,nlcnce aI a
rhythmic
and formal unil, the moot obviow departure being lhe \I$(: of tho.
Hart-Clive-1962-Structure-and-Motif-in-Finnegans-Wake
He waJ fe<:ling $0 funny and floored [or the cue, all
37
? Some Aspttls of Finrugans Wake
0Vtt whichgirltashedon'l know whceehue. lfg<'llleyspsious
would but fain $mik him :I . mik he would be fOndling a pnix he l ie lOme nio: bit of Duff. lIut no gat(: <evula the UDCOfl- noulh. They're all oddJ apiMt him, II><: beutia. . Scratch. Slart. ' (~o7. 19)
IIr : THE BREAKD OWN OF THE SENTENCE ; SEU'. PARODV
'WordJ. Was it thcir ooloun? , . . 0. was ;1 tluot, bring as wukoflightashe. . . . ,allyofmind,hedrewIe. pl~ I'rom the re8cctloll of the glowin8 acru;blc ""'lrid through the pn. m ofaIa~many. :olouredandrichlystoriedthanfromtbe contemplation of an inner world of individual emotiow mir-
rored p! :rfcctly in a lucid IUppiCperiodic pr'O! le? ' (AP 190) Thil . . One of the mostjUltly celebrated e"preoaions ofartistic I(:nlillilily in J oyce'l WOrQ. At Ihe time of iu rompoilition J oyce . . . . , already . . . . dl '""p! :ricn<<d in the writing of the Iypo: ofprooc: dCKribcd. Hil concenl lOr l\lCid IIIppicneu and rhythmic CX(:(llence in the ohon . torica of D. . li. . . . is noticcabk from the
font polg<', The openinc pangnoph of 'The Silten' iI quile rem:orhble for the allCnlation of ohon and long . . . . -or<b and pbrueo designed to mirror the boy', I>csitatiolll, doubts, and immaturities. Even at thia stage of his career Joy<< iI writing prOM: which is meant to be clotely examined, not read through. ' 'There was no hope for him thi. time: it wao the third l! roke, Night aller night I had pasacd the hoUIC (it was vacalion time) and IllIdicd the lighted 'CJuare 0( window: and nighl aflcr night t had found it lighted in the lame _y, faintly and evenly. If
he "'lIS dead, I thou,ht, I would I t t the: rdlcctioll ofcandles on the darkened blind, for 1 knew d>a. t two candles mllil be x t I t th( head oftlu: COI"JIIC. He had often. . aid to me: "I am not ions: for this world", and I had thollght his words idle. Now I knew they were tru~. Every night II I gazed up at the window I said JOftly to myxlf the ,,-ord paralYlis. It h~d alwaY' lOunded
,F""an<x,ft>d""~onof'ThcSis'. . . . ,'"M. lobplatt. . ,n. . . " ~ ? . ,,""', I. oondon, ' 9 $ pp. 7" fr.
"
? Same Asptels tif Finnegl1JlS Wake
. trangdy in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Eudid and the word simony in the Gatcehi,rn. But now it sounded to me lik. the name of SOme malefi~nt and . inful being. It fined me wilh fear, and yet l longed to be nea""r to it and to look upon il'! deadly work. ' (D ~2)
'The sentence was the . tyIDtiC unit with whichjoy~ worked most ~aoily in 1m early yea",. Fint rate paragraph "",iting lil<e the example jwt quoted i. to he found here and th~re in D,. bli"", and A Portrait, but jore" was nevee a natural para. graph-writer like, say, hi! . :onlemporary Paul V"Ury, and hi. b. :st work in thi. form always has something of the Wur ! hJOrtt about it. For the fi"'l half of hi. '! care", it was to the sentence above all that Joyce devoted his best powers. Tn UlysstJ, the culmination of those yea"" the paragraph was virtually aban_ doned as a rhythmic unit, hut d au. ". . . trocturc w"" brought to a very high pitch ofachievement. ' j <>y<:e t<>ld frank Budgen of 1m hard w<)fk on two "'nten~. a fmm an episode of Ulysses" 'The words . . . arc: "Perfume <>f en'hra= all him au ailed. With hungered lIe>h <>hst:urc1y, he mutely craved t<> adore. " You Call """ for youmMin h<>w many diffe""nl ways they might
be "rrang<:d'.
