Subject: GODDESS NAMED "EMAIL"
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 8/30/97 6:39 PM
What can anyone share about the Celtic goddess known as Email? The
locale and time of her veneration, the attributes
associated with her, the pronunciation of her name . . . ?
I once saw in a book a picture of her carved in stone. Her name
was give with no further information. Might the "m" be devolved from
"mh"/"v" indicating a possible cog. with ewa/Ava/Eve? Is she or a
discernible derivative adrift anywhere in the Wake?
Since this is the first e-mail I've ever sent, other than that
needed to join you, it seems worthwhile to invoke a proper muse. Thank
you for letting me,
The Seldom Right Riverend Sterling.
Subject: FW: [410.23; et al.] "Emailia"
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 8/31/97 9:49 PM
Dear Mikio,
Thank you for your warm and prompt reply. I am as yet without a copy of
R. McHugh/'91, and was gratified to find that there is an apparent cameo
by the goddess in question.
There is amusing serendipity in [410.21] the same paragraph's ref. to
"franking machines," as my attempts to grapple with e-mail are so far
centered around my poor command of computer keyboardology, & I must
apologize for my horrid formatting. I was also in a terrible hurry when
I wrote to you, and made mistakes the "franking machines" have nothing
to do with, such as confusing direct and indirect object cases in ref.
to "Os," but the good news is that "os" is operable in either case in
Spanish.
RE/[410.20-23]: My read of the letter theme in FW is different than any
exegesis I've read in that I believe the letter is to be primarily
understood as a single and specific letter of the alphabet, i.e. the
first letter. There is of course much play upon the sense of a
missive/epistle as well. In Latin, the word cog. with "letter" is used
with interesting and significant nuances lost in English. As I recall,
one does not send someone a "letter." That would imply receiving a
single alphabetic character. So even a single missive is ref. to in
Latin as "letters."
All this would be "so what" unless we remind ourselves that the central
character of FW is ALP, and ALP is the Semitic alphabet character aleph,
rendered in Eng./Gk. as alpha. When we realize that the very word
"alphabet" is Eng.>Lt.>Gk.>NW Sem. for bull/house, the first two
alphabetic characters, it becomes all clear -- or an insane muddle. Add
to that that aleph in Semitic alphabets is the glottal stop, an
indication of a technique of breathing, and it is time to cf. with
[249.6-20]:
". . . house of breathings . . ." the phonetic alphabet;
" . . . all fairness." ALP/ALPh(P & Ph are the same letter in NW
Sem)/all f{airness};
Read: In the alphabet, we find the letter "A."
Now follow numerous esoteric resonant reinforcements: The "elf" in
"elfinbone"; the "Tyr" in "Tyrian"; "fairness" linked to "milk"; the
ref. to consonants & vowels; "abaseth." The list of words in lines 16 &
17 are quite remarkable. Each is the name of a Semitic letter.
"Window," forinstance, is the fifth letter, "Heh." Furthermore, Joyce
reveals some knowledge of basic Hebrew grammar, because the particular
letters chosen form some groupings, such as the gutturals, and he has
furthermore played around with some subtle distortions and graphic
puns. The letter "Peh" has three forms in Hebrew: there is the P/Ph
dichotomy ref. to by me already, and a third form is used when peh ends
a word. Et voila: "paypaypay," a ref. to the
three forms.
Joyce seems more concerned to have his game deciphered than usual
because he even tosses in: "And you have it, old Sem, pat as ah be
seated!" I.e.: "There it is in old NW Semitic, just as simple as ABC,
because it is the ABC's!"
And Joyce has even been kind enough to leave us crossreferent bookmarks,
because the ref. to Emailia is followed also by a citation of
pat/patly/(St. Patrick) [410.24]; and in [410.25] we find the beautiful
ref. to the phonetic alphabet as the house of breathings reduced to the
crude and humorous "gumpower."
Another crossreferent of notice is from "Speak to us of Emailia" to the
famous [196.1-3] "O tell me about Anna Livia."
I will expand on my read of "last door on the left, ladies," some other
time, as right now I have to go there myself. Again, all my best to
you.
The Rarely Right Riverend Sterling.
Subject: Re: Email/ Eimher & Paoncoque/allacook
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/1/97 7:16 AM
Ross Chambers wrote:
> Riverend Stirling wrote:
>
> <<What can anyone share about the Celtic goddess known as Email? The
> locale and time of her veneration, the attributes
> associated with her, the pronunciation of her name . . . ?>>
>
> The closest I can find is Eimher, wife of Cu Chulainn, which Kenneth
> Jackson in A Celtic Miscellany says is pronounced "ever." (sorry- can't
> duplicate the phonetic spelling)
>
> Re FW the word 'email' (acute accent on the e) occurs at 575.16
> and Emailia at 410.23.
>
> McHugh glosses as 'French: enamel' in both cases.
>
> Regards - Ross Chambers
> --
> ======================================================
>
> Ross Chambers Sydney Australia
>
> "The rule is jam tomorrow and jam yesterday-
>
> but never jam to-day" The White Queen.
>
> ========================================================
Dear Ross, thank you for your quick and informative response. I am very
new to all things of the computer, so here's hoping you receive this! I
am bereft of research materials where I am, but a friend's "French for
Travelers" does indeed have "email" (with the accent you mentioned) as
"enamel," so you've provided a nice insight. But now you've got me
wondering what is "vair" of [575.16]? "Paoncoque" [575.16-17] must be,
among who knows what else, the good saint ref. to in [214.23] (I'm
counting lines on my own, so . . . ) as "marthared mary allacook"
(paon/pan/all; coque/cook.)
So now I'm trying to remember the saint's real name. Mary Margaret
Allacoque, or something to that effect? And is she venerated for
establishing the Feast of . . . ? Not lemon-cream pie, I dare say.
Obviously one must get one of these McHughs, and quit pestering
everybody. But you were also kind enough to trace the Eimher/ever/(eve)
path for me in the Celtic Misc. I like your address & signature.
The Occasionally Right Riverend Sterling.
Subject: Re: GODDESS NAMED "EMAIL" & ALP
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/1/97 8:29 PM
Mikio Fuse wrote:
> Reverend,
>
> How about Aoibheall? [pronounced like 'ee-vul']
>
> AIOBHEALL: Otherworld lady and protectress of the Da/l gCais sept in Co
> Clare. The name meant 'sparkling' or 'bright', and reflects a common
> attribute of goddesses in ancient Irish culture. . .
> [Da/ith/ O/ hO/ga/in, _Myth, Legend & Romance: An Encyclopaedia of the
> Irish Folk Tradition_, p. 38]
>
> Anyway I'm curious to see the picture of her (Email or Aoibheall). Can
> you give us even the slightest clue where you saw her (I mean her
> engraving).
>
> --
> Mikio Fuse
> ...
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
8 8
DEAR MIKIO,
Why bless you, I think you may have tracked her down. Or a
close relative. But I have to
be a Henry O'Higgins and ask, "Why can't the Irish spell their own
language?" I was expecting Email
to have derived from Emhail/pron. evail. But who could guess
Aoibheall/pron. eevul? Of course vowels
are barely worth noticing in historical linguistics in either
pronunciation or orthography. And its
worth noting that, since "l" & "r," as the liquid semivowels, can be
interchanged by time or speakers,
that Ross Chamber's citation of Cu Chulainn's wife, Eimher/pron. ever,
could be cognate as well!
And of course Joyce would chuckle over the progression of
Aoibheall/eevul/evil/Eve with its
handy reinforcement of the hellfire interpretation of Genesis, just as
early Church Fathers delighted
in making us think Eve wrecked everything by eating an apple, a fruit
not actually specified in the
text, so they could have a pun on the two pronunciations of malus in
Latin, with the long or short "a"
making the difference between "evil" and "apple" . . . I forget which
is which. I suppose Eve did too.
More later. Thanks again for your correspondence and help.
Yours,
The First Door On The Right Riverend Sterling.
Subject: Re: some galley oddities, FW51-3
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/3/97 4:33 AM
bill cadbury wrote:
>
> 51.16: This is a nice little mystery which I don't have a solution for, but some facts. It concerns the countup (by which I mean the opposite of countdown!) from "ya" to "nine", added at Level 10 (the second FW galley proofs, galley 28, JJA49.363)[ . . . .]
> One would think that it must have been intended to precede some form of "ten" [ . . . ]
>
Dear Bill,
As you know, most alphanumeric games of the "fun, blue, ski, thor .
. . " type end with a mutation of ten be it a "wren," or whatever. The
conceit, of course, need not be rhyming as in my simple-minded example .
. . nor need their be a conceit at all, part of the fun being that the
count-up is based on a pattern so engrained that virtually anything will
do by four as long as one-two-three are fairly obvious.
But as you also know, a numeric place-system need not be decimal at
all. The minimum is two digits, as in the binary code our computer is
speaking to itself, or the 8 base some programming uses.
A calculation-addict such as Joyce would be familiar with
theosophic reduction, sometimes called "casting out nines." Theosophic
reduction is not primarily mathematic but mystical; but the computer
language analogy at least provides us with an anchor on board before we
leave the harbor of what most view as common sense. The goal of "tr" is
to assign a quality to each numeric digit from 1 through 9. The
Indic-Arabic zero is not used, and I believe tr predates the intro. of
the zero into the West in the early years of our soon to end millenium.
My best to you on what appears an intense and highly devoted
project,
The Possibly Right Riverend Sterling.
Subject: Re: some galley oddities, FW51-3
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/3/97 7:20 PM
bill cadbury wrote:
> [ . . . ]
> a nice little mystery . . . concerns the countup from "ya" to "nine", added at Level 10 (the second FW galley proofs, galley 28, JJA49.363)[ . . . . ]it must have been intended to precede some form of "ten"]
> [ . . . ][51.16]
Dear Bill,
Staring at my response of "WED, 03 SEP 1997 01:33:52 -0700" in the
hot sober light of noon, I find the admirable brevity of its gloss to
slight its accuracy. While elements of theosophic reduction predate the
introduction of European usage of the cipher, many of its applications
incorporate the decimal system while providing a means to 1) reduce
numbers of more than the value of nine to a whole integer in the 1-9
set; &
2) to open an interface from numeric quantity to
spiritual/psycological/divinatory qualities.
One of the most common applications is to 1) recreate an
alphanumeric system recalling the good old days when alphabet and
numeral characters were identical, as in classical Greek and Hebrew
(a=1, b=2, etc.) and there is an inherent "9-ness dealing with 10-ness"
in these systems, especially in one of Hebrew's main
variants in which the first nine letters have their cardinal values
equal to their ordinal values; the tenth letter appears to follow suit
until the 11th arrives with a value assigned of "20," the 12th being
"30," and
so on; thus we have a set of nine letters for 1-9, and a second set of
nine letters for 10-90; the 19th letter
is assigned a vallue of "100," and the 22nd & final letter of the Hebrew
alphabet becomes "400"; the third set
of the "hundreds" is finished by assigning the remaining values required
to variations-in-form used when
certain Hebrew letters end a word, so we now have a third set of
100-900; the value of "1000" is placed in a
final set of its own, you will be relieved to hear, and assigned to a
variation in pronunciation of the first
letter (for Wakers needing a place to stop for a moment, recall that the
first letter of the Hebrew alphabet,
<'alef> {with the apostrophe indicating the glottal stop} is spelled in
standard transliteration ALP); & 2)
theosophic reduction procedes to simplify this alphanumerism to a single
set of 1-9 by repeatedly adding
place-digits until a single digit is achieved. And we can certainly all
be happy about that.
Examples: 1) a two digit # is reduced to one digit} (a.) 14
becomes (b.) 1 + 4 = (c.) 5;
2) " 3 " " " " " " " } 100 > 1 + 0 +
0 = 1;
3) " " " " " " " " " } 875 > 8 + 7 +
5 = 20 > 2 + 0 = 2.
Theosophic reduction is also ref. to as "casting out nines"
because "9," as the set-base, now has a
value of "0"; because we're interfacing a 9 base with a 10 base, "0"
also retains the value of zero. Either
can be scratched out before the additive reduction begins.
Examples: 1) 11 > 1 + 1 = 2; 1001 > 1 + 0 + 0 + 1 = 2; ergo, 1001
= 11 = 2;
2) 191> 1 + 9 + 1 = 11 > 1 + 1 = 2; ergo, 1001 = 191 =
11 = 2. So,
3) 1001 or 191 or 10099091 > 1 + 1 = 2.
We thus arrive at what is, believe it or not, an extremely
simplified form of gematria; -- and some insight as to why no one is
allowed to refer to himself as a Qabalist until at least the age of
forty.
Using theosophic reduction, any word or number may be given a one digit
value, and each of those digits
will generally have some preset meaning for the practicioner. "Bill" =
(B/2) + (I/9) + (L/12) + (L/12).
The practicioner knows that 9=0, and throws the 9 out; 12 = 1 + 2 = 3,
so the practioner's initial read of
"Bill" is 2 + 3 + 3 = 8. It would, of course, be inappropriate in this
context to dwell on how that might be
interpreted . . . but you'll be happy to know that there are no bad
numbers in theosophic reduction. And one
can see just by looking at the figure 8, with its marvelous depiction of
infinite fluid recirculation, that
it's a fine number for a Wake scholar. Since our rational footing is
firm, it will do us no harm to peek over
the railing.
Why? Because it was of interest to Joyce. The influence on Joyce
of his rejected call to the cloth by the Jesuits is much better accepted
as a key to his work than the at least equally important rejection by
him
of the invitation by George Russell to the Order of the Golden Dawn, a
Celto- Qabalistic organization of great influence on members as diverse
as W. B. Yeats and Bram Stoker. Joyce uses Golden Dawn motifs
throughout his
work with the same verve and skill as the Catholic ones.
A few hints from the page [51] on the table: 1)[51.4] -- . . .
(since in this scherzarade of one's thousand one . . . -- The ref. to
Scheherezade is patent enough, and as a master storyteller, she belongs
in the Wake. But there's a Qabalistic subtest as well. And we'll keep
the "s," thank you. Aramaic and
classical Hebrew have no orthography for vowels. Masoretic vowel points
were added to the subtext (there) in the several centuries preceding our
current millenium. When we write that the transliteration for the first
letter of the Semitic alphabet is ALP, the A does not indicate the
Anglo-Roman A, but rather the glottal stop.
Therefore, the two pronunciations of ALP, being 'alef (one) and 'elef
(1000) are both transliterated as ALP.
Thus ALP + ALP = 1001. We see her die, but we see her reapppear again.
The stories go on and keep her alive.
Low visiblity identifies the individual (51.4 & 6), who must eventually
be lost in the nightmare of history,
but she lives on in the universality of the regattable oxeter (51.7)(the
word for each Hebrew letter is not
only also a number, but as well a simple meaning of common parlance --
ALP is most often translated as "ox,"
but the more awkward "bovine creature" should be held in mind so images
of "bull" and "cow" are to hand).
2)[51.16] -- Ya . . . The root document of Sephardic Qabalism is the
Sefer Yetzirah, a small treatise on esoteric correspondences dated by
scholars, in its original form, from somewhere between, say, the second
or third centuries to . . . sometime later. It begins with a very
intense statement on how Ya (along with El/
Ela/Elohim the root-god of Genesis as in Yaweh/Yahu/Jehovah) manifested
the universe out of the Semitic alphabet and the decimal numeric
system. Now we are tied back to 1001, because that is the number of
character spaces Joyce allots for the Viconian god to speak through the
10 thunderclaps in FW -- i.e, NINE times 100 +
a clap composed of 101 letters. There is also a pun on Joyce's
initials, JAJ or JAAJ as the case may be, for
as a Latin skollard, he knew that I/J/Y are one letter in Latin, so Ya
is me & da's me dad, & tra-la-la.
P. S. The Golden Dawn counts through the Hebrew alphabet with a Tarotic
system ending with 21 (as in "21?"
[?]) because their ordination starts with zero, i. e., ALP = 0. This
has roots in Midrash. When God asks
each letter why it should be given the honor of starting the alphabet (&
hence the universe), only ALP (being
the glottal stop which is really a pause & not a sound, like the hyphen
in "oh-oh") has the humility to say
"I am nothing." The rest is history.
Ta,
The Thunder on the Right Reverend Sterling.
Subject: POMME GRANITE & Email{ia}
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/5/97 6:24 AM
THANK YOU, SAM. I am as bereft of research materials, at
least of the "treeware" sort, where
I am, as Roger Bacon was after he crossed St.Bonaventure. So your
connection of the pomegranate as Eve's tree, which I assume to be the
pomme granite or seeded apple, was helpful. Your address indicates
you should know, as the pomegranate and palm are the two trees of
heaven according to some, are they not?
In Qabala the pomegranate is identified with the womb and the
palm with the phallus, so it all
seems to fit in with the Eve legend. Israel Regardie has published a
book on Tarotic correspondences
of the Order of the Golden Dawn's version of Qabalah, or at least one
version, called A Garden of
Pomegranates.
MIKIO, to address your several questions to me: 1) I saw a
picture of Email in a trade-size
paperback book which I purchased second hand about five or six months
ago. The subject of the book
was things Celtic of the British Isles. The photo did not even
state which island, nor give
a date, and the good lady-in-stone did not appear in the text
anywhere. I got a 500-1000 A.D. feel.
The book is packed far away but perhaps in several months I can
resurface it. I can't remember the
title or author. [410.23]
2) I have an unfortunate habit of speaking and writing in
intellectual shorthand. When I
referred to "lost/last door on the left" as a euphemism for a
restroom, I meant it fit the form
of a recognizable generic body of phrases: "2nd door to the right,"
"third bush from the tree,"
"take it to the nurse at the end of the hall," and such. I think the
"ladies" at the end reinforces
and gives a tourguide feel recalling the "museyroom" episode
earlier. [54.11] [8.9 & 10.22]
EMALIA is apparently the common word for e-mail/electronic
mail in Finland I found out by a
search-engine entry. It also gave an URL for a website called "Speak
to us of Emalia . . . " but
I couldn't receive it from my server. The URL is
<http://www.microserve.net/-thequail/libyrinth/joyce.
list.html>. I found the URL from Lycos Services at <www.lycos.com/>.
Blessings on all,
The downRight Riverend Sterling.
Subject: Tim & Hic
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/7/97 4:41 PM
CHARLES CAVE WROTE, 1997 SEP 06 [22:55 + 1000]:
"FINNEGAN, Tim
"Note from Adaline Glasheen's third census of Finnegans Wake"
. . . "The relation of Finn-Finnegan to H. C. Earwicker (q.v.) has not
been established . . . "
Dear Charles,
There is an apparently obscure but significant relation. It revolves
around the fact that throughout most of the ballad called "Finnegan's
Wake" the character Tim Finnegan is considered to be dead. As you point
out, his sudden recovery due to the magical effects of a topical
application of spirit (sadly uneffective for Admiral Nelson, whose
corpse was brought to Gibraltar in a cask of brandy; -- and indeed
counterproductive for the Duke of Clarence) are marvelously tied into
the Viconian scheme of historic cyclicity, and thence to all myths of
regeneration.
