(251.21-253.18) Today's passage begins with a vision of Glugg as Izod's tutor. He would be a good one, covering tantalizing passages of Dante ("dantellising"), Galileo ("Galilleotto"), and Machiavelli ("Smachiavelluti"). It would be like "Headmaster Adam" teaching "Eva Harte" (or, as the Wake has it, Glugg would be her "toucher").
Now the time for Glugg and Chuff's confrontation has arrived. The two engage in a thrust-parry dialectic. Instead of the heated confrontation that we might expect, however, the exchange involves one side offering a blessing and the other offering thanks. The two "crown pretenders" become wrought together, and in the "transfusion" the Floras can no longer tell which is Glugg and which is Chuff. Unable to rely on their strongly held prejudices, they now rely on an inverse of Darwinism to discover who the victor will be: the "assent of man" will occur here through "naturel rejection."
As might be expected, the Glugg figure comes out of the confrontation dejected: "Creedless, croonless hangs his haughty. There end no moe red devil in the white of his eye." He realizes progress is impossible even over long stretches of history. Things will be the same for him as they are for "his grandson's grandson's grandson's grandson," just as it was for "the grandmother of the grandmother of his grandmother's grandmother." Nothing changes. "I have done it equals I so shall do," just as "look at me now means I once was otherwise." Glugg should ask Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John for the strength to stick by Izod, "by gum," and to not give her up without a plucky fight with "buckskin gloves."
The passage ends with what McHugh identifies as Glugg's third guess as to the riddle's solution: "But Noodynaady's actual ingrate tootle is of come into the garner mauve and they nice are stores of morning and buy me a bunch of iodines." This means that his guess is violet (or mauve). Obviously, this isn't the answer Izod had hinted at. That likely means more tears are coming soon.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Friday, October 24, 2014
"So see we so as seed we sow."
(249.5-251.20) The winning word winked to Glugg is, "Luck!" As noted by McHugh, this is Izod both wishing Glugg luck and telling him to look, for the answer to the riddle has been set right in front of him. Hearing that word, Glugg is transported in a way into "the house of breathings," or Izod's mouth, in which the word in "all fairness" lies. What follows is a passage that sets forth the construction and features of Izod's mouth/house, with its "roof" of "massicious jasper" and "canopy"-tongue of "Tyrian awning" that rises and descends. Amongst milk, rhubarb, roasted meats, consonants, and vowels, the "word" exists in Izod's mouth.
But just after Izod wishes Glugg luck, the Floras gather around her before him, pretending to help but instead shouting taunts at him. It's 29 bloomers versus one man. They ask him if he's going to wear a rosy ribbon, and he pretends to tie one around himself. They ask if he's going to clean their chimneys, and he pretends to sweep. They ask if he can say adieu to his future wife, and he pretends to cut up and bite off their heads and spit them into a pail.
Now the Floras are scolded for wasting time, for the ultimate showdown between Glugg and Chuff is imminent. Language mirroring that of Macbeth appears here, perhaps positioning Glugg as Macbeth and Chuff as Macduff. Glugg, the foul-smelling libeler, is set in opposition to the fair-smelling Floras, who trail Izod. They follow Chuff and bet their money on him as they place God's scourge on Glugg.
Glugg stands there blinking, "[t]hrust from the light, apophotorejected." His clothes are spotted with the marks of his foul deeds and thoughts. The passage ends with him still apparently frazzled by the Floras. He rightly sees them as standing in opposition to him -- "They vain would convert the to be hers in the word," or, in other words, they won't help to make Glugg into Izod's husband -- but he also lusts over them: "Gosh, they're fair ripecherry!" And so Glugg continues to mirror the complex relationship his father, HCE, had with the predecessors of these young women.
But just after Izod wishes Glugg luck, the Floras gather around her before him, pretending to help but instead shouting taunts at him. It's 29 bloomers versus one man. They ask him if he's going to wear a rosy ribbon, and he pretends to tie one around himself. They ask if he's going to clean their chimneys, and he pretends to sweep. They ask if he can say adieu to his future wife, and he pretends to cut up and bite off their heads and spit them into a pail.
