Joyce's
heretical
view that the Creation itself Was tbe tro.
Hart-Clive-1962-Structure-and-Motif-in-Finnegans-Wake
implicity of vocabulary and a comparatively direct approach
. '
? ,
80me Asptctl of Filllltgans Wakt
10 Ibe ,u~d-malter, wbile tbe denier thc: KmC Ibt mort difficull joyce cbooses 10 make it for ! tis rnckr 10 come to gripo with tht: prose rbythms.
\~'erj oyce had ~Ioped UI aspect ofh. . an u far u he could take ii, he . . ,. ,tm to ha~ felt compelled to tum On himself and parody his own acbievemenl. It is u if he could neve. ~llow h,,",,,lflo be committed to anything th at might be called 'his' . tyle. One already fCnfel a tendency to ,,,,If. parody in the imilative fonn of A P~tr~il, wbere joyee allows . tyie to refleet Stephen" literary a,tiu. . des and theorit:s in a very un? fta\lering light. Not only doajoy<< enjoy pillorying his pe. . . n. alily and I(,;b"" throughout the worb--Slq>hen, Richard, Shem- but W. own writing abo comes in for . . mucb ha"h treatment ,. . he dealt out to that of anybody e\&e. ThiI i. true no! only of the 'U$tained . _Iire of FillNpAS W. . . u, but alto of much of U/yUts, in whk h thc: prose it continually ,pilling over into self. parody, 00 that in Ihe mOlt stylistically . . ,If<<:>ns<:ioul p:a. aagea Ihe ! 'eader i. o n("Ver Quile lure on whkh side of Ihe >ntenhedjoyce i, sitting.
h . . ,. ,flUthat Fiotl'W W. . . t. o . . . ,. . originally intended 10 include a thorougb parodic ltworking of all the lIyliJtic attitude1 joyce bad Itnod in Itis earlier boob. The 'Large Notebook' io the Lockwood Memorial Library' is filled mainly
. . . ilh nolCl for Fiotg. . . . W. . . u, clasaified under the title1 of the varioUI chapters of all hiJ booq up to and including U/ynu. Among them are a nu mber of sentences of very broad and obvious parody such u Ihe following, in which the ItyliJlic virtues and vic<:s of 'Sirenl' are given the full U'eatmcnt: 'Co'4ledo, decidtd ",,,,u decidedly, her. teel incisive keen dugs rung trim as from him . he marched, wm in decision, prim, 6- precieely as. he marcb~ from him lOr whom decisively u alle decided, ,be an;h~ bendf from brow 10 h<<1s, hip! las incilivelyIUppleand. limin indecUion. ' (P. 62t)
, I om II'"1t<ful ' 0 Mioo An". R,. . U , of the ! . ockw<>Od Memorial Libr? . ,. , Buff. 1<>, S . Y. , who mad. i, _ib\o f<>r "'" to """,ull ? microfilm of tho ' L a r p : ' ; _ ' , n o w << I i t o d a n d p u b l i i h << l b y T . F. . C o o n o i l y . . smwz. ?
klott. . , ~. . . . . . . . . . " ,g6? .
