Ya wiley dog ya! I'm almost one fourth the way through the accursed tome as I write! Just as I start to figure out why I'm laughing, here comes everybody! I think this book was written in the frequency domain! I need the inverse Finnegan transform to map myself back to Howth Castle and environs!

Ack ack, gatling gann! Do main thing is freak you (g)ently cuss once you gateau into joy sense mode you are finnished.

WOOF

Every time I tried reading Finnegan's Wake I stopped after page three and asked myself "Why?"

"Because if you don't you're not smart or something," answered myself.

"I think it's a giant emperor-has-no-clothes joke," countered myself.

"But all the cool people claim to love it," I argued.

"They're liars."

And with that, I made my decision.

I wudna fash meself, Verbal. Reminds me of the part where it goes:
" A cataleptic mithyphallic? Was this Totem Fulcrum Est Ancestor yu hald in Dies Eirae where no spider webbeth or Anno Mundi ere bawds plied in Skiffstrait? Be fair, Chris!"

WOOF

Eye! cuidna aft-set it but err myself!
(Pig-Wakean)

Dr. Amy you are not C.C.C.! Brilliant! (in my Jon Lovitz voice)
Rated

Hahaha! Quite brilliant. From number theory to Finnegan, which is more rarefied? Have never read Finnegan and doubt I ever will, but I actually got most of it! Am I cool or what ;-)?

I never had the displeasure. And now the world is beset with pale imitations of Joyce, just as it is beset with pale imitations of Hemingway. I think I shall turn on the TV.

Tanks all, or if you prefer en français: reservoir.

Axeman, didya know there's a Finnegans reading group that's been meeting irregularly in Cambridge for ten years or so. They were up to page 241 the last I hat checked or axed (hey, that was good). Started out meeting at, where else, Finnegans Wake on Porter Sq. When that closed, they moved to the Daedalus on Harvard Sq. but that were too hoity toity by arf (note ye how they spell Dedalus). So now they meet at The Thirsty Scholar in Somerville, which is really perfect -- buncha regulars watching the Broons at one end, buncha sots soused on stout stumbling through FW on the other.

Thank ye kindly Blue, ma lady Verbal, Smithbarney, Tom. Hey, at least I tagged it "The 26 or 27 Most Annoying Posts of All Time." Sumpin to be said bout tootin advertising.

WOOF

I've been livicated! I wonder what the goo doctor would say that does to my ganglia. (shame on my spell checker)
I only made it through Ulysses thanks to having to live through 300+ performances of Fiddler On The Roof. The show is long enough. Having to survive Wed & Sun two-fers would have been inexorable without Joyce.
Always wanted to attack the Wake though.

I'm more of a "'Twas brillig" kind of girl, but it's awfully nice of y'all smart folks to let me hang out with you ;)

Aye, I am aware of such gatherings of mentally gifted and socially challenged north bank denizens. (Isn't the Charles a no wake zone?). I, true to nature, abhor both vacuum and crowd, and so cut my own path across the Wake. I tried turning the book upside down last night and found it equally enlightening though not quite as funny.

I never could get through that...And your quotes remind me vividly of why! :)

Stellaa, I love ya (I love Caruso, Susan, Merwoman too -- Axeman, I dunno, someone with sharp tools did sumpin nasty to me once, well when they're gone, they're gone, luv ya too) -- you got it in one. Most parts of it DO have to be read aloud IMO, and then you get the SWING, the rhythms, the heart of the language even before you get the precise meanings. Jazz is perfect.

Caruso, Holy Cat! Sunrise, Sunset was good for maybe three go's, but 300+ !!! And I'll hate you for this till it goes away... now you've started the dum da da dum da da dum da da dum da da dum... earworm. AAARGHHH.

Susan, you rascal, you just dropped the progenitor of the Wake on us to show off. And you can hang with the cool kids any time you want ;-).

Axeman, I never thought you'd try the inverse Finnegan transform literally! Wonder what would happen if one took Stellaa's suggestion and played the audio tape (I wonder if one exists, do you know?) backwards a la the White Album. What if it too said "Paul is Dead"?