PauagCl! lik. the following dq><:nd for their whole dl'ect on
luch e&refully controlled organi,"-tion of Ihe demen\. ! within theindividualsenten~,. Thesequenceof. enteneeswithinthe paragraph is of secondary importan~e, as Jnyce'. habit or compooition by interpolation . ugges":
'Chri,tfox in leather trews, hiding, a nmaway in blighted lroe? forb from hoe and cry. Knowing no vixen, walking londy in the chase. Women he won to him, tender people, a whore of Babylon, ladies ofjUlticeJ, hully tap'ICrs' wi"'l. ~-ox and geese. And in New Place " slar;k dishonoured body thaI once was r;omc1y, on~ as . weet, as fre<h "" einnamon, now It", ! eaw:s falllng, all, barc, fiighted of the narrow grave and unforgiven? . (U 18~)
, For d. . . . . iled . . . . . . . ,. . . " of "","'",. ,. ,. in U/. I=" . . . R. HenlU, Dit " . . "'K""W. . . . a""";","ut"",". . . . Jo-'Joy<<,fIit}{___ S/><O? . . . . ". . ,. '7,
r9~3. III. T"t.
F. Jlu,! gen, J - s Joy<< mrd #t< M~ q Ulp4's, ! . . <>ndon, '934> p. 00.
W
? Slime Mptfls rif FintltgOlU Wak,
As KIOn U joyce's senlene. . h. . d TOachM ill culmination, howe''er, it ~an to break down. As hil penonal intemll and the IOOpe of h. . " 'riting . . idcnt:d,j~? 1 . tyle became u,erus- ingly fl'llgmcniM lind delailed. U! 1JJts already Iho. . . . a tendency 10 br<ak away from Ihe . .
,nlcnce aI a rhythmic and formal unil, the moot obviow departure being lhe \I$(: of tho. e huge Rabelaisian ulaloguea in "'hich all rhythmic progrcu is halted, 10 that Ihe eatalog". . might go on marking time indefini tdy. Some critia have objected thai j oye. . introduced unnecessary longueun inlO U/J. . . . by his C:Xlraordinary 101. -. : of all? inclusive lisll. Thcy oometim. . look 10 the earlier books fOr a pu rer . Iyle, but even in . 1 "",',a;1 there . r< several embryonic
c:xamplo of this tendency 10 write in list! . (AP '7, [119, [97) The calalogua in U! 1ms gradually _ u mt<! more and more importance ujoyce devdoped the book, bUlthey au ofCQurse only onc mea", by which ocntence_lIructuu is hroken do. . . n. The intmor monologue inlO . . . hich Joyce incerpolatM ""'"' and JTIOI'e asoociative ekrncnts is by its nafUr< fragmentary; the expTC>>ionilm of 'Circe' i. 100 mercurial to allow sentences
"DOUgh room in which to develop; the . . . hole comic effect of ' Eumeus' deriveo fromJoyoe'. nllhlCllly allowing the sentena:s to demoy themulv. . hy lack of discipline. This break away from 'he . . ,ntentt meaN Ihat 'lucid . upple periodic prose' accounts for only a omall proportion of the bulk of U/ftlUj by
the time Joyce reached f,u,,,,,,, W"b h. had abandoned his preoccupation with periodic p""" ,l"'OSt entirely. The. . ntcnce
in Fi. utplU WoM. ;" hardly eve. the uni! of com~ition. CaWogu. . abound, and even in the rnon: fluid ~
individual . . ,ntenees nre1y haye any great rhYlhmic vitality, taken as a whole. Tnde<! d, an exu-aordin. . ry number of ill! *c. llenee ace either the briefest of exd. . ",",ory comments, . ,. . - ebe ~rpc:ntine argum""u of almosl Prousuan length in ""hid all impressinn of rhythmic unity i. lost. Th"",, longer IICnlenc" ar< broken up into Chincsc puul. . ofsmall parenth. ,. . . which rwill and tum and digous 10 such an . ,. lent thaI, although their logical mean ings a n usually as straightforward as the huge ,,",emllalion. of modifiers will allow, it is ncarly alway>
? Sotm A. rjNt/s ifFil11llgans Wake
'mpoaible to conternpLl. Ie the whole structure 0. 1 ()flC t Lucid rhyth. . . havc siveR way to clauu. l cha'n_rur;tions and what was orisina. lly, in lbee early drafts, a Itn. ighl-line poinH o-point . tat~menl hal often grown into a pynmidal beeap ofd alll<:l and phr. osea, t-o. example:
'The lCene was ntver to b. fotg<lllen fur lator in the century one of that little band of factfer~terJ (then an ex civil . . rvant retired under the sixcyfive act) reheaned. it to a oow. in of the late archducon Coppinger in a puUman of our own " . . nt?