Now the Floras are scolded for wasting time, for the ultimate showdown between Glugg and Chuff is imminent. Language mirroring that of Macbeth appears here, perhaps positioning Glugg as Macbeth and Chuff as Macduff. Glugg, the foul-smelling libeler, is set in opposition to the fair-smelling Floras, who trail Izod. They follow Chuff and bet their money on him as they place God's scourge on Glugg.
Glugg stands there blinking, "[t]hrust from the light, apophotorejected." His clothes are spotted with the marks of his foul deeds and thoughts. The passage ends with him still apparently frazzled by the Floras. He rightly sees them as standing in opposition to him -- "They vain would convert the to be hers in the word," or, in other words, they won't help to make Glugg into Izod's husband -- but he also lusts over them: "Gosh, they're fair ripecherry!" And so Glugg continues to mirror the complex relationship his father, HCE, had with the predecessors of these young women.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
"a smuggler for lifer"
(247.17-249.4) We pick up with Glugg dejected, once again, before Chuff. And, once again, he's in tears: "He wept indeiterum" (as noted by McHugh, "indeiterum" = "inde iterum," Latin for "after that again"). As he stands there, "[h]ighly momourning," he sees his future before him, one where he remains "[m]elained from nape to kneecap." His sad state is contrasted with Izod's, who is "vied [white] from her girders [garters] up." The Floras bear false witness against Glugg, striking a hidden wound to his ego. He washes this bruise with "Soldwoter" -- the saltwater of his tears. He can see the truth in black and white with his "eyetrompit," or telescope. In contrast to this black and white, the Floras taunt him with a variety of colors, one for each Flora (for example, "apple, bacchante, custard, dove, eskimo, feldgrau," and so on).
As the Floras taunt him, however, Izod stands both beside and apart from them. The majority of page 248 is dedicated to Izod providing Glugg with numerous hints to help him solve the riddle. The answer, which she hints at around and around without every actually stating it out loud, is "heliotrope." One gets the sense that Glugg's not going to get it, though.
As Izod hints at the answer, she also explains her current situation. She's got a suitor -- a "bellyswain" -- who is strong but knows as much about being a husband as a colorblind person knows about matching garments. She wants Glugg and Chuff to make peace: "Shake hands through the thicketloch! Sweet swanwater!" Finally, there is something imminent on the horizon: "And somebody's coming, I feel for a fect." The passage draws to a conlcusion with Izod urging Glugg to action, rather than to sit there looking at the colors of the Floras, for her suitor -- Chuff -- will go to work on her while Glugg stands idly by: "You can colour up till you're prawn while I go squirt with any cockle. When here who adolls me infuxes sleep." Today's reading ends with Izod giving Glugg a word of encouragement: "Wink's the winning word."
Izod clearly wants Glugg to succeed in answering the riddle, but with Glugg's anxiety (much like his father, HCE's) combined with the taunting of the Floras and the opposition from the cocksure Chuff, Izod's assistance may not be enough. Tomorrow, we'll draw closer to what is feeling like Glugg's inevitable fate.
As the Floras taunt him, however, Izod stands both beside and apart from them. The majority of page 248 is dedicated to Izod providing Glugg with numerous hints to help him solve the riddle. The answer, which she hints at around and around without every actually stating it out loud, is "heliotrope." One gets the sense that Glugg's not going to get it, though.
As Izod hints at the answer, she also explains her current situation. She's got a suitor -- a "bellyswain" -- who is strong but knows as much about being a husband as a colorblind person knows about matching garments. She wants Glugg and Chuff to make peace: "Shake hands through the thicketloch! Sweet swanwater!" Finally, there is something imminent on the horizon: "And somebody's coming, I feel for a fect." The passage draws to a conlcusion with Izod urging Glugg to action, rather than to sit there looking at the colors of the Floras, for her suitor -- Chuff -- will go to work on her while Glugg stands idly by: "You can colour up till you're prawn while I go squirt with any cockle. When here who adolls me infuxes sleep." Today's reading ends with Izod giving Glugg a word of encouragement: "Wink's the winning word."
