Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Notes from the April 2011 Meeting and Happy Summer!

Again, a million thanks to Chris Murphy for creating this month's post!

Join us for our May meeting (just squeaking in!) on Tuesday, 5/31 at 7 p.m. We'll be moving our gatherings to weekday evenings to accommodate folks' summer weekends out of town.

Pp. 79-81
Opening with the paragraph reading, “Ladies did not disdain those pagan ironed times…”

We opened this week with the narrative voice that presents a reading of history as a “Fact” (79). Why did ladies “not disdain those pagan ironed times…(79)? It is suggested that sexual freedom was less regulated for woman in these pre-Christian pagan or iron[age] times (the Irish Iron Age and pre-history end at roughly the same time Christianity was introduced into the country, 400-500 AD). In these times, “the whole wives’ world [whole wide world was] frockful of fickles” and “…any human inyou” [being – yet also inghen – Gaelic for young woman/daughter] could be had “any erenoon or [a]fter” (79). Woman were Venuses, “gigglibly temptatrix” [giggling temptrasses] to their “guffawably eruptious” Vulcan male counterpart [loud, boisterous, erupting laugh – also god awful, but nevertheless, the world was full of laughter]. Sexual union is likened to religion here, Venus and Vulcan being Roman deities [married in some myths]. The bodkins of this section, we read as those of knitting tools – such that when the woman in this section “take [their] bare godkin out, or an even pair of hem” [hem = them, but also hem as in sowing/stitching], they are letting their hair down (bodkins that hold up woman’s hair). That the bodkins are referred to as a “godkin” returns to the concept of sexual union and religion in the reading of “prettily pray with him (or with em even)” (79). God’s children [god/kin], here, “prettily pray” [pray, as in prayer, but also “play” or “lay” as in sexual union with, sometimes, multiple partners “with him (or with [th]em even) everyhe to her taste. Regardless, it is her taste that decides who “she’d woo and wills she’s win but how the deer knowed where she’d marry!” (79). But we have transitioned away from the pre-history. We are now in times of recorded history: ABCD or 123 [“Arbour, bucketroom, caravan, ditch? + “Tip!” “Tiptip!” “Tiptiptip!”].

It is in the next paragraph that we encounter “Kate Strong, a widow” (79). She has a recorded image of “old dumplan [Dublin] as she nosed [knows or smelt] it.” It is in the form of a “lane picture” [Sir Hugh Lane?] or a dreariodreama [dreary diorama+dream]. The picture shows “a homelike cottage of elevenstone” [HCE] that has fallen into decline: “droppings of biddies, [animal excrement] stinkend pusshies, [stinking pussies-cats?] moggies’ [slang for cat, cow and prostitute] duggies, [doggies, which seems odd that duggies are possessed here by the moggies’] rotten witchawubbles, [rotten vegetables, witches?]…” (79) etc. Disease is spreading in the form of “salmonfarious germs” [salmonella, somniferous meaning to cause sleep/death, or omniferous meaning multiple forms of] in gleefully through the smithereen panes [window panes broken into small fragments most likely by the “beggars’ bullets” – rocks]. Kate is a collector of trash. She “did most all the scavenging from good King Hamlaugh’s [Hamlet’s] gulden dayne” [Good while using her “lean besom” [broom, but also un-plump/shriveled breast] to clean “sparingly” (79).

The narration in the next page competes between at least two voices: a narrator that seemingly wants to construct a history of events and the voice of an Irish peasant woman, presumably Kate. This narrator tells of the changes in the name of the area with the introduction of Christianity – “Finewell’s Keepsacre [Fine and well, keep sacred / keepsake] to “tautaubapptossed Pat’s Purge” [baptized and St. Patrick’s legends]. The “Serpentine in Phornix Park” [snake shaped path, Phoenix Park + fornicate] lacks pavement – “macadamised Sidetracks” (80), but a natural path like the “Bryant’s Causeway” [Giant’s Causeway] bordered with various flowers and plants.. The historian tells of the area surrounding Kate’s “filthdump” (80) in context to the incident in the park - “where the plaintiff was struck” (80), a place where various forms of “elbowdents” [evidence] were “explored to trace a “most envolving description” (80). It is in this place, possibly, that ALPs lost letter rests “a loveletter lostfully hers, that would be lust on Ma, than then when ructions ended” (80). The ending of this paragraph returns us to the previous: lust and religion return, yet with a twist. Religion here, it seems is utilized pragmatically to control and regulate the sexual freedoms of the previous age – “by four hands and forethought the first babe of reconcilement” [Christ child?] becomes an extension to “hume sweet hume” [Empiricism & David Hume] (80). Kate, interjects that this time is gone and there is no good recounting it. “Give over it! And no more of it!” (80). The aforementioned “ironed times” (79) have passed. There may be longing for the past, but it depends on interpretation of the final line of the paragraph. “O[h] men!” (80) as though it is a criticism of the Christian era that ended those ironed times that woman did not disdain (79) – yet is can also be read as an “O[men]!” of things to come – or also an affirmation of acceptance the age is passed: “Amen!” (80). It is probably all three if not more.

