) Both Letter and Tdegram are addr=cd to the GOOhead,
although
the Lcttu is add!
Hart-Clive-1962-Structure-and-Motif-in-Finnegans-Wake
, with il.
'; mention of Hell and damnation, the demonic character of Shem's antipodal home:
'Had he twicycled the = of the deed and tr~travel"1led their rcvermer~ Was he corne to hevre with his <ngiles or gone to hull with the poop? '
Nearby New Zealand ('New Z-land') io the lrue nadir of Shem'. cycle through the leiters of the alphabet, but ""tremes mUlt be made to meet, 50 that in Book IV New Zealand appears =rutituted a, 'New<:r Aland' (601. 35), [mm wbi~h Shem
bcginl a fresh cyck around the verbigra. :ious globe. (At 156. 29 Shcm is alluded to a. Macaulay's 'brokenarched traveller fmm Nuzuland', come to take hi. < Satanic arml'<-ry. vicw of de- struction. ) The magician b", on page 601 trarumngrified him_ self into a wallaby_ 'T be arntrologcr WaJlaby by T olan, wh" fanhook our . h'>Wl"1l from Newer Aland'--a furm in which he is apparently able to make Ireland tremble even from the distant anlipodes. He rearnves in this same 'hape early in Finlltlldl1l WIlk (165. 20) in a generally Awtralian context,
where Ihe bleary-eyed zoologi. <t . ceo s<:rpentine Dalicsque 'oongorool teah' crawling through the bush.
1lte contra. t betwc<:n the geographical contrari. . , Australia and Ireland,;' again ""labli,hed at 78. 26, whe~ the two ! idel of the glob<: a. re renamed 'New South 1~1and' and 'Old
Ulster', while the equally important 0ppoMtion of Australia and Ihe United States i, developed in Earwicker's 'percb at 543. 03 where they figure a. the two exlremes bet""",n which common man, HCE, i. ,iwaled- half_way up the Scale of
Nature and sharing something of both end. : "0
? SpatW. l Cyclt. r: I-TIlt Girck
'willi . . ! log to . quare ItS' I oem my bol,lDdary 10 Botany 8. o. y
. nd I n. n up . score and IOu. of mes while the Yanb were huckling ! . he Empie<:'.
Botany Bay, the prUon "",demelll, is at the HUH of the earth; the United SIU"" i. tbe 'EmpytUll', The theme is taken up ye, again at 369. 17. wh= Canbt-mt. and New York are Ip<<ified . . . the po]. . . ,
Shun', orbit, on which lie Dublin, Eire, and Dublin, Ga. , though approximately 'horizontaJ' (that is, un-we. t) 0. 1 the Dublin meridian, is luffio<:IItly inclined 10 the -equator \0 take him inlo Ihe IOUth""'- mm"l'be. " a, hit farthest disance from Ireland 'around the back of the ,lobe', ILnd Joyu n::pramrs the oeconda'1' QUaiDg ofthe brothen' WlI)'lI as taking place uGh time in AUII,. . "li. . (~ Figure III ), Shem n:peuediy circles up and down throughout FimotglllU W. . u but rintt slow-lOOted Shaun i. the S" UII he manages only one vUie ptr revolution
of the book, with whO$< diurnal motion hi, cycle i. synchronil<<l,' TIL" daily linking and reappearance of the l un is of w urse rymbolic. olly identical . ,. ;! h the ~arly death and rt:Surrtttion of tile god. Sh. >. un ;, ,nade to viii! Shcm'. N~ South Welsll domain in Book IV, bctwttn the cydca oI' lhe liturgical year of f. 'Uutt,. . . . Willi, bootwttn the du tll or Ille god and his rebi" ". T he Christian hierarchy;' thus mainu,ined- Christ ma y appcar in all three worido, but SII"", ncvfl' vUitJ the United Su,t. . , ! Or, like the Devil, he can n,. , no higher than the Purgatorial earth. A. the effeminate, Christlike Kevin ('Kri&tJikc Kvinne', ~67. L3), Shaun vi,,;u the Kingdom or the Dead on page Go', harrows it, and h. . . a lU$! lc with tile Devil in the form or 10il argument with Shem during the Berkeley-Patrick dialogue. Kevin;' unainly 10 boo identified with the . . . indy Kevin hod O ' Dohen y who appears ebcwhcre in FiMt,. ,. . WIIlI. O'Dohen y