. '
? S{Jl1leAsputsrifFinnegaru Wake
A P~'I,ai/ is parodied, rather more kindly, in the following P"""g<: whi~h, but for the disproportion betw~n an inherent bathos and the ovcr4Uention given to balan~ and consonance, might be good, straight, middle-pcriod J oy",:
'it expanded the bosom of George StanWaw Dempsq to e~pound to " n~rrow clusroom the ""pan. . : of the rivenul lakmch m<luntainmottled w<. ><>dwild cominent of North America by him lately but nOI 100 la~ discovered: (Po '9~)
This nOlebooi< il of urly date (ca. '924), and by Ihe time Joye<: had worked out the . tructu~ "f Fi"",! ,m. W4kt in more detail parody of Ihe early boo. . , S<<1tt1 largely to bave bee" rq>laced by narci. . istic . . If_parody within Finlttg41U Wab
it. df. A few phr. . . a. from til<: early wor"" survive, such as Ihe well known deflation at 53. 01 of a sentence from . A P",I,ai/ (AP 'go), but on the wholeJoya S << Im to bave come to the conchuion that it would be a much winier and more effective pro- cecling progrCMively to parody the Work in Progress. Finnegan. W4kt is thus a kind ofinfinite r. geesl ohelf_parody. The constant variation of the motifs ultimately giva. the imprtSSion Ihat . Ioya docs indeed refuse to accept anyone way ofsaying any_
thing. Continual restatement is a very convenient way Qf denying involvement without renouncing self_expre=ion, and in fact J oyce is Wiually careful to d""""ia tc hilllJClf from his more emotionally direct motif_statemrnu by mea", of savage parody elsewhere in the book. Thus the gemle 'hitherand? thithering waters or motif is thoroughly deflated when it i, put
to the I<>wly task of dcscrihing micturition (76. ~9, 46~. 04), while in the zoo-pal! 3. gc (~45. 2~) iu eloquence is mocked at with Ihe accent ofa Dublinjackcn. This is the kind ofbalane<:d, uncommil1ed, internally illuminaled seria. of sUlementll witb which, for aixt. . ,n years, Joye<: strove to fill Fu. "'I! 1JU W4kt. Grounded on a conflict of crealion and self_destruction thi. < = 1 involuted of all books ,eU up attitudes and denies them in a whirl of'hifting tones which was Joyce'. be" answer to hi, n. . ,d for an art? form that would be at one<: an intimate ptrsona!
tatament and a ! "C. '! ilient autonomous world of interacting forces.
? CHAPTER TWO CYCLIC FORM
1
' I magine a given poin t in spac. as the primoroiai one; then with romp. . . . . . . draw a cir. :! e around this point; where the
beginning and the end unile ~ther, emanation and reabtorplion meet. The circle i. . . . lfis composed ofill1lurnerabk . mallet circles, like th. rings 0{ a braulet . . . ' (IN U~Mltd, vol. I, p. 30j. 8)
'And to find II Iocu. for an alp gel a howlth on he. myrings as a primu: 0 and for II occond a unboll your companea . . . With Olaf as centrum and Olaf's b mbtail for his spokesman circums. cript:l. cyclone. ' (28i"114)
Joyc. was alway> an arranger rather than II creator, for, like II mediaeval artist, he Jecms IUpenriliously to ha~ feared the presumption of human attempts at creation. 11Ie mediaeval notion that the artist may organise but cannot under any cireumsunus creale JOmething really new is, 0 { course, capabl. of univenal applical;on but it is more than utually rdevant to
Joyce. Mr. Atberton has ,hown how basic to Fi~"'8"'" Wa. t, i.
Joyce's heretical view that the Creation itself Was tbe tro. original sin,' and, as I hi'''' suggatcd above, we are gnduaUy
becoming aware that every lituation, description, and tcrap of diaLogue in his . . -or"" was remembcttd, rather than imagina. tivtly 'a n ted'. Organising was certainly Joyce'. SlJ'Ong point. Ah. hough he would not venture into the nnknown, he was. supremely confident in the reshaping oftbe known; c. orreapon- denu,pat~,clootlycontrolledlimn-thatwetttheonly IDCUII by which Joyce knew how to give Jisnificance to the
, ,. . d":. . ",,, pp. JO-J.
? Cyd;c Form
divene UD(:On$ld~rM II'iJIQ which he . pent 10 much ofh;' lif~ . . . . pping up. And il i. J importanl to reali. . . thai the ~nd-prodllGt i. J always fwion ralher than fragm<nlatioo; Ulynn and FitofUl'l/. f Wd. are . tudi. . not in uniw:nal brcak? up but in uniw:nal
reconltitution.
