No More Learning

? The lffeam-Structure
Book IV: 'a ,ucc. e"ive gen"""tion h. . . be<:n in the d~p deep d~ps of o. ,epe<<:ru' (S95. ~7). A. alwaY", Shaun'. mind is ccntuci primarily on the Father, who dominates this chapter. Despite the fact that we are her<: at the d<:<:pest levd of the dream, the chapter is characterised by its corWderabk $C"ual franknes, and ",alistic darity. Dawn is about to ],. . ,ak afier these crucial ! . cenes and "" it may be that Joyce is C(lnforming not only to the proverb about the darkest hour, but also to Ihe Freudian principle tbat a d",am is both m""t fundamental and mo. l lucid toward, its end. The most memorable revelation vouch. . . . fed us here is Ihal of . ? arwicker'. fleshy hindquarteT1! _ Shaun on his mouod is lookiog up to a M QSe1I'. eye view of the Father. Creator, aod or CO"n . llW chapler furms part four of the general cycle orBook III, rcpr=nled by the direction wat, which I'arac. ebll' associatc<\ with th<: human buttoch. ' These re. . . . . ru are perhaps 3ufficient to explain Ihe dominance in
IIl. 4 ofth"t particular part of the human anatomy, hut it mUIt be remembered that Shann'. dream is abo Earwieker's, and it is p<>SSihk that there is a further and rather more . <<hrtc/tJ reawn for the old man', broad view of hinudf fmm the real' through his son', eyes. Book III is a circular excursion thr<lugh 'pace-lime, and it had become <;ommon knowledgt: during Joyce'. lifetime that a long ,traight view in front, circling the four4meruional hypeT1! phe", or a ,. . ,. entrant univ"","" might
theomically give a man a 'ight of himself from behind. Thh idea """ill to be implied in two p. . . . . . gt:, from lIL4 :
'the only w;. . , in a muck', world 10 look on iudf from before_ hand; mirrormlnded curiosite. . . e' (S76. ~~)
'down the gullies of the era. we may catch ourselves looking forward to what will in no lime be 'taring you larriuru on the pmtface in that multimirror megaron of returningtieo, whirled without end to end'. (580. 18)
A! J I have al"'ady indicated, Joyce dabbled in mod. . n physics, where he found this liule scientific joke from which to construct another of the book'. many epicycles.
PlWing into Earwicker', mind on page 403 w. . . equivalent , 0 . . " " l ' . ~,.
? I'M Dream-Stru(lurt
to p? ? i", into an inv<<ted mirror-world,' and I<> ellter ShaUll" mind . . -e have bd I<> p;III t. ItrouSh a IIeCOnd mirror. Thil doIIble-rninor UnaI""Y il present in ! he quotatio~ a""""; tw\> minon are n. ormally II~ for a man to see hit bulroeb in practice. The idea of p. . . . ing through a mirror into the new environment ofa past or future cpoch was not new IOlJOlyce iri F'iMl$= WQkt fOlr he had already made ""t. ,nlive use of il in UbJ,ru ill as,ocialKIII with the motif 'looking bad in a retroape<:t;vc alTall("mcnl', d~. ? In Ihe 'Oxen of I"'" Sun' Bloom IftI h;rrucl( aa if in a double_inverud rdlttti<m, aa a
ocboolboy:
'No longer it Leopold, as he oits t~ , ruminating, chewing the cudofreminitc. ,. . "" that. Iaidagentofpublicityandholderof a modctt JUbolance in the fundi. He is youn, Lt:opold, as in a r<:troopect;ve alTangement, a mirror within a mirroc (hey prestoI), he bc:bolde\h hitmelf. That young figure Olf then is seen, precociou,ly manly, willing on a nipping morning from ! he old home in QambraWl llm:I IOl the high school . _ . (al. . . , a thing now of the past! ) _ . . BUI ! ley. pre",o, the mirror is breathed on and ! he young knigh~",nt recedes. , . hri~"b. , ro I tiny lpttk within the mist'. (U 394)
And abo:
'Inoki", bad now in a ,u ,uspulive kind of arrangemc:nt, aU . . . . ,med I kind of dream. And the <<Iming back waa the wont
thing )'Ou eve. did because it wenl without ,aying )'Ou would red out ofplace as things alwaY' moved with the timcs? . (U 6t3) 'Rudolph Bloo'" (de",ased) narrated to hit IOn l . eopold Bloom (aged 6) I retroopecti"" amu\gemc:nl of migrations and Kille- menU. . . '(U68! >>
Earwicl<er . . . ,,,," to be engagN in the lame kind of dreamin! n:miniscell<:e, though on a gr;Inder 0<"aIe.
