Pages Covered: 90-93 (PQ got kind of excited because we're only 10 pages away from the end of the chapter. The more clear-eyed folks in the group pointed out this would probably take six meetings to cover.)
Page 90 was rough going. Lots of pieces and work to try to figure out how they all fit together. We are still in the midst of the trial of the Festy King, and have just finished the testimony by the W. P. We decided that perhaps the paragraph ending with the whore thunderword ("Bladyughfoulmoecklenburgwhurawhorascorastrumpapornanennykocksapastippatappatupperstrippuckputtanach, eh?") should be a bit chaotic, because the thunderword restarts the Viconian cycle and begins again an age of gods. This long paragraph has many instances of falls, and then the following has many instances of dawning, so we ran with that.
The top of the page has a number of references to China, specifically the move from kingship or empire to republic. While previous conversations have pointed out anti-imperial or anti-British moments in the Wake, here a case could be made that the transition to republic, to democracy, actually signals the chaos at the end of the age of man: the thunderword is leading us into a new age of gods, but we have the chaos of the fall right before that. This is all in the context of the final questioning of the W. P., and as we saw last time his certainty is open to question: "Let there be fight? And there was. Foght." This is a genesis moment, but it's struggle not light. And it's not a statement, it's a question. And it ends with an expression of disgust? resignation? vulgarity?: "Fuck."
Fall: "from the king's head to the republican's arms...evinxed from flagfall"; "In the middle of the garth, then? That they mushn't toucht it" -- the first phrase points to the man/chaos/god ricorso moment, but we also have a number of references to Adam and Eve and the Christian fall -- which might account for the whore thunderword, too: "That he was when he was not eluding from the whole of the woman." Here women are a figure of corruption -- although this changes in a page or two (maybe) when the monthly girls show up with Issy.
HCE and his sons, and the theme of betrayal as part of the fall of the father, are all here too: "during the effrays round fatherthyme's beckside" (Buckley and the Russian General), as well as Camellus and Gemellus in the middle of the paragraph.
But the king tries to reclaim his position, and the man goes through another resurrection, in the next paragraph (pages 90-92). Beginning with "Meirdreach an Oincuish" -- shite and onions, but also more words for whores and harlots -- a "new complexion was put upon the matter when...the senior king of all, Pegger Festy...declared in a loudburst of poesy...he did not fire a stone either before or after he was born down and up to that time." Festy declares his innocence, using poetry rather than law and rejecting the testimony of the "eyebold earbig noseknaving gutthroat." This is the re-emergence of the king and a return to an earlier age: poetry precedes law, and we talked a bit about the relationships among law, language, and history. What does it mean for a culture to finally write down its laws? For law and language to be linked? Is law then fixed? Or does it remain infinitely interpretable? This was sparked by the abcedarianism of the passage: "ach bad clap," "Oo! Ah!," "Augs and ohrs," "amreeta beaker coddling doom."
We return to the land of youth: "Tyre-nan-Og," but also Tierney, sounding like tyranny. Tyranny of the King? Or tyranny of those who judge him? Potential for tyranny in the face of chaos, righting the excesses of too much democracy? Festy confronts his judges, "the four of Masterers." As he mounts his defense, he works himself up into his phoenix moment -- not the shame of Phoenix Park but the rising again: he is a "jackabox" at the "dorming of the mawn" -- the dawn of man, the dawning of the morn, a new age. And this is HCE as well: "his exchequered career he up," and it's Finnegan with his whisky: "the inexousthausthible wassailhorn tot of iskybaush the hailth uyp the wailth of the endknown abgod of fire" -- wassailing, drinking to health and wealth, the inexhaustible house (could be Mr. Porter and his pub?), but also the god of fire, at the beginning, from the beginning (ab), unknown but also not really knowing where it will end.
Finally the audience breaks out into laughter and yelling: "the whole audience perseguired and pursuited him...outbroke much yellachters in the heall...the testifighter reluctingly, but with ever so ladylike indecorum, joined. (Ha! Ha!)." This "hilariohoot" sparks a a reflection about the intersecting "duadestinies" of Festy and W. P. This prompts the entrance of Issy and the monthly girls as well as Shem and Shaun -- HCE's children have arrived at the trial of the king. The beginning of the paragraph talks about the reconciliation of polarities: "equals of opposites" -- which turns into talking about men and women, perhaps Joyce's best example of the reconciliation of polarities: "hunundher," "Heruponhim". The end of the paragraph performs in a bodily/erotic way the joining of opposites: "the wild wishwish of her sheeshea melted most musically mid the dark deepdeep of his shayshaun." We laughed at the dirtiness of the passage, but looking back at it now you realize the language is quite lovely.
Chris adds:
All that sexy language we discussed on the bottom of p. 92 -
(youthsy, beautsy, hee's her chap and shey'll tell memmas when she gays whom) till the wild wishwish of her sheeshea melted most musically mid the dark deepdeep of his shayshaun - i had that in my notes as "games" but did not remember what I referenced games too - so i doublechecked my notes, and the language comes from one of Joyce's notebooks under "London Street Games" - from "finwake.com" p. 92
London Street Games 54: (a skipping chant) 'Little Mary Anne who lives up stairs, With high legged boots and a feather in her hat -- That's the way she meets her chap --'.
London Street Games 29: (a chant) 'I'll tell Ma when I get home That the boys won't leave me alone. They pull my hair and break my comb, I'll tell Ma when I get home'.
So, I think this adds more to the notion of childhood innocence (Issy's or any of the young girls) under the threat of sexual desire (sheyshaun - Shem and Shaun competing for their affection?).
He's right, of course. Here's PQ again:
So all this romancing, "innamorate...in shining aminglement," has totally distracted the "four justicers": Untius, Muncius, Punchus, and Pylax. We struggled a bit with the last part we worked on, page 93, ll. 1-21, but we came around to thinking it was not only about Shem the Penman but also Joyce himself (Shem of course being an avatar for JJ). He has "murdered all the English he knew" (a reference to the Phoenix Park murders but also to the Wake), "geshing it like gush gash from a burner" (guessing, and also Gas from a Burner), "How dare he!," "You and your gift of your gaft of your garbage abaht our Farvver!". The monthly girls are here, as are the brothers -- "twofromthirty advocatesses," Esau. Shem's special brand of writing -- using shit -- is here too, which plays into the JJ allusions too: "he shat in (zoo)," "like the muddy goalbind who he was (dun)." Of course there is shame in all of this: the trial, the writing, the family -- and so the paragraph ends with seven words for shame.
We left with the letter on the dungheap, and look forward to the entrance of ALP.
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