Izod clearly wants Glugg to succeed in answering the riddle, but with Glugg's anxiety (much like his father, HCE's) combined with the taunting of the Floras and the opposition from the cocksure Chuff, Izod's assistance may not be enough. Tomorrow, we'll draw closer to what is feeling like Glugg's inevitable fate.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
"Like a Finn at a fair."
(245.6-247.16) Now that it is night and all the animals in Phoenix Park are asleep, the narrator (who it, in spite of what I said yesterday, now looks like has been the more general narrator -- rather than Glugg -- since the interruption beginning at the top of page 244) says that all the fish in "Liffeyetta's bowl" have ceased their theological debates. The narrator asks the watchman how the watch is proceeding.
"It goes," the watchman ultimately answers. "It does not go. Darkpark's acoo with sucking loves." Love and lust are in the air, and the watchman says that soon "tempt-in-twos" (the two young women who tempted HCE) and "hunt-by-threes" (the three soldiers who reported HCE) will stroll and strut through the park, along with many other young women and men. But some, if not all, of these meetings might not go on as foreseen.
The scene quickly shifts -- perhaps unsurprisingly with, "Bing. Bong. Bangbong. Thunderation!" -- to the pub, where we find mugs, rooms, and floors covered in sawdust. Mr Knight -- "Mr. Night," aka the dreamer, HCE -- is our tapster, his "alefru" wife is at his side, Watsy Lyke is assisting behind the bar, and our old friend Kate is keeping the place clean. Almost as soon as we find ourselves in the pub, we learn that "[o]ur thirty minutes war's alull." All is quiet on the field of gore until we hear a horn. HCE seems jolted by this noise: "Housefather calls enthreateningly." Thunder and lightning signal that something big is imminent. As the lady of the house stirs her soup, the bubbles tell her of the future: "the coming man, the future woman, the food that is to build, what he with fifteen years will do, the ring in her mouth of joyous guard, stars astir and stirabout." We now hear that what's coming is the final battle between Glugg and Chuff: "But ein and twee were never worth three. So they must have their final since he's on parole." This is also a significant moment for Izod: "Now for la belle! Icy-la-Belle!"
Like filings drawn toward a horseshoe magnet, the fillies -- the Floras -- march "[a]rranked in their array" down Vico Road (both the road in Dublin and Vico's endless cycle of history) toward the field of battle. Glugg (Shem, described here as "that dark deed doer," "Jerkoff," and "Yem") and Chuff (Shaun, described here as "this wellwilled wooer," "Eatsoup," and "Yan") haven't been on speaking terms since their battle of "Whatalose" (Waterloo), and their battle will determine which one will walk out with Izod, who is in danger of living a life of solitude.
Now Jeremy (a form of Jerry, another name for Shem) arrives back on the scene. He confronts Chuff by saying, "Boo, you're through!" Chuff counters, "Hoo, I'm true." McHugh translates the following lines as Jeremy/Glugg asking Chuff how he's doing. Chuff responds that he's not doing too bad. This throws Glugg back into a state of dejection: "Kod knows. Anything ruind. Meetingless."
It seems that Glugg's dejection arises from his realization that Chuff is in pretty good shape, while Glugg has been suffering. What will come of the final battle? It looks like we might find out tomorrow.
"It goes," the watchman ultimately answers. "It does not go. Darkpark's acoo with sucking loves." Love and lust are in the air, and the watchman says that soon "tempt-in-twos" (the two young women who tempted HCE) and "hunt-by-threes" (the three soldiers who reported HCE) will stroll and strut through the park, along with many other young women and men. But some, if not all, of these meetings might not go on as foreseen.
