IU rdcvance to the
cosmic riddle ofFj,,"'g= Wdt is immediately obvious': &> jflJSh ,,,"essW.
cosmic riddle ofFj,,"'g= Wdt is immediately obvious': &> jflJSh ,,,"essW.
Hart-Clive-1962-Structure-and-Motif-in-Finnegans-Wake
apparently one: coherent ida underlying both, but only partially exp" ?
ed in
each. '
TItere is. , I think, a ,ugg(ltion of the phr;illC' 'we do not get , . ,
What we gel;' ? . . ' etc. , in the dcscziptioJ1 of the 'distorted negative' (that ii, Finlllllll\S Wod. iuel? ) at I ' J . 26:
'Well, alEn05t any photo;'1 . . . ? orch his clzcmicoll will tip an)'OflC alking him tho Itaser that if a n. gatiV<' of a hone happens to
, '()" ~ i\u""""ti< Wrilin! ! <II Mn. Ho'b""', }',. . . . . . . . " V . ~ J. , I't,? <hi<oI_, . 01. XXII, 'goI\, p. ! 7~.
. "
? Curresptmdmces
melt . nough while drying, wcll, what you do gt"t is, weU, a poa;li~ly grotesqutly distorlm nw:rom,. ,. of all"","", of bone- bappy v:01uc:s and maTT,! of mdtwhile hone. '
The acwum in lhe Society'. reporl rontinueslat. r':
'[in the . piri1-Jneosaga] ? . . repeated injunctiont aro 10 b. fOllnd for IDe application of pl'O<< es docribed as /Jam-",. [10 uruhcalhc]. IWXIt. lID wcave Or bind together], IM/H'/'Glltfl [10 IUperJ>OiC'], to the woro. of the ocr;pl; in p;. rticular, il is w o- ltantly urg. . . ! lhal if some words were taken, . . . . . and :oome po:oous of rnpcrposition we", lItell applied, "'Jilrf>>MU, IICno. . W1>uld he secll wru,re now there ;. apparent DOnsc=. BUI no definite din:ctlo. . . . have ~ been gi. -. :n . . to thia procw of superposition . . . ' (Of. ~99. 08: '" . upetl>botitioul Quoint a quinoid. ned')
A n. . moo of. och injunctions to '. upuP'*" an:. qUQUd': 'Whn you h,. . . . . , done is alwaY' dioaociatM. i imp"""" it by <koying foltU j wcave tog('lher, wcave ! ogClher alway. :
'T o one IUperpoting ",,! "Cain things on . <:rUin things, cvtrything . . cl. . . . r. '
'Why do you not supc. ". ,. . , . . II in a bundle and perceive the trmb? '
'TwoI"old is the toil, but wbol~ ? . . [ef. 288-"31 In m)'lter1a I we,. ve riddJ~ for you and cenain othe. . for whom it i.
right. '
One 01" tbac statementl mUSl. have: had," . poc:iaJ appeal ror
J oyo:e':
'Nodding he lup<:rpoocd wilh gn:at labour and not without th~ belp oI" the artilicer. '
~ot only doco F;IUIt~1UU W. dt contain," number of . . :ampla of the 'verbatim reproduction of phra. es', but both it and UlJwu mau usc oI"tcchniqlla whi. c:b K<:m toow. m. . ch 10 the genuine W =pon<kncc idea o. . dine<! . by AliceJohn",n. ~fOli&
are often comprehenliblc only wh~n all their OCCum:nCU an: related togc:th. :r, a pan from on~ ",,";011 combinillg wilh . . part
,'On"'"Auwmati<: Writ;'. . . 0( M. . . HoI! &nd',"'-diII4'~1MSo<i<j)< j",l'odU<J &~, vol. " "II, t~, p. 3)'8.
? 0,. <>t. , pp. ! 'I'}-&.
