exual
vulgarism
and the 'Tunc' page of the B~ DfKtlls (fulio l~?
Hart-Clive-1962-Structure-and-Motif-in-Finnegans-Wake
arne of the Egypliaa Su.
.
.
.
Cod'; th~1 il is abo Old None word for God'; and that
VUIIIU, wilh his fertik umhili~, i, himtelf a Sun-God. ' The oombinro ph. o. llicurnbi&al fertility of SItaUII is dr:amatic:ally w<>rkro OUI in tlte big climax at ~99-~01, which is pl:ainly orgMmic and is 'u'. . . . . unded with ,. ""uallugge! tion:
'the. . ,', lcpt or flam in Funnycoon'. Wick. ' (499. 13)
'D'yu meUl 10 ",II there wh~re y'are now, coddlin your lUper. nurncr. lry I"" wi'mat bi~r lOngue in yur tolkoltap, and your hindieo and Ihindic:s, lib: a muck in a markel, Sortey boy, n:pc:atin<< yu. . . . I[ ' (499. '9)
'wilh all that', huried ofi;illl illunce i"",wed inoid. . . . f=:
(. 99-~5)
'Acl drop. Stand by! Blioders! Curtain up. Juice, pic. . ,. ,! }'oou! '
(5? 1. 07)
This exciting moment, led up to be :0 I"'mendous accd. . . . . tion of the dialogue, is thc prineipal foc. . . of the ch:ap. et. Aft. . . the cat:acl)'lm, life begins Once more 10 climb out "r the W<>m. b of aboolute zero. Frosty imagery ahounds, :and it gr;odually be- COma apparer. t that . . . . "C ha~. . , now bftn ~ pit:atcd in. o the Cim. unga-Gap of the Eddas. ' Yawn, perhaps '" be idctui/ied
nnw wilh the recumbent Ymir, the origin:ll R]T11oI:-Cianl, then pro<:<<diIO describe Yggdra1. il, the Wotid_Tr<<, whlch, by his choice of l:anguligt. he managa to ",latc to virtually every
olber . ymbolic t. . ,e. ~inc<: we are dealing hcf'<: with the ' pring_ ing (If all experience from a First c. . UIC, one of the 0\011 im_ portant of thetc (lthtt" growllu is the TI'tt of J eooe (5"". (13) whicb, in mediaeval arl, som. ~titnCI lwcuriuer. out of the ,upine
Jt:OS? '. ph:allus, just as the loh. ,. . ftower--thc 'family umbroglia, (~I4-04)-bursu from Shau,,_Vishnu', umbilicus. ? ? . . . :tlusiom 10
D~rwin ~nd the ChiP. ~fS". . w c~ny the family IJ"tt funhe! -.
, I',. . "'. ! Iuds"7JIt&cotof""n-r,3""'"-. 1 h. . , 19"'1, ,"Ol. I,P. 601. ? Athe. . "", p. 'OJ.
? J-;. . q,lf/oHitJ
1. . &<10< MJ'oW. 1\. ,'("" I~
_ ic. ,I"h <<In. , 'Vw. n~'; lL Zimmer. M. y. . . .
p. 193.
? J. Compboll, 't'into"! ! . . ,, tho Woke', Itt G i_, pp. 57" If.
? S K 4~.
,
'"
? ! <J1)(Jtiul Cyrus: I I - TIu CrOJs
Tne great t= . pringing from the e<:ntre of the quincunx on the orange-mound of Ireland emulalCS the T = of the Know_ ledge ofGood and Evil which grew in the cent", ofEden: 'tm. tree of . . . ga",rden' (350. 02). But the fateful t",e plant<:d in l'aradise hal traditionally been comidered a . ymbolic pre-
cunor of the cross-tree placed on Calvary, and 00 J <>yce'. tree U given . . . much the asp<"<:t of a g-,dlows as of a living tree
('T yburn', SO'Pol). That Christ's aou uhere intended is made apparent by the indw. ion of many of the supplementary symbols which <. ". 'hristlan iconography frc<[uently a. oocialeS with the CrtlM, . w:h al the ol<ull at the thot (5? 1. 25) and the sun and the mOOn above (504. 36). "lbus a vertical cro. . has grown out of the cent'" of a horizontal one; tht; fertile quincuncial 'multi_ plication' . igo iJ doing ilS work.