W3J
returned to Dublin, where be w aJ completely pardoned. The parallel with Christ'. crucifixion, descent into Hell, and R. . ur. rectioD i. obviow and J oyce h. . quietly put it 10 UK. In
~ with treaoon and bulished 10 Tasmania but iatu , cr. 1} 50' '. . ,offat do. . . . . ". ",1muM io r""" "h I>< . . . . . , . "",1a day',
ma>'cli on him. Keep I, up for. ,. . . ,,- ~cr '"
_ . day oId<< tcduQcoUy. '
? Spatial Cycles: I - T M Circle
T asmania O'Doherty met Mitchell (identified by Joyce with Shem) SO 'hat on page 601 Shaun', appearance at Botany Bay proon"""ttlement as O'Doherty already foreohadnws the m""t? ing or Mid:: and Nir. k (6TI). Throughout Fi=gallJ IVa" the ,ymboh of coffin and prison are identified with ea<:h other and with Hell. In 1. 4 it ;. never dear whether we are t<, co""ider Earwicker '" buried, impri. oned, or damned. Significantly, then, the imprisoned O'Doherty', fi. . . t name ;. eht:whcre modulated to 'coffin' (23I. t4)' For good me. . ,ure, another celebrated proon, Singsing, ;. thrown inlo the context (601. I8), wilh th~ ironic suggestion that ShaWl', ideal Heaven (thc United State,) may b. ,piritually a. ,uffocaling '" Hdl itsdf. As 'DcV', Shaun will later try to ",afuc his misguided ideal in Eire, only to make P1H:gatory even more helli'h. In SI#p/wl lfero Cranly and Stephen discu"" the latter'. ddi:etion from the ChuTeh:
'. . . <:Yen if I am wrong at le",t I ,hall not have t<> endure Father Bull', company f"r eternity'. (SH I41)
Mention of Set (60ull) thicken, the undcrworld-coffin atmooph<:rc, ,inc,," it wa, he whu, aided by ,eventy_two com- paninn" took 'hc measure orOsiri,' body by ,tealth and induc<:d him to lie Ilkc a Trappilt in a coffin tailored to fit,' which they immediately fa. '! lcned down and hurled into the Nile,' Shaun ;. dearly identified as Osiris ,everal tim. . in Finntgll1\S With, notahly on page 470, while the ~"frln floating down the
river is identical with Shann', barrel which drifu through Book IlI.
A poor ghO:l' in the cellarage, Shern keeps ,ending up 'de- gra"" from hi! 'obscene coalh"lc' (194. IS). J W{ '" the Letter from America i, d ""'ly 3. $sodated with Shaun the p()! It, . . . the Telegram from Awtralia is 'pcdfically a. . ociated with Shem
who, like the Devil, ;. inv~ntive and moTe up-to-the? minute than hi. conservative-minded counterpart. (That it ;. in any case Shem, playing the par' of tho Holy C hO$t, wh" write. the Leiter
, Of. the dOCussion of the T",ppQ" m ' lh? lJ<ad', 0 1511-
1Si,J'''''''1',. . . ,. -,11u('''Ii. . . . ~,ab<idgododn. ,London. J9~ p. 3113-
,"
? Spatial Cycles: I-Tlu Cireu
. . . wdl as the Telegram is a furth~r,,",arnpleofJoycc'. tortuollliy jocular irreverence and the . ubdcty of Shern', method? .
