lit/ recommended reading this a few weeks ago.
It was pretty hard for me to get rolling, but it keeps getting easier.
It's not something I want to read in a single sitting.

I think it's one of the most amazing things ever written.

>> No.10944637

>>10944579
you have to read every book ever written and also every book that will ever be written and also live or at least have knowledge of the entire existence of the entire universe to fully understand The Wake, but i mean you should still read it

>> No.10946468

>>10944579
try it while stoned

>> No.10946496

>>10944579
Don't get hung up on trying to figure out every little detail. A lot of it makes intuitive sense if you just let the story happen and stop trying to pick at it.

>> No.10946504
File: 107 KB, 540x413, 1476076224508.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10946504

>>10944579
Once you get what this means it's smooth sailing. Get the OUP paperback, the intro is good.

>> No.10946546

>>10946504
isn't this the diagram McKenna did? Looks difficult lol

>> No.10946552

>>10946504
>>10946546
it's very easy to understand if you have already read it, or even if you have partially read it

>> No.10946559

>>10944579
Is it worth the effort is a better question.
600 pages of puns.
Fucks sake.

>> No.10946566

>>10946559
but aren't they the best puns of all time? that's the better question.

>> No.10946572

>>10946546
>isn't this the diagram McKenna did?
No, László Moholy-Nagy. I don't think Terence McKenna ever did a diagram of Finnegans Wake, he just did some public speaking about it once which you listen to on youtube.
>Looks difficult lol
It's pretty ridiculously simple actually, especially compared to the text it's summarizing. Basically just means you can figure out what's going on with Finnegans Wake if you get some background in history, mythology, literature, and more specifically the Bible.

>> No.10946588

>>10946559
It's not exactly about puns. It's more like dissolving normal language and making an aesthetically pleasing and strangely still meaningful story made out of proto-language, where associations are loosened and the narrative is more psychedelic, fuzzy, and multi-layered.

>> No.10946600

>>10946546
the circles are the viconian cycle the books follow, the "beams" are recurring motifs that pop up in each of the four books/cycles. The main story is concerned with the innkeeper Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker (HCE), his wife Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP), their two sons and one daughter. Each cycle involves a variation of some public disgrace or humiliation or infidelity by HCE ending in reconciliation with ALP. HCE is personified by the land, ALP by the river running through the land, the twin sons by the two sides created by the river splitting the land in two, and the daughter is in the river somewhere. So what the columns are doing in the image is going down all the ways these characters are symbolically represented in the text in various ways. For example the first sentence mentions the riverrun (ALP) back to Howth Castle and Environs (HCE). That's the novel. The rest is just enjoying the jokey and mad wordplay, phonetic puns and stuff.

>> No.10946621
File: 348 KB, 705x626, D21E0FDC-48AC-49A0-AEAF-317D8FEDCDE1.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10946621

>>10944579
OP fail for the bait HAHAHAHAHAH

>> No.10948554

>>10944579
Only good thing about this guy is his love letters. Prove me wrong.

>> No.10948569

>>10944579

Just finished The Lord of the Rings. This was going to be my next read

>> No.10948579

Robert Anton Wilson said that it's much better to read FW with a group. He said something like the text is a wild animal that needs to be stalked and for that you need a hunting party. Maybe try to find a Joycean study group in your area.

>> No.10948716
File: 63 KB, 636x477, kid_computer_giggling.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10948716

>>10948554
>>>/a/

>> No.10948748

I've read it twice. The first time, I didn't know what what going on at all (didn't even realize it had recurring characters) and got through on sheer stubbornness. Second time, I read the Skeleton Key and the Annonations along with the book, and understood it a lot more.

Are you ever going to grasp it completely? Of course not. But you can get still get a lot out of it.

>> No.10948772

>>10944579

I used the Finnegans Wiki to help me get through it
http://www.finnegansweb.com/wiki/

>> No.10950074

>>10944579
You’ve to be Irish to understand it genuinely

>> No.10951004

can I read this if I'm not a native speaker?

>> No.10951116

stop treating books like some puzzle you have to solve

>> No.10951172

pretty sure its autistic drunk irish rambling

its the only way it makes sense to me and its hilarious

>> No.10951185

>>10951172
What's funny about it? People always say this, can you post an example of the humor? I've only read excerpts and it seems too impenetrable to be funny.

>> No.10951307

>>10951185
"Be who? farther potential? and so wider but we grisly old Sykos who have done our unsmiling bit on alices when they were yung and easily freudened..."

>> No.10951421

>>10944579
>Is it even possible to penetrate?
Not if you don't go out and meet people.

I know the joke's been made. I don't care.

>> No.10951791

>>10951307
I'm sold. Going to buy a copy now