The historian voice returns in the second paragraph of p.80, explaining this consortium of religions [Allhighest a common title of Zeus, krischnians = Christians + the Hindu god Krishna] to control sexuality: “…propaganda fidies and his nuptial eagles…” [propagate + propaganda faiths and marriage ceremonies]. The line “every morphyl man of us, pome by pome, falls back into this terrine” (80) reflects on this, but requires much unpacking first. Pomme de terre is French for potato, meaning apple of the earth, which corresponds to Murphy [morphyl], Hiberno-English slang for potato. The apple’s [pomme] fall resonates with Newtonian laws that govern motion on Earth. Man’s fall from Eden and the apple’s fall seemingly both give rise to laws and regulations. Mortal men are reminded of this fall “pome by pome” – poem by poem – hymn by hymn until all memory of the past ways is washed into “obluvial” [oblivion] by the “noarchic” waters (80). Kate interjects again to close this paragraph. She is seemingly yelling at people she caught acting inappropriately. The language is highlighted with sexual innuendo around a tramstop [“pennyfares” + Chapelizod/Issy-la-Chappelle + Lucan]: “What are you doing your dirty minx and his big treeblock way up your path… And gish! how they gushed away” (80). It seems as though those that “scampered” off were rather young, school children, “little pirlypettes!” (80) and may have included Issy. Interestingly enough, the tram stop that personifies Issy “Chapelizod/Issy-la-Chappelle” preceeds ALP, the next stop “Any lucans¸please?” (80).

We paused for a moment at the top of 81 while examining the presence of HCE and ALP “his corns either. Look at all the plotsch!” (81). Look at all the plots! Really? “Yes,” (81), the paragraph begins similar to Molly’s soliloquy in Ulysses but does not appear to offer any affirmations, however. It seems as though where Molly may chose her path, the speaker in this section has no such choice. The speaker is on “tramstrack” [tram-tracks] that can only lead down one rhederhoad [carriage road]. “O Adgigasta, multipopulipater!” [the giant father of many populations] is in his mausoleum behind the speaker who continues down the path of other civilazations past: “Hannibal’s walk” [Roman tradition] of “Hercules work” [Greek creation]. There is a cry to “Halte” [stop] and this interlude paragraph ends giving way to the voice familiar from the first paragraph discussed in this month’s reading.

We only had time to work through part of the next paragraph (spanning pages 81-84). We concluded for this meeting with the line “Let me go, Pautheen! I hardly knew ye” (82). The paragraph begins with a 21 line sentence. The narrator may have returned the reader to the opening scene of Finnegans Wake: “It was hard by the howe’s there, plainly on this disoluded and buchan cold spot” [It was heard by the Howth ‘ere, (it may be house as well) plainly on this desolate or cold spell” (81). The narration begins to set up the tale of an attack based on mistaken identity. The “attackler” either intoxicated or sick “between colours with truly native pluck” (81) confronted his perceived adversary - “Oglethorpe or some other ginkus” [giant?] resembling Michelangelo (81). Maybe in the retelling of this story, the narrator is reluctant use the same language of the incident because “sacrilegious languages” are blotted out, substituting “b—y [and] b—r” for bloody and buggar. We may have entered a formal setting. Regardless, there was an attack that took place here, with the attacker “catching holst [hold] of an oblong bar he had…with which he usually broke furnitures” waving this bar/pipe at the his adversary in a fashion that meant battle “whethertheywere Nippoluono engaging Wei-Ling-Taou” [Napoleon engaging Wellington] or “de Razzkias trying to reconnoistre the general Boukeleff” [the Russians and Buckley which will be reexamined in Book II] (81). The shorter of the two was holding a “portable distillery” while the “toller” (82) [taller] cried “Let me go, Pautheen! [Whiskey] I hardly knew ye” (82). This is where we left off for the meeting.

Lots to look forward to in the next meeting: whiskey, fighting, religion, desire - join us for our May meeting [barely!] if you b—y well dare!