The tie between the "corpse" of Tim Finnegan and HCE is this: in the
now little-recalled formalities of inscriptive Latin abbreviations,
HCE was once commonly recognized as standing for Hic Conditor Est,
given in English as "Here is the author."
While on one hand the constant "HCE's" allow Joyce to carve reference to
himself all over the text, "author" should be understood more broadly
than "writer"; try "creator, founder"; -- so it is as well a reference
to the Prime Mover whose reflection in each facet of existence appears
as a unique individual.
HCE could occasionally be engraved in cornerstones, but HCE was most
generally recognized as a gravestone/mausoleum abbreviation, the rough
equivalent of the English "RIP." The casualness of what would seem
translatable as "here the guy is" was somewhat ameliorated by HCE being
understood as shorthand for a longer platitude of seven words, the first
three of which are Hic Conditor Est. I can't recall the whole phrase,
but it's something to do with now being ashes. Some form of cinere is
one of the other four words, cognate with the English word incinerator,
not to put too fine a point on it.
Even though HCE is terrible busy throughout Finnegans Wake performing
the roles of God, man, and Joyce, he finds time throughout also to be
Tim Finnegan's headstone. HCE is thus, as we already knew, the
universal being within which each individual arises and within which
each of us is buried; the rock round which the river flows.
Now I will share a rather unique insight of a very specific experience
of having played the role of Tim Finnegan in a drama class one-act
adaption of the ballad when I was 16. Rehearsals were held in a
standard-size classroom at the head of which was placed a cafeteria
table upon which I had to lie in state for 45 minutes or so one
period a day for several weeks. Most of my classmates weren't in
the piece, and would mill about. I had the title-role, but since I was
a corpse, my lines were not very impressive and my business
nonexistent. What this spawned was a rather bizarre contest in which a
coterie of girls in the glass began conducting quite spicy conversations
featuring a great deal of double entendre and innuendo, all within my
ear's range, but cleverly masked by the magic elvin mist of children
from any adults present. The intent was to try to awaken in my prone
and immobile profile, helplessly on display for all, a certain visible
change of a bulgelike nature. This would, of course, provoke an
hysteria of mirth, but abrogate my responsiblities to our instructor,
Miss Bernstein, whose only directorial command to me was that I "not
move a muscle" during my performance. We shall not offend the canons of
good taste by elaborating on what levels of success such a misled but
imaginative coterie achieved. But we must give some small credit to
these young ladies for an interesting if evanescent puddle seen briefly
through the brush as we float down the mainstream of Joycean criticism.
Charles, toward the end of your mail, you quote Joyce citing Miss Weaver
(and is Adaline still in the loop as well?) and invoking the name of
Catherine O'Shea. How many were, or are about to be, as amazed as I
was several years ago to learn that Kitty O'Shea and Annie Besant were
close cousins? That in fact Mrs. Besant, who introduced birth control
to the center burner of public controversey 50 years before Margaret
Sanger, organized the London matchgirls, was jailed and had her children
taken away, went on to executive positions in the Theosophical Society,
the Fabian Society, and the revolutionary National Congress of India (I
am probably not getting all these august bodies' names in proper form),
discovered and raised the philosopher Krishnamurti, wrote who knows how
many books, explored and mapped the astral planes, and owned a
newspaper in southern California . . . how many realize she attributed
all her visionary qualities to being 3/4's Irish? While both these
women played prominent public roles in the childhood of Joyce, Kitty as
Parnell's helpmate and Annie as, for one thing, a proto-word play name,
being dubbed by Stanislaus Joyce as Any Bee's Aunt, it strikes me as
well on this day when the lives of Diana Spencer and Mother Teresa are
so fresh in our minds, that the two pairsof women have a further Joycean
resonance in that they closed the two centuries in which he lived by
standing up against similar forces with similar courage, and Joyce is
our greatest writer on the variations of eternal reappearance.
Thank you for sharing your informative notes, and my best to you,
The throwing his best Right Riverend Sterling.
P.S. I'm still struggling to grasp the basic protocol of e-mail
keyboard formatting and such, so I apologize if I accidentally sent two
copies of this. It's that darn cyclic regeneration thing! With luck at
least one will be more legible than several recent attempts I've
perpetrated.
Subject: BRUNO/VICO
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/9/97 10:14 AM
TERENCE RITCHIE WROTE ON 1997 SEP 8 (13:14 -1400) ON THE SUBJECT . .
. BRUNO/VICO/JOYCE: " . . . Beckett states ' . . . Vico's exposition
of the ineluctable circular progression of Society was completely new,
although the germ of it was contained in Giordano Bruno's treatment of
identified contraries .' . . . is it possible that Vico's theoretical
structure is built on a 'Brunonian' foundation (or is it possible that
Joyce INTERPRETED Vico that way)?"
Dear Terence,
Gee I'm glad you asked me that. Farther San Browne has led
you even farther astray than is his normal wont, as I hardly know him
other than as the frightening black belt worn by Texas Rangers. But
this is my just desserts for writing about Latin inscriptions recently,
and such things. I know about Hic Conditor Est not because I am a Latin
scholar (I had a headache that term), but because I was poking about
specifically on an HCE path. But your letter is so intriguing and
well-constructed and erudite, that I shall stick my foot in merely in
hopes of opening the door for someone else who can address your quest
better.
Joyce uses complex scholastic themes in his writing as musical
motifs. He uses them in a brilliant and informed way, but rather than
development of intellectual argument or exposition, Joyce is seeking
thematic lyricism of an invocative/evocative cadence in which his raw
material is a group of sounds, people, places, ideas, whatever the mind
can hold and then let go , which are constantly reappearing and
dissolving into one another in a sensual but frustrating kaleidoscope
which apes reality. In modern musical terms, Joyce is
riffing.
Bruno il Nolano is to the creator of Finnegans Wake what a
certain low sax tone which lent itself well to brash overtones when
its octave split might be to John Coltrane. Once mastered such a
startling sound could be worked into a hundred arrangements, and never
sound the same. It would appear in various keys, modes, tempos,
durations, and against a changing background of other musicians and
other instruments. And the more Coltrane embedded it to his will, the
more he would tinker with minor internal distortions of the tone. This
refusal to allow a pattern to ever remain static separates a master from
a skilled craftsman, because it is more alive. And more dangerous. The
split octave will get you kicked out of a school band. And with some
cause. A master must convince others he or she is breaking rules which
he could easily follow if desired. Picasso put it very well when he
said, "People say any five year old child can paint the way I do. It's
true, but I am the only adult who can."
So when I say Joyce is playing with Bruno, it's important to
realize that Bruno is enjoying playing, because Bruno knows Joyce
understands him. Both were scholarly but rebellious, both wandered all
over western Europe, and both were persecuted by people who did not
enjoy feeling their minds grow. But Joyce
is nevertheless riffing, and it is as interesting to him that Bruno of
Nola can be associated by mere sound with the name of a Dublin publisher
as that the Neopolitan genius seems to have anticipated the work of
Edwin Hubble by some 350 years. And Joyce knew as well, which
apparently Beckett didn't, that Bruno was "riffing" on themes handed
down from ages past. Philolaus and Hicetas are credited with a quasi
heliocentric theory developed independently in the 5th c. B.C.
Aristarchus had the actual mechanics down by 200 years later.
As to "identified contraries," Joyce rightly attributes these
on the page previous to your citation (50.17) to Nicholas of Cusa
(49.{-3}) [sorry -- I don't have a line text, so I'm counting from the
bottom in this case.] "Micholas de Cusack calls them . . . by the
coincidance of their contraries . . . that identity of undiscernibles
. . . " Except for turning the Rhineland papal delegate into a Norman
Irishman, and tossing in a few split octaves along the way, Joyce
doesn't even distort Cusae, other than to render coincidentia
oppositorum into English. And again, Nicholas of Cusa was blowing a
tune he probably picked up from his travels to the levant from the Arabs
who in turn had read their Empedocles of Acragas who tried to resolve in
the Golden Age of Greek Philosophy the argument started by Heracleitus
over which of the basic elements dominated by proposing that it was the
constant interplay of opposing forces which created the dynamics of
existence. In our own scientific age, the scientists tell us with no
apparent sense of irony that it is in fact THEY who've figured out the
definitive version of reality, and that everyone before them was pretty
dumb. But the old four elements and two forces keep getting
regurgitated in quasi new form. Biologists will have it be Hydrogen,
Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Carbon on a scale of organization vs. entropy;
for physicists, its mass, time, space, and charge -- or no, it's the
weak force, the strong force, gravity, and magnetism on a field of
atomic vs. subatomic -- oh, forget it. Galaxies, diatoms, they're all
still kinda circular. Which brings us by a commodius swerve back to
Giambatista Vico.
Vico may have been a parochial schoolmaster, but you may
assume, as one should with Joyce, that he read anything possible until
proven otherwise. Remember, one of the groundbreaking steps by which
he is acredited with founding modern ethnology is that he dared suggest
that it might be wise to listen carefully to people who weren't
gentile. And for Joyce's purposes, again, Vico's mastery of history was
no more important than the fact that in his youth he took a nasty fall,
as did Adam and Earwicker and the rest of us . . .and you can bet it
was just as important to Vico at the time! And wasn't Vico climbing to
reach a book in his father's library? I am trying to do this out of my
poor little head for the most part, so such questions are not
rhetorical.
As to Joyce disguised as Beckett . . . they say that Beckett
tried so hard for a while to emulate Joyce that he hurt his feet trying
to wear Joyce's shoe size. Of course, I pay no attention to such
egregious gossip.
I can't recall seeing the cover of Kircher's Ars Magnus Lucis
et Umbrae, but Cusae uses an intriguing black - and -white-reappearing
-in- each -other "gif," a sort of scholastic yin/yang, and that's the
point: half of everything is holy. God has promised that in the depths
of hell, we shall still be able to see Him (and within the doctrine of
coincidentia oppositorum is that Him should not be construed as
excluding an equal opportunity for a Her). The problem is that in hell,
God looks like the devil, so its best to avoid the place unless you're
there doing research and have a good handle on the way back and a blind
bisexual for a guide (again, Tiresias is a metaphor for the identity of
opposites, i.e., that hot defines cold, not that hot is cold, although
the whole concept keeps telescoping into itself, which is why we now
prefer to use thermometers.)
A teacher of mine said, "You don't have to quote Dante to say,
'It's hotter than hell." But it's fun. One reason Joyce admired
Nicholas of Cusa, from whom he adapted "God is a voice crying in the
street," is that Cusae was a relaxati who felt that complex metaphysical
problems can be conquered by realizing that we're all too stupid to
figure them out. I feel my response to your spirited query has been an
excellent demonstration of the relaxati school's position.
Thank you, and all my best wishes to you on your path,
The way out of Right(field) Riverend Sterling.
Subject: Re: Who & wherefor art-eye?
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/10/97 4:02 PM
... wrote:
> Dear Right-on Riverend Sterling,
>
> There are many excellent writers to the FWake list but YOU are
> something else! Your posts are ALWAYS informative and amusing.
> Would you be so kind as to identify yourself with a short "bio"?
>
> I, myself, am a physicist fascinated with the two GREAT mysteries
> of English Literature:
> 1) Who wrote Shakespeare? &
> 2) What was Joyce talking about?
> I believe these issues to be interrelated.
>
> -------------------------------------------------
>
> One complaint though:
>
>> In our own scientific age, the scientists tell us with no
>> apparent sense of irony that it is in fact THEY who've figured out the
>> definitive version of reality, and that everyone before them was pretty
>> dumb.
> This is a little harsh. Scientists have figured out the only "testable"
> version of reality and try to limit themselves to this fruitful avenue
> of gaining knowledge. They generally show great respect for the wisdom
> of their predecessors. Measurement units and craters on the moon & Mars
> are named for earlier scientists while the craters on Mercury are named
> for famous philosophers, authors & composers. As for Quarks...
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> Your fan in Maryland,
>
> Arthur C. Neuendorffer
> NESDIS Office of Research and Applications
> Climate Research & Applications Division
> NOAA, Camp Springs, Maryland, USA
> 20746
Dear Arthur, thank you for your kind comments. They are most
enheartening, especially in view of your rather gently but well stated
complaint with which I agree one hundred per cent. Were I rewriting for
any usage whatsoever, the silly statement about scientists whould be
expunged immediately. I wrote my reply to Mr. Ritchie very rapidly, and
sometimes to fuel myself I adopt personae that are embarrassing to view
the morning after . . . but such is e-mail, a new world to me, and one
made possible by a long chain of dedicated scientists from who knows how
far back to the present. It's always wrong to toss off blanket
attacks, and they are only lazy writing, cheap tricks. It's hard to
remember what I even thought my point was, but ironically it was I who
lost my sense of irony, because I think my point was that the entire
chain of scientists should be honored as such. The chap who (thought he
) discovered phlogiston made an important step forward because he handed
Joseph Priestly something to disprove. And it harks to the coincidence
of contraries again. Although phlogiston doesn't exist, it defined the
next move in the search for the unknown of oxygen, because you can't
drive in a perfect straight line and your hand is constantly adjusting
the wheel. So it's unfair that I can't recall the poor man's name. But
maybe phlogiston will come back.
Anyway, you nailed me righteously with "quark." As to bio, its a bit
late at night for thinking of anything but slipping away, but since I
see you are in NOAA, I will say that one thing I am is a Disaster
Services volunteer for the Red Cross, so am greatly aware of the
immense lifesaving contribution you folks perform. Dang it, Arthur, you
got me twice. But in such a graceful manner. I want to send this to
the List to make up some for my gaff, but it's a FW List, so I'll
justify by throwing in this path which may or not have been looked at
previously: QUARK (preJoycean/preGell-Mann for the cry of a seabird) >
ANAS (Latin for duck) > ANNA (the spirit of the Liffey River) > ANNA
LIVIA PLURABELLE (heroine of FW whose flow unites beginning to end to
beginning [for a sidestream, check a Latin dictionary's "an . . . "
section for cognate words for ring and year {hence "annual=the year as a
revolving ring with Viconian resonances"} + "old woman"] > BARNACLE > a
North Sea goose capable of traversing Ireland shore to shore > BARNACLE
> the maiden name of Joyce's wife, Nora, who traversed Ireland coast from coast [Galway to Dublin] to be found by him > NORA (the heroine of "A Doll's House," by Ibsen, the writer Joyce considered had linked Joyce to the chain of great writers of history similar to the chain of scientists mentioned above; and from a play about a woman who flees her socially preordained life for the insecurity of freedom, and which in a not altogether impossible manner may have in some partial way made it just a tad easier for the young Nora Barnacle to run away from Galway, and then with Joyce from Dublin, because when Nora in "Doll's House" leaves her husband and the moral vapidity for which he stood, it was said that her slamming of their door on her exit created a vast loud sound which reverberated all across Europe) > QUARK (the cry of a seabird). But I'm just riffing.
Yours most humbly, The (scientists are) Right(-on) Riverend Sterling
Subject: NOAA & NORA
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/10/97 4:43 PM
When I sent this an hour past, it came unwrapped at the end. Don't
know what others received, by mine looked really bad, so I'm trying
again. Sorry to take up so much of your screens, but you know how to
delete, and this sure beats learning Windows by typing the business
letter forms in my textbook. Here goes . . . Riv.
... wrote:
> Dear Right-on Riverend Sterling,
>
> There are many excellent writers to the FWake list but YOU are
> something else! Your posts are ALWAYS informative and amusing.
> Would you be so kind as to identify yourself with a short "bio"?
>
> I, myself, am a physicist fascinated with the two GREAT mysteries
> of English Literature:
> 1) Who wrote Shakespeare? &
> 2) What was Joyce talking about?
> I believe these issues to be interrelated.
>
> -------------------------------------------------
>
> One complaint though:
>
>> In our own scientific age, the scientists tell us with no
>> apparent sense of irony that it is in fact THEY who've figured out the
>> definitive version of reality, and that everyone before them was pretty
>> dumb.
> This is a little harsh. Scientists have figured out the only "testable"
> version of reality and try to limit themselves to this fruitful avenue
> of gaining knowledge. They generally show great respect for the wisdom
> of their predecessors. Measurement units and craters on the moon & Mars
> are named for earlier scientists while the craters on Mercury are named
> for famous philosophers, authors & composers. As for Quarks...
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> Your fan in Maryland,
>
> Arthur C. Neuendorffer
> NESDIS Office of Research and Applications
> Climate Research & Applications Division
> NOAA, Camp Springs, Maryland, USA
> 20746
Dear Arthur, thank you for your kind comments. They are most
enheartening, especially in view of your rather gently but well stated
complaint with which I agree one hundred per cent. Were I rewriting for
any usage whatsoever, the silly statement about scientists whould be
expunged immediately. I wrote my reply to Mr. Ritchie very rapidly, and
sometimes to fuel myself I adopt personae that are embarrassing to view
the morning after . . . but such is e-mail, a new world to me, and one
made possible by a long chain of dedicated scientists from who knows how
far back to the present. It's always wrong to toss off blanket
attacks, and they are only lazy writing, cheap tricks. It's hard to
remember what I even thought my point was, but ironically it was I who
lost my sense of irony, because I think my point was that the entire
chain of scientists should be honored as such. The chap who (thought he
) discovered phlogiston made an important step forward because he handed
Joseph Priestly something to disprove. And it harks to the coincidence
of contraries again. Although phlogiston doesn't exist, it defined the
next move in the search for the unknown of oxygen, because you can't
drive in a perfect straight line and your hand is constantly adjusting
the wheel. So it's unfair that I can't recall the poor man's name. But
maybe phlogiston will come back.
Anyway, you nailed me righteously with "quark." As to bio, its a bit
late at night for thinking of anything but slipping away, but since I
see you are in NOAA, I will say that one thing I am is a Disaster
Services volunteer for the Red Cross, so am greatly aware of the
immense lifesaving contribution you folks perform. Dang it, Arthur, you
got me twice. But in such a graceful manner. I want to send this to
the List to make up some for my gaff, but it's a FW List, so I'll
justify by throwing in this path which may or not have been looked at
previously: QUARK (preJoycean/preGell-Mann for the cry of a seabird) >
ANAS (Latin for duck) > ANNA (the spirit of the Liffey River) > ANNA
LIVIA PLURABELLE (heroine of FW whose flow unites beginning to end to
beginning [for a sidestream, check a Latin dictionary's "an . . . "
section for cognate words for ring and year {hence "annual=the year as a
revolving ring with Viconian resonances"} + "old woman"] > BARNACLE > a
North Sea goose capable of traversing Ireland shore to shore > BARNACLE
> the maiden name of Joyce's wife, Nora, who traversed Ireland coast from
coast [Galway to Dublin] to be found by him > NORA (the heroine of "A
Doll's House," by Ibsen, the writer Joyce considered had linked Joyce to
the chain of great writers of history similar to the chain of scientists
mentioned above; and from a play about a woman who flees her socially
preordained life for the insecurity of freedom, and which in a not
altogether impossible manner may have in some partial way made it just
a
tad easier for the young Nora Barnacle to run away from Galway, and then
with Joyce from Dublin, because when Nora in "Doll's House" leaves her
husband and the moral vapidity for which he stood, it was said that her
slamming of their door on her exit created a vast loud sound which
reverberated all across Europe) > QUARK (the cry of a seabird). But
I'm just riffing.