. "
? Corrtspomknces
front another to build up the sen. . . AoJoya puu it: 'let ~ry ~uplc ~ 10 crosscomplintcntary: (613-'0)
Ao u,ua! ;n Fi""",(4m W"*,, Jora gives a glancing a<;know? lcdgment of hi; so"r<:~. In 1l1. 3-the chapter most directly conceTTl~d witb th~ tecltnique. and theories of spiritualisnt' _ there is a paragraph containing. apart from an obvious allU. $ion to Ew. apia Paladino, what Ottm {o be a! hcioru to Alie<:Johnson and the 'twin Olr<:arru' of croM. correspondences:
'Aliciou. . twimtr<:atru cwinestraines . . . Double her . . . Take your fint thoughu away from her . ? . Is ,be having an ambi. dual a<;t he"",lf? ' (5,0. [7)
The whole of 11l. 3 is written in a style very closely approxi? mating the utraordinarily long and detailed reporu in the
"'{)(e(~j '! ! tlu S""iett Jor Pv<hical RlJMfrh of experiments in cr~rr""ponden=. The ",lution to Shem's fint riddle "fthe unive= becomes clear only when all of it< parts-that i. . all of Fi_~= Wa,b-have bttn aIOCmbled and examined together. The whole book is a rna" ofCl'OM-colTCSJIOnding material which
the r<:ader must syntherue in order to undu$\and: like the '~ges', no one part of it is romprehemible witl",,,t the rest. One of (he most r<:marnble of all the many ""'rip! ! ! quoted by Alie<:Johnwn is an automatic poem written in '901 by ~n. Verrall, one of the best known '. . nsitives'.
IU rdcvance to the
cosmic riddle ofFj,,"'g= Wdt is immediately obvious': &> jflJSh ,,,"essW. . ,;. wItS j" a gl. . . "
t/u; whilt w t tlroaming Jedr<< b. ho/t! tIum fMJs. raIIlIINwkiU011 lludWakmtdso",
<a<hftiUin& imago helps imprint tk whole
arul 'PJ/MrJmd. ~ wMt . . . . . . first imprustd filli so llu ItUliint, ~r, fInd 1M ,ul,
and wIril. U'I 0111)' wakh llu """In's Iwnd,
"" glimpJt """''''! if'''""ojllu building piamsd,
sto. . uponsto"" I1rtb<iirkmmtsarise, till t/u; fair Jabric j/<Islus i~ I1rt skUl.
, J. S. Ath""on, 'Spicitual;. m in FMI"'" Wa. ', Xok, oM Q~, ""'_
'99. '95-f, p_ '-n HoitaDd,,~, of . . . . ~
, 'On th< AU"""'"tic Wri';"g 0I'~, I"p~~,vol,XXII,'9"6,p_378,
'57
? Correspondences
It may Ix noted that, like tho opirit. . . :ommunicatiom, Shem's riddle i1 not asked, but 'dictited' (170. <>3). If not an aesthetic justification of. Joyce'. methods, this simulation oftho habits of
the >pirit> does at least ""plain and provi<:I. IIOme kind of rational thoory for the u. . . of manmade chao. involving the reduction of. imple statements to a large numlxr of{antawing unit> which insinuate their oollc. :tive significance ! ubtly, word by word, ,yllable by. yLlablc.
jOfC<' find. . in Milo johnson'. di. cussi(ln yet another aource for hi" Letter from 'Boston, Mass. ' She menti"", that Frederick Myc. . . longed to estahlish mediumistic oontar-t Ixtween Boston and the British lsles. ' If j oyce'. Leiter i1 a pic. :e of . ro. . . coc=ponding . pirit. writing- a 'trancc<! onc boyscript' (S74. 0S)
-we can see why il is called a 'transcript' and why it appcan to have]xen written in two placa at once: by the two girl. in Boston and hy Anna and Shem in Dublin. In Ihe reports of CTOM-oorrc'pondcn"" experimenlJ the woTd 'well' i, ,ingularly prominent and is thw very probably a SOUTce fOT the constantly repeated 'well' motif of Ihe Letter (" I, etc. ).