The scene quickly shifts -- perhaps unsurprisingly with, "Bing. Bong. Bangbong. Thunderation!" -- to the pub, where we find mugs, rooms, and floors covered in sawdust. Mr Knight -- "Mr. Night," aka the dreamer, HCE -- is our tapster, his "alefru" wife is at his side, Watsy Lyke is assisting behind the bar, and our old friend Kate is keeping the place clean. Almost as soon as we find ourselves in the pub, we learn that "[o]ur thirty minutes war's alull." All is quiet on the field of gore until we hear a horn. HCE seems jolted by this noise: "Housefather calls enthreateningly." Thunder and lightning signal that something big is imminent. As the lady of the house stirs her soup, the bubbles tell her of the future: "the coming man, the future woman, the food that is to build, what he with fifteen years will do, the ring in her mouth of joyous guard, stars astir and stirabout." We now hear that what's coming is the final battle between Glugg and Chuff: "But ein and twee were never worth three. So they must have their final since he's on parole." This is also a significant moment for Izod: "Now for la belle! Icy-la-Belle!"
Like filings drawn toward a horseshoe magnet, the fillies -- the Floras -- march "[a]rranked in their array" down Vico Road (both the road in Dublin and Vico's endless cycle of history) toward the field of battle. Glugg (Shem, described here as "that dark deed doer," "Jerkoff," and "Yem") and Chuff (Shaun, described here as "this wellwilled wooer," "Eatsoup," and "Yan") haven't been on speaking terms since their battle of "Whatalose" (Waterloo), and their battle will determine which one will walk out with Izod, who is in danger of living a life of solitude.
Now Jeremy (a form of Jerry, another name for Shem) arrives back on the scene. He confronts Chuff by saying, "Boo, you're through!" Chuff counters, "Hoo, I'm true." McHugh translates the following lines as Jeremy/Glugg asking Chuff how he's doing. Chuff responds that he's not doing too bad. This throws Glugg back into a state of dejection: "Kod knows. Anything ruind. Meetingless."
It seems that Glugg's dejection arises from his realization that Chuff is in pretty good shape, while Glugg has been suffering. What will come of the final battle? It looks like we might find out tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
"We are circumveiloped by obscuritads."
(243.8-245.6) Ok, so I ended up spending four days, rather than one, putting myself back together again. Oh well. I'm back at it and hopefully ready to roll for the long haul.
Anyway, back to the Wake. Today's reading picks up in the middle of the long paragraph we began in the last passage, dealing with Glugg's "fiery goosemother," Avenlith. Glugg further explains his father's relationship with Glugg's mother, which began when his father "harboured her" and eventually wed her. She nurtured him during his time of need, and eventually promised him that if he'd clean up his pub she would "make massa dinars" (both big dinners and lots of money). She would also reform her own wanton ways and align herself with the Roman church. In particular, she'd give "mezzo scudo" (roughly translated by McHugh as Italian for "half her coins") to "Sant Pursy Orelli" (Saint Persse O'Reilly) in an offering toward masses for votes and widows.
With Glugg's introduction to his mother complete, the narrative is interrupted by what sounds like a kind of Greek chorus (perhaps the Floras?) that tells us to be cautious when listening to Glugg: "Hear, O worldwithout! Tiny Tattling! Backwoods, be wary! Daintytrees, go dutch!" This warning is immediately followed by the approach of someone who "relights our spearing torch, the moon." This signals the coming of night. Shops are shut, songs are sung in the synagogue, and the children are called home at their curfew.
We now embark on another longish paragraph (which covers just short of two full pages), which details what happens during the night, when "[i]t darkles . . . all this our funnanimal world." Both humankind and the wild animals are cold. The mother is in the house, and it sounds like the father is at the pub. Much of the remaining lines of today's passage are dedicated, on one level, to detailing all the animals that are asleep in Phoenix Park: among them, the birds, the lion, the panther, the elephant, the rhino, the hippo, the beagles, the peacocks, the camel, and the apes. Amidst this, the narrator (still Glugg, I'm thinking right now) calls for lights, and "Hanoukan's Lamp" -- in one sense the Hanukkah lamp -- is lit.
