No More Learning

Joyce was alwaY" mnlemptuou, of Chrl",', virginity' :
'He was a bachelor . . . and never lived with a woman. Surely living with a womiU1 i. one ofthe mn. t difficult thing> a man has to do, and he never did it'.
Ry his implied variations on the ,tory of the Go3pd. Joyce rewrites the N~w Testament to rorrc. pond with the Old even more clo. cly than the mediaevali>ts could have wished. Thi. cross on the 'Tune' page, already heavily loaded with . ymbolic oignificance, " e><panded to ro,mie proportiona in Rook IV, where Joyce make< it repreunt the quincunx,," in Plato',
World-Solll. The fint word of the paragraph in which the 'inferior' meeting of the Same and the Other talces place is in
fact 'Tunc' (6". 04-).
The cr<l$S with Shaun or the """ at its centre reCu~ in at least
one other important ,ymbolic variation. This is the 'pms? in-th e- corner' motif. The Shl,/(m Kq glOMeS the allusion to it at ~7S. 06 as " 'frightful animal. o. emon in Iri,h fairy tale, here mgge<tive of Finnegan fear'-' I can find no evidence of Ihe existence of a legendary detlliln with luch a name and in any case 'Finnegan fear' does not '! eem to be . n~ted by the cOIl? te"t. Much more important, certainly, is th~ children', game call. d Pms in the Corner, in which four individuals occupying the four COrnel'! ofa room try to run from one corner to another while a fifth, the 'puss', 00 the al~r1 in the centre, tries to I'UJ! h in to claim a vacalCd 'pace, . 0 leaving the dispossessed penon
, Alh<xtOn, pp_3<>-[ .
? F. Budgm,,ldmt, J. . . . . aNi tk M""~ 41. l1ps. s, I. <:>t>d<x>, '93? " P. '9[ ? ? SK '47".
'f'
? Spatial CycltS: ll-Tht Cross
in the middle"" the new 'p"",,'. ' (In W. 1<rtS Bloom 'plaY' pmsy fuurcomen with ragged boY' and girls', U 46~. ) Thai Joy"" had in mind thi:! first. rate . ymbol of a <table form. with a ron_ stantly ,billing but finit~ rontent-the '",im anew'- i:! clear from the marginal Dote '/i",IIlN', al. . . ,ady quoted, which ref"",
to the t~x! '. 'With a paIlly fur the pusry in the rorner'. Other as>Ociat;OI15 of this mM;f Wilh the Four occur at 43. 28:
'village crying to village, through the five pu. . yfou. . . . g,"""n of
the united ,tate of Scotia Piela' and al 5. ~5. lo:
'titranicht by tetranoxat, at Ihcir pu. . yoorne. . . , and that old time pally<llloga. . , playing copen f""""",me. '
Since the cent. . . . l point is both the 3. . '3' and the 'P"'" of thi!
game, r. rupeet thatJoyce i, p<:Tmitting hinuelfthe not unruua] indulgence ofa rather tortuons pun. 'Pu",' as a . lang lerm 'face' is used at katt three tirru:. in F;"''''grms W"*' (86. 10, 3~9. 04,
. ~I7. 17) I! O that 'pU$$' and ';w' ar~ . uccinctly identified "" anatomical oppo. ild coinciding at a pain! . 1b~ = in 1. 1 and IVa. . . , the front and bac\: ends ofFin. . . ~rms 11'. . . 1:<. (Th= ar~ strong . uggr$tiom of 'hallock. ' in {he l'atrick-Druid di:! - cu";on and it may be ,,;gnificant (hat of {he ten occurrences of Ih~ 'thunderwom' mottf, Ih<: fi"'t (3. 15) ;. oral, while the lalt (4~4. 20) ;" di,tin~tly anal. ) 'Pws' h. . . , of course, other . lang deuotatioru, DQtably 'th~ female genitalia', which th~refore lies 'pllM-in? thc-comer' even more cl",ely to 'ti",l! m&'. This whole conceit seems to be an expansion of that oth~r meeting ofcontraries when l. <:Opold Illoom ends his Od)""q by deli,"",- ing an 'obocnre prolonged provoca tive m~lorumellonou'O! ICul. . -
rion. ' (U 695)'
'"
, . <;. . O. t. ? . JJ. w. d<< 'PUg'. par~ph, . I Set 0/,. below, Ch>. P'''' VIII. II.