Among other major oonl(:xlJ in which the CTO! lS-correspon_ dence idea operate! ;" the l(:levision ,how, whoae central po. it>On (337-55) and fertile symbolic ,,. ml(:nl dearly proclaim it one of the moot important miniature r<:plica, of Fi"'''lmu
W4k. a, a whole It "",,ms thatjOf"" never Saw any televi,ion at all'-an ama. ing fact in view of the e:xtraordinarily "",li"tic evocation of the medium that he achieves in FitWIlallJ W akt- but, "" I have alrcady suggested, Joyce alwaY' took a &Teat intere,t in o. ny Dew scientific (lr technological advance and he had both read and heard about the early teleCll. lu with OOn- siderable enthu,iam. To Budgen he expressed the hope that readers of Filln#gans Wak. would Ix Ixtter ahI. to appreciate the book if its m;lterial were presented pardy in terms of the new modium in which the world was growing ao inteTested. No{ only does j oyce parody the medium of oommunication,
, 'On the A\<t<>n\2. ti(: W rit;", of). lrs. Hollaro;l',~, if IN s. . a. t)' ft, P','I<I;i<oI &_do, vol. XXI! , 19. 08. 1>. 370.
, Infonnotion . "";v<<! nom Frank 8udgcn. ,s3
? Correspondences
but he makrs a diTt<:t and illuminating analogy between tht: elt<:tronic techniques of televilion and hi. < own c",ative PT(>C<:SS? This analogy ;" p,. . . . ,nted in a . pkndidly graphic description toward the end of the Butt and T aff entertainment. Like the anastomom of 585. 2" thi. < p. :wage alto describe. . . an act of copulation and the mb>equcnt fU$inn of the two . ""d. into a single embryo:
'In the heliotropical noughttime following a fade of tT"":lnSformed Tuff and, pending its viseversion, a rnetcnocgic reglow of beaming Batt, the baiT<lboard bombardment lCl""n, if taotefully taut guranium satin, tend. to tdeCrarne and . tep up to the cbarge ofa light harriC<lde. Down the photo:dope in . yncopanc pulse<, with the bitt. hugtwug their tdlS, the missledhropcs, glilleraglatteraglutt, borne by their carnier waive. Spraygun rakes and . plits them from a douhle focm: g",nadite, damny_ mite, alextronite, nichilite: and the scanning fi""pot of the . gunners traverses the rutilanced illu. tred . un'uundered lines. Shlouh! A gaspel truce leab out over the cae,cine coatings. Amid a nuorescence of ,pectracular mephitici. <m the", caocu_ lates through the inconoscope 'tealdily a "ill, the figu", of a fellowchap in the wohly ghast, Poper O'Donoshough, the
j. . uneral of the nwuatC9. ' (349. 00)
The 'mtts' which hunlc down the tube and- 'Shloom! '--fall
into place as a stable picture, a", blur",d and unintelligible in themsel~-'a double focu,'-but when combined on the
delicate scrttn the gh""tly and ghosdy truth becomes dear. ' The pictu. . . . of Butt and Taff a", made to con""rge lih a paiT of fla t phol<lgrapm in a . terCO! COpe to produce a fully rounded and oomprehelUible figure. (In thi, episode Joyce;" evidently prWicting 3-D tdevision along with the atom bomh (353. 22) and the destruction ofthe world. ) T he 'bitts' a", of OOUl"$e Shern and Shaun who a", able to 'adumb. . . ~cc a pattern of . . ,mebody cIs. : or other' ("o,'5) only when they work together for the common good, hut the passage u . . . ",levant to the Uyle of
, Cf. '. . . ""';1<:only,;nt<<p''''not_ ,<<<<,llhd,"'"andwhen fittalthq will ~ the . . hol<', ? 'pi,;t-m<:SOall<qUOled ;n 'On the Au,,,,,,,,,;< Writi"i:
ofMr>. lIotb. nd? . _~ '9"11, p. jl~.
,
ojINs. au,f'"p~&""w"vol. XXII, '59
? C(WTtspont! mctJ
Fitl1lt! gmlJ Wah- . . . . to its ~harac'ers. J oyce'. language units m. . y make little seruc in isolation, Or even b. m;'leading, but when all the other bits are taken into comideracion and projct:tcd on to the r=llving OCn:"n of the interpreting mind, their true lignificance ;. revealed. Lik a national language, thaI of Fj""'ga1U W? " a recogniJable and co. . . istent who! e, varied by its own dialects, dang, and . pecial usagcs-w. . meant to b.
. . ,If_explanatory on its own ground.
The tdev;';on-tel ;. a . \Qrt of Jailer-day Platonic Cave. Mr.