In Vil':Olliall I~rms Book III is the Cycle ofthe Future, as the SJ;tI. 11nI Ii. . ,explains:
"The principal figure of uu. d",am is Shaun. envisioned at a greRi man of the future, carrying forward tho mighty tradition
,s. . .
, No. Mm. FoI," ' v. ,. ,. . . ,. . . w. d <<In. ? N. . . . York, '959. I' . 8,.
below. I' 99.
9'
? TM Dream. . . 5lruc/u1'e
of hi> ancesto. . . and winning with blith. . t e,. . . , the battles \o$t byhi! father', (SK 211)
In so far'" Earwicker'. son i. to succeed hun, thU reading U valid enough, but a! a. 'Ome",ha! more lite~l and urta1nly more important level Ihe situation i. quite the reve. . . . " fur if ~'alher and Son arc one, Shaun is Earwid,cr', p"'t a, well ", hi> future, In U! Psu Stephen, hnlding 'to the nnw, the here' '" he mUO(:, on man', ,piritual continuity, calb the fut~ 'Ihe sil ler of the P"'{' (U ,63), Earwiek<:r i> dreaming b a d into hit
much glorified past, ,tacting with his prel"nt deathlik "ale (iO,~) and working back to hi> hinh: 'Yet they wend il back, qual hi, leif' (sSo,13), In following h;, career back to iu origins in h;, incarnation", the Son, Earwick<:r ;, engaged in the Yeat$ian proces,,,, of Dreami. , B",k, Return, and T/tt Shifting, (293,03,295. 10,295,'5, 5? O. O. j,) which in A V'u,;,n are ,aid to follow immediately on death, preceding the desired . pirilUai 'Marriage' wilh the Ddty and allowing the "lui to Ira"" it.
progrt. :$, in the rev""", direction, right ba<:k to birth' :
'In the Drt~ming BIUt the Spirit;' compelled to live over and over again the evenU that had most moved it; there can be
nothing new, but the old events . tand furth in a light which i. dim or bright according to the intemity Qf the pa$si. on that accompanied them . ? . After its imprironment by oome event
in the Drwming BlUk, the Spi. il relives that evenl in the Rtlu,n and tufm it into knowledge, and then falls inlo the D,,~ming BlUk once more.
The Spirit find, the concrete events in the PassioMk Body but the na:rnes and words of the drama it mwt obtain, the Fa. . . ltiu having gone when tbe H",k and PlUno""k Body disappMred, from lOme incarnale Mind, and Ihi. it ;, able to do becaUle all spirits inhabit our consciomness, or, "" Swedenbo'1l said, arc the J)ramati. Penonae of our dreams . . . The mOl'1O complete the Drwming Bad: the more complete the Return and the mOT<: bappy or fortunale the n a t incarnation. After ~aeh event of tIu: D""ming Bl1tk the Spinl explo= not
merely tJu: eauSCI but the cotUt:quences ofthat event. . . [And, in tJu: Siliftings:] ? . . In '0 far ru tbe man did good without
, ,t y;,. "" pp. ~o&-so.
9'
? The Drram-StrnctUTt
knowing evil, hi. nature is reversed until tho. t knowledge is obtained. Th. Spirit live! ! . . . "The bCJ! t Jl""5ible Life in the won! possible ,urrounding. " or the contrary of this; yet there is n n ,uffering: " For in a , tate of ~uilibrium there is neither emotion nnr oemation" '.