'1 am making all engin~ with only one wheel . . . The wh",,1 is a P"'rfcct square . . . ii'S a wh~d, 1 teU the world. And it", all <qua,,'. (l. #In"J, p. ~51. )
'i""" . . was held sar. r<;d by the Pythagor""",. It i! th~ p"'rfcct square, and ru:ilher of the boundiug liu", n cecd. the other in
'4'1
? Spatial Cycles: 11- 17ie Cross
length by a lingle point. It il the emblem of moral jUlti"" and divine <:quity gt:omctrically ~xp~lied. All the powers and great Iymphonia of physical and spiritllal natu~ lie imcribed within . he perfect "'Iuare . ? . ' (Isis U""ri/td, vol. I, p. 9. )
The~ rcmain, one great archetypal form which j oyce med almost ill much . . . the circle and the cross in oowtructing Fin1Uga", Waf ' that ii, the . quare. A$'" revealed in the above quotaLion from a kttn to Mil! Weaver, he conceived of the furm of the book a. \ a "'lua! e and a circle in mystical combina- Lionl---ihowing the characteristics now of one , hape, nOw of the other. . , tit<: kalcidoscopic effects changed. The,"" il a lot of talk in Fj7l1U! J:d1tl Wake of 'squaring th~ cirdc' and, ,,<Inversely, of 'circling lhe "1uare'. Earwicker i. = n 10 he riding ru. 'bone- shaker' around MeIT;on $qua,"" {~8. 'i. F4)-or ;. , il perhaps Mountjoy Square ({60. "9) ? ---or, even mo,"" likely, the Phoenix Park, to whidl all wanderers '""turn. A litlle "rabimtw, to which the roadcr of Finlltgans Wak. continually find. hin\5clf subject, mal<<:; all these squa= equivalent to the ""nttal rhomhll1 of Ille diagram ('93) and, although Dolph say> 'it will hc a lozenge to me all my lauffe' ("! )9. "8),Joycc is nOt content even to let a four_sided figure ~main alway. ; fuur-. ided, as I Ihall :dtortly ,how. ' Twice he define, the . hape of FinntptU
Wake in the motif 'the scheme is like a rumba round my garden' .
The fint occur~nce of the motif. where j oyce emhcl. mhes the Ichemc wilh rainbow. miJ! t, old ma! ters, and Rim. haud'. theory ofvowcb,;" in the context ofa list ofgames which
the nnn-conformin Shem refuses 10 play with the good children : ,WAen his$""", It<Is tih ~ Roimhrandt T. ""d M. u: GQrot. 1' (q6. [8) Th. ""cond, and more important, OCCUrlen"" i. as the last of fuur major lIatement, of theme in the pasoagt: which opew
1L3:
'while the scheme is like your rumba round m. garden. ' (3"9. 01) The rhythm of the rumba i, a counterpoint of thw: hcats again" fuur, and hence a further ~minder of j oyce'. playing
, ,w F""" iop<e<<,
, cr. )ok W. Y. T;n<W[', >;,,;on <>f ~ h. r-oid<:d 1I;""i1< ;0 F. <ik,; . j twJ. . 'j Go",- t4 J-'JoJu, New y",k, '959, I' 109.
'43
? SpalUU C. Jfks: / I- The Cross
offthree cycle>! agairut four within tbe """. . . . Udeoign ofFiMllfJIIS Wdt. ' In fact, what J oyce is . . . . ylog is that the och. t;me is like 'three againat four' and that the rbomb. . . of page 'l93 may be thought ofas no m"", than a triangle aceomparue<:! by it> own
n:fioc:tioll. (It is no doubt . igniflCl. Dt that Joyce wu born in 'Brighton SquaK', which is tri;lI1gular,) Thu? ? tructuu. l figu. . . . . , like the cbracten, fold up ioto each other, as in a eon? juring trick, ultimately ending in 'appoint, that', all' (367,3? ), The proen concerned in this rumba. . mmif i, ofcoune an ideal plot CaNed from all Ir"roens that f:VCT "",re mainly the Phnenix rark, Eden, Karr'. itm/;"" and perhaps Hn>wne', lunuious c. "dn! . /Cynn, fuD of rbombs and quinauu:es,
Geomctricjugglings like thoocwhich I have bttn touching on could certainly be carrie<:! a lot fatther, and probably with eon? sidenobLe prolit, If the fnur. sided ochemoo: it aIoII thrtt-Si<Led, IMn FittM'l1M Wdt;. 10 be identified with Anna'. triangle ill wdl as with J oyce', square wheel; the combination of \riangle and rhombw recu. . eontinuolJy in Joyce', JIIUltt-book, II
Visi. ~ and 10 on, bul I think J have taken this analysis rar enough nOw to indicate;n broad terms howJoyce looked at the spatial organiJation of his book. In the . . . (O"t'(! ing ehapten I . IuD go on 10 examine Ihe kind of debil with which he foJled
in the 'P<lC<:J.