Notes from the March 2011 Meeting

March Notes: 75-79

We had a larger group this meeting, so we felt it best to return to the closing lines of Book I Chapter III and the first few lines of Chapter IV. HCE is buried. The slow, sentimental prose of falling rain “Sdrops” that concludes chapter three has created a “teargarten” grave for HCE as we move into chapter four (74-5). Chapter four opens “As the lion in our teargarten remembers the nenuphars of his Nile…” We presumed the lion here refers to HCE, who sleeps inside of his grave. His grave is a tear garden, but also a tiergarten [German for zoo], a place of captivity. As a lion thinks of the days outside the zoo walls – “remembers the nenuphars [flower – lotus/water lily] of his Nile” (75), HCE remembers the days before his imprisonment. He “bedreamt” [dreams/remembers] those “lililiths [1. note HCE’s stutter, 2. Lilith – first wife of Adam: threat to patriarchal order and male sexuality, and 3. lily resonating with the nenuphars] undeveiled which had undone him” [dreams of those girls unveiled which caused his fall] while he pays no attention to “the watchful treachers at his wake” (79).

The opening page is characterized by the excessive use of Dutch and also paired words. JP consulted a JJQ article by Geert Lernout, “Dutch in Finnegans Wake.” He suggests the language in 1.4 is to “Dutchify” HCE, render him foreign in another way. Many of Joyce’s references to Holland are negative, it being (like England) a Protestant imperialist country. Much of Joyce’s use of Dutch is Afrikaans-Dutch, a language spoken by colonizers in South Africa. Lenout notes that many Irish found the political situations of Ireland and South Africa to be similar. As for the language doubles, 28 [possibly 29] appear on page 75 alone [Issy’s 28 classmates?].* The pairings seem to go well with the reading of HCE obsessively replaying the events with the two girls in the park in his rest. The selection of the Nile for this passage’s stream, further plays with this idea of doubles, it having two tributaries, White and Blue. “Marmarazalles from Marmeniere” [Mademoseille from Armentieres] was a popular WWI song among British troops, noted for its saucy lyrics relating to a tavern-keeper’s daughter.

We noticed an odd poetic meter that introduces the HCE’s children as well as the Tristam and Iseult legend: “the fields of heat and yields of wheat where corngold Ysit? shamed and shone.” Corn [wheat], is a key characteristic of Iseult, but the presence of shamed and shone [Shem and Shaun] suggest that Ysit could read Issy. (75). It is with this rhyming line that the paragraph changes in focus. Whereas the narrator makes the initial claim that HCE “knew not the watchful treachers at his wake” this claim is recanted. “It may be, [we have to look up a bit in] our good township’s [newspapers]” if he was “conscious of enemies” particularly that of his “wordwounder” a man similar to William the Orange “kingbilly whitehorsed” was spreading evil throughout the country with a “distinguished dynasty of…posteriors [children], blackfaced connemaras not of the fold but elder children of his household…”(75-6). We noticed the precence of William the Orange within the latter half of p. 75, “kingbilly whitehorsed” [white horses being those of English rulers and royalty]. The release of terror into this society creates the need to submit to authority over time for the benefit of the whole: the rise to the motto of Dublin “the obedience of the citizens help the health of the whole” (76).

The first paragraph open ubiquitously: “Now gode” [it can be read as follows wholly changing the context of the paragraph: Now good, Now go, or Nou goed meaning All right in Dutch, No good, No god, Now god, etc. The narrator instructs us to “leave theories there and return to here’s here. Now hear [Listen] ‘Tis gode again [It’s good again, It’s God again]. There is talk of the teak coffin “removed from the hardware premises of Oetzmann and Nephew” (66) reenters the text. It appears as though “a number of conservative bodies” having gone through all the regulations of laws and channels of bureaucracy [committees, voting, proper resolution, koorts (court’s) order, groundwet (constitution)] are attempting to use this coffin to transport HCE from his “protem grave in Moyelta” [temporary grave] “while his body still persisted.” He is to be taken “once and for all out of plotty existence” (76). But just like the second half of the paragraph, something “fairly fishy” has happened with “erst curst Hun.” (76).