Yours most humbly, The (scientists are) Right(-on) Riverend Sterling
Oh yeah: quarks [383.1]
Subject: Heisenberg &Void
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/11/97 4:41 PM
sam wrote:
>> her slamming of their door on
> her exit created a vast loud sound which reverberated all across Europe)
> QUARK (the cry of a seabird).
>
> Also thunder.
>
> And regarding the "scientific view of the universe", perhaps my info is
> outdated or superceded but are Heisenberg and Schroedinger and even
> Godel still relevant? And don't they suggest that even in scientific
> terms reality is hardly monolithic?
>
> And I don't think it would be difficult to plunk heraclitus, Vico, or
> Bruno into this maelstrom without their swimming quite well. Joyce too,
> of course; great swimmer of maelstroms, Sailor of the Void.
Dear sam, since my knowledge of calculus is equal to the variable of a
constant,
I have to have my Heisenberg in those nice user-friendly regurgitations
by Paul
Davies, & his sort. So maybe this is his Heisenberg "golden sentence,"
as Vico
would say: "An area of certainty can never be reduced to zero." Seems
like a
good motto for FW folks.
The too tired to make up a play on Right Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: Dada & Joyce?
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/11/97 5:21 PM
sam wrote:
> And Pere Ubu? Apollinaire's "Aviator", Mallarme's "Coup de Die", and all
> the predecessors of Dada , and Picabia and DuChamps, etc. I am sure all
> these things are somehow immanent in the Wake.
>
> Also I am sure they have been discussed before I joined the group,
> right?
Dear Sam, this is as good a place as any to break the news that my mail
to
you of several minutes past should have read (RE/Heisenberg for the
Equation-
Challenged): "An area of uncertainty can never be reduced to zero."
Anyhoo,
about the gifs on FW p. 308: the nosethumb gesture pops up sometimes in
some Dada I've seen. Duchamps & the New York crowd published a magazine
(2
issues, pretty good run for Dada journals) called The Blindman around
1917,
and one issue had a blindman walking a dog & thumbing his nose on the
cover.
Around the same time the submission of the urinal "readymade" was
rejected by
an art show Duchamp had helped found with Arensberg & Picabia, a
Blindman's
Ball was thrown as a protest & fundraiser. The poster for the event
featured
a prancing stickfigure thumbing its nose drawn by Duchamps' close
friend,
Beatrice Wood, whose painting of a bathing woman with a 3D soapbar
glommed on
to her tenders was accepted into the show, and I supposed helped paved
the way
for such later works as Dali's one-copy edition of the Book of
Revelations with
the thick sculpted swirls of gold & jewels wrapping the upper surface
into which
he crammed a bent kitchen fork. Being of the New York branch, I doubt
Beatrice
could divulge much inside info about the Zurich-based crowd and whether
JJ & Nora
ever dropped by Cafe Voltaire for coffee & a little "noisemusic," (hard
to imagine,
somehow), but her phone-number is (USA area code: 805) 646-3381. She
goes by the
nickname Beato, & at a 104, is beginning to experience some health
problems and may
not wish to take a call herself, though her staff should, because she's
getting
busier than ever with her production of tres cher ceramics and mucho
editions of
her memoirs. The nosethumber appears on her 1st volume, I Shock Myself.
Yrs, & best, the what's Left of the Right Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: Trane's teeth, JJ's eyes
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/11/97 6:11 PM
Ross Chambers wrote:
> I would be interested to read speculation of parallels re JJ's eye
> afflictions and Trane's decaying teeth, and the effect of these ailments
> on their art. Riverend Stirling?
>
> Please pardon the flippancy, I do like the Riverend's analogy.
>
> Kind regards - Ross Chambers
>
> --
> ======================================================
>
> Ross Chambers Sydney Australia
>
> "The rule is jam tomorrow and jam yesterday-
>
> but never jam to-day" The White Queen.
>
> ========================================================
Dear Ross, I don't think your interest is all that flippant. The
parallel #1 is just pain's pain, which also sounds flip but is not.
I am not familiar with Coltrane's dental problems, but have some
knowledge personally which I'll spare everyone. As far as that goes,
Joyce had a full-mouth extraction when only, I think, in his forties,
partly in hopes it might help abate his iritis to escape what was
apparently a serious source of ongoing infection. I suspect even the
gods have an occasional dental horror-story. As to affecting art --
believe it or not, those split octave harmonics can temporarily blow
a little pain out of one's head by the reverse osmosis of vibration.
Perhaps Joyce was drifting toward a "visually impaired" perspective
already in Portrait when he glosses over the Thomistic values of
accuracy and beauty, qualities associated with clear sight, in his
preference of "claritas," which he stresses is a warm inner form of
light
imparted by the artist and giving the pleasurable impression of a
fading coal in the dark.
Returning your kind regards, The Good-for-something Riverend
Sterling
Subject: 1132 A.D./BRIDGET
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/16/97 5:21 AM
>From the genius who placed the portmanteau word among the stars
comes (inevitably) the portmanteau number (saints preserve us). So in
reaching into the 1132 sachel, I want to emphasize that what I pull out
in no way contradicts the other interesting interpretations extant. It
should only reinforce them and Joyce's awesome skill at making words and
numbers reverberate. The sense cited recently of a particular cycle of
religious expression coming to an end of term is particulary
felicitous. But there is a "smoking gun" significance for 1132 which is
most difficult to find (I tracked it for seven years to do so) but worth
the effort as Joyce's clues clearly (at least within the Heisenberg
parameters) affirm the root meaning once known.
What we know quickly from the text is worth reviewing at this
point. Most germane is that Joyce wants us to realize that 1132 is a
date, a year. Surveying what might be called the 1132 section of FW
(pp. 387-420), we note references to " . . . the year of the flood 1132"
(387.23), " . . . the freebutter year of Notre Dame 1132" (388.20), " .
. . around about the year of buy in disgrace 1132" (391.2), " . . . old
year's eve 1132" (397.30), and in the final page of 1132 (as a numeral
anyway), we have what seems the denouement: not only the year (of what
we may not know ), but a specific day in history, " . . . 31 Jan. 1132
A.D." The other 1132 entries in this section of FW largely involve plays
on the numeral as part of a street address, by which we are instructed
that not only is a specific time in mind, but perhaps a specific place
as well.
If we take time and space as the vertical and horizontal planes of
a Cartesian grid, then the intersection marks some particular event.
But what? And again, it's worth reiterating that hints abound, but
their value is mostly post facto, i.e., they are esoteric and encrypted
to the extent that we are as in a dark room and signs pointing to the
light switch are of little use. But even after the light becomes
present, the signs must be in a language we know, and this means
escaping from the wind of my extended metaphor to a much more pleasant
focus of discussion, and that is the patron saint of Ireland, St.
Bridget, so respected as to be called the Mary of the Gael.
One should like to spend a great long time on the subject of St.
Bridget, but she still would not be done justice by such meager skills
as I muster, and I suspect she will pardon me for appearing crass in
bringing to the table only a handful of knowledge chosen because it
applies to our search:
a) yes, Ireland is blessed to have three patron saints in all,
including (with Bridget), Patrick and Columba;
b) yes, some scholars within and without the pales of the Church
are disturbed by the fact that she reappears in various guises in
various times and seems part historic, part mythic/part Christian, part
pagan/part here, part there, and so on -- but that is no problem for
Joyceans and other such simple-hearted souls of the laity;
c) one of her dualities is that she is herself; -- but also an
incarnate representative of Mary;
d) as a saint, she is the protectress of dairymaids; as a Celtic
"supernatural lady," her associates are the cow and lamb;
e) as a saint, her day is February 1; as a Celtic "supernatural
lady," she is associated with February 2, lambing day (one of the four
primary Gaelic holy days, and the least now known, Imbolc, or
"butterwomb");
f) as a saint, she founded the Church of the Oak (Cell
Dara/Kill-dara/Kildare), which I think (therefore I am probably wrong)
is not too far from the Liffey headwaters; as an ancient Celtic goddess
and representative of the Bona Dea, she has never left us and is capable
of appearing anywhere anytime in any guise;
g) as the first abbess of Kildare, she was followed by an unbroken
line of abbesses who commanded great respect from the people and were
responsible through their order for maintaining by precise ritualistic
means a continuous fire which had burned since being ignited by St.
Bridget before her death in ca. 522.
In 1132, a truly horrid and disgusting event occurred which one
does not care to have to relate, but it must be confronted, and that is
the rape of the Abbess of Kildare by the troops of Dermot MacMurrough
of Leinster, ordered by him, for the purpose of destroying her sanctity
to render her unfit for her office, to the end that MacMurrough might
enhance his power by imposing in her place a kinswoman of his own. This
travesty was enhanced by much of the monastery being destroyed.
The rape of the Abbess of Kildare is an especially disturbing
instance of that aspect of Irish politics (and we know not only of
Irish politics) which Joyce naturally despised. It evoked for him the
issue which awoke in childhood his passionate disdain for the banality
of evil, and that was the verbal rape of Catherine O'Shea by the clergy
through which the political power of Parnell was broken. It was not
only the old sow eating her farrow again, but an act which presaged and
set the stage for the Norman invasion of Ireland against a divided house
which has not healed to this day.
And it was brought home most personally to Joyce who was intensely
proud of being born on February 2, lambing day, that is on Imbolc, which
in the old reckoning has as good claim to being St. Bridget's Day as
February 1 for reasons we must gloss in this amount of space, but which
include the fact that the Celtic day was measured in a lunar manner like
the extant Semitic calendar , so that a calendar day begins at sunset,
not midnight. Joyce considered St. Bridget to be his muse. She is
invoked in all post-Chamber Music work. She is Maria in "Clay," the
moocow in Portrait, the old milk woman in Ulysses, the maid in Exiles
(and don't miss the milk truck), the broken branch in "Tilly," (the
only means allowed to keep the sacred fire alive at Kildare was to wave
air over it with a branch), and a thousand references to milk and
things bovine in FW.
Bridget was born herself, by the way, by manifesting in a bucket of milk
being carried out a door by her mother, a milkmaid. And the Irish
Catholic Church, before it came under the foot or aegis, as you will, of
the Roman Catholic Church, baptised in milk rather than water. So the
real reason Joyce tried to have his works first issued on February 2 is
in honour of his muse, the good Saint Bridget.
For those still with me, we return to the clues, among which are:
1) p. 388 -- freebutter refers to St. Bridget's dairy attributes and to
Imbolc (butterwomb), which is 1 & 2 Feb./Notre Dame, Our Lady, points to
her as Mary of the Gael/" . . . 1132 Brian or Bride street" cites her
nickname, Bride or Bridey or Biddy, as well as her biographer, Brian
O'Naillgusa/and as always, interminable portmanteaus we must largely
pass over, such as "Lacytynant" (Latin cum French cum Joyce for "having
milk"); 2) p. 389 -- numerous plays on the Kill (church) of Kill-dara,
and upon Mary through an apparition, Fatima, and Jesus (Fitzmary = son
of Mary); 3) p. 391 -- the ref. to 1132 as the year of disgrace, and
the capital letters on Her Worship his Mother (and don't miss the
appearance of the villain, MacMurrough, on the facing page (390.9), as
"Mahmullagh," followed by the poignant "The good go and the wicked is
left over" (lines 29 & 30 if I'm counting right); 4) p. 397 -- the
important clarification (line 30) that we are to analyze the date (when
we come to it fully) by the "old style" (the Celtic moon-based calendar)
which begins a day from sunset (" . . . old year's eve . . . "),
blurring our modern distinction between any two of our current "days";
and now, with the light on, we return to the denouement, 5) p. 420 -- "
31 Jan. 1132 A.D." is now seen clearly as a finger pointing to the awful
rape of the Abbess of Kildare, recorded as occuring in that year (1132)
to a woman charged with perpetuating the spirit and ritual and facility
and order of the saint whose day is 1 Feb. (an extension of the eve of
31 Jan., by the "old style," and whose eve in turn by the old style
begins our 2 Feb., Joyce's birthday).
Although the Riverend is on record as requesting no followers, I
sincerely thank you for attending his discourse to this juncture, and
apologize for its length. Meanwhile, the top of the morning to you, a
phrase, by the way, which refers to the cream which rises to the top of
a dairy bucket just as did once the infant St. Bridget. Oh Lord, don't
get me started again . . .
Yours in Her Grace's watch, The Roving and
Riverend Sterling.
Subject: 1132 & DUBLING
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 9/17/97 3:57 AM
Dear Will,
Your swift response to my mail of this same day has caught me quite
pleasantly in surprise. I have been studying Joyce and particularly the
Wake for 10+ years in an off & on manner, and am presently in a
situation where I have for the first time a computer and the internet at
my disposal, but also I am not able to access my books or notes. So
it's all very interesting. I found an online concordance for the Wake,
which I suppose you know, at www.qinpalace.com, but your mail has
confirmed what I thought must be true -- that it cannot be exhaustive.
A search for "1132" provided 11 entries, none of which were were
citations on pp. 13 & 14. Of course we know there are wordplay forms of
1132 in FW, and those would be impossible to search through any machine,
but it was startling for me to see, thanks to you, that 1132 comes up so
early in FW, and is associated, through its 1/2 counterpart, 566, with
an act of rape associated with war.
My information on the rape of the abbess of Kildare is sketchy,
and I would appreciate any references you could direct me toward. You
probably are aware that MacMurrough was at war at the time of the rape.
The sexual association of rape and war you refer to started me thinking,
and brought up the very early set-up of that [1.6] by the phrase
"penisolate war." So I've that to thank you for as well. As to the
placement of rape in 566 rather than 1132 on pp. 13 & 14: if these are
indeed Viconian (a la Joycean) in nature, then we must expect to see
what occurs in one age played out in some disorted but recognizable form
in another. This clued me into another insight you've led me to (I
hope) understand, and that is why there are references to Dublin
associated with these years. You cite, forinstance, on p. 14 in regard
to 566, "Bloody wars in Ballyaughacleeagh-bally," which is a wild but
certainly Irish-looking spelling of the Gaelic name for Dublin,
Baile-Atha-Cliath . . . subject to typical FW funhouse mirror effects,
naturally. On the 1132 page of 388, there is a Dublin street mentioned,
Bride. On what I've called the denouement page for 1132, page 420,
Baile-Atha-Cliath is there plain as all life. And back to page 14, the
1132 area of text ends with a distorted version of the ending of the 566
sections on the same page, with "Bloody wars in Ballyaughacleeag-bally"
turning into "Blotty words for Dublin," by which I believe Joyce wants
to show how the old things will reappear in a form which seems more
mundane to us as it nears us in time.
It was then I remembered the page one entry of Dublin as "doublin"
in "doublin their mumper," which I've read interpreted as "doubling
their funds." Anyway, there is an obvious opportunity given by Joyce to
associate Dublin with doubling, and that is exactly what occurs from 566
to 1132 -- a doubling.
Never a dull moment in the old Wake, eh?
Yours, grateful for your knowledge and perception, Riverend
Sterling.
P.S. Pp. 13 & 14 also double the doubling, because there are two
citations each for 566 and 1132; and the first pair also end with forms
of Dublin, first a play upon the Latin name for the town, and then an
English translation of Baile-Atha-Cliath, as annotated in R. McHugh
'80/'91 (yes, my order for one arrived today . . . hooray! . . . what a
masterwork).
Will Miller had written:
> " The Abbess theory fits in well with the role of rape/sexual politics in FW
> in general. However I take 1132 as part of the time scheme announced as the
> four eternally recurring events in Book I (pp 13-14). Most of the other
> references to this year can be sourced back to the events announced in the
> schematic. The rape occurs in the schema at 566A.D (although I wouldn't want
> to say that all references to rapes must occur in the year 566!):
>
> 566 A.D. At this time it fell out that a brazenlockt damsel grieved
> (sobralasolas!) because that Puppette her minion was ravisht-of
> her
> by the ogre Puropeus Pious. Bloody wars in Ballyaughacleeagh-
> bally "
>
>
>
>
Subject: Re: my two cents on Rose's 4-parter, and a little Wake stuff
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 11/7/97 9:56 PM
Dear Bill,
As much as one would like to respond in kind to your
postings with something intelligent and helpful, you have sailed
far beyond my harbour, and I can but stand on the shore and
study your work with a fascinated appreciation.
Since I cannot own or access first editions of Joyce, let
alone study drafts, I occasionally pickup some peripheral
ephemera when possible. I will share (for better or worse)
with you and the group knowledge of the existence of two
editions of Ulysses in wraps I located in used bookstores,
and along with the humour, you will see how wild "mucking"
can be.
1) a bootleg edition published some years ago in Los
Angeles which ends, once Molly's makes her "yes,"
with a hearty number of illustrated pages forming
a cataloug of sexual appliances;
2) the UNcorrected edition of Gabler's Corrected
Edition (I forget if it's a galley-proof final, or
an early release for reviewers, or what --
but it's given with the title pretty much as
above, and thus a personal favorite --).
Again, with thanks to both you and Bill Butler,
The Roving and Riverend Sterling.
bill cadbury wrote:
> First Bill Buttler: "However, I think the world needs (and Joyce
> deserves) better editions of both works than the ugly paperbacks which
> seem to be all that is available in general bookshops. These are such
> important works that they should be available in a quality hardback
> format - dare I say it? - similar to the Readers' Edition.... FW is
> another matter. The problems are obvious; how can an editor separate
> genuine from deliberate "errors"? There are places where we would
> probably all agree that a mistake has crept in, and others where the
> agreement might not be so general. In any case, I for one don't know
> what Rose means by a "Four-part Critical Edition", and whether it has
> anything to do with the "Readers' Edition" approach or not. I notice
> that Rose has written several critical works on parts of FW, so I expect
> he has something useful to add, and for this reason I remain open in my
> expectations of the "Critical Edition"."
>
> My recollection of the facts (or some of them, since I've forgotten
> details) is that Danis Rose (and quite possibly John O'Hanlon, that's
> something I've forgotten) invented the notation system for genetic
> representations which (probably somewhat modified — that fact I never
> did know) Gabler and his team used for the "synoptic" part of the
> *Ulysses* edition. Rose invented it for an edition of the Wake, which
> involved, like the *Ulysses*, a full genetics (establishing what Gabler
> came to call the "continuous manuscript text" — whether or not that
> phrase is Rose's I don't know) and an edition based on it, i.e.,
> something like the recto "Critical" and verso "Synoptic" editions of the
> 3-volume Gabler :the one-volume *Ulysses: the Corrected Text* reprints
> the rectos (recti?) of the 3-volume: I *think* [correction welcome] that
> "Critical Edition" and "Corrected Edition" are supposed to refer to the
> same thing, though of course the connotations are wildly different, a
> fact not without consequences.