) Both Letter and Tdegram are addr=cd to the GOOhead, although the Lcttu is add! 'CS$(d in particular to GOO the Father ('Rever_ end', 'Majesty'), and Ihe Telegram to God the Son. Since bolh
comist of the polyglol verbiagt: of the Holy Ghost, the Deity U he,"" once again addr=ing himlClf, in a oomewhat rollDdabout
way, "" in Kabbalistic theology.
T h e Tel ~ rarn , w h i c b , i n c l u d i n g f r a g m e n t a r y , " " c a l t . . ,
appean about a doun times in various /Om. . " U always an appeal for alOi. tance of >Ome kind, . . ,Dt by Shem when absent on h;' fr<:quenl trips 'down under'. As SO often, the Devil tries 10 implicate Christ in hi< schemel. The Telegram first appears in ralh~r fragmentary form at 42. 09. That Shem is its author is he,"" indicated simply by the word 'cx-cx_exe<:utive', which foreshadows the epithet 'Ex"",,,,, COMMUNICA TED' applied to Shem at 172. 10 (half a pa~ prior to a further important occurrenCe of the motif). In this first eaac the request, like Joyce's iunumerable importuning! of the unfortunate Statili-
lau. , is simply for financial aid:
'I want money. Pleascnd'.
The description of the message . . . 'like a lady" {mucript' hints al the ultimate identity of the opposites, Telegram and Leller.
The above venion of the motif occura in the conl. eIt of that long chain of garbled stories which culminate in the ocurriloll! ballad about Earwickcr. On the occasioo of its sc<:ond appear_
ance, the 'felegrarn manages to iruinuate itself into the anala. g<)1l! programme of popular comments on Earwicker'. sub- . . ,quem reputation, conected by the roving rt:porlCr in 1. 3: '''Caligula'' (Mr. Danl Magrath, hookmaker, wellknown 10
Ea. strailian poor",e. . . of the Sydney Parade Ballotin) wa" a, Il! ua. l, antipodal with his: striving todic, hopc:ning lomenow, Ware Splash. Cobbler' (60. ~6)
Thi< time the place of origin i, mOr(: cLearly . tated : Sydney,
, s. . Append~ A, for g01Hnt ",,,,,,10. . ,,, (he"", of IriIml>lW in 1';""'1_ lVot. . . . Chapte< 5",,".
"3
? Spatial CJefts: I _ The Circl~
New South Wale<,' one of Shem', favourite =iden. ". . . Satan is nover at a k $ for an appropriate 4l;/1j and profe. . ion, and on thio ocC<Ui<>n as " mad and tyrannical lx>oltmaker he U$C, his traditional a,sociaticm with games of chan(e. The oignificance of the pseudonym 'Little Boots' may owe something to the . ymbolic gift of lx>ots mad<: by Mulligan (Shaun) to Strphen,' while Sh~m = m s to be identified here, as ehcwhcre, with that
unfortunate Devil whom SirJoho Shome conjured into a lx>ol. ' The name 'Cobbler' include. < the popular Au>lralian slang word 'robber', for the Devil alwaY' pr<:tend" of rout'IC, to be his victim'. Jl105t devoted friend. ' (Tt may be that th. . t other ,ham prophet and astrologer, Paruidgc (who waJ a cobbler) is ,kull<.
ing . "mewhen: in the background. ) The t~xt of the T elegram i$ indeed antipodal, . mc~ it rontra$" the attitude< of dcsperate . "ul. in the Auotralian Hell (. triving [0 die) with tlUJlC in the Irish PllTgatory (boping to mellow). Further, Shem U alway$ procrastinating ; his dforts, lilte Joy""', madcap schemes ? 0.
malting money,' are alw,,-Y' On the point of bearing fruit; he i, alway, hoping \() open hu shop tomorrow.