In the next paragraph spanning 76-77 the grave site is introduced as an “underground heaven or mole’s paradise.” We discussed two aspects that seem to operate hand in hand in this section. 1. issues of destruction and war and 2. the presence of harvest and festivals. In regard to the former, the group discussed whether or not underground bunkers or tunnels were present in Joyce’s time. We are brought into the destruction of war as we move to page 77 – hydromine, T.N.T. bombingpost, aerial thorpeto, minefield, sheildplated gunwale, tripupcables, etc. indicate the outbreak of war and violence (77). What is most interesting in this regard is the reminder that the “masterbilder” is the one that “openly damned and blased by means of a hydromine” (77). The masterbuilder creates but also creates objects that destroy like the weapons of war catalogued in this paragraph. In another regard, however, we noted that in a continuation of “Donawhu” legend (75) [O’Donoghue from Irish folklore linked to good harvests]. We have a phallopharos [penis god?] who’s “inversion” intends to “foster wheat crops and to ginger up tourist trade” (76). And in the midst of the war imagery, the two harvest festivals of pagan Ireland are represented in “Sowan and Belting” [Samhain – close of harvest – November 1; Bealtaine – Spring Festival – May 1]. Regardless, at the end of the section, a stone slab is placed over HCE’s grave and he is given “a very fair-worded instance of falsemeaning adamelegy: We have done ours gohellt with you, Heer Herewhippit, overgiven it, skidoo!” [We are done with you – Go to Hell – Mr. Herewhippit/Earwicker, get lost!].

My notes consist of household objects, things that could be given as gifts, and Dutch names of various meats. Maybe he is quarantined in “t’house” where he remains “safeathomely” (77, 78) in his “presenile days.” (78). As HCE falls into a thousand year sleep (hypnos chilia eonion) “explosions and reexplosions” of thunder [Donnaurwatteur = Thunderweather; Hunderthunder = Hundred Thunders] strike the Earth. The Grand age ends and lots of deaths are anticipated? [78]. These paragraphs seem to signify HCE, after his death and burial, passing into myth and “culture,” an object of study. The voice(s) become reminiscent of tour guides, historians, summarizers, village explainers. “Look at all the things he had, all the junk that now becomes artifacts, that he used to live his totally ordinary life.” The reference to “Boughtenland” is another link to the Netherlands, a commercial empire, land of traders and hoarders.

The last section of this months notes contained lots of death, burial, decomposition, and putrefication / petrification of dry rotting bodies. The war continues with “The other spring offensive” (78). It seems as though this is a civil war between “New South Ireland and Vetera Uladh [Ancient Ulster]. “Foughtarundser” presumably HCE [Vater Unser – Our Father] has been buried seven times mirroring that of Cian in Finntown, a mythical Irish chief whose body was rejected by the Earth seven times. But HCE has been buried in a “watery grave” now for “three monads” [months, but also Monads; Giordano Bruno’s 3 Monads: 1. God 2. Souls 3. Atoms] (78). Both sides seem represent factions of the same “Celtiberian camps” and view their respective sides as having the favor the “eternals [who were] owlways on their side” (78). Imagery includes terminology and references to the American Civil War. One “grant ideas” [Ulysses S. Grant’s ideas?] grunted is “With the Pope or On the Pope” a reference to the Second Battle of Bull Run, where General John Pope told his soldiers to “Come back with their shields or on their shields.” Man’s violence continues. But as we move to page 79, it may be that during these times “involved in darkness” [enveloped in darkness] “falsesight[ings] of HCE, the “first old wugger of himself in the flesh” [sightings of HCE in the flesh] “circulated freely” – yet others suggest his is “hibernating” and with a lot of fish references [rainbow trout, roach/carp, minnow, salmon], “secretly and by suckage feeing on his own misplaced fat” (79).

This is where we broke for March. HCE is buried, but sightings and rumors complicate his death or hibernation. Our hero is gone. The world is at war. We do not speak Dutch. We can’t go on. We’ll go on.

*1. Nenuphars/Nile 2. Ariuz/Arioun 3. Boghas/baregams 4. Marmarazalles/Marmeniere
5. Brievingbust 6. Besieged/bedreamt 7. Stil/solely 8. Undeveiled/undone 9. Watchful/wake
10. Fooi/fooi. 11. Zeepyzoepy 12. Larcenlads 13. Zijnzijn/Zijnzijn 14. May/moest
15. Wheat/where 16. shamed/shone 17. want/we 18. wasted/within 19. broadsteyne/’bove
20. Twillby/Twillby 21. hellof/hours 22. Wordwounder 23. nomened/Nash
24. weeping/world 25a. kreepons-kneed (not sure if this counts due to different “k” sounds - would still fit though creating 28 + Issy = 29). 25b. milk/music 26. married/missusses 27. might/mercy 28. distinguished/dynasty