hibemian with one ,till ",dder circum. u ance which is a prime hurukewcr if ever wu. ' (British MU3etIm, Add. MS <1)472,
If. IU -3)
Tbii i, from lhc: fint fair copy of 1. 3. In the final wrsion it
becomn:
'Tht ocene, ref_bed, rerotUed, wa, never to b. fOrgotten, the hen and crusade. everintermutuomergent, for later in the ~ntury one of that puisne band of factferreters, (then an exeivily (out of the cu. tom huU) (",tired), (hurt), undu the lixtyfi~ act) in a dressy black modern style and wewerc . hiny Ian burlingtooa, (tam, bomd and dicky, '1uopriquos and pea.
jqd) rcbeaned it, pippa pointing, with a dignified (copied) bow 10 a narno:<:otU;in of the late archdeacon F. X. l'Ie. . , . ed Coppingt'r (a hot fdlow in his night, may the mouth. . . ofguard have maltic on him! ) in a pullwoman ofour fint tn. nshibemian
with one ltill sadder cin::um. nance which is a dirkandurk hcarukewerer ifever to bring bouncing brimme. . from marbled eyes,' (55. 10)
The Il:vised punctuation makes it evidenltha! the irnprellion of endle:u interpolation, far from bcing an undesinoble ron? w mitant of rich. . . . . . is ddibenuely IOUgbt after. The brief qualifying and elaborating p/traIoe:J have becomeJ oycc'. runda.
melltal un,,,, and in the InIIg run they an usually man: impor. tant for tbe "'Ut than is the uektal meaning of the . . ntenee to""bichtheywtn annex. . d. Poised,fluentp. . . . . . wriringoftile type III be fuund "" often in lJIysm figures only oa:a,ionally in F;~"",1tM Wah; wben it doxs appear it usually ooincidcJ with . 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.
37
? Some Aspttls of Finrugans Wake
0Vtt whichgirltashedon'l know whceehue. lfg<'llleyspsious
would but fain $mik him :I . mik he would be fOndling a pnix he l ie lOme nio: bit of Duff. lIut no gat(: <evula the UDCOfl- noulh. They're all oddJ apiMt him, II><: beutia. . Scratch. Slart. ' (~o7. 19)
IIr : THE BREAKD OWN OF THE SENTENCE ; SEU'. PARODV
'WordJ. Was it thcir ooloun? , . . 0. was ;1 tluot, bring as wukoflightashe. . . . ,allyofmind,hedrewIe. pl~ I'rom the re8cctloll of the glowin8 acru;blc ""'lrid through the pn. m ofaIa~many. :olouredandrichlystoriedthanfromtbe contemplation of an inner world of individual emotiow mir-
rored p! :rfcctly in a lucid IUppiCperiodic pr'O! le? ' (AP 190) Thil . . One of the mostjUltly celebrated e"preoaions ofartistic I(:nlillilily in J oyce'l WOrQ. At Ihe time of iu rompoilition J oyce . . . . , already . . . . dl '""p! :ricn<<d in the writing of the Iypo: ofprooc: dCKribcd. Hil concenl lOr l\lCid IIIppicneu and rhythmic CX(:(llence in the ohon . torica of D. . li. . . . is noticcabk from the
font polg<', The openinc pangnoph of 'The Silten' iI quile rem:orhble for the allCnlation of ohon and long . . . . -or<b and pbrueo designed to mirror the boy', I>csitatiolll, doubts, and immaturities. Even at thia stage of his career Joy<< iI writing prOM: which is meant to be clotely examined, not read through. ' 'There was no hope for him thi. time: it wao the third l! roke, Night aller night I had pasacd the hoUIC (it was vacalion time) and IllIdicd the lighted 'CJuare 0( window: and nighl aflcr night t had found it lighted in the lame _y, faintly and evenly. If
he "'lIS dead, I thou,ht, I would I t t the: rdlcctioll ofcandles on the darkened blind, for 1 knew d>a. t two candles mllil be x t I t th( head oftlu: COI"JIIC. He had often. . aid to me: "I am not ions: for this world", and I had thollght his words idle. Now I knew they were tru~. Every night II I gazed up at the window I said JOftly to myxlf the ,,-ord paralYlis. It h~d alwaY' lOunded
,F""an<x,ft>d""~onof'ThcSis'. . . . ,'"M. lobplatt. . ,n. . . " ~ ? . ,,""', I. oondon, ' 9 $ pp. 7" fr.
