- "he crashed in the hollow of the park, trees down, as he soared in the vaguum of the phoenix, stones up" -- There's a lot of interesting dualism here: crash/soar, hollow/vacuum, tree/stone (two dueling elements appearing throughout the Wake). These all combine to illustrate HCE's fall and rise in Phoenix Park.
- "once diamond cut garnet now dammat cuts groany" -- This comes near the end of a brief series of items touching upon the Irish legend of Diarmuid and Grainne. This is an Irish tale that I hadn't really known about until today, so chalk this one up as another example of the Wake's tendency to educate and illuminate. Here, in a sort of twist, it's Dairmuid, the entranced lover, cutting Grainne, the entrancer. The diamond/garnet bit also emphasizes the "stone" theme noted above.
- "theer's his bow and wheer's his leaker and heer lays his bequiet hearse, deep" -- This item plays off of and references the scene in the Wellington Museum from early in the Wake. Here are relics from the days when HCE was above ground: his bow, his liquor, and his hearse. As noted by McHugh, "bequiet hearse" recalls the "big wide harse" -- or big white horse -- in the Wellington Museum, and "deep" echoes the "tip" that continually punctuated that scene.
- "Hugglebelly's Funniral" -- Here's another reference to Huckleberry Finn. Of course, Huggle-belly is also HCE, and "Funniral" also could also be read as "fun-for-all" and "funny-ral."
- "wanamade singsigns to soundsense an yit he wanna git all his flesch nuemaid motts truly prural and plusible" -- In this passage, we not only get a summary of HCE's mission, but also -- and perhaps more importantly -- a summary of Joyce's mission. He, after all, wants to make sing-songs/signs that appeal to our sense of sound and are sound (in the sense of strong) to our senses. He's also trying to get all his fresh, newmade words ("mots" is French for "words") as plural (i.e., having as many forms and meanings) as plausible. Of course, this being Joyce, that second clause could be read with a prurient bent, but I'll leave that to you for now . . .
Friday, August 22, 2014
"heavengendered, chaosfoedted, earthborn"
(136.20-138.20) Tomorrow we get to the end of the first question of the sixth chapter of Finnegans Wake, so today's post will be the last in which I list my top five favorite items from that question's catalog. Without further ado . . .
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