Shaun, crucified on the ,nidden, may ,cem to form a ""'" ;mm':"o-the now traditional Crou of Christ--ao easily as a Cross of 51. Anthony. At 377. 23 the Foot . . '" described . . . 'interprovincial crucifixioncn', and since the Christian Cr-o$I, when horizontal, is alwaY' tymholically oriented toward the e. . . t, Johnny (Wo. t) i. at the lower or earthy end of it, oonrutent with Paracd. m' equation of weat and the human buttocks. ' And ifJohnny U OOIated at the t;nd <lf the long arm of a cross, we have one amwing enough re3. $(ln fur m. oonanuaitardine. s, n<lt only is he encumb"red with hiI . Iow_moving """, but he has farther to go, like Thuroday'l child, Shaun-son. . of. Thunder, whn mako. m. long pilgrimage oul of the night of Book III.
The Old Men'. CI"O! :S i, most often called a 'quincunx'. The word is attractive to Joyce beea. . . . :: it Can ",adlly be made to suggcat belth . . .
exual vulgarism and the 'Tunc' page of the B~ DfKtlls (fulio l~? ). Thil page, bearing p"-rt ofthe lexl <lr the Ctucifixion- Tun. : crw;ifo<mmI XPl cum eo duo. I4lrona-io in fact illustrated in the lower half by a large Cf. . . . . <kellS. GIIl. T he allusion. \ to il which are heard again and again througrumt Fin~glUlS Wake arc alwaY' a,,,,,,ialed with the CI"O! :S of the r<lur and with the female organ. - "lbe clearat association of
, s . . c . . . - , p . ? ~.
, Atherton, pp. ~, 66.
? Spatial Cydu: l l- TM Cross
'quincun'" ? 'Tunc', etc" "al ll"/S,LI, 'PiIehc4panJ. tri4ngi. , MOu41Id Wt. ;1u",,? , The 1",1 word here " plainly 'quincunx', and thus the four symbols named are 100. . for ShaUll (,,), ALP (6 ), the 'Twelve' (0), and the 'Four' (X). Mr. Atherton has many interesting thing1 {o say about Joyce', conception of Original Sin a. God', sexual fun ~nLailro in the act of Creating. 1 The further implication in hi. Ule of 'Tunc' seelUll to be that Chrill'. 'fall' on the CfOM, raT from redeeming Adam', ,exual fall, is in fact to be identified wilh il and with the ran of God the Father.
Joyce was alwaY" mnlemptuou, of Chrl",', virginity' :
'He was a bachelor . . . and never lived with a woman. Surely living with a womiU1 i. one ofthe mn. t difficult thing> a man has to do, and he never did it'.
Ry his implied variations on the ,tory of the Go3pd. Joyce rewrites the N~w Testament to rorrc. pond with the Old even more clo. cly than the mediaevali>ts could have wished. Thi. cross on the 'Tune' page, already heavily loaded with . ymbolic oignificance, " e><panded to ro,mie proportiona in Rook IV, where Joyce make< it repreunt the quincunx,," in Plato',
World-Solll. The fint word of the paragraph in which the 'inferior' meeting of the Same and the Other talces place is in
fact 'Tunc' (6". 04-).
The cr<l$S with Shaun or the """ at its centre reCu~ in at least
one other important ,ymbolic variation. This is the 'pms? in-th e- corner' motif. The Shl,/(m Kq glOMeS the allusion to it at ~7S. 06 as " 'frightful animal. o. emon in Iri,h fairy tale, here mgge<tive of Finnegan fear'-' I can find no evidence of Ihe existence of a legendary detlliln with luch a name and in any case 'Finnegan fear' does not '! eem to be . n~ted by the cOIl? te"t. Much more important, certainly, is th~ children', game call. d Pms in the Corner, in which four individuals occupying the four COrnel'! ofa room try to run from one corner to another while a fifth, the 'puss', 00 the al~r1 in the centre, tries to I'UJ! h in to claim a vacalCd 'pace, . 0 leaving the dispossessed penon
, Alh<xtOn, pp_3<>-[ .
? F. Budgm,,ldmt, J. . . . . aNi tk M""~ 41. l1ps. s, I. <:>t>d<x>, '93? " P. '9[ ? ? SK '47".