J. S. Atherton has shown how Joyce conceived of FimltgallJ Wak, as a CO:'lmic pantomime,' bul the shadow-show- whether as cinema entertainment, Browne's univc.
each. '
TItere is. , I think, a ,ugg(ltion of the phr;illC' 'we do not get , . ,
What we gel;' ? . . ' etc. , in the dcscziptioJ1 of the 'distorted negative' (that ii, Finlllllll\S Wod. iuel? ) at I ' J . 26:
'Well, alEn05t any photo;'1 . . . ? orch his clzcmicoll will tip an)'OflC alking him tho Itaser that if a n. gatiV<' of a hone happens to
, '()" ~ i\u""""ti< Wrilin! ! <II Mn. Ho'b""', }',. . . . . . . . " V . ~ J. , I't,? <hi<oI_, . 01. XXII, 'goI\, p. ! 7~.
. "
? Curresptmdmces
melt . nough while drying, wcll, what you do gt"t is, weU, a poa;li~ly grotesqutly distorlm nw:rom,. ,. of all"","", of bone- bappy v:01uc:s and maTT,! of mdtwhile hone. '
The acwum in lhe Society'. reporl rontinueslat. r':
'[in the . piri1-Jneosaga] ? . . repeated injunctiont aro 10 b. fOllnd for IDe application of pl'O<< es docribed as /Jam-",. [10 uruhcalhc]. IWXIt. lID wcave Or bind together], IM/H'/'Glltfl [10 IUperJ>OiC'], to the woro. of the ocr;pl; in p;. rticular, il is w o- ltantly urg. . . ! lhal if some words were taken, . . . . . and :oome po:oous of rnpcrposition we", lItell applied, "'Jilrf>>MU, IICno. . W1>uld he secll wru,re now there ;. apparent DOnsc=. BUI no definite din:ctlo. . . . have ~ been gi. -. :n . . to thia procw of superposition . . . ' (Of. ~99. 08: '" . upetl>botitioul Quoint a quinoid. ned')
A n. . moo of. och injunctions to '. upuP'*" an:. qUQUd': 'Whn you h,. . . . . , done is alwaY' dioaociatM. i imp"""" it by <koying foltU j wcave tog('lher, wcave ! ogClher alway. :
'T o one IUperpoting ",,! "Cain things on . <:rUin things, cvtrything . . cl. . . . r. '
'Why do you not supc. ". ,. . , . . II in a bundle and perceive the trmb? '
'TwoI"old is the toil, but wbol~ ? . . [ef. 288-"31 In m)'lter1a I we,. ve riddJ~ for you and cenain othe. . for whom it i.
right. '
One 01" tbac statementl mUSl. have: had," . poc:iaJ appeal ror
J oyo:e':
'Nodding he lup<:rpoocd wilh gn:at labour and not without th~ belp oI" the artilicer. '
~ot only doco F;IUIt~1UU W. dt contain," number of . . :ampla of the 'verbatim reproduction of phra. es', but both it and UlJwu mau usc oI"tcchniqlla whi. c:b K<:m toow. m. . ch 10 the genuine W =pon<kncc idea o. . dine<! . by AliceJohn",n. ~fOli&
are often comprehenliblc only wh~n all their OCCum:nCU an: related togc:th. :r, a pan from on~ ",,";011 combinillg wilh . . part
,'On"'"Auwmati<: Writ;'. . . 0( M. . . HoI! &nd',"'-diII4'~1MSo<i<j)< j",l'odU<J &~, vol. " "II, t~, p. 3)'8.
? 0,. <>t. , pp. ! 'I'}-&.