>
> [ . . . ] the
> James Joyce Estate (which is now either principally or exclusively
> Stephen Joyce and Sean Sweeney) was very unhappy with the Gabler
> *Ulysses*, on grounds that the way it was presented made it seem as if
> Joyce had made mistakes that needed correcting, and (as the reviews came
> in) that a lot of the "corrections" were in fact more like suggestions
> that if Joyce had only known what he was doing this is the way he would
> have done it. So the Estate blocked publication of the Wake edition. In
> Zurich in 1996, at a panel where I gave some of my genetics stuff,
> Gabler said to Sean Sweeney (quoting roughly) "Isn't it time that you
> released the rights to publish the Wake edition?", to which Mr. Sweeney
> replied (and this is precise) "Once bitten twice shy." A lot of us heard
> there, and have heard elsewhere, Stephen Joyce say, again roughly (as
> Wayne Morse used to say, "I paraphrase but accurately"), "The Wake my
> grandfather wanted you to read was the one he published, and I don't
> want anybody mucking about in the text". And there is of course a
> substantial justification for saying that about the Wake, because
> (unlike *Ulysses*) there has been only essentially the one edition, with
> its incorporated Corrections done by Joyce himself for printings after
> the first half dozen or so, so there just isn't any doubt whatever that
> Joyce authorized the Wake we all read, and there are absolutely no
> reasons to think he wanted or would have put up with anybody else going
> and making any more corrections than he made.
>
> [ . . . ]
>
>
>
> Bill Cadbury
> ...
Subject: Re: Musical artificial language & Colors
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 11/7/97 10:38 PM
Dear Charles,
How exactly did you derive your correspondences between the
tones of colors and musical pitches? They basically match, if memory
serves, those of the Order of the Golden Dawn, (or at least a branch
thereof), a Celto-Qabalistic group which had some interest to Joyce,
though not of the sort it had for its sometime leader, Yeats. Most
such lists of correspondences associate color and pitch by frequency
harmonics, in which case (again, about my mind . . . ) C = green, and
so on up. The Golden Dawn-derived list I recall is seemingly distinct
in assigning pitches to the complementary colors, so that C=red, as in
your posting. Since C is the first scale most people learn, and red is
the lowest frequency color, this system has a more comfortable feel
symbolically than the more directly derived one. Tertiary colors are
added to fill out a chromatic (literally) 12 tone scale, e.g. C# becomes
red-orange. This results in B = red-violet, and some other minor vari-
ations. If mastered, you could theoretically read a sunset on the piano,
I suppose.
What is the phrase in the ALP section, (I'm in an internet cafe with no
books): every tone has a hue, and every hue a differing cry? Something
like that.
My thanks to you, Douglas, and Jeroen,
The Roving and Riverend Sterling.
Charles Sullivan wrote:
> Douglas Jenkins originally wrote in response to Jeroen van Ameijde:
>
>> This has potential to relate to the wake directly too-- I learned
>> somewhere that solresol could be represented not only in terms of the
>> musical notes but also as hand symbols and anything that had 7 in it--
>> e.g. the colors of the rainbow.
>> .......
>> .......Has anyone found any
>> evidence of Joyce using HCE as a musical term or progression of notes?
>> Perhaps in relation to one of Wagner's Leitmotiven or whatever? (By HCE
>> as a musical term, i mean H is equatable with B-natural and B-natural as
>> B-flat and thus, HCE would be a BCE progression in popular terms and Ti Do
>> Me in solfege. Tee Doo Mee -- it has a nice ring. . .
>> or Violet-Red-Yellow, I think, in terms of rainbow solresol-- i think.
>> VRY doesnt sound like anything in the wake to me, but it might mean a word
>> in solresol
>> .....
> This is a tentative stab from the opening of the book:
>
> Sir Tristram, violer d'amores - Violet
> nor avoice from afire bellowsed - Yellow
> rory end to the regginbrow - Red
>
> Admittedly VYR is not VRY, and 'afire bellowsed' is a stretch for yellow.
>
> I've only recently begun reading FW, so I apologize if this (related)
> question has been treated previously ad nauseam: Are all seven colors of the
> rainbow supposed to be in the second paragraph? I can't find them.
>
> P.S. I had to write this stuff on a piece of paper to compensate for my
> short attention span - maybe this will save some others a minute:
>
> 1 : do : C : red
> 2 : re : D : orange
> 3 : mi : E : yellow
> 4 : fa : F : green
> 5 : sol : G : blue
> 6 : la : A : indigo
> 7 : ti : B / H : violet
>
> Also, as I'm sure everyone knows, Bach incorporated his name as the motif
> BACH in Art of Fugue; that's another reason perhaps why something similar
> might have crossed Joyce's mind.
>
> Charles Sullivan
> ...
Subject: FW: PANEL AND PERFORMANCE
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 11/9/97 12:57 AM
Today at the University of California at Santa Barbara, as part of a
three day
annual conference called VISUALIZING CULTURE, a 2+ hr. presentation was
given in the afternoon under the title LITERATURE IN PICTURES/FINNEGANS
WAKE: A CASE STUDY. I shall take it upon myself to review it for the list,
while
fresh in mind, as I don't know how it is in YOUR town, but when anything at all
Wakean is presented to the public around here, its newsworthy . . . and as far
as
that goes, this was a worldworthy presentation. And namebadges indicating
origins
were quite global, Denmark, Australia, Canada, to name some.
Let me get one thing out of the way. The formatting was very
amateurish to
the point of flawing what could have been even better than it was. Held in a
stark
ballet studio by what seemed inexperienced, rude, and unprepared student aides,
the MC'ing was very unmasterful and totally unceremonial. Shame on UCSB for
that, because the panelists, performers, and audience deserved much better.
This
is only mentioned because it so noticeably impacted the quality of the
experience.
The lack of panache by whoever these officious inepts were was the exact equi-
valent of the teenage helpers at fastfood restaurants who find it acceptable to
slosh
moploads of dirty water and toxic solvents around your feet during a meal, with
no
sense of any social grace and no priority beyond their own meager tasks. They
visibly rushed panelists, cut the keynote speaker off, discouraged any audience
participation against the panelists' wishes, blabbed crass notices out of
nowhere,
and thereby created a needless unplanned 45 minute deficit by the end with no
apology or sense of irony. The Riverend realizes that in other areas of their
lives
they no doubt emit an admirable light, but MC'ing is a specific skill and
should
be assigned to those with a suitable mix of flair and restraint and especially
warmth.
OK, enough. This was a great event otherwise, and just because it
seemed
to be considered a throway in the threeday extravaganza by some middlefolk who
couldn't even provide a microphone for the panel, many people left sincerely
and
deeply moved to see the words of Joyce given a fine dose of life by scholars
and
artists of the highest order.
The first speaker was Margot Norris of UC Irvine Eng/Lit, the author of
JOYCE'S
WEB & THE DECENTERED UNIVERSE . . ., two books well known to readers of
this list. She chose as her topic THE MIME OF MICK, NICK, AND THE MAGGIES.
Speaking with the gentle but rapid clarity we wish for in every teacher, she
tied this
episode in Book II, Ch. I in terms of Joyce's iritis and Freudian sexuality
theory. Early
on she mentioned that Joyce had told Harry Levin that he (Joyce) expected
permanent
blindness to result from an eye operation planned for sometime in 1932, and I
thought of
that possible reinforcing his interest in the year 1132, but the point Norris
was leading to
was that Joyce had explained in a letter to Harriet Shaw Weaver that the Mime
was based
on a childhood game called both "Devil's and Angels" and "Colours," in either
case a child's
guessing game involving visuality and its absence. In the Mime, the object is
to guess the
colours of the rainbow girls underpants. From this she extrapolated the larger
view that
to children, the entire adult world is opaque. Just as naughty boys try to
catch a sight of
girls' panties, children in general try to see through the veil by which adults
seek to protect
their sexual privacy. Then she really blew the audience's mind by citing a
theory of Freud's
that adults who are research-oriented (that's right -- US!) develop from
children who took
longer than average to figure out adult sexuality, thereby developing their
first research project.
The "Birds and Bees" approach thus breeds both senses of metaphor and
scepticism in the
formative minds of future scholars. Man, she hit home. Then she mentioned
something about
starting from scratch, and sat down. Wow.
Next came Harry Reese of the UCSB Art Studio, the man whom we had to
thank
for seeing to it that FW was snuck into the conference, and my previous remarks
not with-
standing (what does that mean?), I express those thanks quite sincerely. Reese
began by
giving his own thanks to both Eric and Marshall McLuhan for their two
generation contri-
bution to Wake scholarship, crediting them for the perception that new
technologies turn
old technologies into new art forms. This elicited a pleasant aahhhh from the
audience.
Reese then showed slides on two of his works. The first involved a landscape
architecture
done outside the recently rebuilt City Library of Los Angeles, a series of
stairgroups along
a broad paved walkway featuring a flowing pool. He'd arranged with a cohort to
depict
a booklike visuality where each of the four stairgroups represented a phase of
reading
evolution, being 1) the pictographic; 2) writing; 3) printing; & 4) the modern
return to
the pictograph, including graphic user interface ikons. The appealing symbols
were etched
and enameled on various metallic media, with the very first and last steps
blank for the
unknown reaches of past and future. Personally, I found this very Wakean, as I
support
the McLuhanesque premise that abecedeism is very germane to Joycean criticism.
Reese
ended with slides showing several pages of his limited edition (300, I
believe) of his book
FUNAGAINSTAWAKE, each leaf uniting an original print of an abstract symbol
negatively
etched against a watercoloury flat background above one of the thunderwords of
the Wake.
The leaves are bound with wire-edging, making this the ultimate coffeetable
prize for any
Joycean . . . but you wouldn't dare put any coffee near it! Reese finished by
saying that he
did media ecology, defining that as "trying to wake up in the process."
Eric McLuhan of the University of Toronto, author of THE ROLE OF THE
THUNDER,
then closed the panel section of the program. With the warm charm of an
academic John
Carridine, whom he somewhat resembles in a goateed version, he immediately
challenged the
somewhat stiff-seeming audience to come to terms with the fact that reading the
Wake is
meant to be fun! That we try ignoring the scholarly industry, and emphasize
rather the refrain
"Lots of fun at Finnegans Wake!" He was, in effect, asking us to deflate
himself, a classic yet
daring oratorical manuever worthy of one of those mythic Southern country
attorneys secretly
steeped in Cicero. This is where a properly respectful ambience created by the
event
producers would have enhanced the experience, for such techniques appear broad,
but are
dependent on considerable subtlety. Unfortunately, the poor lighting and
acoustics detracted
from the natural drama Mr. McLuhan was suddenly injecting into the conference,
and the
audience had to strain to make up for it. But we did so, and were well
rewarded, for Mr.
McLuhan's improvisatory delivery quickly revealed a profound substratum. After
recom-
mending that we read passages of the Wake aloud, he explained that the practice
of silent
read is quite new in history, citing a view that Mark Twain was one of the
first to read for
readers who did not as a matter of course read aloud. (I personally find this
the single most
useful key to tying the Wake together -- I suggest recording yourself reading a
page, then
listen to it over and over against a soft musical background until you can hear
its motifs
echoed in any other page). McLuhan mentioned largely forgotten works in Latin
similar
to the Wake from the 4th and 12th centuries! (And will he please gives us the
titles and
authors here on the list?) He further explained that the overemphasis is our
times on
visuality is a product of the alphabet, with its intense involvement if linear
interpretation
separating the knower from the known, and distorting our natural sense of sound
with
the illusion that consonants and vowels are sparate entities. Acoustic space,
in
contrast, he described as relatively spherical and unraveled, and having a
mobile
diffuse effect. It is, of course, a space Joyce knew well, tragically as one
with severely
impaired vision, magnificently as one of Ireland's finest tenors. And having
taken the
rapt audience into this beautiful simple sphere, he was about to open the
entire affair
up for participation when summarily terminated with a lassolike gesture by some
self-important stagehand. It was a magnificent and stirring illustration of
exactly what
he was addressing, the modern undeclared war between the linear rush from some
poorly defined point A to some nobetter B versus the embrace of the present of
the
present . . . but it should not have been allowed. Where were these bossy
children's
supervisors?
So I was in no mood for a bunch of interpretive dancers, mind you,
hogging
the dusty stage. And by God, by the end of their piece, I was letting the big
tear
fall in appreciation, and that is what true art can do. Conceived and
choreographed
by Jerry Pearson, Director of the Santa Barbara Dance Theatre, Finnegans Wake
was danced by four couples and amazingly, it worked. Joyce translated Nicholas
of Cusa's coincidentia oppisitorum as the "coincidance of contrarities," if I
recall
right, and now that coincidance has come to life. The bar I'm typing this in
has just
told me they've decided abrubtly to close an hour early for their own
convenience,
so I'm getting smashed by these linear types for the second time! Sorry.
Wrap-up:
Dance theme: "We feel. We fall." Big audience laugh when Pearson, being HCE,
superimposed his shadow across a slide projection of a map of Dublin from
Howth Head to Phoenix Park. Big cheers for Faline England's many tiered
portrayal
of Anna Livia. We let her, and she done her best. Magnificent work.
Eric McLuhan emphasised that the Wake refreshes the sense and the senses,
how
after a reading the conversations overheard in street gain meaning. I'm there,
dude.
Yours, the Roving and Riverend Sterling.
Subject: '28' & IRISH POETICS
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 11/9/97 5:14 PM
In response to the noble project of catalouging Wakean numbers (by
Charles Cave, I believe?): somewhere on the net are our archives, no
doubt, and September should have my postings on "1001" & "1132." On
request, I shall snailmail the treeware, including a brief paper once
sent to the Chudnovsky brothers on Joycean resonances of pi.
Now, new pompatus on "28":
Wellknown are the calendrics of 28. 28 days form the sidereal lunar
month, the time for the moon's terrestrial orbit to cause it to occlude
a given star twice. This is a more sophisticated lunar month than the
synoptic, which means "looks the same," that is, from a given lunar
phase to its repeat, especially one new moon to the next, a 29 day
period. There are fractions involved in both the 28 day sidereal period
and the 29 day synoptic one, but they are not relevant to this
discussion, though of great importance to the ancients and the study of
"epacts."
It is the 28/29 duality of Issy and the girls, pointing of course to
the month of Joyce's birth, February, which is most prevalent in the
Wake and its exegetics. What I would like to examine is very tentative
in terms of the Wake, but may justify itself independently for involving
medieval Irish poetics.
I. Richter, Michael. "Medieval Ireland, & the Enduring Tradition."
St. Martin's Press: NY, '95. Pp. 138/9.
" . . . the emergence of the "filid" as the Bardic Order in the course
of the late 11th & the 12th centuries {there's that 1132 era again -
RS} should be mentioned. There had been poets, "filid," in Ireland from
prehistoric times, but in the course of the 12th c. new forms of poetry
were developed, forms that were to persist for the next 5 centuries.
The new methods of composition were so strict and were observed so
closely that experts find it near impossible to determine on the basis
of language when or where a particular poem was written. Bardic poetry
is characterized by lines with 7 syllables & stanzas of 4 lines, with a
break after the second line."
II. RS -- It seems a best guess that 4 lines of 7 syllables with a
midway break is designed to replicate the ancient obsession with the
lunar month, in this case the sidereal lunar month. The 7 syllables
would be the days of the week, associated with the 7 moveable visible
heavenly bodies. The 4 lines thence reflect the 4 weeks of the
sidereal month, Joyce's beloved February, with the midway break being
the culmination of the full moon (traditional lunar months always begin
and end with the new moon).
7 days times 4 weeks = 28 days;
7 syllables times 4 lines = 28 syllables.
One would guess as well that this was wellknown to Joyce, but whether he
utilized it in a detectable manner . . ., well, aye, it is very much
like a whale. A cautionary note from another work gives more
background:
III. "The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics." Eds.
Preminger & Brogan. P.U. P.: New Jersey, '93. Pp. 412/3: ' "Fili" (pl.
"filid[h], Modern Ir. "file," pl. "fili" {2nd vowel has acute accent -
RS}) has always been the Irish word for poet, and it is unfortunate that
a considerable body of Irish poetry, ("filidheacht," "filiocht," {2nd
word's 2nd "i" with acute accent -RS}) is called in Eng. "bardic"
poetry, with the misleading suggestion that it is the work of the Irish
"bard" . . . the word "fili" is cognate with the Welsh "gwel(-ed)" ("to
see") . . . he was at all times distinguished from the bard . . . '
John Ellis Cherwyn Williams. (Robert Graves stresses this as well,
considering bards as relatively sycophantic, while the priestly filidh
were powerful on their own, often druidic in early times -- RS).
Anything cognate with "sight" or "to see" increases its Joycean
potential, of course.
IV. FW; 213.14: "Fieluhr? Filou! What age is at? [15] It saon is
late. 'Tis endless now senne eye or erewone last saw Waterhouse's
clogh."
? ? ? If gwel and fil are cognate, which is hard to grasp itself,
did Joyce conciously connect "filou" with "eye" & "saw" . . . beats me.
Yet we at least know "fili" was meant to connote "seer" (see-er) as well
as poet.
V. Atherton, James S. "the Books at the Wake." '59/'74. P. 49: "It
would be in [Arthur] Symons's "The Symbolist Movement" that Joyce found
the formula, first laid down by Mallarme, which he was to use in writing
'Finnegans Wake': 'To evoke, by some elaborate, instantaneous magic of
language, without the formality of an after all impossible description;
to be rather than to express.'"
It has perhaps gone hitherto unnoticed that Mallarme wrote a poem which
merges the Petrarchan sonnet form with the formula of the filidh.
In "Une dentelle s'abolit . . . ," (A lace becomes abolished . . . ),
Mallarme uses 14 lines of 7 syllables, a fortnight's worth by our
calendric interpretation made above, on the following scheme:
abba abba ccd ede.
In what may or may not be coincidence, the terminal line begins with the
syllable "fil":
"Filial, on aurait pu naitre." (As a child, one could've been born.)
VI. Apologizing for skating out thin again, I cite a marvelous quote by
Valery which Eric McLuhan uses to preface his new book.
Not having it before me, I shall try to paraphrase and translate by
memory: " If it doesn't sound wierd, it can't be right."
Blessings, Riverend Sterling.
Subject: '28' & IRISH POETICS
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 11/10/97 8:41 PM
Histerve (Sun, 09 Nov 1997), I sent out some ramblings and excerpts
based on the above subject, partly hoping to clear the slate after the
wildly unproofed review I posted on Sat 08, and it did look neater. On
returning home and reading it, however, I couldn't help noticing that
every thing written on my own appeared wrong. To wit,
Paragraph 3: "synoptic" was meant to be "synodic." The really
frightening part is that while my mind was unable to notice the original
mistake, it was somehow alert enough in its devious imagination to
invent an almost plausible explanation of why the socalled "synoptic
month" was socalled! Anyway, the 29 (closer actually to 29.5) day lunar
month is, of course, the synodic month refererred to as a "lunation."