'f'
? Spatial CycltS: ll-Tht Cross
in the middle"" the new 'p"",,'. ' (In W. 1<rtS Bloom 'plaY' pmsy fuurcomen with ragged boY' and girls', U 46~. ) Thai Joy"" had in mind thi:! first. rate . ymbol of a <table form. with a ron_ stantly ,billing but finit~ rontent-the '",im anew'- i:! clear from the marginal Dote '/i",IIlN', al. . . ,ady quoted, which ref"",
to the t~x! '. 'With a paIlly fur the pusry in the rorner'. Other as>Ociat;OI15 of this mM;f Wilh the Four occur at 43. 28:
'village crying to village, through the five pu. . yfou. . . . g,"""n of
the united ,tate of Scotia Piela' and al 5. ~5. lo:
'titranicht by tetranoxat, at Ihcir pu. . yoorne. . . , and that old time pally<llloga. . , playing copen f""""",me. '
Since the cent. . . . l point is both the 3. . '3' and the 'P"'" of thi!
game, r. rupeet thatJoyce i, p<:Tmitting hinuelfthe not unruua] indulgence ofa rather tortuons pun. 'Pu",' as a . lang lerm 'face' is used at katt three tirru:. in F;"''''grms W"*' (86. 10, 3~9. 04,
. ~I7. 17) I! O that 'pU$$' and ';w' ar~ . uccinctly identified "" anatomical oppo. ild coinciding at a pain! . 1b~ = in 1. 1 and IVa. . . , the front and bac\: ends ofFin. . . ~rms 11'. . . 1:<. (Th= ar~ strong . uggr$tiom of 'hallock. ' in {he l'atrick-Druid di:! - cu";on and it may be ,,;gnificant (hat of {he ten occurrences of Ih~ 'thunderwom' mottf, Ih<: fi"'t (3. 15) ;. oral, while the lalt (4~4. 20) ;" di,tin~tly anal. ) 'Pws' h. . . , of course, other . lang deuotatioru, DQtably 'th~ female genitalia', which th~refore lies 'pllM-in? thc-comer' even more cl",ely to 'ti",l! m&'. This whole conceit seems to be an expansion of that oth~r meeting ofcontraries when l. <:Opold Illoom ends his Od)""q by deli,"",- ing an 'obocnre prolonged provoca tive m~lorumellonou'O! ICul. . -
rion. ' (U 695)'
'"
, . <;. . O. t. ? . JJ. w. d<< 'PUg'. par~ph, . I Set 0/,. below, Ch>. P'''' VIII. II.
'1 am making all engin~ with only one wheel . . . The wh",,1 is a P"'rfcct square . . . ii'S a wh~d, 1 teU the world. And it", all <qua,,'. (l. #In"J, p. ~51. )
'i""" . . was held sar. r<;d by the Pythagor""",. It i! th~ p"'rfcct square, and ru:ilher of the boundiug liu", n cecd. the other in
'4'1
? Spatial Cycles: 11- 17ie Cross
length by a lingle point.
VUIIIU, wilh his fertik umhili~, i, himtelf a Sun-God. ' The oombinro ph. o. llicurnbi&al fertility of SItaUII is dr:amatic:ally w<>rkro OUI in tlte big climax at ~99-~01, which is pl:ainly orgMmic and is 'u'. . . . . unded with ,. ""uallugge! tion:
'the. . ,', lcpt or flam in Funnycoon'. Wick. ' (499. 13)
'D'yu meUl 10 ",II there wh~re y'are now, coddlin your lUper. nurncr. lry I"" wi'mat bi~r lOngue in yur tolkoltap, and your hindieo and Ihindic:s, lib: a muck in a markel, Sortey boy, n:pc:atin<< yu. . . . I[ ' (499. '9)
'wilh all that', huried ofi;illl illunce i"",wed inoid. . . . f=:
(. 99-~5)
'Acl drop. Stand by! Blioders! Curtain up. Juice, pic. . ,. ,! }'oou! '
(5? 1. 07)
This exciting moment, led up to be :0 I"'mendous accd. . . . . tion of the dialogue, is thc prineipal foc. . . of the ch:ap. et. Aft. . . the cat:acl)'lm, life begins Once more 10 climb out "r the W<>m. b of aboolute zero. Frosty imagery ahounds, :and it gr;odually be- COma apparer. t that . . . . "C ha~. . , now bftn ~ pit:atcd in. o the Cim. unga-Gap of the Eddas. ' Yawn, perhaps '" be idctui/ied
nnw wilh the recumbent Ymir, the origin:ll R]T11oI:-Cianl, then pro<:<<diIO describe Yggdra1. il, the Wotid_Tr<<, whlch, by his choice of l:anguligt. he managa to ",latc to virtually every
olber . ymbolic t. . ,e. ~inc<: we are dealing hcf'<: with the ' pring_ ing (If all experience from a First c. . UIC, one of the 0\011 im_ portant of thetc (lthtt" growllu is the TI'tt of J eooe (5"". (13) whicb, in mediaeval arl, som. ~titnCI lwcuriuer. out of the ,upine
Jt:OS? '. ph:allus, just as the loh. ,. . ftower--thc 'family umbroglia, (~I4-04)-bursu from Shau,,_Vishnu', umbilicus. ? ? . . . :tlusiom 10
D~rwin ~nd the ChiP. ~fS". . w c~ny the family IJ"tt funhe! -.