. "
? Corrtspomknces
front another to build up the sen. . . AoJoya puu it: 'let ~ry ~uplc ~ 10 crosscomplintcntary: (613-'0)
Ao u,ua! ;n Fi""",(4m W"*,, Jora gives a glancing a<;know? lcdgment of hi; so"r<:~. In 1l1. 3-the chapter most directly conceTTl~d witb th~ tecltnique. and theories of spiritualisnt' _ there is a paragraph containing. apart from an obvious allU. $ion to Ew. apia Paladino, what Ottm {o be a! hcioru to Alie<:Johnson and the 'twin Olr<:arru' of croM. correspondences:
'Aliciou. . twimtr<:atru cwinestraines . . . Double her . . . Take your fint thoughu away from her . ? . Is ,be having an ambi. dual a<;t he"",lf? ' (5,0. [7)
The whole of 11l. 3 is written in a style very closely approxi? mating the utraordinarily long and detailed reporu in the
"'{)(e(~j '! ! tlu S""iett Jor Pv<hical RlJMfrh of experiments in cr~rr""ponden=. The ",lution to Shem's fint riddle "fthe unive= becomes clear only when all of it< parts-that i. . all of Fi_~= Wa,b-have bttn aIOCmbled and examined together. The whole book is a rna" ofCl'OM-colTCSJIOnding material which
the r<:ader must syntherue in order to undu$\and: like the '~ges', no one part of it is romprehemible witl",,,t the rest. One of (he most r<:marnble of all the many ""'rip! ! ! quoted by Alie<:Johnwn is an automatic poem written in '901 by ~n. Verrall, one of the best known '. . nsitives'.
IU rdcvance to the
cosmic riddle ofFj,,"'g= Wdt is immediately obvious': &> jflJSh ,,,"essW. . ,;. wItS j" a gl. . . "
t/u; whilt w t tlroaming Jedr<< b. ho/t! tIum fMJs. raIIlIINwkiU011 lludWakmtdso",
<a<hftiUin& imago helps imprint tk whole
arul 'PJ/MrJmd. ~ wMt . . . . . . first imprustd filli so llu ItUliint, ~r, fInd 1M ,ul,
and wIril. U'I 0111)' wakh llu """In's Iwnd,
"" glimpJt """''''! if'''""ojllu building piamsd,
sto. . uponsto"" I1rtb<iirkmmtsarise, till t/u; fair Jabric j/<Islus i~ I1rt skUl.
, J. S. Ath""on, 'Spicitual;. m in FMI"'" Wa. ', Xok, oM Q~, ""'_
'99. '95-f, p_ '-n HoitaDd,,~, of . . . . ~
, 'On th< AU"""'"tic Wri';"g 0I'~, I"p~~,vol,XXII,'9"6,p_378,
'57
? Correspondences
It may Ix noted that, like tho opirit. . . :ommunicatiom, Shem's riddle i1 not asked, but 'dictited' (170. <>3). If not an aesthetic justification of. Joyce'. methods, this simulation oftho habits of
the >pirit> does at least ""plain and provi<:I. IIOme kind of rational thoory for the u. . . of manmade chao. involving the reduction of. imple statements to a large numlxr of{antawing unit> which insinuate their oollc. :tive significance ! ubtly, word by word, ,yllable by. yLlablc.
jOfC<' find. . in Milo johnson'. di. cussi(ln yet another aource for hi" Letter from 'Boston, Mass. ' She menti"", that Frederick Myc. . . longed to estahlish mediumistic oontar-t Ixtween Boston and the British lsles. ' If j oyce'. Leiter i1 a pic. :e of . ro. . . coc=ponding . pirit. writing- a 'trancc<! onc boyscript' (S74. 0S)
-we can see why il is called a 'transcript' and why it appcan to have]xen written in two placa at once: by the two girl. in Boston and hy Anna and Shem in Dublin. In Ihe reports of CTOM-oorrc'pondcn"" experimenlJ the woTd 'well' i, ,ingularly prominent and is thw very probably a SOUTce fOT the constantly repeated 'well' motif of Ihe Letter (" I, etc. ).
Among other major oonl(:xlJ in which the CTO! lS-correspon_ dence idea operate! ;" the l(:levision ,how, whoae central po. it>On (337-55) and fertile symbolic ,,. ml(:nl dearly proclaim it one of the moot important miniature r<:plica, of Fi"'''lmu
W4k. a, a whole It "",,ms thatjOf"" never Saw any televi,ion at all'-an ama. ing fact in view of the e:xtraordinarily "",li"tic evocation of the medium that he achieves in FitWIlallJ W akt- but, "" I have alrcady suggested, Joyce alwaY' took a &Teat intere,t in o. ny Dew scientific (lr technological advance and he had both read and heard about the early teleCll. lu with OOn- siderable enthu,iam. To Budgen he expressed the hope that readers of Filln#gans Wak. would Ix Ixtter ahI. to appreciate the book if its m;lterial were presented pardy in terms of the new modium in which the world was growing ao inteTested. No{ only does j oyce parody the medium of oommunication,
, 'On the A\<t<>n\2. ti(: W rit;", of). lrs. Hollaro;l',~, if IN s. . a. t)' ft, P','I<I;i<oI &_do, vol. XXI! , 19. 08. 1>. 370.