Para. 4: greater clarity should be present in noting that there are TWO
dualities of 28/29 involving calendrics. One is specific to February,
and is the leapyear situation. The 28 day sidereal lunar month versus
the 29 day synodic lunar month (again, fractions essential for real
astronomical computation are being ignored here to enable whole number
symbology) form an intertwining duality which repeats throughout the
year, and is independent from the calendar months. This caused
centuries of frustration for ancient astronomers who felt the lunar
months should form a neat solar year, but they don't. Julius Caesar
finally declared the long search to resolve lunar cycles with solar
cycles over, and declared the solar year to be the winner, and we are
still basically operating within that calendar plus the Gregorian
finetuning introduced over the last 400 years.
An interesting piece of Joycean "trivia": by the Julian calendar, James
Joyce died on the final day of the year, 31 December 1940. There are
other calendrics of Joyceana with appealing resonances. James Joyce was
born on Imbolc, 2 Feb., first of the four cardinal holy days of the
Celtic year. Mrs. James Joyce, nee Nora Barnacle, was born on the first
of the four cardinal holy days of the astronomical year, 21 March, the
Spring Equinox. Their daughter, Lucia, was given the name of a Winter
Solstice Saint. Lucia is of course cognate with Lux, Latin for Light,
and 21/22 December, new style (Gregorian), is traditionally considered,
being the longest night of the year, as the time when the light needed
for the next year is reborn. In late old style (Julian) times, the
Winter Solstice had slipped back to 13 December, which is still called
St. Lucy's day.
Meanwhile, back at 28/29. The clarification I wanted to make before I
drifted was that while the February connotation of Issy and the Floras
is obvious, I don't personally know of any reinforcement for a subtext
of sidereal month/synodic month for 28/29 in FW; just tossing it out in
case anybody else wants to play a little handball with it.
Now we get to where I got even stranger, and that is my feeble attempts
to pretend I know anything about Mallarme and/or French poetics . . . or
virtually anything else, for that matter. In describing "Une dentelle
s'abolit . . . " as having seven syllable lines, I forgot to mention
that I do not know how to scan French verse, and am not even sure if
anyone can. I have read that French verse is 1) spoken with archaic
stylization involving the sounding of normally silent syllables, and 2)
that it tends to follow patterns of French singing more than French
speaking, and that those styles changes from century to century. It's
obvious reading a sonnet by Baudelaire that more looseness in scansion
is occuring, in relation to a formal sonnet in English or Italian, than
can be simply ascribed to the Alexandrian line, but now I'm getting
myself into even more trouble than before. Maybe someone can help. So
let's call it a "sevenish" line until then?
There's still a good case for the "four lines of seven syllables each
stanza" (28 syllables in all) developed by the Irish poets of the filidh
being meant to reflect the 28 days of the sidereal lunar month, but once
more, no evidence I can put on the table for that being worked into the
Wake.
But there's an even better gaffe in my brief email career as a Mallarme
expert. Originally I meant to say that the octet of the poem, being
eight lines of "sevenish" syllabification, formed two stanzas of the
sort ascribed to the Irish filidh, and then the sestet pulled the poem
into an Italian sonnet structure minus the iambic pentameter. You'd
think such a pretentious and probably pointless statement would have
been enough, but I topped it by getting it wrong and stating that . . .
OK, let's just drop back ten yards and kick (fortunately, nobody but you
and I are reading this anymore) - -
Scratch: " . . . a fortnight's worth by our calendric interpretation
made above . . . " An incorrect computation based an a tentative
surmise.
In more encouraging news: I found the Paul Valery citation from the
preface of Eric McLuhan's "The Role of The Thunder":
"Tout vue des chose qui n'est pas etrange est fausse."
(Any view of things which isn't strange is false ((?)))
Assuming I didn't blow that trans. as well, I am still within Valery's
parameters, if no others.
Riverend Sterling.
Subject: Re: Who's Issy?
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 12/30/97 5:53 AM
Dear Mike,
You are going to get some very good replies to your inquiry on the character
and role of Issy from folks on our list, replies which I also look forward
to reading, as she is a central and charming persona, and you are correct in
her having taken a backseat to her parents. I am unfortunately guilty of
this in my own scrapings on the surface of the Wake.
Since recently joining the list myself, I've been shamed/inspired to begin
delving into "mainstream Wakean criticism," a bit of an oxymoron at first
glance perhaps, but acceptable if we portmanteau (pardon the Haigism)
"mainstream" to include Anna Liffey -- and a friend once told me that the
true mainstream is much deeper than often thought.
Previously I tended to follow certain lines of research based on things
which caught my interest without a clear overview of the book. Very helpful
in my attempt to begin rectifying this (so that a major figure like Issy
isn't slighted by me) has been reading two books which present fairly
detailed but not burdensome chapter surveys with some entertaining exegesis.
These books, chosen from a list sent me by a very nice person on the list (a
list originally generated by Bill Cadbury, I believe) are:
Gordon, John (a list member himself). Finnegans Wake, a Plot
Summary. 1986.
Tindall, William York. A Reader's Guide to Finnegans Wake. 1969.
As of 1996, both are published by Syracuse University Press, so I've
inevitably taken to referring to Gordon and Tindall as "the boys from
Syracuse," for which I apologize to them, not to mention mssr. Rodgers and
Hart. But this came from reading the two books in tandem, two chapters at a
time, so once I was a chapter ahead in Gordon, I'd catch up in Tindall and
get a chapter ahead of Gordon. To cap it all off, there had to be a copy of
the Wake close by, of course, and another treasure new to me, Roland
McHugh's Annotations to FW (John Hopkins U. Press, 1980/91), so a good time
was had by all, except those expecting a Christmas present or phone call
from me. But I'm one Tindall chapter away from finishing this project, have
paid off my bookstore accounts, and may catch up eventually on the slights
to relatives and other friends.
Some of what comes to mind, thanks to these authors, is that as ALP has at
times to play the role of Everywoman, so her daughter Issy, as an aspect of
ALP, symbolizes at times Everygirl (" . . . I'm only any girl
. . . " is ascribed to Isabel/Issy in FW p.146.5-6 in Tindall, pp. 116/7).
This can place her in some competion with her mother, and considerable
reference is made to her seductive impact on her notoriously imperfect
father, HCE. And fairly or not, in order to be Everygirl as percieved by
the adult world, at times she is portrayed as a bit of a diaphonous
mothbrain.
Yet there is a legitimate appeal to her, and some very pretty (though of
course on one level self-satirical) passages inspired by her. Issy also is
given the task of representing some very awesome women. One seems to be
Alice Liddell, the "real" Alice In Wonderland. Another is the Egyptian
gooddess Isis, central to the Wakean theme of eternal reappearance for
having gathered for regeneration the pieces of her brother's body.
Less attention has been paid to her as an ikon for the Order of Saint
Bridget of Ireland, founded very roughly at around 500 AD (see FW p.
220.3-4, with the same page in McHugh). This subject is far too complex and
important to do justice to in this space. Let us mention en passant that
St. Bridget founded an order for nuns of a specific numbering, and a school
of art as well. The numbering is, if I recall right, 19+1 (the one being at
first St. Bridget, then later a string of abbesses). Joyce has expanded
this to 28+1 to represent the month of February with its periodic leapyear.
This is the month traditionally reserved for Purification, the process
preceding the earth's rebirth in March, as well as the month introduced by
Bridget's feastday and Joyce's birthday in quick succession. The art school
is perhaps somewhat behind the association of The Floras from St. Bride's
Finishing Establishment (again, p.220) with colors. "Bride" and "Bridey"
are Irish nicknames derived from "Bridget."
And in a sense, the unlikely Issy represents the good saint herself, who was
not only a young girl once, but according to folklore, always (or at least
at will), for Bridget according to folklore had the impressive if
disconcerting habit of being young on one side of her face while old on the
other. This sounds scary, but Bridget is always kind, and the story
displays her power and universality, not any ogreness . . . though her clear
relation to ancient Celtiana has resulted in her disavowall by recent
Churchmen.
An especially strong and moving case for Issy's centrality is made by
Professor Gordon beginning on p. 75 of his work referred to above: " . . .
Issy is the Wake's occasion, theme, reason for existence, prime mover - the
one for whom and because of whom the dream is dreamed (p.76)." Be sure to
catch as well Gordon's read on p. 26 of the merged personae of Issy with
both ALP and Nora Joyce.
In the not impossible event that all goes well with my attempt to transfer
an extant file I made somewhere else, I'll toss in an Issy page with some of
its references by the scholars herein mentioned. Thanks for the cool
question, Yours,
The Riverend Sterling.
night by silentsailing night
while infantina Isobel (who will be
blushing all day to be, when she growed up one Sunday
Saint Holy and Saint Ivory, when she took the veil, the
beautiful presentation nun, so barely twenty, in her pure coif,
sister Isobel, and next Sunday, Mistlemas, when she looked
a peach, the beautiful Samaritan, still as beautiful and still
in her teens, nurse Saintette Isabelle, with stiffstarched cuffs but
on Holiday, Christmas, Easter mornings when she wore a wreath,
the wonderful widow of eighteen springs, Madame Isa Veuve La
Belle, so sad but lucksome in her boyblue's long black with
orange blossoming weeper's veil) for she was the only girl they
loved, as she is the queenly pearl you prize, because of the way
that night that we first met she is bound to be, methinks, and not
in vain, the darling of my heart, sleeping in her april cot, within
her singachamer, with her greengaugeflavoured candywhistle
duetted to the crazyquilt, Isobel, she is so pretty, truth to tell,
wilwood's eyes and primarose hair, quietly, all the woods so
wild, in mauves and mosses and daphnedews, how all so still she lay,
neath of the whitethorn, child of tree, like some losthappy leaf,
like blowing flower stilled, as fain would she anon, for soon again
'twill be, win me, woo me, wed me, ah weary me! deeply, now
evencalm lay sleeping;
FINNEGANS WAKE. James Joyce. P. 556.
(rhythm of Byrd's "Woods So Wild" -cf. .16)
s The Holly & the Ivy
Presentation Order of nuns
Michaelmas
mistletoe
HCE s She Wore a Wreath of Roses the Night
That First We Met
F veuve
Isa Bowman, friend of Lewis Carroll, played title role in Alice In
Wonderland adaption
Isolde la Belle lissom nr Little Boy Blue
buxom
(orange blossom for weddding)
s O Song of Songs: "Do you recall the night that we first met"
s Sally in our Alley: "She is the darling of my heart" apricot
chamber
Da seng: bed
(stuck) William Byrd: s "Shall I go walk the woods so wild, Wand"ring,
wand'ring
here & there, As I was once full sore beguiled, Alas! for love!
I die with woe."
daffodils daphne: kind of
laurel, bay
s (anon.) I sing of a maiden that is makeless: "He came
al so stille"
(Viconian cycle)
Annotations to FW. R. McHugh. P. 556.
' . . . the old Sackersonian figure . . . is the . . . seagoing
signal-sender who had
throughout been telegraphically seducing Issy with spondees of the sort ("
'twill be, win me,
woo me, wed me") [556.21]
FW, a Plot Summary. John Gordon. P. 255.
" . . . 'Saintette Isabelle' [556.07] is sans tete . . . "
A Reader's Guide to FW. W. T. Tindall. P.
287.
If cited passages are longer than is considered appropriate for email or
legal reasons, I apologize and would appreciate being so-informed. They
fall within proper reviewing limits, though perhaps at the limits of such
quantitatively undefined limits, due to the ephemeral nature of reviewing
and copyright criteria for encouraging the arts, but email I don't know so
well -- RS.
Subject: MAMA & DATA
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/3/98 8:26 AM
Dear Terence,
Having just read with fascinated appreciation your webpost
RE/the ineluctable modality of the interface between "prime matter" -- which
seems to include mass, energy, space, and time -- on one side with (the very
point being we cannot really say) what might be on the other side, because
the contact zone is itself immaterial . . .
As you know, you've nailed up a big root question generating
most other metaphysical inquiries from 1) chicken vs. egg (two entities
referred to ad nauseum in the Wake) & 2) where do people come from, mommy,
to 3) is life after death possible & 4) how independent is the mind from
the brain.
You have not trivialized this question with an answer, and the
question indeed seems preloaded to stay a jump ahead of us always, so a
thinking person gets a good bit of exercise from it with proper pacing. I
certainly enjoyed the thought - provoking you generated. So I'll just
proceed on with no plans for cohesion or development.
When Jesus appears after death to his disciples within a locked
room (last chapters of Luke & John), the New Testament takes care to show
that Jesus is at that point a material being. His wounds can be felt, he
breathes, and he eats. Yet he has seemingly passed through walls to be
present . . . become material within the room from an immaterial state. The
modern analogy might be if a character on our TV suddenly asked for
something from the frig, and then managed to swallow whatever we brought!
The analogy goes through interesting permutations when extended. At first
we say the TV image is not real, so it can't really swallow what we bring.
But the TV image is real, it is just not what it appears to be when we are
in a state of "suspended disbelief" needed to watch the show. We were
pretending the image was a living being in order to care about a story being
shown. Really we understand that a cathode ray tube is being bombarded by
an electron gun, and in that sense, the image is "real." As far as that
goes, somewhere there is/was a real person captured on camera to make the
image. An image itself is real, it's a real image -- as a dream is a real
dream, so to that extent we cannot say dreams are not real. We may even
speak of something so evanescent as the memory of a dream as real or false.
But the false memory of the dream is also real. All fall within the
jurisdiction of the primary matter to which you refer. If we hallucinate
that the TV actually eats dinner with us, we are certainly having a real
hallucination,and few will argue the point with us.
But Modern Physics assures us of something which cannot be real:
that
the manifest universe arose from an unmanifest nothing, and Qabala can only
add
that it is always developing from an unmanifestation, while Hinduism has it
that the Great
Zero reappears cyclically. Only the Hubble Constant knows for sure.
Now for my read on Vico: questions on things God does are not
understandable by humans, but things humans do are. Since language is so
human, it makes an excellent playing field for these insolubilities. We
thereby substitute an understanding for an answer, if you will. My
grandmother said you take what you can because the rest doesn't matter.
"Matter" is cognate with the word known to all men: "ma." Ma
appears in "mass," but goes beyond because we have agreed to lump space,
time, and charge as forms of a primary matter. So matter is our mother.
What we are seeking is our father, insofar as this linguistic metaphor goes.
Ma is MAnifest. We appear from within her MAtrix. Dad is this secondary
discovery, and as Joyce said, we never know for sure who our father really
is. DNA testing's recent appearance only emphasizes that Joyce's statement
should be recognized as metaphysical: the search for the "fifth essence" is
not going to end at some future date. DNA tells who your MAterial father
is. You still don't know where you really came from, because in the
mythopoeic realm, we have two fathers just as did Ulysses (Laertes and
Hermes). And Jesus has two fathers, one on earth and one in heaven. But
the heavenly one created earth, and the earthly one now resides in heaven!
Coincidentia oppisitorum! Along the same lines, our natural parents are
created by our supernatural parents, Mother Earth and the All Father -- and
sexists of all sexes note: it takes both to create either.
We know the word "ma" mimics the action of nursing lips. Father
words -- pa, da, ba -- tend toward more outward mouthing. We engage the
breast with "ma," and disengage with "pa." Both are initially oral motions
we associate with the nipple which for our poetic young minds is a synedoche
for our mother. So pa starts off as a phase of ma. Joyce has lots of fun
with this (" He had buckgoat paps on him . . ." FW 215.27-8, etc.), having
noticed in his linguistic ramblings the tie in various languages between
father words and nipple words, including the English oxymoron "pap."
Thus the search for a true realm of the immaterial has become
our desire to know who this pap might be.
Please keep up the good work, and thank you for the several
references to mine you've made.
Yours, the
Riverend Sterling.
"The thing I like about art, there's no rules." Miles Davis.
Subject: Re: Deconstructing JJ
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/4/98 9:07 PM
Dear Allen,
Your report on the statement by Mr. Nilsen of the Arizona
Republic is disturbing, and you deserve the gratitude of the list for
alerting us to what appears a very cavalier attitude toward a family's right
to responsible coverage.
I do not know what Mr. Nilsen has heard or read, or what he
perhaps thinks he has heard or read, but for my part I've neither heard nor
read any such thing. My reading on the Joyces is hardly exhaustive, but
substantial. A fairly close family member of my own was a sometime member
of the 1930's Paris crowd, and in my younger days I overheard many garrulous
sessions of gossip between him and his cohorts, both reminiscence and
updating, and the Joyces were not completely spared. But never any hint of
Mr. Nilsen's allegation was spoken, and this was not the sort of subject
that would necessarily be excluded.
The onus is clearly on Mr. Nilsen to retract his statement if he
wishes to be considered a serious responsible writer, but for the rest of
the world, we shall be content if we simply hear no more from him at all.
He has already hoisted himself up by his own petard by refering to his
target in one sentence as "recently accused," and then veering wildly in the
next to speaking of a "final proof" which "may not be available." I should
think not, given we have no initial proof. And in the same breath, Nilsen
lets out that " . . . it is widely accepted as fact." How can any recent
accusation be any such thing, short of course of tabloids or the TV talk
show circuit. This is very bad form on Mr. Nilsen's part if he is
professional, and plain poor writing if not.
In Finnegans Wake, Joyce attempts the forging of a megamythology
radiating out from his own life to everyone's. The Earwicker family are
every family so they are the only family. Perhaps Mr. Nilsen or someone
beneath whose influence he's fallen has mistaken an artist's literary
creation for an autobiography? Impossible to do with a surrealistic
montage? Not if you are familiar only with second hand scraps of
information.
The improprieties of Mr. Nilsen might be acceptable once from a
freshman, but would be shocking in a sophomore. And of course I say that
with love.
Yours, the roving and Riverend Sterling.
Subject: Re: from a newcomer's messonge book
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/12/98 5:35 AM
Dear Ramiro,
Thank you for sending us the Borges sonnet
"James Joyce" in Spanish and English.
En un dia del hombre estan todos los dias . . .
In the man's one day are all the days . . .
A good intro. for Joyce to anyone, isn't it?
Desde la noche veo/From the night I see
One blind poet singing to another of Milton's
chaos and eternal night amid the daily and
Homeric struggle to rise once more above it.
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE ROVING AND RIVEREND STERLING
"The thing I like about art, there's no rules." Miles Davis.
Subject: 1941 Jan 13
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/12/98 6:56 PM
An URL featuring the info that Joyce's death of 1941 Jan 13, New Style
(Gregorian) falls on the last day of year, Old Style (Julian):
www.cs.washington.edu/homes/dougz/perldate/date.pl?date=13+Jan+1941
Subject: Re: Cuir sioda ar ghabhar agus is gabhar i gconai e.