, s. . . a:. :. . e, p. 62; _ . . . N. 1>f""_,,. . 'Tb< ~~Ilum 1'boo. . 1cio',
'm p. -t,. . . .
. \'_ MoM Qw;a. ! >. ",-",,01'. ? A'"""",,, p. ',%1.
,<<
? CHAPTER SIX CORRESPON DENC ES
I
L 4 N~IJu. u l " " / m o p / . . . d . r i N I I U p i l i t r l lAinnd t-Jois _ I i? . u _jllSM t-oUs; L'__. 1JNuu"IT. ",,' wj. ,l/J. urymboiu
Q~; I'oh"n'llll <WtI: <itl r" ardsJam;litrl.
(8 . . . UDEl. . . . nu)
'Th~ ligm that mock "'" as I g<:I. ' ('BahnboUlJ"2SK', PP ">OJ
here can be littl~net:<! to irueS! on the importanCt of toe? Trcapondo-n. :ainF. :-. ,. . ,. . ,Wd:t;thcwbol<:bookiu jungle of . . . 6k <r4nIJr. d<:pendenl on them. In the 'Introduc?
tion' to her Gnu. s, M il. Glasheen bas a ,,"Clion entitled 'Who is Who wh~n J::,'erybody is Somebody EIIC'-a pnndple wbich mighl wdl be exlC"flded 10 lnclud~ the inanimal<; u well as the animate . :ootent ofthe booI<. I nc-rt objects mell, palpitate, wobble, disintegrate, and are tra",Cormed inlo almotl anything ~lst: with
bewildering rapidity and mobili ly. Nor is there a dear boundary betwttn living and dead in Fin. ,. . ,. . . ! l'd:t: If"<< and rlOne become washel"W(lmen, h<:wme Shem and Sbaun, become tree and . tone once againi tN: milellone smiia, the r~lver barb, IN: barn:l ornt. . . . . . . . m ract, 'the dumb optak'. As, with thc lan- guage, ew:ry vUible or audible rymbol in FilllltltJIU Wdt prO'la to be a many-levt:lkd thing, and Joyce'. conc~m to keep the horizontal lina of meaning flowing al all o;osts acCOunts for the a u d a c i t y o f m a n y o f h i s a w w - i a t i o n s o f J ) ' m b o l , a s ; t doo: : o f o r h i s radical, ~ _cAe-approach to the pun.
Allbough in everyday mallcn Joyce app"an to have lived, andverylargdytohaw:thought,asr. . . . "'JW"~. he wall, Iii<<: Bauddairc and Mann btfo", him, ever more disposed
?
,. ,
? Corusporultru:(S
as he grew older to look on life--spiritual and ph~ca1-. . . a complex of motif. and <ymbol. which mwt be recogni>cd, named, and organised an paper. A. w. . know- ifonly on the auth<>rity of the biogno. phies and lette. --the mature Joyce'. v;"ian was of a world pc::rmeatcd by corre. pondences; and if he did not alrow thi. intelleclllal visian to have any radical effect on h;" way of life he was, neverthd=, perp<tIIally and in- ordinately . upc::ntilia"" and sUp',. . . tition is nothing if nat an
intuitive admiMion of the validity of cof"",pondence.
Became ofJoyce'. wellknawn sensitivity to what he believed 1<> be . ignificant correspondences in the world around him, it would be easy to misinterpret h. . usc of and attitude to eOr- =ponderu:es in literature. Two things, therefore, need to be
made clear at the outset: fil":'lt, that Jove<' paid very little attention to 'traditional' oor=pondenc. . except for what he could get out of them on hi< own terms, and >ecnnd, that, whatever his personal habi'" and belie!