, Infonnotion . "";v<<! nom Frank 8udgcn. ,s3
? Correspondences
but he makrs a diTt<:t and illuminating analogy between tht: elt<:tronic techniques of televilion and hi. < own c",ative PT(>C<:SS? This analogy ;" p,. . . . ,nted in a . pkndidly graphic description toward the end of the Butt and T aff entertainment. Like the anastomom of 585. 2" thi. < p. :wage alto describe. . . an act of copulation and the mb>equcnt fU$inn of the two . ""d. into a single embryo:
'In the heliotropical noughttime following a fade of tT"":lnSformed Tuff and, pending its viseversion, a rnetcnocgic reglow of beaming Batt, the baiT<lboard bombardment lCl""n, if taotefully taut guranium satin, tend. to tdeCrarne and . tep up to the cbarge ofa light harriC<lde. Down the photo:dope in . yncopanc pulse<, with the bitt. hugtwug their tdlS, the missledhropcs, glilleraglatteraglutt, borne by their carnier waive. Spraygun rakes and . plits them from a douhle focm: g",nadite, damny_ mite, alextronite, nichilite: and the scanning fi""pot of the . gunners traverses the rutilanced illu. tred . un'uundered lines. Shlouh! A gaspel truce leab out over the cae,cine coatings. Amid a nuorescence of ,pectracular mephitici. <m the", caocu_ lates through the inconoscope 'tealdily a "ill, the figu", of a fellowchap in the wohly ghast, Poper O'Donoshough, the
j. . uneral of the nwuatC9. ' (349. 00)
The 'mtts' which hunlc down the tube and- 'Shloom! '--fall
into place as a stable picture, a", blur",d and unintelligible in themsel~-'a double focu,'-but when combined on the
delicate scrttn the gh""tly and ghosdy truth becomes dear. ' The pictu. . . . of Butt and Taff a", made to con""rge lih a paiT of fla t phol<lgrapm in a . terCO! COpe to produce a fully rounded and oomprehelUible figure. (In thi, episode Joyce;" evidently prWicting 3-D tdevision along with the atom bomh (353. 22) and the destruction ofthe world. ) T he 'bitts' a", of OOUl"$e Shern and Shaun who a", able to 'adumb. . . ~cc a pattern of . . ,mebody cIs. : or other' ("o,'5) only when they work together for the common good, hut the passage u . . . ",levant to the Uyle of
, Cf. '. . . ""';1<:only,;nt<<p''''not_ ,<<<<,llhd,"'"andwhen fittalthq will ~ the . . hol<', ? 'pi,;t-m<:SOall<qUOled ;n 'On the Au,,,,,,,,,;< Writi"i:
ofMr>. lIotb. nd? . _~ '9"11, p. jl~.
,
ojINs. au,f'"p~&""w"vol. XXII, '59
? C(WTtspont! mctJ
Fitl1lt! gmlJ Wah- . . . . to its ~harac'ers. J oyce'. language units m. . y make little seruc in isolation, Or even b. m;'leading, but when all the other bits are taken into comideracion and projct:tcd on to the r=llving OCn:"n of the interpreting mind, their true lignificance ;. revealed. Lik a national language, thaI of Fj""'ga1U W? " a recogniJable and co. . . istent who! e, varied by its own dialects, dang, and . pecial usagcs-w. . meant to b.
. . ,If_explanatory on its own ground.
The tdev;';on-tel ;. a . \Qrt of Jailer-day Platonic Cave. Mr.
J. S. Atherton has shown how Joyce conceived of FimltgallJ Wak, as a CO:'lmic pantomime,' bul the shadow-show- whether as cinema entertainment, Browne's univc.