T h . Slot/elm! Ki f ' reIerena: to the con! ,. ,. . ! between Earwicl. cr', failure, and Shaun'. 'uc~ is illuminated by the Shijlingr, while the oscillations betwrcn famMY and narurali,m in Book
III find a rationalisation in tho: cyek, of Dreami~g lJ(J(;k and &turn. The whole of Book TIl, including the ""gr= in H1. 4
when Shaun begins his own epic. yelic Dr. -ing R(J(;k, is thm, in thoe ~rm" a my$tical pilgrimage of Earwi~ker'? ? pirit, . ed:ing ,alvation through Jdf. knowlrdge, working ba<:k tow:>. ro an "". mun! of his own gene';".
J "yee mak. ,. this DrMmu. , Back function at the universal", well a$ the personal level, 10 that the history of mankind is traced back to the Flood by the end ofIlI. 4 (s89-90). (I have already notrd that in thischap~r the Earwicun ,eem to belong to a past generation. ') The idea of a\lnwing the ! ",ychie
proc= to upand in this way to the racial levd scnru to have had its origin in a brief but in~fC! lting no~ in the Large
Notebook' :
'dream thoughts are ",-au thoughts of a:nturie! ! ago: uncon? sciom memory: great "",urrenee: race memori. . '
The first part of the no~ h"" been =red through by Joye<:, which usually indica! ", that the ma~rial 10 markrd ha, bc<:n
used 10mewhere in FiMtgmu W. . ke.
Such a nest of drcaJrul within drums as I have been de?
scribing might of course go on for ever, like the infinite rcgl"CSl of time? planes inJ. W. Dunne', Tiu Strid Universe,' and there is no doubt mar<: than a hint of oo:mrie aolipmrn about this conca~nation of dream. personages, all evolved from a lingle
, s. . obove. p . 8).
I h, tho: . . ","'" ""';~"" 'i'ky! t. . n<! a. . . . . . ylod~? ; ,. . obov<, p. ~? .
? "Ine""""""Ptof,,,,,",. . . 1wUv"",,," 0cow'''''''~. . ,meinF;""p'" W. . t. : ' . . . oob. ")'lI' omio<d, OO? ioI,,,,,,,,,<olly, in ? "'","e on~ more olm;gnt;! y nponding un;""",,' (063,'4); '",rial <I. ". ,. . . . of fai" women' (53'. 33); '" _ ,8. . "" 1. 8. 10, 3'0. 33, ,". 00, ~? . ,. .
? T! u Dream-Structure
mind. It Ke"'" to have been j oyu'. main PIUJ'OK, h. )wever, tQ usc the dream_sequences all a further illustration of the Viconian th=-part cycle, thio time arrnnged 00 . . . . . teo be everywhere e>ut of Itep with the principal cycle corui. <ting ofBooko r, II, and III. Th. . . , after the 'Tiers, tiers and tiers' ofdream. in thue thre<: 8001<0, we return ('Rounds'), "" always in Book IV, In the first level (59". 30). The Dreamer i. < of COune . till ""Ieep, but Ear- wicker's fantastic dream-night i. over: 'Guld modning'. Hio twenty_four h. )ur cycle i, alIDOllI complete and in hi. '! company we have progr=cd from 'wan warning' (6. 01) to another; dawn break! on a new day. j Ullt . . . . . the Providence of Vico'. >iamb leads to yel another rcMatemenl of history, 50 the fourth drcam-cycle, which has a},. . ,ady brought ill back to the first dream. level of Book I, reintroduces the Golden Age which makes CrClh hope possible.
Ac<:ording 10 the molecular principle on which FiMlgaru W. . . tt i. '! built, each minor cycle mu. t in 50me way reflect thili
major wcccosion of dream-<:ycl. . . . There an:, in fact, . uhlidiary dream_levels within the four-chapter cyclC$, and even within individual chapten. T he fourth chapter of each minor eycle i. a dream-<:reation of oomeone who fall, a,leep in the prec. :ding chapler. Thus Earwickcr, in the mythical context of the . tories told of him in 'h;,' cycle, ' . 1- 4, sleep. after the end of 1. 3, tirea"", ofhirruelf "" Shaun (or King) dnring r4, (15. 05, 19. ~8, 81. 16,89. 03), and 00 relive! hi, trial before the public; Shcm hands over 10 hi. < dream-<:reature Anna Livia in 1. 8; Earwicl<er dream. alII. . . , ShaUll at III. .