No further td~graphing g". . . on until a v~ry Cllplirit state- ment of the message hreal<s into 'Shem the l'enman':
'With the fo. . . ,ign devil', leave the fraid born fraud diddled even death. An~;, cabled (but shal<ing tbe worth out of hi! maultb: Guardarosta lepoTello ~ SZa! . ll Kraic. ! ) from his NearapohIican asylum to hisjonathan fur a brother: Hen: tokay, gon~ IOmory, w e ' . . . , . p l u c b e d , d o " )Jn~th ing, F i . . . , I . . . . . A n d h a d a n s w e r : inronvenient, David'. (t7~'W)
Then: is a hint that Sbem may nol . . . ,ally be the Devil hi! rule1f, but only hi, envoy- that ""en bi. Satanic nalUre may be partly a sham. T o a {me Kabbamt tbe genuine oo. etemal Satan is as ioeffabJ~ as the \lnmanife<1 godhead. " that any app""hen';bl~ Satan? figu,"" must be S<lmething Jess than . . . ,ality.
? Spatial Cycles: I - T h Circle
0" thiI third occasion the ""mb of'today' and 'tomorrow' have been rever=\, Today the", i. life, wine, and the key to the univene ('here tokay'); 'tomorrow we die'. Shem', <llilress
seem. to . tem from the fact that he h. . . committed hirmdf to a woman (,we're ,plicerl'), for a woman is held to Ix the only mateh for the Devil. He is playing the part of David whom, b<<. ausc of his voyeurism, pcrfidin"","IS, and ani. cry, Joyce alway> awxiate, with Satltn. Shern'. appeal 10 Stanislaw-Shaun In COme to him f=hadows Ih~ visit which is to take pia"" in Bool IV. For the momenl, Shem, down but not out, ",fuses, much to Shaun', annoyance, to accept the saffron? cak. . , symbol! of death: 'he ",fllSCd to . affrocake hj,,,,dfwith a sod'
(I7~'~0). ' The Telegram h. . . grown longer and more pathetic but Shaun'. ",action;" no more encouraging; in hi; usual self. righteousandIxlligcrentmoodh~d~ theapp"alwitha ,neer. At the biographical k",,[ Joya i. oong unfair to hi> brother who, both b<:fo,"" and after joining Joyce in Tri. . to, was extraon:\inarily foreb. . . . ring and I\"nrrow.
The Telegram turns up for the fuurth time in the I\"n- erally wireleSH aturat. ed context of the 'Norwegian Captain' cpi. ooe:
'Cabkn: Clifftop. ShelvHng tobay opp"long tomeadow. Ware cohhles. POIIh'. (3I5. 3~)
It ha, genemlly hc~n aOJ! umrd that the Norwegian Captain is Barwickr, but it often . . ems more likely that he is an incarna? tion of Earwi<:kr'~ anti. . ,eIf, the Manoervant (identified with the Cad) who, lile Shern, is alwaY' . . . """iatrd with the Kor_ wegian language. Ut. t: Shem, too, the Captain i. damnrd and condemned to tail his ship around the world until the Day of Judgment (329). In this ""rsion the Telegram preeN. . one of the Captain's momentary landings. Today be i. in Hell (lul"'/t, in Norwegian); tomorrow be hopeo to reach the Elysian MeadoW$ of annihilation and release. Thai the longed. for Heaven i. in the United States is funher . uggestrd by the allusion to 'Hoppalong CaWdy'.
TI'e complete text> ofboth Telegram and Letter appear only , E. A. lludge,n. . Bool;~tJ. . v-I,3rob. ,Loo>don,,go"p. '''9.
12;'
? Spatial Cytles: I- T k Circle
in th~ir final stat~m~nU. The 13. lt Tel~gram iI very amusing.
'I"lW iI included in a pawoge which deat. . in Wm~ detail with Shem'. Awtralian home (4fl8-9). Shaun, nnw 'peaking in his
natural voice through hi! metamorpho. cd other . . ,If, Yawn, iI curious to ha"" new> of his brother and 'cobber' who i.