, I',. . "'. ! Iuds"7JIt&cotof""n-r,3""'"-. 1 h. . , 19"'1, ,"Ol. I,P. 601. ? Athe. . "", p. 'OJ.
? J-;. . q,lf/oHitJ
1. . &<10< MJ'oW. 1\. ,'("" I~
_ ic. ,I"h <<In. , 'Vw. n~'; lL Zimmer. M. y. . . .
p. 193.
? J. Compboll, 't'into"! ! . . ,, tho Woke', Itt G i_, pp. 57" If.
? S K 4~.
,
'"
? ! <J1)(Jtiul Cyrus: I I - TIu CrOJs
Tne great t= . pringing from the e<:ntre of the quincunx on the orange-mound of Ireland emulalCS the T = of the Know_ ledge ofGood and Evil which grew in the cent", ofEden: 'tm. tree of . . . ga",rden' (350. 02). But the fateful t",e plant<:d in l'aradise hal traditionally been comidered a . ymbolic pre-
cunor of the cross-tree placed on Calvary, and 00 J <>yce'. tree U given . . . much the asp<"<:t of a g-,dlows as of a living tree
('T yburn', SO'Pol). That Christ's aou uhere intended is made apparent by the indw. ion of many of the supplementary symbols which <. ". 'hristlan iconography frc<[uently a. oocialeS with the CrtlM, . w:h al the ol<ull at the thot (5? 1. 25) and the sun and the mOOn above (504. 36). "lbus a vertical cro. . has grown out of the cent'" of a horizontal one; tht; fertile quincuncial 'multi_ plication' . igo iJ doing ilS work.
Shaun, crucified on the ,nidden, may ,cem to form a ""'" ;mm':"o-the now traditional Crou of Christ--ao easily as a Cross of 51. Anthony. At 377. 23 the Foot . . '" described . . . 'interprovincial crucifixioncn', and since the Christian Cr-o$I, when horizontal, is alwaY' tymholically oriented toward the e. . . t, Johnny (Wo. t) i. at the lower or earthy end of it, oonrutent with Paracd. m' equation of weat and the human buttocks. ' And ifJohnny U OOIated at the t;nd <lf the long arm of a cross, we have one amwing enough re3. $(ln fur m. oonanuaitardine. s, n<lt only is he encumb"red with hiI . Iow_moving """, but he has farther to go, like Thuroday'l child, Shaun-son. . of. Thunder, whn mako. m. long pilgrimage oul of the night of Book III.
The Old Men'. CI"O! :S i, most often called a 'quincunx'. The word is attractive to Joyce beea. . . . :: it Can ",adlly be made to suggcat belth . . .
exual vulgarism and the 'Tunc' page of the B~ DfKtlls (fulio l~? ). Thil page, bearing p"-rt ofthe lexl <lr the Ctucifixion- Tun. : crw;ifo<mmI XPl cum eo duo. I4lrona-io in fact illustrated in the lower half by a large Cf. . . . . <kellS. GIIl. T he allusion. \ to il which are heard again and again througrumt Fin~glUlS Wake arc alwaY' a,,,,,,ialed with the CI"O! :S of the r<lur and with the female organ. - "lbe clearat association of
, s . . c . . . - , p . ? ~.
, Atherton, pp. ~, 66.
? Spatial Cydu: l l- TM Cross
'quincun'" ? 'Tunc', etc" "al ll"/S,LI, 'PiIehc4panJ. tri4ngi. , MOu41Id Wt. ;1u",,? , The 1",1 word here " plainly 'quincunx', and thus the four symbols named are 100. . for ShaUll (,,), ALP (6 ), the 'Twelve' (0), and the 'Four' (X). Mr. Atherton has many interesting thing1 {o say about Joyce', conception of Original Sin a. God', sexual fun ~nLailro in the act of Creating. 1 The further implication in hi. Ule of 'Tunc' seelUll to be that Chrill'. 'fall' on the CfOM, raT from redeeming Adam', ,exual fall, is in fact to be identified wilh il and with the ran of God the Father.
Joyce was alwaY" mnlemptuou, of Chrl",', virginity' :
'He was a bachelor . . . and never lived with a woman. Surely living with a womiU1 i. one ofthe mn. t difficult thing> a man has to do, and he never did it'.