Like KI many worn of late middle age, Fi""'l'''' W,A;, i,
given more dbow-rQOm in which to devdop than are the boo'" which pr<<eMd iI, bul while Ihis me. . . . th. t detail i. J ",ther IQI rigidly held in pha th. n ;\ is in UI;pus, 'paucrn' in the broadCSl _ ~ the "'\er book cw:n mor-c Ihan the earlier. 1. ilCraIly 00zc1Ll of formal patterru . re . upcrimpc>>ed
upon one anoo:her and d oocly interwoven in th~ t<:><lUre; Klme of 1heJc: arc immediately obviouJ, like the vast triptych which Iprawl! acrna the entire book and is centerM on 1. 1, n . S, and IV, wblle olheB, like the oil. crt/t;" around which 'Shem the Penman' is buill, "'quire d06C: ICruliny before Iheir . haf'C' begin to Itand 0\11 againsl the b. . . :kground. By far the moot imvorlant of aU the pallCl'nS in Fi_pM Wd. are tb06C: underlying the
m)'lticalIY'lcmsofcyclicgrowth,decay,and~th,which have always had web a Itrong hold on man'. imagination and
which JoY'='" m. . used to ktq) the material of b. iJ book in an a1moJ1. oo<ulani ,late of dynamic urgcncy-wl>ecls . pinning ever faster within wheels as the whale major cycle lurn. , abo'" no panicubr centre, from the fint page to the lan and back again to Ihe ~inning.
There is comiderable variation in the extent 10 which each individual chapter ofFu. . . . pM W. u is org. . ru-l aemming to an internal cyclic ocl>eme, and in general il is lrue lO . . y Ihal thotc ch. pl~ which were wrillen or revised lasl teod to. how th~ grcatal ronct:rn . . -jIb cyclic dcvdopmeot. Such ? late chapter may be ,ubdi";ded. agaill and again until compl~1C cycl. . . are 10 be found in ,borl oenteneco or """'0 in lingle . . "Of"tb.
I t ;'inter",ting 10 nOle how eveo the litle, with whichJoyCl: ,aid he . . . . . making 'experimenta',LreRecta the cyclic . tructurc ofIhe book: Ihr"" syllables in a group are followed. by a fourth, Ihe 'Wake', jwt as 1M thrtt long Boob forming the cycle proper
, t. . . ,. , po 2~.
? C)dic Form
(If Fin. . . . glUtS Wakt aU followed by the coda of Book IV , the Book of Waking. Similarly, th~ title may be rud 'Fin "'gaIU HI"*", th. . . . ",. . . ,,,ling p<:J$Sibilitks nf cydic endl. . . n. . . . Joyce defiantly explains his melltod at 115. 06: 'why, pray, 'ign any- thing 11$ long as e. . . ,ry word, letter, ptnstmh:, pape. . . pa"" ;. a perfectsignarureofil>own? ';inhisoource. . . tudyMr, Atherton ha. some inR,. . ,. ting things to . . . . y about lhe5e ,ignatu,. . ,. ,' Although J oyce decided quite early that Finlltgan, W ah wa, to be cyclic a. a whole--the 1,. . . 1 ",nten"" running into the fi. . . t - it w1l$ not until SOme ~ars aftcr he had begun writing iI, and aft"r much ofit had been c~tal1ised into sonu:lhing approach_ ing the publishod form, thaI the book's pracnl ~tructurc w". decided On. In '926 J oy"" W1l$ . till . peculating about what
would go into it' ,
'I will do a few mGrc pi"". . , perhap< -1 picture-h;'toryfrom the
family album and parI> of0 di. cus:oing . . A PairifulCas. and the m-L:l, I>oUKhold etc. '
and 11$ late as '9~7 Book I was to coru;'t nf six rather than the pre,ent eight chapten. ? This initial un~",rtainty in rc:! pect of
the ov<;TIi. H dttign undoubtedly ac<;ounU fnt the more detailed organisa. tion of the material in the ial<:r ~hapte", the moat speclacular example ofwhich i. 'Shaun a', (TTL I)'
It;. by nOW thoroughly well known that in Fi_gaM Wakt Joyce made use of the cydic theori. . of liliOOry ,et out in Giambatti. ta Vico', fA &im;:<l NIIDM. ' Joyce made frequent mention of Vico both in letters and in conve=tion, and had
Samuel Beckett write an article for Our Exa",,;""Mn largely about the relevance of Viconian Iheory to the '! ruttu", and philosophy of 'Work in Progr. . . '. ? Since the publication of 6ed:ett'. article almoat every commrntator on F<-glUtS Wah hal, 11$" matter of COU"", rn. clWed the Viconian theories and
, AIM""",pp. 3~, ~, <1<-
? u,. . . . ,p. ? ~o.