'Had he twicycled the = of the deed and tr~travel"1led their rcvermer~ Was he corne to hevre with his <ngiles or gone to hull with the poop? '
Nearby New Zealand ('New Z-land') io the lrue nadir of Shem'. cycle through the leiters of the alphabet, but ""tremes mUlt be made to meet, 50 that in Book IV New Zealand appears =rutituted a, 'New<:r Aland' (601. 35), [mm wbi~h Shem
bcginl a fresh cyck around the verbigra. :ious globe. (At 156. 29 Shcm is alluded to a. Macaulay's 'brokenarched traveller fmm Nuzuland', come to take hi. < Satanic arml'<-ry. vicw of de- struction. ) The magician b", on page 601 trarumngrified him_ self into a wallaby_ 'T be arntrologcr WaJlaby by T olan, wh" fanhook our . h'>Wl"1l from Newer Aland'--a furm in which he is apparently able to make Ireland tremble even from the distant anlipodes. He rearnves in this same 'hape early in Finlltlldl1l WIlk (165. 20) in a generally Awtralian context,
where Ihe bleary-eyed zoologi. <t . ceo s<:rpentine Dalicsque 'oongorool teah' crawling through the bush.
1lte contra. t betwc<:n the geographical contrari. . , Australia and Ireland,;' again ""labli,hed at 78. 26, whe~ the two ! idel of the glob<: a. re renamed 'New South 1~1and' and 'Old
Ulster', while the equally important 0ppoMtion of Australia and Ihe United States i, developed in Earwicker's 'percb at 543. 03 where they figure a. the two exlremes bet""",n which common man, HCE, i. ,iwaled- half_way up the Scale of
Nature and sharing something of both end. : "0
? SpatW. l Cyclt. r: I-TIlt Girck
'willi . . ! log to . quare ItS' I oem my bol,lDdary 10 Botany 8. o. y
. nd I n. n up . score and IOu. of mes while the Yanb were huckling ! . he Empie<:'.
Botany Bay, the prUon "",demelll, is at the HUH of the earth; the United SIU"" i. tbe 'EmpytUll', The theme is taken up ye, again at 369. 17. wh= Canbt-mt. and New York are Ip<<ified . . . the po]. . . ,
Shun', orbit, on which lie Dublin, Eire, and Dublin, Ga. , though approximately 'horizontaJ' (that is, un-we. t) 0. 1 the Dublin meridian, is luffio<:IItly inclined 10 the -equator \0 take him inlo Ihe IOUth""'- mm"l'be. " a, hit farthest disance from Ireland 'around the back of the ,lobe', ILnd Joyu n::pramrs the oeconda'1' QUaiDg ofthe brothen' WlI)'lI as taking place uGh time in AUII,. . "li. . (~ Figure III ), Shem n:peuediy circles up and down throughout FimotglllU W. . u but rintt slow-lOOted Shaun i. the S" UII he manages only one vUie ptr revolution
of the book, with whO$< diurnal motion hi, cycle i. synchronil<<l,' TIL" daily linking and reappearance of the l un is of w urse rymbolic. olly identical . ,. ;! h the ~arly death and rt:Surrtttion of tile god. Sh. >. un ;, ,nade to viii! Shcm'. N~ South Welsll domain in Book IV, bctwttn the cydca oI' lhe liturgical year of f. 'Uutt,. . . . Willi, bootwttn the du tll or Ille god and his rebi" ". T he Christian hierarchy;' thus mainu,ined- Christ ma y appcar in all three worido, but SII"", ncvfl' vUitJ the United Su,t. . , ! Or, like the Devil, he can n,. , no higher than the Purgatorial earth. A. the effeminate, Christlike Kevin ('Kri&tJikc Kvinne', ~67. L3), Shaun vi,,;u the Kingdom or the Dead on page Go', harrows it, and h. . . a lU$! lc with tile Devil in the form or 10il argument with Shem during the Berkeley-Patrick dialogue. Kevin;' unainly 10 boo identified with the . . . indy Kevin hod O ' Dohen y who appears ebcwhcre in FiMt,. ,. . WIIlI. O'Dohen y