Ry his implied variations on the ,tory of the Go3pd. Joyce rewrites the N~w Testament to rorrc. pond with the Old even more clo. cly than the mediaevali>ts could have wished. Thi. cross on the 'Tune' page, already heavily loaded with . ymbolic oignificance, " e><panded to ro,mie proportiona in Rook IV, where Joyce make< it repreunt the quincunx,," in Plato',
World-Solll. The fint word of the paragraph in which the 'inferior' meeting of the Same and the Other talces place is in
fact 'Tunc' (6". 04-).
The cr<l$S with Shaun or the """ at its centre reCu~ in at least
one other important ,ymbolic variation. This is the 'pms? in-th e- corner' motif. The Shl,/(m Kq glOMeS the allusion to it at ~7S. 06 as " 'frightful animal. o. emon in Iri,h fairy tale, here mgge<tive of Finnegan fear'-' I can find no evidence of Ihe existence of a legendary detlliln with luch a name and in any case 'Finnegan fear' does not '! eem to be . n~ted by the cOIl? te"t. Much more important, certainly, is th~ children', game call. d Pms in the Corner, in which four individuals occupying the four COrnel'! ofa room try to run from one corner to another while a fifth, the 'puss', 00 the al~r1 in the centre, tries to I'UJ! h in to claim a vacalCd 'pace, . 0 leaving the dispossessed penon
, Alh<xtOn, pp_3<>-[ .
? F. Budgm,,ldmt, J. . . . . aNi tk M""~ 41. l1ps. s, I. <:>t>d<x>, '93? " P. '9[ ? ? SK '47".
'f'
? Spatial CycltS: ll-Tht Cross
in the middle"" the new 'p"",,'. ' (In W. 1<rtS Bloom 'plaY' pmsy fuurcomen with ragged boY' and girls', U 46~. ) Thai Joy"" had in mind thi:! first. rate . ymbol of a <table form. with a ron_ stantly ,billing but finit~ rontent-the '",im anew'- i:! clear from the marginal Dote '/i",IIlN', al. . . ,ady quoted, which ref"",
to the t~x! '. 'With a paIlly fur the pusry in the rorner'. Other as>Ociat;OI15 of this mM;f Wilh the Four occur at 43. 28:
'village crying to village, through the five pu. . yfou. . . . g,"""n of
the united ,tate of Scotia Piela' and al 5. ~5. lo:
'titranicht by tetranoxat, at Ihcir pu. . yoorne. . . , and that old time pally<llloga. . , playing copen f""""",me. '
Since the cent. . . . l point is both the 3. . '3' and the 'P"'" of thi!
game, r. rupeet thatJoyce i, p<:Tmitting hinuelfthe not unruua] indulgence ofa rather tortuons pun. 'Pu",' as a . lang lerm 'face' is used at katt three tirru:. in F;"''''grms W"*' (86. 10, 3~9. 04,
. ~I7. 17) I! O that 'pU$$' and ';w' ar~ . uccinctly identified "" anatomical oppo. ild coinciding at a pain! . 1b~ = in 1. 1 and IVa. . . , the front and bac\: ends ofFin. . . ~rms 11'. . . 1:<. (Th= ar~ strong . uggr$tiom of 'hallock. ' in {he l'atrick-Druid di:! - cu";on and it may be ,,;gnificant (hat of {he ten occurrences of Ih~ 'thunderwom' mottf, Ih<: fi"'t (3. 15) ;. oral, while the lalt (4~4. 20) ;" di,tin~tly anal. ) 'Pws' h. . . , of course, other . lang deuotatioru, DQtably 'th~ female genitalia', which th~refore lies 'pllM-in? thc-comer' even more cl",ely to 'ti",l! m&'. This whole conceit seems to be an expansion of that oth~r meeting ofcontraries when l. <:Opold Illoom ends his Od)""q by deli,"",- ing an 'obocnre prolonged provoca tive m~lorumellonou'O! ICul. . -
rion. ' (U 695)'
'"
, . <;. . O. t. ? . JJ. w. d<< 'PUg'. par~ph, . I Set 0/,. below, Ch>. P'''' VIII. II.
'1 am making all engin~ with only one wheel . . . The wh",,1 is a P"'rfcct square . . . ii'S a wh~d, 1 teU the world. And it", all <qua,,'. (l. #In"J, p. ~51. )
'i""" . . was held sar. r<;d by the Pythagor""",. It i! th~ p"'rfcct square, and ru:ilher of the boundiug liu", n cecd. the other in
'4'1
? Spatial Cycles: 11- 17ie Cross
length by a lingle point.