"
? Same Asptels tif Finnegl1JlS Wake
. trangdy in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Eudid and the word simony in the Gatcehi,rn. But now it sounded to me lik. the name of SOme malefi~nt and . inful being. It fined me wilh fear, and yet l longed to be nea""r to it and to look upon il'! deadly work. ' (D ~2)
'The sentence was the . tyIDtiC unit with whichjoy~ worked most ~aoily in 1m early yea",. Fint rate paragraph "",iting lil<e the example jwt quoted i. to he found here and th~re in D,. bli"", and A Portrait, but jore" was nevee a natural para. graph-writer like, say, hi! . :onlemporary Paul V"Ury, and hi. b. :st work in thi. form always has something of the Wur ! hJOrtt about it. For the fi"'l half of hi. '! care", it was to the sentence above all that Joyce devoted his best powers. Tn UlysstJ, the culmination of those yea"" the paragraph was virtually aban_ doned as a rhythmic unit, hut d au. ". . . trocturc w"" brought to a very high pitch ofachievement. ' j <>y<:e t<>ld frank Budgen of 1m hard w<)fk on two "'nten~. a fmm an episode of Ulysses" 'The words . . . arc: "Perfume <>f en'hra= all him au ailed. With hungered lIe>h <>hst:urc1y, he mutely craved t<> adore. " You Call """ for youmMin h<>w many diffe""nl ways they might
be "rrang<:d'.
PauagCl! lik. the following dq><:nd for their whole dl'ect on
luch e&refully controlled organi,"-tion of Ihe demen\. ! within theindividualsenten~,. Thesequenceof. enteneeswithinthe paragraph is of secondary importan~e, as Jnyce'. habit or compooition by interpolation . ugges":
'Chri,tfox in leather trews, hiding, a nmaway in blighted lroe? forb from hoe and cry. Knowing no vixen, walking londy in the chase. Women he won to him, tender people, a whore of Babylon, ladies ofjUlticeJ, hully tap'ICrs' wi"'l. ~-ox and geese. And in New Place " slar;k dishonoured body thaI once was r;omc1y, on~ as . weet, as fre<h "" einnamon, now It", ! eaw:s falllng, all, barc, fiighted of the narrow grave and unforgiven? . (U 18~)
, For d. . . . . iled . . . . . . . ,. . . " of "","'",. ,. ,. in U/. I=" . . . R. HenlU, Dit " . . "'K""W. . . . a""";","ut"",". . . . Jo-'Joy<<,fIit}{___ S/><O? . . . . ". . ,. '7,
r9~3. III. T"t.
F. Jlu,! gen, J - s Joy<< mrd #t< M~ q Ulp4's, ! . . <>ndon, '934> p. 00.
W
? Slime Mptfls rif FintltgOlU Wak,
As KIOn U joyce's senlene. . h. . d TOachM ill culmination, howe''er, it ~an to break down. As hil penonal intemll and the IOOpe of h. . " 'riting . . idcnt:d,j~? 1 . tyle became u,erus- ingly fl'llgmcniM lind delailed. U! 1JJts already Iho. . . . a tendency 10 br<ak away from Ihe . .