W3J
returned to Dublin, where be w aJ completely pardoned. The parallel with Christ'. crucifixion, descent into Hell, and R. . ur. rectioD i. obviow and J oyce h. . quietly put it 10 UK. In
~ with treaoon and bulished 10 Tasmania but iatu , cr. 1} 50' '. . ,offat do. . . . . ". ",1muM io r""" "h I>< . . . . . , . "",1a day',
ma>'cli on him. Keep I, up for. ,. . . ,,- ~cr '"
_ . day oId<< tcduQcoUy. '
? Spatial Cycles: I - T M Circle
T asmania O'Doherty met Mitchell (identified by Joyce with Shem) SO 'hat on page 601 Shaun', appearance at Botany Bay proon"""ttlement as O'Doherty already foreohadnws the m""t? ing or Mid:: and Nir. k (6TI). Throughout Fi=gallJ IVa" the ,ymboh of coffin and prison are identified with ea<:h other and with Hell. In 1. 4 it ;. never dear whether we are t<, co""ider Earwicker '" buried, impri. oned, or damned. Significantly, then, the imprisoned O'Doherty', fi. . . t name ;. eht:whcre modulated to 'coffin' (23I. t4)' For good me. . ,ure, another celebrated proon, Singsing, ;. thrown inlo the context (601. I8), wilh th~ ironic suggestion that ShaWl', ideal Heaven (thc United State,) may b. ,piritually a. ,uffocaling '" Hdl itsdf. As 'DcV', Shaun will later try to ",afuc his misguided ideal in Eire, only to make P1H:gatory even more helli'h. In SI#p/wl lfero Cranly and Stephen discu"" the latter'. ddi:etion from the ChuTeh:
'. . . <:Yen if I am wrong at le",t I ,hall not have t<> endure Father Bull', company f"r eternity'. (SH I41)
Mention of Set (60ull) thicken, the undcrworld-coffin atmooph<:rc, ,inc,," it wa, he whu, aided by ,eventy_two com- paninn" took 'hc measure orOsiri,' body by ,tealth and induc<:d him to lie Ilkc a Trappilt in a coffin tailored to fit,' which they immediately fa. '! lcned down and hurled into the Nile,' Shaun ;. dearly identified as Osiris ,everal tim. . in Finntgll1\S With, notahly on page 470, while the ~"frln floating down the
river is identical with Shann', barrel which drifu through Book IlI.
A poor ghO:l' in the cellarage, Shern keeps ,ending up 'de- gra"" from hi! 'obscene coalh"lc' (194. IS). J W{ '" the Letter from America i, d ""'ly 3. $sodated with Shaun the p()! It, . . . the Telegram from Awtralia is 'pcdfically a. . ociated with Shem
who, like the Devil, ;. inv~ntive and moTe up-to-the? minute than hi. conservative-minded counterpart. (That it ;. in any case Shem, playing the par' of tho Holy C hO$t, wh" write. the Leiter
, Of. the dOCussion of the T",ppQ" m ' lh? lJ<ad', 0 1511-
1Si,J'''''''1',. . . ,. -,11u('''Ii. . . . ~,ab<idgododn. ,London. J9~ p. 3113-
,"
? Spatial Cycles: I-Tlu Cireu
. . . wdl as the Telegram is a furth~r,,",arnpleofJoycc'. tortuollliy jocular irreverence and the . ubdcty of Shern', method? .
