Just candidly bought this book and feeling like I did a big mistake.
Does anyone have a rec list to tackle this book?
>>8111053
Unless you want to dedicate 2000 hours to deciphering cock jokes written in English that seems to be (and probably was) written by an Irishman with 30 beers and a PhD in Literature I rec you read another book
>>8111075
That would be fine by me, I already have a reading list and late era Joyce is maybe a couple of notches too hard for me just yet.
http://fractiousfiction.com/finnegans_wake.html
It's what I used.
>>8111075
Are there any works like Finnegan's Wake, about multilingual wordplay and experimental narrative, but less of a hurdle to read?
>>8111092
>late era Joyce
b8 spotted
>couple of notches too hard for me just yet
reading isn't a game with levels
read wtf you want, waste your time on the Wake but no one will discuss it with you cuz no ones read it - difficulty is not a measure of quality
OP crack that cover, and type out the first couple paragraphs, so I can gauge this madman, would ya?
>>8111053
Yeah, I actually read the whole thing because I had to. I was entering a prestigious PhD program and focusing on Joyce because I loved Dubliners, Portrait, and Ulysses. To my shame, though, I'd never read the Wake. I'd never even tried, as hard as that was to admit. It was this huge blind spot and area of vulnerability for me. Whenever it'd come up with my colleagues I'd just smile and nod, smile and nod, hoping they wouldn't ask me anything specific about it. "The musicality of it," somebody would say, and I'd say, "Oh God, yes, it's like Beethoven." Finally, though, I had to dive into it, and let me tell you it was tough going. Joseph Campbell's guide helped a lot. Reading it out loud helped. I listened to other people read it, read online commentaries. Eventually it started to make some sort of sense. It was like I was learning to read for the first time again, and in a way this was enjoyable. I got better at reading the book. Soon I was reading entire paragraphs without trouble, getting the puns, laughing at the jokes. I could sort of follow the story, it was like a blurry picture resolving into clarity, or like I was drunk and I was sobering up, I could actually understand it. As I became more and more adept at reading the Wake, I began putting myself to the test, initiating conversations with my colleagues about it, but specific passages this time, specific parts of the book. You can probably guess what happened. After a number of these conversations it became blindingly obvious that I understood the book a lot better than they did, they who I thought were the experts. It eventually became sort of embarrassing for them and I stopped trying to talk about it. And at the end of the day I would pack my things, catch the bus home, and settle into my apartment to read the Wake. It had surpassed all of Joyce's other works in my estimation. Ulysses, the book months earlier I would've named as my favorite of all time, the best book ever written, was now #2 to the Wake. So majestic, so ambitious, so wide-ranging, erudite, glorious, incredible was it that I couldn't believe that it was the work of one man. Best of all, the heart of it isn't complicated at all. What did I get from the Wake, what are its lessons? First of all, be yourself. Second of all, put one foot in front of the other. And lastly, just do it for crying out loud, time's a wastin'!
>>8111286
>this kills the crab
>>8111277
Joyce died two years later, so yeah, it's pretty much late era Joyce for me, what's your fucking problem, stormfag?
I'm not referencing litterature like a fucking game, haven't you ever heard of difficulty grading back in high school? It's just a simple tool to compare authors and novels by their qualities/shortcomings.
In short, fuck off if you're unhappy, cunt.
>>8111280
It's in french though, but sure.
erre-revie, pass'Evant notre Adame, d'erre rive en rëvière, nous recourante via Vico par chaise percée de recirculation vers Howth Castle et Environs.
Tbqh I don't fel like typing the rest.
>>8111093
>Fortunately Joyce built various ‘failsafe’ mechanisms into his text. So if you miss something the first time around, you will get another chance to grapple with it later.
>For example, if you don't understand the symbolism of Wellington and his monument in chapter one, you will get another chance at the end of the book—and along the way, you will find references to Wellinghof, Wellingthund, Wellingtonia, wellingtonorseher, Wei-Ling-Taou, wheywingingly, Whiddington, etc. etc. Sooner or later, you will figure it out. If you didn't grok the story of Buckley and the Russian general at its first telling, you might latch on to it the second, third, fourth or fifth time it enters the text. If you struggle with the conversation between Mutt and Jute in chapter one, it will get re-echoed in later dialogues between Butt and Taff and Muta and Juva. And even if you still don’t comprehend their conversation at that point, you can take some comfort in knowing that they didn't either —see, among other things, Joyce is playing on the idea of a dialogue between the deaf and the mute. If you can’t figure out the details of the hero's scandalous indiscretion in a public park the first time around, it will get told and retold many times in the pages ahead. If you miss a pun, there are still thousands more waiting for you before Finnegans Wake comes to an end.
>In fact, the book doesn't come to an end. It just connects back to the beginning. So the truest statement once can make about this novel is: Whether you understand it or not, it will come back again. To some extent, that’s the 'meaning' of the book.
Christ almighty.
>>8111332
pic related. This is from >>8111093's website.
>>8111286
>for crying out loud
>>8111098
Ulysses maybe? It's far simpler than the Wake but it still holds some literary clout.
>>8111366
I was going to call that uysless advice, but then you went through the trouble of answering me. Thanks anyhow.
>>8111053
Well, you know or don’t you kennet or haven’t I told you every telling has a tailing and that’s the he and the she of it.