,nlcnce aI a rhythmic and formal unil, the moot obviow departure being lhe \I$(: of tho. e huge Rabelaisian ulaloguea in "'hich all rhythmic progrcu is halted, 10 that Ihe eatalog". . might go on marking time indefini tdy. Some critia have objected thai j oye. . introduced unnecessary longueun inlO U/J. . . . by his C:Xlraordinary 101. -. : of all? inclusive lisll. Thcy oometim. . look 10 the earlier books fOr a pu rer . Iyle, but even in . 1 "",',a;1 there . r< several embryonic
c:xamplo of this tendency 10 write in list! . (AP '7, [119, [97) The calalogua in U! 1ms gradually _ u mt<! more and more importance ujoyce devdoped the book, bUlthey au ofCQurse only onc mea", by which ocntence_lIructuu is hroken do. . . n. The intmor monologue inlO . . . hich Joyce incerpolatM ""'"' and JTIOI'e asoociative ekrncnts is by its nafUr< fragmentary; the expTC>>ionilm of 'Circe' i. 100 mercurial to allow sentences
"DOUgh room in which to develop; the . . . hole comic effect of ' Eumeus' deriveo fromJoyoe'. nllhlCllly allowing the sentena:s to demoy themulv. . hy lack of discipline. This break away from 'he . . ,ntentt meaN Ihat 'lucid . upple periodic prose' accounts for only a omall proportion of the bulk of U/ftlUj by
the time Joyce reached f,u,,,,,,, W"b h. had abandoned his preoccupation with periodic p""" ,l"'OSt entirely. The. . ntcnce
in Fi. utplU WoM. ;" hardly eve. the uni! of com~ition. CaWogu. . abound, and even in the rnon: fluid ~
individual . . ,ntenees nre1y haye any great rhYlhmic vitality, taken as a whole. Tnde<! d, an exu-aordin. . ry number of ill! *c. llenee ace either the briefest of exd. . ",",ory comments, . ,. . - ebe ~rpc:ntine argum""u of almosl Prousuan length in ""hid all impressinn of rhythmic unity i. lost. Th"",, longer IICnlenc" ar< broken up into Chincsc puul. . ofsmall parenth. ,. . . which rwill and tum and digous 10 such an . ,. lent thaI, although their logical mean ings a n usually as straightforward as the huge ,,",emllalion. of modifiers will allow, it is ncarly alway>
? Sotm A. rjNt/s ifFil11llgans Wake
'mpoaible to conternpLl. Ie the whole structure 0. 1 ()flC t Lucid rhyth. . . havc siveR way to clauu. l cha'n_rur;tions and what was orisina. lly, in lbee early drafts, a Itn. ighl-line poinH o-point . tat~menl hal often grown into a pynmidal beeap ofd alll<:l and phr. osea, t-o. example:
'The lCene was ntver to b. fotg<lllen fur lator in the century one of that little band of factfer~terJ (then an ex civil . . rvant retired under the sixcyfive act) reheaned. it to a oow. in of the late archducon Coppinger in a puUman of our own " . . nt?
hibemian with one ,till ",dder circum. u ance which is a prime hurukewcr if ever wu. ' (British MU3etIm, Add. MS <1)472,
If. IU -3)
Tbii i, from lhc: fint fair copy of 1. 3. In the final wrsion it
becomn:
'Tht ocene, ref_bed, rerotUed, wa, never to b. fOrgotten, the hen and crusade. everintermutuomergent, for later in the ~ntury one of that puisne band of factferreters, (then an exeivily (out of the cu. tom huU) (",tired), (hurt), undu the lixtyfi~ act) in a dressy black modern style and wewerc . hiny Ian burlingtooa, (tam, bomd and dicky, '1uopriquos and pea.
jqd) rcbeaned it, pippa pointing, with a dignified (copied) bow 10 a narno:<:otU;in of the late archdeacon F. X. l'Ie. . , . ed Coppingt'r (a hot fdlow in his night, may the mouth. . . ofguard have maltic on him! ) in a pullwoman ofour fint tn. nshibemian
with one ltill sadder cin::um. nance which is a dirkandurk hcarukewerer ifever to bring bouncing brimme. . from marbled eyes,' (55. 10)
The Il:vised punctuation makes it evidenltha! the irnprellion of endle:u interpolation, far from bcing an undesinoble ron? w mitant of rich. . . . . . is ddibenuely IOUgbt after. The brief qualifying and elaborating p/traIoe:J have becomeJ oycc'. runda.
melltal un,,,, and in the InIIg run they an usually man: impor. tant for tbe "'Ut than is the uektal meaning of the . . ntenee to""bichtheywtn annex. . d. Poised,fluentp. . . . . . wriringoftile type III be fuund "" often in lJIysm figures only oa:a,ionally in F;~"",1tM Wah; wben it doxs appear it usually ooincidcJ with . 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.