) Both Letter and Tdegram are addr=cd to the GOOhead, although the Lcttu is add! 'CS$(d in particular to GOO the Father ('Rever_ end', 'Majesty'), and Ihe Telegram to God the Son. Since bolh
comist of the polyglol verbiagt: of the Holy Ghost, the Deity U he,"" once again addr=ing himlClf, in a oomewhat rollDdabout
way, "" in Kabbalistic theology.
T h e Tel ~ rarn , w h i c b , i n c l u d i n g f r a g m e n t a r y , " " c a l t . . ,
appean about a doun times in various /Om. . " U always an appeal for alOi. tance of >Ome kind, . . ,Dt by Shem when absent on h;' fr<:quenl trips 'down under'. As SO often, the Devil tries 10 implicate Christ in hi< schemel. The Telegram first appears in ralh~r fragmentary form at 42. 09. That Shem is its author is he,"" indicated simply by the word 'cx-cx_exe<:utive', which foreshadows the epithet 'Ex"",,,,, COMMUNICA TED' applied to Shem at 172. 10 (half a pa~ prior to a further important occurrenCe of the motif). In this first eaac the request, like Joyce's iunumerable importuning! of the unfortunate Statili-
lau. , is simply for financial aid:
'I want money. Pleascnd'.
The description of the message . . . 'like a lady" {mucript' hints al the ultimate identity of the opposites, Telegram and Leller.
The above venion of the motif occura in the conl. eIt of that long chain of garbled stories which culminate in the ocurriloll! ballad about Earwickcr. On the occasioo of its sc<:ond appear_
ance, the 'felegrarn manages to iruinuate itself into the anala. g<)1l! programme of popular comments on Earwicker'. sub- . . ,quem reputation, conected by the roving rt:porlCr in 1. 3: '''Caligula'' (Mr. Danl Magrath, hookmaker, wellknown 10
Ea. strailian poor",e. . . of the Sydney Parade Ballotin) wa" a, Il! ua. l, antipodal with his: striving todic, hopc:ning lomenow, Ware Splash. Cobbler' (60. ~6)
Thi< time the place of origin i, mOr(: cLearly . tated : Sydney,
, s. . Append~ A, for g01Hnt ",,,,,,10. . ,,, (he"", of IriIml>lW in 1';""'1_ lVot. . . . Chapte< 5",,".
"3
? Spatial CJefts: I _ The Circl~
New South Wale<,' one of Shem', favourite =iden. ". . . Satan is nover at a k $ for an appropriate 4l;/1j and profe. . ion, and on thio ocC<Ui<>n as " mad and tyrannical lx>oltmaker he U$C, his traditional a,sociaticm with games of chan(e. The oignificance of the pseudonym 'Little Boots' may owe something to the . ymbolic gift of lx>ots mad<: by Mulligan (Shaun) to Strphen,' while Sh~m = m s to be identified here, as ehcwhcre, with that
unfortunate Devil whom SirJoho Shome conjured into a lx>ol. ' The name 'Cobbler' include. < the popular Au>lralian slang word 'robber', for the Devil alwaY' pr<:tend" of rout'IC, to be his victim'. Jl105t devoted friend. ' (Tt may be that th. . t other ,ham prophet and astrologer, Paruidgc (who waJ a cobbler) is ,kull<.
ing . "mewhen: in the background. ) The t~xt of the T elegram i$ indeed antipodal, . mc~ it rontra$" the attitude< of dcsperate . "ul. in the Auotralian Hell (. triving [0 die) with tlUJlC in the Irish PllTgatory (boping to mellow). Further, Shem U alway$ procrastinating ; his dforts, lilte Joy""', madcap schemes ? 0.
malting money,' are alw,,-Y' On the point of bearing fruit; he i, alway, hoping \() open hu shop tomorrow.