? A C<Kl><CIluvedraft ofc1upt. ,. . . >, 3, . . . . ~. 7, ODd B is in ? _<booI: in 1M
British M. . .
. '
? ,
80me Asptctl of Filllltgans Wakt
10 Ibe ,u~d-malter, wbile tbe denier thc: KmC Ibt mort difficull joyce cbooses 10 make it for ! tis rnckr 10 come to gripo with tht: prose rbythms.
\~'erj oyce had ~Ioped UI aspect ofh. . an u far u he could take ii, he . . ,. ,tm to ha~ felt compelled to tum On himself and parody his own acbievemenl. It is u if he could neve. ~llow h,,",,,lflo be committed to anything th at might be called 'his' . tyle. One already fCnfel a tendency to ,,,,If. parody in the imilative fonn of A P~tr~il, wbere joyee allows . tyie to refleet Stephen" literary a,tiu. . des and theorit:s in a very un? fta\lering light. Not only doajoy<< enjoy pillorying his pe. . . n. alily and I(,;b"" throughout the worb--Slq>hen, Richard, Shem- but W. own writing abo comes in for . . mucb ha"h treatment ,. . he dealt out to that of anybody e\&e. ThiI i. true no! only of the 'U$tained . _Iire of FillNpAS W. . . u, but alto of much of U/yUts, in whk h thc: prose it continually ,pilling over into self. parody, 00 that in Ihe mOlt stylistically . . ,If<<:>ns<:ioul p:a. aagea Ihe ! 'eader i. o n("Ver Quile lure on whkh side of Ihe >ntenhedjoyce i, sitting.
h . . ,. ,flUthat Fiotl'W W. . . t. o . . . ,. . originally intended 10 include a thorougb parodic ltworking of all the lIyliJtic attitude1 joyce bad Itnod in Itis earlier boob. The 'Large Notebook' io the Lockwood Memorial Library' is filled mainly
. . . ilh nolCl for Fiotg. . . . W. . . u, clasaified under the title1 of the varioUI chapters of all hiJ booq up to and including U/ynu. Among them are a nu mber of sentences of very broad and obvious parody such u Ihe following, in which the ItyliJlic virtues and vic<:s of 'Sirenl' are given the full U'eatmcnt: 'Co'4ledo, decidtd ",,,,u decidedly, her. teel incisive keen dugs rung trim as from him . he marched, wm in decision, prim, 6- precieely as. he marcb~ from him lOr whom decisively u alle decided, ,be an;h~ bendf from brow 10 h<<1s, hip! las incilivelyIUppleand. limin indecUion. ' (P. 62t)
, I om II'"1t<ful ' 0 Mioo An". R,. . U , of the ! . ockw<>Od Memorial Libr? . ,. , Buff. 1<>, S . Y. , who mad. i, _ib\o f<>r "'" to """,ull ? microfilm of tho ' L a r p : ' ; _ ' , n o w << I i t o d a n d p u b l i i h << l b y T . F. . C o o n o i l y . . smwz. ?
klott. . , ~. . . . . . . . . . " ,g6? .