Anyway, back to the Wake. Today's reading picks up in the middle of the long paragraph we began in the last passage, dealing with Glugg's "fiery goosemother," Avenlith. Glugg further explains his father's relationship with Glugg's mother, which began when his father "harboured her" and eventually wed her. She nurtured him during his time of need, and eventually promised him that if he'd clean up his pub she would "make massa dinars" (both big dinners and lots of money). She would also reform her own wanton ways and align herself with the Roman church. In particular, she'd give "mezzo scudo" (roughly translated by McHugh as Italian for "half her coins") to "Sant Pursy Orelli" (Saint Persse O'Reilly) in an offering toward masses for votes and widows.
With Glugg's introduction to his mother complete, the narrative is interrupted by what sounds like a kind of Greek chorus (perhaps the Floras?) that tells us to be cautious when listening to Glugg: "Hear, O worldwithout! Tiny Tattling! Backwoods, be wary! Daintytrees, go dutch!" This warning is immediately followed by the approach of someone who "relights our spearing torch, the moon." This signals the coming of night. Shops are shut, songs are sung in the synagogue, and the children are called home at their curfew.
We now embark on another longish paragraph (which covers just short of two full pages), which details what happens during the night, when "[i]t darkles . . . all this our funnanimal world." Both humankind and the wild animals are cold. The mother is in the house, and it sounds like the father is at the pub. Much of the remaining lines of today's passage are dedicated, on one level, to detailing all the animals that are asleep in Phoenix Park: among them, the birds, the lion, the panther, the elephant, the rhino, the hippo, the beagles, the peacocks, the camel, and the apes. Amidst this, the narrator (still Glugg, I'm thinking right now) calls for lights, and "Hanoukan's Lamp" -- in one sense the Hanukkah lamp -- is lit.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
"foriverever her allinall"
(241.8-243.8) Maybe it's just me, but I found today's reading tough. Perhaps I'm hitting a bit of a Wake wall right now, as I've gotten a post up daily (umm . . . I just realized that could be read as a Joycean pun . . . my apologies . . . it was unintentional, but I'm now obliged to leave it in . . . or something . . . ) for the past 40 or so days (after a lackluster showing throughout July and August). Maybe, instead of hitting the wall, let's say that I've fallen off the Wake wall, so don't be surprised if I take a day off tomorrow so that this Humpty Dumpty can put himself back together again.
But yeah, back to the Wake itself. The passage picks up in the middle of the long paragraph in which the resurrected Glugg tells the story of his father. As could be expected from a story about a version of the embattled HCE told by a version of the perhaps equally-embattled Shem, we hear a lot more about the accusations levied against Glugg's father, Anaks Andrum. (In their Skeleton Key, Campbell and Robinson note the significance that the newly repentant Glugg isn't actually confessing his own sins, but those of his father.) This includes everything from more sexual deviance to being a hostile invader. You know, the stuff we're now accustomed to hearing about HCE. We even get an appearance from the two young temptresses ("They white liveried ragsups, two Whales of the Sea of Deceit") and the three accuser-soldiers ("they bloodiblabstard shooters, three Dromedaries of the Sands of Calumdonia") from Phoenix Park. Glugg defends Andrum -- he says he's an upright man ("persona erecta") and a wise one (the people eat his "praverbs" up like vittles) -- but, nevertheless, Andrum was ultimately put on trial, convicted by "a jury of matrons," and sent up "Suffrogate Strate."
Glugg now turns his attention toward the ALP figure of his tale, "his fiery goosemother," Avenlith. Of her, Glugg says, "She just as fenny as he is fulgar" -- in one sense, Avenlith's as funny as Andrum's vulgar. The two parents will stick together forever -- or as Glugg says, "foriverver" -- as Avenlith wouldn't "swop" him for "Howarden's Castle, Englandwales." We all know her -- she's been around for more than 111 years. She frightens all souls, yet gets a pain in her stomach when we engage in war.
For more on Avenlith/ALP, check back with me tomorrow (and if not then, Saturday).
