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Joined: Aug 26 2007 Posts: 2752

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_Wake

I was hanging at the nerd office today and one of the literature geeks was appraising Finnegans Wake, saying it was "An implosion of narrative". The wiki article alone makes this sound like a mad read.

I'm always open minded when it comes to literature, but I'd like a heads up. Anybody read this classic? What did you think of it and do you recommend it?

Posted: Nov 18 2008 01:55 pm

I tried reading it when I was sixteen or seventeen. I gave up pretty fast. My English wasn't nearly good enough to understand much of it at the time. I haven't picked it up since, but I might give it another try.

Since your first language is English you might not have the same problems, but if you do and or just don't like it, try reading Ulysses instead. It employs some of the same literary techniques and certain parts of it can qualify as "an implosion of narrative" as well; it's much more accessible however.

But by all means try reading Finnegans Wake, or anything by Joyce for that matter. The worst that can happen is that you put it away after a couple of pages.

Posted: Jan 14 2009 08:25 pm

Worth every page.

That said, I haven't actually read it, but that's simply because I like to read books in order. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man comes first, and is spectacular. My favorite sentence in English literature comes from that book (and anybody who can guess it wins a prize.)

Ulysses is next, and I'm currently in that. I'm moving into Wake when I'm done.

Posted: Jan 15 2009 05:48 am

LordHuffnPuff wrote:

My favorite sentence in English literature comes from that book

"When you wet the bed first it is warm then it gets cold"?

Posted: Jan 15 2009 09:23 pm

Tyop wrote:

LordHuffnPuff wrote:

My favorite sentence in English literature comes from that book

"When you wet the bed first it is warm then it gets cold"?

No. You're very, very far away.

Posted: Jan 19 2009 04:41 am

LordHuffnPuff wrote:

My favorite sentence in English literature comes from that book (and anybody who can guess it wins a prize.)

Ulysses is next, and I'm currently in that. I'm moving into Wake when I'm done.

Well, my own favorite has always been, "Life became a divine gift for every moment and sensation of which, were it even the sight of a single leaf hanging on the twig of a tree, his soul should praise and thank the Giver."

Yours, though? If its now the above, perhaps...

"His childhood was dead or lost and with it his soul capable of simple joys, and he was drifting amid life like the barren shell of the moon."

Maybe...

"Welcome, O life! I go now to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."

(None of those are exact--I'm working from memory here.)

Those are the only ones I can think of right now. Fairly well known ones too and for all I know your favorite could be some obscure little bit I glossed right over. But hey, I tried.

And enjoy Ulysses. Bloomsday in Ireland is on my list of things to do before I die. It's that good. Smile

Reaper, that answers your question as well. 'Wake' is amazing, but it may behoove you to follow Huff's example and read them in order. Its not necessary (I think I read Ulysses before either of the others), but its worth considering,

Posted: Jan 24 2009 10:32 pm

Nope, none of those. I doubt that the one I loved is famous, well known or recognizable:

"Or was it that, being as weak of sight as he was shy of mind, he drew less pleasure from the reflection of the glowing sensible world through the prism of a language manycoloured and richly storied than from the contemplation of an inner world of individual emotions mirrored perfectly in a lucid supple periodic prose?"

It's absolutely beautiful... like a painting.

Posted: Jan 24 2009 11:18 pm

*sigh* Writing like that just makes me want to float away. You could get lost in it.

Thanks for sharing. It really is beautiful. Smile