. '
? S{Jl1leAsputsrifFinnegaru Wake
A P~'I,ai/ is parodied, rather more kindly, in the following P"""g<: whi~h, but for the disproportion betw~n an inherent bathos and the ovcr4Uention given to balan~ and consonance, might be good, straight, middle-pcriod J oy",:
'it expanded the bosom of George StanWaw Dempsq to e~pound to " n~rrow clusroom the ""pan. . : of the rivenul lakmch m<luntainmottled w<. ><>dwild cominent of North America by him lately but nOI 100 la~ discovered: (Po '9~)
This nOlebooi< il of urly date (ca. '924), and by Ihe time Joye<: had worked out the . tructu~ "f Fi"",! ,m. W4kt in more detail parody of Ihe early boo. . , S<<1tt1 largely to bave bee" rq>laced by narci. . istic . . If_parody within Finlttg41U Wab
it. df. A few phr. . . a. from til<: early wor"" survive, such as Ihe well known deflation at 53. 01 of a sentence from . A P",I,ai/ (AP 'go), but on the wholeJoya S << Im to bave come to the conchuion that it would be a much winier and more effective pro- cecling progrCMively to parody the Work in Progress. Finnegan. W4kt is thus a kind ofinfinite r. geesl ohelf_parody. The constant variation of the motifs ultimately giva. the imprtSSion Ihat . Ioya docs indeed refuse to accept anyone way ofsaying any_
thing. Continual restatement is a very convenient way Qf denying involvement without renouncing self_expre=ion, and in fact J oyce is Wiually careful to d""""ia tc hilllJClf from his more emotionally direct motif_statemrnu by mea", of savage parody elsewhere in the book. Thus the gemle 'hitherand? thithering waters or motif is thoroughly deflated when it i, put
to the I<>wly task of dcscrihing micturition (76. ~9, 46~. 04), while in the zoo-pal! 3. gc (~45. 2~) iu eloquence is mocked at with Ihe accent ofa Dublinjackcn. This is the kind ofbalane<:d, uncommil1ed, internally illuminaled seria. of sUlementll witb which, for aixt. . ,n years, Joye<: strove to fill Fu. "'I! 1JU W4kt. Grounded on a conflict of crealion and self_destruction thi. < = 1 involuted of all books ,eU up attitudes and denies them in a whirl of'hifting tones which was Joyce'. be" answer to hi, n. . ,d for an art? form that would be at one<: an intimate ptrsona!
tatament and a ! "C. '! ilient autonomous world of interacting forces.
? CHAPTER TWO CYCLIC FORM
1
' I magine a given poin t in spac. as the primoroiai one; then with romp. . . . . . . draw a cir. :! e around this point; where the
beginning and the end unile ~ther, emanation and reabtorplion meet. The circle i. . . . lfis composed ofill1lurnerabk . mallet circles, like th. rings 0{ a braulet . . . ' (IN U~Mltd, vol. I, p. 30j. 8)
'And to find II Iocu. for an alp gel a howlth on he. myrings as a primu: 0 and for II occond a unboll your companea . . . With Olaf as centrum and Olaf's b mbtail for his spokesman circums. cript:l. cyclone. ' (28i"114)
Joyc. was alway> an arranger rather than II creator, for, like II mediaeval artist, he Jecms IUpenriliously to ha~ feared the presumption of human attempts at creation. 11Ie mediaeval notion that the artist may organise but cannot under any cireumsunus creale JOmething really new is, 0 { course, capabl. of univenal applical;on but it is more than utually rdevant to
Joyce. Mr. Atberton has ,hown how basic to Fi~"'8"'" Wa. t, i.
Joyce's heretical view that the Creation itself Was tbe tro. original sin,' and, as I hi'''' suggatcd above, we are gnduaUy
becoming aware that every lituation, description, and tcrap of diaLogue in his . . -or"" was remembcttd, rather than imagina. tivtly 'a n ted'. Organising was certainly Joyce'. SlJ'Ong point. Ah. hough he would not venture into the nnknown, he was. supremely confident in the reshaping oftbe known; c. orreapon- denu,pat~,clootlycontrolledlimn-thatwetttheonly IDCUII by which Joyce knew how to give Jisnificance to the
, ,. . d":. . ",,, pp. JO-J.
? Cyd;c Form
divene UD(:On$ld~rM II'iJIQ which he . pent 10 much ofh;' lif~ . . . . pping up. And il i. J importanl to reali. . . thai the ~nd-prodllGt i. J always fwion ralher than fragm<nlatioo; Ulynn and FitofUl'l/. f Wd. are . tudi. . not in uniw:nal brcak? up but in uniw:nal
reconltitution.
Like KI many worn of late middle age, Fi""'l'''' W,A;, i,
given more dbow-rQOm in which to devdop than are the boo'" which pr<<eMd iI, bul while Ihis me. . . . th. t detail i. J ",ther IQI rigidly held in pha th. n ;\ is in UI;pus, 'paucrn' in the broadCSl _ ~ the "'\er book cw:n mor-c Ihan the earlier. 1. ilCraIly 00zc1Ll of formal patterru . re . upcrimpc>>ed
upon one anoo:her and d oocly interwoven in th~ t<:><lUre; Klme of 1heJc: arc immediately obviouJ, like the vast triptych which Iprawl! acrna the entire book and is centerM on 1. 1, n . S, and IV, wblle olheB, like the oil. crt/t;" around which 'Shem the Penman' is buill, "'quire d06C: ICruliny before Iheir . haf'C' begin to Itand 0\11 againsl the b. . . :kground. By far the moot imvorlant of aU the pallCl'nS in Fi_pM Wd. are tb06C: underlying the
m)'lticalIY'lcmsofcyclicgrowth,decay,and~th,which have always had web a Itrong hold on man'. imagination and
which JoY'='" m. . used to ktq) the material of b. iJ book in an a1moJ1. oo<ulani ,late of dynamic urgcncy-wl>ecls . pinning ever faster within wheels as the whale major cycle lurn. , abo'" no panicubr centre, from the fint page to the lan and back again to Ihe ~inning.