No further td~graphing g". . . on until a v~ry Cllplirit state- ment of the message hreal<s into 'Shem the l'enman':
'With the fo. . . ,ign devil', leave the fraid born fraud diddled even death. An~;, cabled (but shal<ing tbe worth out of hi! maultb: Guardarosta lepoTello ~ SZa! . ll Kraic. ! ) from his NearapohIican asylum to hisjonathan fur a brother: Hen: tokay, gon~ IOmory, w e ' . . . , . p l u c b e d , d o " )Jn~th ing, F i . . . , I . . . . . A n d h a d a n s w e r : inronvenient, David'. (t7~'W)
Then: is a hint that Sbem may nol . . . ,ally be the Devil hi! rule1f, but only hi, envoy- that ""en bi. Satanic nalUre may be partly a sham. T o a {me Kabbamt tbe genuine oo. etemal Satan is as ioeffabJ~ as the \lnmanife<1 godhead. " that any app""hen';bl~ Satan? figu,"" must be S<lmething Jess than . . . ,ality.
? Spatial Cycles: I - T h Circle
0" thiI third occasion the ""mb of'today' and 'tomorrow' have been rever=\, Today the", i. life, wine, and the key to the univene ('here tokay'); 'tomorrow we die'. Shem', <llilress
seem. to . tem from the fact that he h. . . committed hirmdf to a woman (,we're ,plicerl'), for a woman is held to Ix the only mateh for the Devil. He is playing the part of David whom, b<<. ausc of his voyeurism, pcrfidin"","IS, and ani. cry, Joyce alway> awxiate, with Satltn. Shern'. appeal 10 Stanislaw-Shaun In COme to him f=hadows Ih~ visit which is to take pia"" in Bool IV. For the momenl, Shem, down but not out, ",fuses, much to Shaun', annoyance, to accept the saffron? cak. . , symbol! of death: 'he ",fllSCd to . affrocake hj,,,,dfwith a sod'
(I7~'~0). ' The Telegram h. . . grown longer and more pathetic but Shaun'. ",action;" no more encouraging; in hi; usual self. righteousandIxlligcrentmoodh~d~ theapp"alwitha ,neer. At the biographical k",,[ Joya i. oong unfair to hi> brother who, both b<:fo,"" and after joining Joyce in Tri. . to, was extraon:\inarily foreb. . . . ring and I\"nrrow.
The Telegram turns up for the fuurth time in the I\"n- erally wireleSH aturat. ed context of the 'Norwegian Captain' cpi. ooe:
'Cabkn: Clifftop. ShelvHng tobay opp"long tomeadow. Ware cohhles. POIIh'. (3I5. 3~)
It ha, genemlly hc~n aOJ! umrd that the Norwegian Captain is Barwickr, but it often . . ems more likely that he is an incarna? tion of Earwi<:kr'~ anti. . ,eIf, the Manoervant (identified with the Cad) who, lile Shern, is alwaY' . . . """iatrd with the Kor_ wegian language. Ut. t: Shem, too, the Captain i. damnrd and condemned to tail his ship around the world until the Day of Judgment (329). In this ""rsion the Telegram preeN. . one of the Captain's momentary landings. Today be i. in Hell (lul"'/t, in Norwegian); tomorrow be hopeo to reach the Elysian MeadoW$ of annihilation and release. Thai the longed. for Heaven i. in the United States is funher . uggestrd by the allusion to 'Hoppalong CaWdy'.
TI'e complete text> ofboth Telegram and Letter appear only , E. A. lludge,n. . Bool;~tJ. . v-I,3rob. ,Loo>don,,go"p. '''9.
12;'
? Spatial Cytles: I- T k Circle
in th~ir final stat~m~nU. The 13. lt Tel~gram iI very amusing.
'I"lW iI included in a pawoge which deat. . in Wm~ detail with Shem'. Awtralian home (4fl8-9). Shaun, nnw 'peaking in his
natural voice through hi! metamorpho. cd other . . ,If, Yawn, iI curious to ha"" new> of his brother and 'cobber' who i.