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/14/98 8:22 PM
Shae of CELTIC-L list sent the above Gaelic
proverb with the pron. of
"Kwir sheeoda air gowar agus iss gowar i goany ey (as in 'Hey')"
and the rendering of "literally: put silk on a goat and it will always be a
goat." I.e., still be one.
RE: 75.12 -- can anyone give the meaning of the word "sioda?" -- is
"sioda" cognate with "skeowsha?" -- and the meaning of "cuir?"
Subject: Cuir sioda - correction to page/line citation
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/14/98 10:37 PM
As corrected:
Cuir sioda ar ghabhar agus is gabhar i gconai e.
Shae of CELTIC-L list sent the above Gaelic
proverb with the pron. of
"Kwir sheeoda air gowar agus iss gowar i goany ey (as in 'Hey')"
and the rendering of "literally: put silk on a goat and it will always be a
goat." I.e., still be one.
RE: 215.12 -- can anyone give the meaning of the word "sioda?" -- is
"sioda" cognate with "skeowsha?" -- and the meaning of "cuir?"
I.e., 215.12, not 75.12, has our cuir skeowsha.
(I'm still just a lurker on CELTIC-L) -- & it's Joyce.
Subject: Re: cogito ergo somebody??????????
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/16/98 11:27 PM
Dear Mr. Spicer,
P. 304., lines 27 & 31 of Finnegans Wake and
McHugh's Annotations (I don't do well on these
line counts -- they should get you close):
line 27 refers to cogito ergo sum's creator, Rene
Descartes (as you know) by the English trans. of
his last name: "of the cards";
line 31 contains: "cog it out, here goes a sum"
I recorded some of Cage's Finnegans Wake of the
radio once, but it has yet to grab me. The Wake
seemed to form snippets of backdrop to some
rather aleatoric noise music but I've no doubt just
Cage fans running to the racks . . .
Subject: cog it out, here goes some
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/17/98 12:07 AM
Dear Mr. Spicer, of course my post should have
read OFF the radio, & just SENT Cage fans . . .
I like your "reading the wake . . . is able to bring one
into a newer unrealized sense of being . . . too simple
to be profound" (sorry about the ellipses . . . I realize
I've crunched two of your thoughts into one)
Eric McLuhan spoke on this at a panel discussion on
FW last fall, stating that reading a wakean paragraph
(he didn't mention Peter Paragraph specifically
((mid p. 438))) can add to your appreciation of talk
overheard in a cafe, the puns we make by will or
by sigmund, the funny bursts of stately cliches used
by newspapers and public speakers, and such, and
that FW, according to its namesake song, is made
to be lots of fun. Speaking of, do you know Ambrose
Bierce's cogito cogito ergo cogito sum? (I think that I
think, therefore I think that I am.)
Subject: Finnegans Wake Concordex
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/19/98 2:46 AM
I've just been going to the crazypage concordance for its
expanding contexts and big print, and then to Bob Williams'
son's NEWER concordance for the right pages and the
chance to crosslink with Ulysses if wanted. If you don't have
that hyperlink, it should be in my latest posting on FWRead,
"And now live from the Whiteharse."
I should acknowledge your request for my snailmail on some
previous FW math homework, but once I find such, where
should I mail it? And thanks for asking. RS.
Subject: Re: cog it out, here goes some
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/19/98 3:01 AM
Dear Mr Spicer,
The Roaratorio (thanks Judith Harrington for the name) I
recorded off a PBS station was broadcast from a
preexistent recording which I THINK was from the BBC.
Someone will know more, but if I find my cassette, I'll listen
to see if there's any intro info with or on it. RS.
Subject: Roaratorio (reprint of 12/02/97 post)
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/19/98 6:10 AM
Dear Mr. Spicer,
Try the hyperlink in the posting below. Then scroll down to the Cage link.
You can eventually scroll and link through quite a bit on Roaratorio, and
that includes info on a 2 CD recording including other relevant Cageiana:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
check out my John Cage/Joyce page on The Brazen Head:
www.rpg.net/quail/libyrinth/joyce/joyce.music.html
There are several Joyce/music links there, one to Cage. It has some
information on Cage's work, liner notes to ROARATORIO, and links to Cage
sites.
Take care!
--Allen Ruch
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: was it you, glazy cheeks?
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/19/98 10:44 PM
Is anyone familiar with the Anna Livia
Executive Lounge at the airport in
Dublin?
It came up on an Irish search engine,
along with the website of a public
radio station named for that same
Lady of the River which had a button
you could click on stating:
"Tell me about Anna Livia."
Subject: still breathing
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/20/98 3:40 AM
-----Original Message-----
From: James Collins ...
Date: Monday, January 19, 1998 8:34 PM
About the thunderworld: something there for the PEA and PEH
(Pa/Da)association? PEH operates the location of Tarot Key 16, The Tower,
struck by lightning(roasted martellows). "Grace and Sin, or Beauty and
Ugliness, are the pair of opposites attributed by Qabalists to the letter
PEH, because the issues of life, directed by human speech, result in one or
the other. Sin, or missing the mark (sign of community), results in
maladjustment and ugliness (lack of decorum?) Hitting the mark
(victim/sign) in right(eous) action results in the manefestation of
beauty(consensus/style/taste)."P. Case
(The Riverend footnotes): Dear Shamus,
The toughlove administered by Grandfather Dillon has payed off for us.
The list slueth has ID'd the opening of Ulysses as replicating one of the
22 Major Arcana, that is, a card from the core deck of the Tarot.
The Tower portrays a couple being violently thrown from something
very like the Martello Tower from which Stephen is driven.
We must also give some credit to the finest of teachers, Mr Paul
Foster Case, whose Understanding the Tarot is quoted. Anyone
who acquires this, and possibly Case's Book of Tokens along with
Understanding the Tarot, will find the singlemost clear, thorough, and
sane approach to the field, and a key specifically into the ordination of
character development arrived at by the Order of the Golden Dawn,
that is the Yeats crowd and so on. A Joycean goldmine. And more!
Subject: Re: Anna Livia Executive Lounge
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/20/98 7:18 PM
Dear Arye,
For me, this would depend on whether I can get in
without the Priority Pass. I imagine it's meant to
reflect well on Mr. Joyce, in his home town and
all that. Much thanks and such detail!
-----Original Message-----
From: list . Arye Kendi, Jerusalem ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Tuesday, January 20, 1998 9:58 AM
Subject: Re: Anna Livia Executive Lounge
> According to my Priority Pass Lounge Directory the Anna Livia
> Executive Lounge is at Dublin International on the 2nd floor of
> Boarding Area B. It's open daily form 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., closed
> on Dec. 25. Alcoholic drinks are limited to two per person.
>
> I hope this vital piece of information will greatly enhance the
> Wake research.
>
Subject: P. 75.08 Zijnzijn Zijnzijn! HellOOO . . .
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/20/98 11:14 PM
Question posed by Mikio I believe to be:
Are we meant to hear an allusion to Exodus 3:14 in
the Zijnzijn Zijnzijn! of 75.08?
The tie is that Zijn appears in the Dutch Bible in
Exodus 3:14 when Moses asks for God's name,
and is told "Ik zijn" for "I am" in the phrase known
best in English as I AM THAT I AM.
We have from Professor Gordon that zijnzijn can if
nothing more (unlikely in FW) be the Earwickers'
doorbell.
Here's all I can come up with for my side of it.
1. The Eerdmans Bible Dict. Rev. Ed. A. C. Myers.
1987. (Bijbelse Encyclopedie. Ed. W. H. Gispen,
Netherlands, 1975). P. 511.
"I AM WHO I AM (Heb. 'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh) An
expression used to explain Yaweh, the covenant
name of the God of Israel, given to Moses when
he encountered the burning bush (Ex. 3:14). It is
also rendered "I will be what I will be" or perhaps
correctly, 'I create what(ever) I create.' See YAWEH."
Well . . . actually in the Hebrew text, it isn't given out
to be YAWEH in the burning bush, but the elohim, the
mysterious goddessmen, but we're advised to not be
overly literal about that . . .
'ehyeh or 'eheye, the doubling word, is I AM, the
Hebrew connoting pronoun and verb both. 'asher is
a particle with relative pronoun functions, with some
of the causative as well, just as "that" in the English
"He drank THAT he might live." The verb is one of
being, but also of becoming. So boom, a thousand
camels enter the courtyard. "I AM WHO I BECOME,"
"I BECOME SO THAT I MAY BE," "I AM WHAT
COMES TO PASS," no one knows how best to translate
it, though the mood seems aggressively passive.
In case Moshe thinks God doesn't mean I AM as a name,
the Elohim toss(es) it in once more in Ex. 3:14.
"Tell them I AM sent you." And God also speaks the
name of Moses twice in a row when they first meet in
3:4: " . . . God called unto him out of the midst of the
bush, and said, Moses, Moses."
Zijnzijn seems to only need the Dutch context to be God,
and does not in fact seem to have any reinforcing from
Latin or Hebrew texts beyond they all agree in some way
to double the verb. The pronoun "I" of I AM THAT I AM"
is not an independent word in the Hebrew text, but the verbs
are separated by a relative particle for THAT. In Latin, the
Vulgate uses the pronoun before the first verb, and not the
second (ego sum qui sum). In English and Dutch, both verb
and pronoun double.
IF Joyce had burning bush's name in mind at 75.08, then there
would be resonance with the introductory motif of the Nile and
what some of us perceive as birthing things through the allusion
to Moshe/Moses, whose name means "pulled up" (out of the
water by the Pharoah's daughter). The chamermissies thence
would be the ladies-in-waiting with Pharoah's daughter. The
infant Moses was placed in a floating coffin like someone is (I
read) on page 76. (Joyce by the way came very near to having
his remains thrown in whatever lake is at Zurich due to a policy
at his cemetery.) The little floating baby besieged bedreamt, and
protected by his innocence, knew not the dreadful watchers who
were the true treacherous waters in his little boat's wake, and if
this is true, then the lion who is remembering all this from from afar
in the future is Moses. We know the lion has to be at least a little of
Leopold Bloom, the castrated king of the jungle, and Moses and
Leopold take turns with Joyce playing various essences of Judaica
and Dublin. A lion remembering nenuphars is a Leo remembering Blooms
is Moses remembering his resting place among the lilies and reeds and
bare legs of youth where he came to shore just so niceums and
Zeepyzoepy that day (what luck!) at the palace ladies' favorite hole
when . . .well, wouldn't you know it, that damned doorbell! And I was
having such a swell dream in the old days. Yes, I'm . . . It's WHO?
WHO? I'm sorry, you'll have to repeat that.
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE ROVING AND RIVEREND STERLING
"Holy Scamander, I sar it again! . . . Is that the Poolbeg flasher"
Subject: Fw: Bob's son's new concordance of contrarities
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/21/98 3:19 AM
-----Original Message-----
From: Riverend Sterling
To: Allen Mahan ...; FW Read Listserv
<FWREAD@lists.colorado.edu>
Date: Tuesday, January 20, 1998 11:58 PM
Subject: Bob's son's new concordance of contrarities
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Riverend Sterling
> To: FW READ MAIL <fwread@lists.colorado.edu>
> Date: Sunday, January 18, 1998 9:57 PM
> Subject: And now live from the Whiteharse . . .
>
>
> This way the museyroom. Mind your boots goan
> http://qinpalace.com/cgi-local/search.cgi
> thanks to: Bob Williams' son).
>
> But also:
>
> In his middle-age, the angry younger god we heard shouting his selfhood
from
> some magical brushfire has settled for installing a doorbell.
>
> YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
> THE ROVING AND RIVEREND STERLING
> > "Things are more the way they are now than they have ever been before."
> President Eisenhower.
>
>
>
Subject: JAAJ & Qabala
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/23/98 8:38 PM
George Russell (AE) is considered Joyce's main
Golden Dawn contact, and if I recall right, it was
Joyce's "transmutation" of Russell's invitation to
join the Order that launched Joyce's career as a
creative writer in that Joyce is held to have said
he would not be interested in joining but asked
Russell instead to publish Joyce's short stories in
Russell's paper, The Irish Homestead, and the rest
is history. When we contemplate that even Maude
Gonne was coerced to join the Order of the Golden
Dawn, we realize how adept was Joyce at joining
nothing . . . making all the more remarkable his early
leadership of the Sodality of Mary. Among other
influential names associated with Golden Dawn are
Charles Williams, whose display of ritual recorded by
a coed are perhaps worth a look amongst his
biographia; Dion Fortune, a pioneer in the giant New
Age publishing industry; and Bram Stoker whose Celtic
gift for the word put Dracula where he is today. Annie
Besant (whose name to the Joyce brothers, Any Bee's
Aunt, is, I believe, cited by Stanislaus as among first of
the Joycean portmanteau words), while not a Dawner,
must be counted among the same sort of influences on
Joyce's concepts of the Celto-Qabala, and the rejection
by the young Krishnamurti of the leadership of the Order
of the Star of East, founded by Besant and Leadbeater
as the vehicle by which Krishnamurti would assume the
Messiahship of a new and improved earth, made a favorable
impression on the bohemian intelligentsia of Europe in the
late 20's. Jiddu Krishnamurti is likely the source of the ref
on 472.15 to "Our Chris-na-murti!" McHugh seems to cite
another Krishnamurti, it's a generic name after all, but still, to
most people there is one certain Elvis above all others, and
ditto for Krishnamurti, though this may have been less the
case during the writing of the Wake. I doubt it, though. The
rejection by its sought-for-leader of a readymade state-of-the-
art worldwide cult was, is, and should be quite newsworthy . . .
and apt to get a favourable nod from an out-of-the-closet
outsider as our James Joyce -- and whoever is being referred
to on 472 is certainly getting an unusual amount of unmitigated
praise by Wakean terms. And several refs which follow on 472
(lucerne;cantons) bring to mind that, also as with Joyce,
Krishnamurti lived off and on in Switzerland. That is speculation,
but a general and significant impact on Joyce by the schools
spawned by Madame Blavatsky through her adherents, Besant
and Yeats, is not; -- nor should our eyebrows go too far past
where we can pull them back down quickly. It's easy to portray
the teachings of their orders as a lastgasp backlash against
the Michelson-Morley experiment, nocturnal fairygold which will
turn to floorsweepings in daylight, that is until we remember
that W. B. Yeats and Annie Besant were groundfloor executives
in the administrations of two new revolutionary modern nations,
Ireland and India. Then we must ask what your and my oh-so-
sane political leaders have recently accomplished for us (or
rather let's not and say we did).
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE ROVING AND RIVEREND STERLING
"I am offering you the sun, and you ask me for a candle."
Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Subject: "cute synchronicity of pagination"
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/25/98 4:50 AM
J. W. Pickett continues placing very cogent dishes upon
our table. In response especially to his latest posting:
the Egyptians had a golden sentence, "Anyone who has
enough leisure may become wise." Geniuses as diverse
as Descartes and John Lennon have reiterated this (" . . .
if Newton hadn't been daydreaming under the apple tree,
he never would have discovered gravity" JL). As wierd
as the oeuvre of Theosophy and its offshoots appears,
the stated goal is simply to create a more open climate
for research into reality in the idealistic hope that a wider
brotherhood of man will result. If a spawn within its wake
is found to include mumbo-jumbo cults run by perverts
and egomaniacs, well, what else is new. The true
understanding of Original Sin, that is, that we are born
into a world in which there is already so much gone wrong
that we have no choice but to be less than perfect ourselves,
gives us some acceptance of the inevitability that any act of
creation will result in both good and bad repercussions. A
Constitutional Democracy with A Free Press are wonderful
concepts, but people are people, and sooner or later you
wind up with months of communal conciousness devoted
to the President's genitalia, and you are begging for a
Ricorso (didn't Vico on the eve of the worldwide people's
revolution in whose aftermath we find ourselves warn that
Democracy would lead to each person wanting the life of
a king, and that the end result would be a society which revolved
around constant litigation as each little mini-dictator sued
every other little mini-dictator to secure his own particular
divine rights?). Of course, after awhile running about on all
fours searching for roots and berries is tiresome, so we accept
the rule of angry gods, and start lobbying for reform within that
context . . . but back to the subject I hadn't got to yet.
The esoterotica of Qabala is largely discoverable on one's own,
because it revolves around logical conclusions based on objective
analyses of simple data described in highly imaginative imagery.
Joyce had early exposure to Jesuitical dialectics, followed by
academic training in his chosen field of linguistics, and the native
gift for obsessive memory required of the traditional Irish poet-
priests called the Fili, but above all, a pregnant imagination. So
given a teaspoonful of hints, he was able to make a rather full-
bodied cup of Celto-Qabala. And the young Mr. Joyce spent a
great deal more time in libraries than we see Stephen Dedalus
doing. The thought that either would seek initiation into mysteries
by bowing down and kissing any modern Knights of the Templar's
anything is so beyond the pale as to make our ho heads haul.
Just as Joyce was too Catholic to attend church, he was far too
Celto-Qabalistic to join the Golden Dawn. The mind which Qabala
attempts to develop is the opposite of anything we think of as
cultistic (and it is time to define our Qabala as that derived from
the Sephardic tradition of medieval Spain stemming from dialectics
among Jews, Islamic Moors, and Christians regarding documents
of intellectual hermeneutics stemming from the Sefer Yetzirah -- there
is cross-pollination with Hasidic Qabala, but that is a very exclusively
Jewish Qabala, and it would be disrespectful to confuse Hasidism
and its goal of becoming ever more Jewish, with Sephardic-based
Qabalism, which is relatively speculative, intellectual, and ecumenic),
and there is forinstance a Qabalism that a prayer should always be
improvisitorial and unique in its wording, and never a rote ritualism
(but a true Qabalist will at this point go "Really? Is that true? Why?
Where does that lead? What else is written in this regard?" And
the Riverend tries not to leave home without his walletsize portrait
of Mary, on the back of which the imprimatur has allowed the
handy invocation I give you verbatim as "Hail Mary, etc.").
To the chase: all the Solomon rigamarole relates to formulae for the
construction of the Temple. Solomon actually hired the job out to an
Irish construction contractor named Hiram. At that time the Irish were
one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the only one to migrate from one
tribal area to another, and that is the Dan. The Dan had been in Egypt
for some time doing pyramid work (that's right, hod-carrying!) and had
gotten friendly there with the Jews, who said come up and see us
sometime. That is why the Dan are valued but not fully trusted by the
other tribes, and seen moving from the southwest to the northeast
(Jor-dan = flowing down from the Danic people's area). The Dan then
moved to Greece (the Danae) but never quite established a permanent
foothold, although they left a great folk-hero, that clever outsider
Odysseus. Then they tried Spain for awhile (the Celto-Iberians), but
were still treated as interlopers. Finally they found this remote
island of Eire, and after a series of rebuffs by the Firbolgs, Formorians,
or
whoever was previously indigenous, settled where history eventually
finds them.
Conventional academia consider the above scenario as pure poppycock
invented by the Irish to soothe their inferiority complex for not having a
real classical history due to their bad taste in not being enslaved by the
Romans. That does not lower the myth's value for Joyceans or Viconians.