There is comiderable variation in the extent 10 which each individual chapter ofFu. . . . pM W. u is org. . ru-l aemming to an internal cyclic ocl>eme, and in general il is lrue lO . . y Ihal thotc ch. pl~ which were wrillen or revised lasl teod to. how th~ grcatal ronct:rn . . -jIb cyclic dcvdopmeot. Such ? late chapter may be ,ubdi";ded. agaill and again until compl~1C cycl. . . are 10 be found in ,borl oenteneco or """'0 in lingle . . "Of"tb.
I t ;'inter",ting 10 nOle how eveo the litle, with whichJoyCl: ,aid he . . . . . making 'experimenta',LreRecta the cyclic . tructurc ofIhe book: Ihr"" syllables in a group are followed. by a fourth, Ihe 'Wake', jwt as 1M thrtt long Boob forming the cycle proper
, t. . . ,. , po 2~.
? C)dic Form
(If Fin. . . . glUtS Wakt aU followed by the coda of Book IV , the Book of Waking. Similarly, th~ title may be rud 'Fin "'gaIU HI"*", th. . . . ",. . . ,,,ling p<:J$Sibilitks nf cydic endl. . . n. . . . Joyce defiantly explains his melltod at 115. 06: 'why, pray, 'ign any- thing 11$ long as e. . . ,ry word, letter, ptnstmh:, pape. . . pa"" ;. a perfectsignarureofil>own? ';inhisoource. . . tudyMr, Atherton ha. some inR,. . ,. ting things to . . . . y about lhe5e ,ignatu,. . ,. ,' Although J oyce decided quite early that Finlltgan, W ah wa, to be cyclic a. a whole--the 1,. . . 1 ",nten"" running into the fi. . . t - it w1l$ not until SOme ~ars aftcr he had begun writing iI, and aft"r much ofit had been c~tal1ised into sonu:lhing approach_ ing the publishod form, thaI the book's pracnl ~tructurc w". decided On. In '926 J oy"" W1l$ . till . peculating about what
would go into it' ,
'I will do a few mGrc pi"". . , perhap< -1 picture-h;'toryfrom the
family album and parI> of0 di. cus:oing . . A PairifulCas. and the m-L:l, I>oUKhold etc. '
and 11$ late as '9~7 Book I was to coru;'t nf six rather than the pre,ent eight chapten. ? This initial un~",rtainty in rc:! pect of
the ov<;TIi. H dttign undoubtedly ac<;ounU fnt the more detailed organisa. tion of the material in the ial<:r ~hapte", the moat speclacular example ofwhich i. 'Shaun a', (TTL I)'
It;. by nOW thoroughly well known that in Fi_gaM Wakt Joyce made use of the cydic theori. . of liliOOry ,et out in Giambatti. ta Vico', fA &im;:<l NIIDM. ' Joyce made frequent mention of Vico both in letters and in conve=tion, and had
Samuel Beckett write an article for Our Exa",,;""Mn largely about the relevance of Viconian Iheory to the '! ruttu", and philosophy of 'Work in Progr. . . '. ? Since the publication of 6ed:ett'. article almoat every commrntator on F<-glUtS Wah hal, 11$" matter of COU"", rn. clWed the Viconian theories and
, AIM""",pp. 3~, ~, <1<-
? u,. . . . ,p. ? ~o.
? A C<Kl><CIluvedraft ofc1upt. ,. . . >, 3, . . . . ~. 7, ODd B is in ? _<booI: in 1M
British M. . .