Well, merwoman, we are about 99% mapped as soulmates; if FW were also in it, more than my lamented danglies would be in jeopardy from Mrs. C ;-).

WOOF

Smithbarney? would you please come back and get me down the wall - CCC drove me up it and now damestuck ... nnn dumbstruck

Rolling, you have me rolling! Damn, stuck/struck no demes ever, but to get unstuck I suggest you go over to my last three posts immediately (don't be deterred by SB's "rarefied" comments). I've always found Bernoulli equations a perfect antidote to Joyce :-).

WOOF

Until I figure out how to turn the book inside out I'll have to settle for reading it in the conventional manner.

ok voodo....but your woof nicely snugly fits in over your avtar, you designed it like that? looks like a signature woofer to me

Ross, sin thee nomo, stop dickin' round, go re joyce. Spellin pun too a shun, no bar. Jest yer fur music of words, which ye have.

Rolling, did voodoo it?

Ax n u shall n ter receivership. Never new txting was sorta Joycean!

WOOF

And now I must bow my head in shame and confess I have never read the book.

I know. I am a pale imitation of an academic.

O loud, a cad, a mick:
"That our heavyweight heathen Humpharey
Made bold a maid to woo
(Chorus) Woohoo, what'll she doo!
The general lost her maidenloo!
... Begob, he's the crux of the catalogue
Of our antediluvial zoo,
(Chorus) Messrs. Billing and Coo
Noah's larks, good as noo." (Page 46)

WOO

Always liked hangin' with the smart kids. You play with numbers like he played with words.

Just curious: what do you think of our own Arthur James?

Well, I suppose it's for the best, then. We wouldn't want to get on Mrs. C's bad side. :D

And, merwoman, I don't think I'll tell her that I got "Small Circle of Friends" (it just came) on your recco. That way, let's say she'll have an unbiased viewing experience ;-).

WOOF

Why, thank ye, Mister Colman, sorr. Oy jest ordered it (they claim it's a brand new 4 CD set) from an outfit in Tennessee of all places (through Amazon) for 28 bucks, which seems very reasonable. But Oy hope Norton does it in an Oirish accent (and not some pansified English version) because that's the way the music plays in my head.

WOOF

ccc sez Si! Si! Si! to Juan Jwoman singing o'carol. Nice seizing you- police come agin.

Stanks fur dat. Sea Sea Sea, a wet dog(?). Si! Si! Si! Anne yid knot hole wed. A wet dog izza Ginny Woolf pining fur a groom of hair sewn yclept Hank Heron. "Yew Bats" shee offerz- "What? You sayne?" siddhe declining-declaiming "Ash fur me". Bravely sed!

Yew dew know howda whittle, doan yew? Bless pewter tulips to gather anne throw- Strike won! "Ass fur me, Ash fur me.", Hankerin' sez agin, "Seen yew bud knot wanding yew bat".

Nod to harp onyx, nor two strings A Loose Poetess alone, bud aye has been verbally accursed o' bean a lyre(!)- to wit: a yew U with strings, isthere Noun Remedy(?). Virginal (as if!) Reality PLUCK YEW with strings form aye a lyre anne BYTE C3 forest a computer he izz.

Annie Loose Pretense has liared Howth Castle and Environs fur alledgedtrickery. In the mains the charge currently flows, Annie Little Paws the swidge to said the lies ablaze. Howth revolting tis to seez the alledgedtrickery charges and run widgets run.

Thyme (Annie!) to tune off the lies Anne the lyres. For a good Knights slip it's SIRly to butt anne SIRly to bride. Butt I ate Gawain tubey a good knight- so it's surly to bet and surly to raise (poker fur me, woodja?). Anne I'm too surly yet too laid anne now I'm a Wake too.

odette, I will have to admit my head hurts just thinking about it. I think I'd rather read The Oresteia again. However I think I would prefer this to Shaw, who bores me terribly by rambling on forever to get to a point.

CCC, I think I will consider this witty and marvelous post as my Finnegan Cliff Notes

Thank you. I always wondered what that meant!