Vico would have it that a myth, being invented by humans, might even tell
us more than the comparitively random events of history. As for Joyce,
he based much of Ulysses around the myth. Leopold Bloom, Jewish;
Stephen Dedalus, Greek; Marion Bloom, Spanish -- these are human
creations chosen for a specific purpose by their creator to delineate
the traditional history of the pre-Eire Irish. And behind all of them, the
dreams of Egypt referred to on p. 75 of the Wake.
For all of Qabalism's frightening panoply of mystical symbology, it
essentially devolves to that source of so much intelligence, arrested
development. In first grade, when Mrs. Kay taught us that the first
letter of the alphabet is "A," by the time she got to "B," the little
proto-Qabalists in the class were lost in internal (if they were smart)
dialectics. Why is "A" first? Why does "A" look the way it does?
Why is it called "A?" Where did "A" come from? And so on. You
remember that aggravating little twerp in row 2. It was probably you.
If you are still making a really concerted effort to master the ABC's in
your forties, you qualify to be a Qabalist. The rest of us aren't reading
this anyway, so let us proceed with gay, straight, and even
celibate abandon.
In describing the specs for the Temple of Solomon, Kings I gives
somewhere the most primitive equation for pi, which is three over
one. But around the same time as the alphabet was invented, and
it appears out of nowhere so does seem an invention by societal
scum of the Levant being worked in mountain mines of Sinai and
the Jordan, followers of the old goddess Ela who devised a way
for anyone to learn quickly to write without being a highly trained
professional scribe, around this same time the first recording of
the two basic irrational constants appears. We refer to pi as 22
over 7 (3.14) (no, FWRead listers, not Exodus 3.14, just 3.14),
and the square root of two as 10 over 7 (1.4). If you don't have
some way to deal with these two constants, you can't understand
the math relating curves to straight lines, and you're going to have
a lot of trouble converting Solomon's blueprints into a huge finished
Temple for the Ages. (Didn't Joyce write to Miss Weaver that in
writing FW, he was trying to design a square wheel? At any rate,
the squaring of the circle is a root problem of esoteric and exoteric
math history . . . even Einstein had to approach curves and lines
separately, hence the General versus the Specialized Theory of
Relativity).
OK, I had to walk my dogs. We were . . . I got it, the answer to the
great unasked question. Why are there 22 letters in the original NW
(northwestern) Semitic alphabet? First, let's state why it's being
referred to here as such. We know the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets
are of 22 letters, if we counts groups of variants as units. But they
derive from an older root alphabet used by the Caananites and
Phoenicians, considered hill and coast branches of one people, and
from them it spread into its various forms of Aramaic, Moabitic, and
eventually Hebraic characters . . . but basically the NW Semitic
alphabet of 22 letters has changed remarkably little since its
overnight debut some 3600+ years back. So we exchange Hebrew
and NW Semitic and Phoenician more loosely than we perhaps should
in speaking of the alphabet, and shall continue so doing. All have 22
letters, and even the Roman/English mix of majuscule and miniscule
you are looking at is amazingly close to the original alphabet. No
change in the history of writing compares to the watershed between
before/after the first appearance of the 22 original phonetic ikons.
Why 22? Because the alphabet did not evolve, it was invented. It is a
work of art by someone. Part of that artist or artists' concept was to
weave from the symbols a portmanteau of significances showing a
depth of mastery. 22 was chosen for the number of characters because
22 is the number for pi, the division of a circumference by its diameter.
The first character, 'alef (our current "A" inverted) is a stylized head
of a bovine creature we know, but again, why? One of the circles, the
main circle, alluded to by having 22 letters, is the Grand Circle, the
Platonic Year, i.e., the Precession of Equinoxes. If this sounds wildly
esoteric to us, its because we've been off the farm too long. It's
astronomy, not astrology. The earth has wobbles. One wobble causes the
north pole to point to various parts of the sky in a circular description of
a
26,000 year (approximately) period. Therefore the stars which WE see
rising at 21 March 1998, while virtually identical to what rises in '97 or
'99,
are not the stars which rise 21 March several thousand years before or
after. BUT people 26,000 years ago saw (approximately) the same stars
on the same day's same hour as us, and so will whoever's looking 26,0000
years in the future. No one knew this until the invention of writing,
because
it requires hundreds of years of accurate recording of nightsky observation
to realize it's not always the same -- not to mention figuring out that it
rhythmically and regularly returns to being (more or less) the same. When
we first got wind of this precession, the spring equinox occurred when the
sun was against the stars of the constellation Taurus, the Bull. The figure
we know as "A" is a schematic line representation of the path of the
ecliptic,
the sun's annual path against the background of the stars, as it crosses the
prominent "V"-shaped asterism which forms the Bull's head (remember, you
have to turn our modern "A" upside-down, the only basic difference in the
3600+ years history of the letter). You in the back with your hand up, of
course you may be excused for a minute. It's only Email. Back? Good.
Your trust is gratifying, and I shall be faithful. Let's make a couple of
big
breakouts. First, counters on the table, please. 1) "alphabet" is Greek/
English/Roman from the Hebrew 'alef-beth; 2) "beth" is house, dwelling --
'alef is bovine creature, e.g. bull (usually given in Hebrew in the plural
form
'elef, also thence herd, community, myriad); 3) the alphabet begins with
"A" to reflect a time when the year began with the sun in Taurus, the Bull;
4) the shape of 'alef is our current "A" upside down, showing the "V" of
the central asterism (stargroup) in Taurus intersected by an imaginary line
representing the intersection of the path of the sun (ecliptic) through
Taurus
which once (and will again) denote the Spring Equinox (Nora Joyce's
birthday); 5) the said intersecting lines of the Hydra-Taurean "V" and the
ecliptic form a triangle still existing to this day in the figure "A,"
upside down
or not, along with the subtending extensions which are to us the character's
"legs" but to the ancients were it's horns; 6) in modern astronomical
nomenclature, stars are named by assigning a Greek letter (until they run
out) before a three letter abbreviation of the relevant constellation, and
most often the letter alpha is assigned to the lucida (brightest star), so
that
the lucida of Taurus, a magnificent red star called Aldeberan said to be the
bull's eye as it is in the triangle of the head, is (pretend the next letter
is
Greek miniscule) "a Tau," that is "alpha Taurus"; so that in the unlikely
event
some poor fool can both discover this and hold it together in the mind while
shivering halfdrunk at graveyardthirty of a Dublin night, why that person
could combine all the above points linking the constellation Taurus with the
origin of the alphabet and think: 7) (the envelope please),
" . . . interstellar wind, winding, coiling, simply swirling, writhing in
the skies
a mysterious
writing till after a myriad of metamorphoses of symbol, it blazes, Alpha, a
ruby and
triangled sign upon the forehead of Taurus." Ulysses. 14.1107-9.
And all this time we thought that referred to the logo for Bass Ale. (It
does).
Well, it goes on for river, but let's do a wrap on pi and be on. A list
member
who I hope will step forward and be credited (I am roving from computer to
computer and just learning how to save to floppy) recently gave us the great
insight that somehow (by coincidence or plan, equally amazing) the
pagination in the Wake ends with page 628, which is RAD in trigonometry(?),
that is, a circle's circumference divided by its radius (RAD being the
chiclets-key
symbol on a calculator for radians) which is two times pi (2 x pi x r =
circumf.)(but
rads are often thought of mainly in terms of the angle subtended by a length
of
circumference equal to the radius -- one more step and the ice gives way for
the
Riverend). (Also we are viewing both pi and RAD without the decimal point).
Anyhoo, we have it from a source other than I that the number of pages in
the
Wake, 628, is 2 times pi. Therefore the Riverend (back now on the shore
where
his footing is more steady) points out that Finnegans Wake is Dublin' Pie!
(Well,
why didn't he just come out and say so to begin with.)
To cap off, let's return to Joyce's profound jocularity to Harriet Shaw
Weaver that
in Finnegans Wake he would attempt to design a square wheel. The classical
problem was to describe a circle and a square which contained exactly equal
areas. No math equation yet devised can do it, because it plays off two
irrational numbers against each other, pi (the relation of a circle's
circumference
with a line drawn from one edge to another through the center) and the
square
root of two (being the relation of the side of a square with a line drawn
from one
corner to the kitty-corner). It doesn't help that actually we can't express
the area
of a circle algebraically to begin with, because pi has no numerical
coefficient . . .
just a Greek letter -- at least the square root of 2 has the 2. The last
time I looked
(1992) the computers had extended the decimal places in pi into the billions
without
finding a clue to any pattern indicating anything. All we can do is tell
which
values are not pi, and whether they are too big or too small.
Joyce, of course, was referring to literature not math. The problem then
becomes:
can you combine the linearality of standard narration (the path of words
from "once
upon a time" to "they lived happily ever after") with the spherical ambience
of life as
it is experienced. Can an author on 314 leaves of paper merge storytime
with
dreamtime, where we generally have little in the way of openings and
endings, but
simply find ourselves in various middles which keep fading into one another.
Well?
Subject: to error
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/25/98 5:26 AM
It's like this, see. I cursored up to hit "save,"
but Outlook Express in its infinite wisdom has
placed "save" one centimeter above "send."
I shot over to "close," and was asked if I
wanted to send mail stuck in "Outbox," and I
swear I clicked "No," but when I returned to
Outlook, the posting whose subject is "cute
synchronicity of pagination" was listed as
"sent." Now I can pretend it would have been
much shorter and correctly formatted, and not
had a new number written "26,0000."
You will hear no more until Word 97 is learned.
Subject: ooooooOOOOOOooooo
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/25/98 4:43 PM
Perhaps Mr. Joyce's policy on ghosts was
not too different from that explained in my
Catholic Dictionary. "Nothing in the Church's
official doctrine precludes the existence of
ghosts." Phew, glad we got that straightened
out. Or James Baldwin's "To the extent that I
am an adult, I do not believe in ghosts; to the
extent that I am a child, of course I believe in
them." Personally, I'm not going to deny the
existence of something I've never even seen.
Subject: Predicate.
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/25/98 7:28 PM
List to the Right, List to the Left,
Yoko Ono (from Grapefruit via memory),
"Have some friends over. Bring out your
dirty laundry and show each piece,
explaining how it became soiled."
The whole cell wall structure of my Emailia
has collapsed. "My sights are swimming
thicker on me . . . I sow home slowly now."
As far as I can tell is not very far, but what
I get is that parts of the posting labeled
"cute synchronicity of pagination" made it to
and through the list server, while other
fragments are stuck in my hard-drive's
0001101010110. Sorry. Here's the giant
embarrassing floppy version:
The Egyptians had a golden sentence, "Anyone who has
enough leisure may become wise." Geniuses as diverse
as Descartes and John Lennon have reiterated this (" . . .
if Newton hadn't been daydreaming under the apple tree,
he never would have discovered gravity" JL). As wierd
as the oeuvre of Theosophy and its offshoots appears,
the stated goal is simply to create a more open climate
for research into reality in the idealistic hope that a wider
brotherhood of man will result. If a spawn within its wake
is found to include mumbo-jumbo cults run by perverts
and egomaniacs, well, what else is new. The true
understanding of Original Sin, that is, that we are born
into a world in which there is already so much gone wrong
that we have no choice but to be less than perfect ourselves,
gives us some acceptance of the inevitability that any act of
creation will result in both good and bad repercussions. A
Constitutional Democracy with A Free Press are wonderful
concepts, but people are people, and sooner or later you
wind up with months of communal conciousness devoted
to the President's genitalia, and you are begging for a
Ricorso (didn't Vico on the eve of the worldwide people's
revolution in whose aftermath we find ourselves warn that
Democracy would lead to each person wanting the life of
a king, and that the end result would be a society which revolved
around constant litigation as each little mini-dictator sued
every other little mini-dictator to secure his own particular
divine rights?). Of course, after awhile running about on all
fours searching for roots and berries is tiresome, so we accept
the rule of angry gods, and start lobbying for reform within that
context . . . but back to the subject I hadn't got to yet.
The esoterotica of Qabala is largely discoverable on one's own,
because it revolves around logical conclusions based on objective
analyses of simple data described in highly imaginative imagery.
Joyce had early exposure to Jesuitical dialectics, followed by
academic training in his chosen field of linguistics, and the native
gift for obsessive memory required of the traditional Irish poet-
priests called the Fili, but above all, a pregnant imagination. So
given a teaspoonful of hints, he was able to make a rather full-
bodied cup of Celto-Qabala. And the young Mr. Joyce spent a
great deal more time in libraries than we see Stephen Dedalus
doing. The thought that either would seek initiation into mysteries
by bowing down and kissing any modern Knights of the Templar's
anything is so beyond the pale as to make our ho heads haul.
Just as Joyce was too Catholic to attend church, he was far too
Celto-Qabalistic to join the Golden Dawn. The mind which Qabala
attempts to develop is the opposite of anything we think of as
cultistic (and it is time to define our Qabala as that derived from
the Sephardic tradition of medieval Spain stemming from dialectics
among Jews, Islamic Moors, and Christians regarding documents
of intellectual hermeneutics stemming from the Sefer Yetzirah -- there
is cross-pollination with Hasidic Qabala, but that is a very exclusively
Jewish Qabala, and it would be disrespectful to confuse Hasidism
and its goal of becoming ever more Jewish, with Sephardic-based
Qabalism, which is relatively speculative, intellectual, and ecumenic),
and there is forinstance a Qabalism that a prayer should always be
improvisitorial and unique in its wording, and never a rote ritualism
(but a true Qabalist will at this point go "Really? Is that true? Why?
Where does that lead? What else is written in this regard?" And
the Riverend tries not to leave home without his walletsize portrait
of Mary, on the back of which the imprimatur has allowed the
handy invocation I give you verbatim as "Hail Mary, etc.").
To the chase: all the Solomon rigamarole relates to formulae for the
construction of the Temple. Solomon actually hired the job out to an
Irish construction contractor named Hiram. At that time the Irish were
one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the only one to migrate from one
tribal area to another, and that is the Dan. The Dan had been in Egypt
for some time doing pyramid work (that's right, hod-carrying!) and had
gotten friendly there with the Jews, who said come up and see us
sometime. That is why the Dan are valued but not fully trusted by the
other tribes, and seen moving from the southwest to the northeast
(Jor-dan = flowing down from the Danic people's area). The Dan then
moved to Greece (the Danae) but never quite established a permanent
foothold, although they left a great folk-hero, that clever outsider
Odysseus. Then they tried Spain for awhile (the Celto-Iberians), but
were still treated as interlopers. Finally they found this remote
island of Eire, and after a series of rebuffs by the Firbolgs, Formorians,
or whoever was previously indigenous, settled where history eventually
finds them.
Conventional academia consider the above scenario as pure poppycock
invented by the Irish to soothe their inferiority complex for not having a
real classical history due to their bad taste in not being enslaved by the
Romans. That does not lower the myth's value for Joyceans or Viconians.
Vico would have it that a myth, being invented by humans, might even tell
us more than the comparitively random events of history. As for Joyce,
he based much of Ulysses around the myth. Leopold Bloom, Jewish;
Stephen Dedalus, Greek; Marion Bloom, Spanish -- these are human
creations chosen for a specific purpose by their creator to delineate
the traditional history of the pre-Eire Irish. And behind all of them, the
dreams of Egypt referred to on p. 75 of the Wake.
For all of Qabalism's frightening panoply of mystical symbology, it
essentially devolves to that source of so much intelligence, arrested
development. In first grade, when Mrs. Kay taught us that the first
letter of the alphabet is "A," by the time she got to "B," the little
proto-Qabalists in the class were lost in internal (if they were smart)
dialectics. Why is "A" first? Why does "A" look the way it does?
Why is it called "A?" Where did "A" come from? And so on. You
remember that aggravating little twerp in row 2. It was probably you.
If you are still making a really concerted effort to master the ABC's in
your forties, you qualify to be a Qabalist. The rest aren't reading
this anyway.
In describing the specs for the Temple of Solomon, Kings I gives
somewhere the most primitive equation for pi, which is three over
one. But around the same time as the alphabet was invented, and
it appears out of nowhere so does seem an invention by societal
scum of the Levant being worked in mountain mines of Sinai and
the Jordan, followers of the old goddess Ela who devised a way
for anyone to learn quickly to write without being a highly trained
professional scribe -- around this same time the first recording of
the two basic irrational constants appears. We mean here pi as
22 over 7 (3.14) and the square root of two as 10 over 7 (1.4).
If you don't have some way to deal with these two constants,
you can't understand the math relating curves to straight lines,
and you're going to have a lot of trouble converting Solomon's
blueprints into a huge finished Temple for the Ages. (Didn't Joyce
write to Miss Weaver that in writing FW, he was trying to design
a square wheel? At any rate, the squaring of the circle is a root
problem of esoteric and exoteric math history . . . even Einstein
had to approach curves and lines separately, hence the General
versus the Specialized Theory of Relativity).
OK, I had to walk my dogs. We were . . . I got it, the answer to the
great unasked question. Why are there 22 letters in the original NW
(northwestern) Semitic alphabet? First, let's state why it's being
referred to here as such. We know the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets
are of 22 letters, if we count groups of variants as units. But they
derive from an older root alphabet used by the Caananites and
Phoenicians, considered hill and coast branches of one people, and
from them it spread into its various forms of Aramaic, Moabitic, and
eventually Hebraic characters . . . but basically the NW Semitic
alphabet of 22 letters has changed remarkably little since its
overnight debut some 3600+ years back. So we exchange Hebrew
and NW Semitic and Phoenician more loosely than we perhaps should
in speaking of the alphabet, and shall continue so doing. All have 22
letters, and even the Roman/English mix of majuscule and miniscule
you are looking at is amazingly close to the original alphabet. No
change in the history of writing compares to the watershed between
before/after the first appearance of the 22 original phonetic ikons.
Why 22? Because the alphabet did not evolve, it was invented. It is a
work of art by someone. Part of that artist or artists' concept was to
weave from the symbols a portmanteau of significances showing a
depth of mastery. 22 was chosen for the number of characters because
22 is the number for pi, the division of a circumference by its diameter.
The first character, 'alef (our current "A" inverted) is a stylized head
of a bovine creature we know, but again, why? One of the circles, the
main circle, alluded to by having 22 letters, is the Grand Circle, the
Platonic Year, i.e., the Precession of Equinoxes. If this sounds wildly
esoteric to us, it's because we've been off the farm too long. It's
astronomy, not astrology. The earth has wobbles. One wobble causes the
north pole to point to various parts of the sky in a circular description of
a
26,000 year (approximately) period. Therefore the stars which WE see
rising at 21 March 1998, while virtually identical to what rises in '97 or
'99,
are not the stars which rise 21 March several thousand years before or
after. BUT people 26,000 years ago saw (approximately) the same stars
on the same day's same hour as us, and so will whoever's looking 26,000
years in the future. No one knew this until the invention of writing,
because
it requires hundreds of years of accurate recording of nightsky observation
to realize it's not always the same -- not to mention figuring out that it
rhythmically and regularly returns to being (more or less) the same. When
we first got wind of this precession, the spring equinox occurred when the
sun was against the stars of the constellation Taurus, the Bull. The figure
we know as "A" is a schematic line representation of the path of the
ecliptic,
the sun's annual path against the background of the stars, as it crosses the
prominent "V"-shaped asterism which forms the Bull's head (remember, you
have to turn our modern "A" upside-down, the only basic difference in the
3600+ years history of the letter). You in the back with your hand up, of
course you may be excused for a minute. It's only Email. Back? Good.