But yeah, back to the Wake itself. The passage picks up in the middle of the long paragraph in which the resurrected Glugg tells the story of his father. As could be expected from a story about a version of the embattled HCE told by a version of the perhaps equally-embattled Shem, we hear a lot more about the accusations levied against Glugg's father, Anaks Andrum. (In their Skeleton Key, Campbell and Robinson note the significance that the newly repentant Glugg isn't actually confessing his own sins, but those of his father.) This includes everything from more sexual deviance to being a hostile invader. You know, the stuff we're now accustomed to hearing about HCE. We even get an appearance from the two young temptresses ("They white liveried ragsups, two Whales of the Sea of Deceit") and the three accuser-soldiers ("they bloodiblabstard shooters, three Dromedaries of the Sands of Calumdonia") from Phoenix Park. Glugg defends Andrum -- he says he's an upright man ("persona erecta") and a wise one (the people eat his "praverbs" up like vittles) -- but, nevertheless, Andrum was ultimately put on trial, convicted by "a jury of matrons," and sent up "Suffrogate Strate."
Glugg now turns his attention toward the ALP figure of his tale, "his fiery goosemother," Avenlith. Of her, Glugg says, "She just as fenny as he is fulgar" -- in one sense, Avenlith's as funny as Andrum's vulgar. The two parents will stick together forever -- or as Glugg says, "foriverver" -- as Avenlith wouldn't "swop" him for "Howarden's Castle, Englandwales." We all know her -- she's been around for more than 111 years. She frightens all souls, yet gets a pain in her stomach when we engage in war.
For more on Avenlith/ALP, check back with me tomorrow (and if not then, Saturday).
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
"But low, boys low, he rises"
(239.16-241.7) Our reading for today begins by wrapping up the subject of yesterday's passage, the Flora's enlightenment. "Hightime is ups" -- it's time to move on -- "be it down into outs according!" Eventually these "romance catholeens" (both the romantic young women and the Roman Catholics) will be emancipated, but until that happens, the Floras will go on dancing "in gyrogyrorondo."
But as the Floras were dancing up the hillside around Chuff, a sound of "oaths and screams and bawley groans with a belchybubhub and a hellabelow" could be heard. The dark and hellish language indicates that these sounds are coming from the outcast Glugg, and we presently learn that "poor Glugger was dazed and late in his crave, ay he, laid in his grave." This being Finnegans Wake, though, we haven't heard the last of Glugg. Indeed, he now rises "with his spittyful eyes and whoozebecome woice."
The resurrected Glugg has turned over a new leaf. He examines his conscience and recants his heresies. This "wheedhearted boy of potter and mudder, chip of old Flinn the Flinter, twig of the hider that tanned him" is now going to tell his story. He begins by talking of his direct relation, his father, here "Anaks Andrum" (one meaning for this offered by McHugh is the Greek "anax andrรดn," which translates to "lord of men"). Andrum, we learn, is the proprietor of a "Drugmalt storehuse" (much like HCE's pub). He seems to be an upstanding gentleman, but rumors persist about him. Some say he has committed bribery. And some ditch diggers say that he has used candy to lure young women "with pruriest pollygameous inatentions." What else is said about this version of HCE? We'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out . . . .
But as the Floras were dancing up the hillside around Chuff, a sound of "oaths and screams and bawley groans with a belchybubhub and a hellabelow" could be heard. The dark and hellish language indicates that these sounds are coming from the outcast Glugg, and we presently learn that "poor Glugger was dazed and late in his crave, ay he, laid in his grave." This being Finnegans Wake, though, we haven't heard the last of Glugg. Indeed, he now rises "with his spittyful eyes and whoozebecome woice."
The resurrected Glugg has turned over a new leaf. He examines his conscience and recants his heresies. This "wheedhearted boy of potter and mudder, chip of old Flinn the Flinter, twig of the hider that tanned him" is now going to tell his story. He begins by talking of his direct relation, his father, here "Anaks Andrum" (one meaning for this offered by McHugh is the Greek "anax andrรดn," which translates to "lord of men"). Andrum, we learn, is the proprietor of a "Drugmalt storehuse" (much like HCE's pub). He seems to be an upstanding gentleman, but rumors persist about him. Some say he has committed bribery. And some ditch diggers say that he has used candy to lure young women "with pruriest pollygameous inatentions." What else is said about this version of HCE? We'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out . . . .
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