Your trust is gratifying, and I shall be faithful. Let's make a couple of
big
breakouts. First, counters on the table, please. 1) "alphabet" is Greek/
English/Roman from the Hebrew 'alef-beth; 2) "beth" is house, dwelling --
'alef is bovine creature, e.g. bull (usually given in Hebrew in the plural
form
'elef, also thence herd, community, myriad); 3) the alphabet begins with
"A" to reflect a time when the year began with the sun in Taurus, the Bull;
4) the shape of 'alef is our current "A" upside down, showing the "V" of
the central asterism (stargroup) in Taurus intersected by an imaginary line
representing the intersection of the path of the sun (ecliptic) through
Taurus
which once did (and will again) denote the Spring Equinox (Nora Joyce's
birthday); 5) the said intersecting lines of the Hydra-Taurean "V" and the
ecliptic form a triangle still existing to this day in the figure "A,"
upside down
or not, along with the subtending extensions which are to us the character's
"legs" but to the ancients were it's horns; 6) in modern astronomical
nomenclature, stars are named by assigning a Greek letter (until they run
out) before a three letter abbreviation of the relevant constellation, and
most often the letter alpha is assigned to the lucida (brightest star), so
that
the lucida of Taurus (a magnificent red star called Aldeberan said to be the
bull's eye as it is in the triangle of the head) is (pretend the next letter
is
Greek miniscule) "a Tau," that is "alpha Taurus"; so that in the unlikely
event
some poor fool can both discover this and hold it together in the mind while
shivering halfdrunk at graveyardthirty of a Dublin night, why that person
could combine all the above points linking the constellation Taurus with the
origin of the alphabet and think: 7) (the envelope please),
" . . . interstellar wind, winding, coiling, simply swirling,
writhing
in the skies
a mysterious writing till after a myriad of metamorphoses of
symbol, it blazes, Alpha, a
ruby and triangled sign upon the forehead of Taurus."
Ulysses. 14.1107-9.
And all this time we thought that referred to the logo for Bass Ale. (It
does).
Well, it goes on for river, but let's do a wrap on pi and be on. A list
member
who I hope will step forward and be credited (I am roving from computer to
computer and just learning how to save to floppy) recently gave us the great
insight that somehow (by coincidence or plan, equally amazing) the
pagination in the Wake ends with page 628, which is RAD in trigonometry,
that is, a circle's circumference divided by its radius (RAD being the
chiclets-key symbol on a calculator for radians) which is two times pi
(2 x pi x r = circumf.) (but rads are often thought of mainly in terms of
the
angle subtended by a length of circumference equal to the radius -- one more
step and the ice gives way for the Riverend). (Also we are viewing both pi
and RAD without the decimal point). Anyhoo, we have it from a source other
than I that the number of pages in the Wake, 628, is 2 times pi. Therefore
the Riverend (back now on the shore where his footing is more steady) points
out that Finnegans Wake is Dublin' Pie! (Well, why didn't he just come out
and say so to begin with.)
To cap off, let's return to Joyce's profound jocularity to Harriet Shaw
Weaver that in Finnegans Wake he would attempt to design a square
wheel. The classical problem was to describe a circle and a square which
contained exactly equal areas. No math equation yet devised can do it,
because it plays two irrational numbers against each other, pi (the
relation of a circle's circumference with a line drawn from one edge to
another through the center) and the square root of two (being the relation
of the side of a square with a line drawn from one corner to the
kitty-corner). It doesn't help that actually we can't express the area of a
circle algebraically to begin with, because pi has no numerical coefficient
. . . just a Greek letter -- at least the square root of 2 has the 2. The
last
time I looked (1992) the computers had extended the decimal places in pi
into the billions without finding a clue to any pattern indicating anything.
All
we can do is tell which values are not pi, and whether they are too big or
too small. Joyce, of course, was referring to literature not math. The
problem then becomes: can you combine the linearality of standard
narration (the path of words from "once upon a time" to "they lived happily
ever after") with the spherical ambience of life as it is experienced. Can
an
author on 314 leaves of paper merge storytime with dreamtime, where we
generally have little in the way of openings and endings, but simply find
ourselves in various middles which keep fading into one another.
Well?
Yours in Her Grace's Watch,
The Roving and Riverend Sterling.
"Only what's-his-name can make a tree."
Originally sent as Email to FWAKE-L,
1998 Jan 25.
Subject: HCE
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/26/98 9:18 PM
And while the old Qabalistic horse is possibly still saddled, we can add to
what's below that the "Trigrammaton " of HCE and the Tetragrammaton of YHVH
have this in common: a standard exercise for Qabalists is to draw tables of
permutations showing all possible rearranged combinations of the letters in
the Tetragrammaton. This of course does not explain why Joyce chose the
three letters HCE, but it does link all the permutating with an old
tradition; and perhaps it's worth noting that the Tetragrammaton itself
while consisting of four letterplaces, is, as with HCE, formed of only three
different letters of the alphabet. If nothing else, Mr. Joyce is prompting
us to the same obsession with names which he seems to have shared with the
Qabalists.
From: Will Miller ...
Date: Monday, January 26, 1998 7:08 AM
I wonder whether the changing start point of the HCE,ECH letters has
something to do with the dominance of one particular element of the Wakean
trinity - father, son and other dark son/combination ghost. It might relate
to Old, Testament, New Testament, No (or echoes of) Testaments....of
Christianity.
Subject: a round ,,, sumuminarumdrum
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/27/98 11:16 PM
Dear Art,
Excellent! Thank you. This is what I love about being a listservant, the
instant flow of publication and feedback, especially when one gets your sort
of expanding corrections. I have played somewhat loosely with some of my
math in favor of metaphor, and in other cases just been flat wrong. What
you've written in response takes the whole thing to another level. I did
pretty well in algebra, but the Riverend had to take geometry four times
before he finally passed a college remedial version, hence his affection for
the theory that arrested development is a sign of intelligence.
The 314(leaves).16(last line) equals pi(times 100) is pretty amazing, not to
mention the cool spotting of a thunderword on page 314. This got me going,
so I counted pages from (& incl.) p. 293 where FW features the Greek letter
pi (this alone shows Joyce in close contact with his printer, believe me . .
. they hate inserting graphics and symbols into text), and there are 22
pages from the symbol pi to thunderword number 7, and, yup: 22/7 = 3.14 =
pi. My ho heads hauls even farther! I stopped right there, because I won't
do two shows a day anymore, babe, I just won't do it.
To get testicle about it, "describe a circle . . . " means draw it (as in
inscribe, circumscribe), but what's important is your point that it be done
with barebones Euclidean tools. Your Greek and French reads on diagonal and
cater-corner are appreciated. What I had in mind (and very shakily indeed)
with the square root of two and pi was that they are compatible in reality,
and only incompatible in that, 1) as you imply, the former's irrationality
can be made to "disappear" through the use of several steps in algebra, but
that of pi cannot since, as you continued, unlike 10/7 (I don't think you
can send a square root sign through standard email, so I'm using the 10/7
for square root of 2) pi is a transcendental number. But it is well you
brought out that pi and 10/7 are both real numbers, we just cannot reach any
end to them in decimal expression, and have no end in sight. What I may
have been trying to say by stating there was no discernible pattern yet was
(and I am sincere in desiring any form of correction and refinement in these
things) there seems to be no known formulae to explain or predict why the
next descending decimal number is or will be what it is or will be. This
then all ties into the introduction of the zero into European math which has
so impacted our soon to end millenium; again the tentmaker/astronomer Omar
via Fitz.'s "Dawn of Nothing" is portrayed in symbology of the Major Arcana,
and emphasized in the Golden Dawn versions particularly, and Joyce could've
stumbled upon this through any number of ways.
The 1992 source alluded to was a long article in the New Yorker on the work
of the Chudnovsky (sp?) brothers at Cornell. Could our man at Cornell tell
us if they are still associated with Cornell? I am under the impression
that the pi extension search has since gone more toward work being done in
Japan.
The number crunches you end with are indeed elegant to see, and the Riverend
will have to calm and concentrate his rather sloppy brain to grok them. And
probably get out his college math books, for which he thanks you in humble
sincerity.
You are no doubt familiar with the golden sentence brought back from the
Arabs by Nicholas of Cusa as a result of his forays into Islam for the Pope:
God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is
nowhere.
Now to justify all this being on a Joyce list, we must scurry over to the FW
Concordance of Jon Williams. The word I ran through was "round." Lots of
rounds in Quinnigan's Quake, surprise, surprise. Incl.:
132.1 (that cute but kinda scary synchronicity of pagination again,
permutating 1132, on which more later, but we're to assume that for all
these coincidences there are many more "anticoincidences," although the New
Yorker article on the Chudnovskys' work, which has an amazing Joyce ref. by
the way, speculates on whether there is a decimal place in pi for each
electron in the universe, which could be the final interface between a
random and/or predetermined reality, but back at the ranch) the whole phrase
starts in the bottom two lines of p. 131, "he's as globeful (RS: and are you
the Earl of Oxford man?) as a gasometer of lithium and luridity and he was
thrice ten anular years before he wallowed round Raggiant Circos; the
cabalstone at the coping of his cavin is a canine constant . . . " Of
course what caught my eye was "cabalstone"
(possibly the Qabalistic Cube of Space); "constant" (pi=22/7=Qabalistic root
statement beginning the Sefer Yetzirah that Ya, blessed be his name, created
the universe using (among several components) the 22 letters of the Hebrew
alphabet including the seven letters which have double pronunciations and
which the Golden Dawn assigns to the seven classical travelers, that is, the
sun, moon, and five planets identifiable as such to the pre-Galilean naked
eye; and "anular" and "Circos," all of which indicate that, at least in this
instance, Joyce is concious of using the word "round" as a mathematical and
Orphic entity simultaneously, what one sees referred to as "sacred
geometry." The thirty years referred to is the traditional age at which
Jesus began his ministry, which boosts the sacred part -- the geometry
aspect is relatively obvious. (See also 559.22 starting with "looking
round" and ending with "parralleliped" -- again "round" as a more general
word summoning a specifically mathematical word).
255.34 "twentynine ditties round the wishful waistress, thirtyseven alsos"
To begin, the concordance pulls a really scary trick here in the
synchronicity-of-pagination-line area by giving this line as "255.29" which
would mean that line 29 of 37 is in a frame of the words "twentynine" and
"thirtyseven" so you can bet I counted for myself along with getting out Mr.
McHugh. Moving on. 29 is the mantissa-free version of the number of days in
the lunar synodic month (you'll correct me here, of course, since we are not
dealing with a log. - - but how often do I get to use an Etruscan word like
mantissa? Anyhoo, there are really about 29.5 days.) 37 is (again my
version of mantissa-free, i.e., without the numbers to the right of the
decimal point) the years in two Metonic cycles, or two times the Saros. As
I recall there are three lunar cyles that are 18+ years, precessions
involving the period of years after which the moon begins replicating its
pattern of when eclipses occur. There are reasons why often the two cycle
period is preferred. So we see two lunar periods in 29/37, not to mention
the enrollment in St. Bride's finishing school and number of lines on most
pages of the wake. The cabalstone on which Mr. Joyce has founded his
church, that is Peter Paragraph, in this instance begins with crediting the
producer, one John Baptister Vickar, so there is the Jesus factor again, as
well as a bow by the Circleking, our Vico, who is sortof cited in the next
line (255.30) "round the answer to everything." In case we have any
questions.
With her two days so dear and near, Feb 1 & 2, we should also note that the
Christianization of the circle, which I don't understand but see, is
reinforced by some appearances together of St. Brigid and the word "round."
388.14-15. "round about the freebutter year of/Notre Dame 1132" Along with
its reference to the rape of St. Brigid's spiritual and administrative
descendant, the Abbess of Kildare (which I posted on last Sept.) by the
number 1132 (the year in which the rape occurred), there is "freebutter."
St. Brigid was greatly loved for, among many other things, her magical
manifestation of free butter for everyone in her jurisdiction.
438.08. "the round globe and the white milk" Milk is sacred to Brigid, who
manifested from a bucket of milk carried over a threshold by her mother.
510.33. "either, invitem kappines all round. But the right reverend
priest" OK, no ref. to Brigid, but mayhap you can see why I . . . never
mind. (Oh, Brigid is in the next line, ib.34, "and the reverent bride . . "
"Bride" is the common nickname for Brigid in Scotland and Ireland.)
562.10-11. " . . . common marygales that/romp round brigidschool . . ."
OK, you get the drift -- these are not coincidences, all this round/brigid,
though what is Mr Joyce's intent I know not. Brigid's most common Christian
appellation is "The Mary of the Gael." Her school was an art school. Her
order always maintained the same number of nuns, 19 plus the Abbess. In
Joyce of course its 28 plus Issy. "Isobel . . . took the veil, the
beautiful presentation nun, so barely twenty" on page 556 is an instance
where the original number of women in St. Brigid's Order has an allusion.
Oh, throw the cobwebs from your eyes. This longtime lack of interest by
Joyceans in his patron saint, well, is she just too gentle for our century
or what?
621.14 "round" with dairy products again . . . I still don't know why. But
its herself, I promise.
In Python's "Life of Brian," an obvious allusion to the Irish saviour, Brian
Boru (just kidding), we experience the Sermon On The Mount from the back row
of the audience. "What did he say?" asks one man to another.
"He said, 'Blessed are the cheesemakers." "Well," says the first man,
"what's so special about them?" "These chaps speak in parables," is the
answer, "it could be any dairy product."
I think it's a profound movie. May February bring us all the blessings of
Brigid.
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE ROVING AND RIVEREND STERLING
"You can hear the nightwatchman click his flashlight,
and ask himself if it's him or them that's insane."
Visions of Johanna, by Bob Dylan.
PS/ Did you happen to catch Mikio Fuse's neat
simile of irrational numbers (surds) with Joyce's
attitude toward ghosts on the jjoyce/utah list?
Neuendorffer <-----Original Message-----
From...>
Date: Tuesday, January 27, 1998 3:17 PM:
To be precise, the book ends on the back of the 314th leaf
on the 16th LINE!
pi ~ 3.1416
This is probably no accident since there is a "thunderword" (page 314)
at the back of the 157th leaf on the 8th line!
pi/2 ~ 1.5708
314.8: Bothallchoractorschumminaroundgansumuminarumdrum-
strumtruminahumptadumpwaultopoofoolooderamaunsturnup !
Pi has many elegant mathematical "sumuminarumdrum" patterns:
pi = 4*(1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 - 1/11 + 1/13 - 1/15 + 1/17 -...]
or
pi =
sqrt[8+8/9+8/25+8/49+8/81+8/121+8/169+8/225+8/289+8/361+8/441+.....]
For finite N number of terms a good approximation is:
pi~sqrt[8+8/9+8/25+8/49+8/81+8/121+8/169+8/225+8/289+8/361+8/441+.....
+2/N]
pi ~ sqrt[8+8/9+8/25+8/49+8/81+8/121+8/169+8/225+8/289+8/361 +2/10]
N=10
~3.14162
~ sqrt[8+8/9+8/25+8/49+8/81 +2/5] N=5
~3.1418
~ sqrt[8+8/9+8/25 +2/3] N=3
~3.1425
~ sqrt[8+8/9 +2/2] N=2
~3.145
~ sqrt[8 + 2/1] = sqrt(10) N=1
~3.16
it is just that pi is incompatible with decimal notation.
Subject: Clinton, His Erumpence
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/28/98 5:01 AM
Right on. The feeding frenzy for
Clinton is disgusting because it
focuses on petty, irrelevant, and
unproven issues (such as semen),
when it should focus on Janet Reno
remaining in office and his refusal
to carry out his promise to reform
health insurance, and his dismissal
of the surgeon general for saying
for saying the word "masturbation."
Bet he wishes he'd taken her advice
now! What did Joyce say, "The
amazing availability of it."
-----Original Message-----
From: Ross Chambers ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Tuesday, January 27, 1998 10:30 AM
Subject: Clinton
> I wonder how many saw the independently produced American television
> documentary which told the story of the seriously retarded black
> prisoner in Arkansas whose execution Clinton approved before his first
> presidential candidacy, in an effort to prove that he was "not soft on
> crime" ? And the world pauses on another Middle Eastern and Asian brink
> while America sweats on what he has been doing with his dick!
>
> Attacks on the brutality and inhumanity of such phenomena as capital
> punishment pervade Joyce's work.
>
> Not with a bang, but a whisper.
>
> Ross
Subject: Re: Surd
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/29/98 10:38 PM
Our Shamus continues to pound the streets of Dawn, and they speak their
Golden secrets to him. The surd as the irrational dominates the "O" card of
Golden Dawn Tarots (though the meaning of surd as "unsounded is present as
well, because of the association with the glottal stop.) Not only Joyce
adapted the Dawn-style deck for literary allusion. (Eliot's "Wasteland,"
the title itself an allusion to the Celtic body of myth used by the Golden
Dawn to "Celtify" the Tarot, has quite overt Tarot in it, including specific
Dawnery.) The Fool himself portrayed on the card is irrational. Across the
Fool's shoulder is the diagonal line, in the form of a pole, which since
Babylonian cuneiform homework, has stood for the (SQRT)2 surd. The bag
dangling from the end of the diagonal pole is a bag which P. F. Case
explains as carrying the residual memories of former existences, itself an
irrational thought by conventional standards. The Fool card is both the
beginning and end of the circular inner deck of the 22 Major Arcana (ROTA
TARO ORAT . . . ) just as leaf 314 (a pi number) in the Wake is both the
beginning and end of the Wake. The number 22 represents the circle also,
because 22/7 is pi (3.14). Like Finnegan and Earwicker, the Fool is living
in a dream, about to step off a precipice while gazing at the sky with a
happy grin. The bag of residue from previous existences dangling from the
diagonal pole is thus also the remainder left at the end of every decimal
extension of pi and the (SQRT)2 which so frightened many European schoolmen
when the Indo-Arabic numeral system began drifting into Europe in the 12th
century. As Art pointed out recently, irrationals are fairly tame in
classical geometry, but once the zero appears making place-values and
decimalization possible, the eggshell starts radiating a network of tiny
cracks which eventually open into modern science. You had to be careful.
You know what happened to Roger Bacon. Hence Case's premise that the
simultaneous appearance of the Tarot was to encode esoteric knowledge for
protective purposes as well as illustrative. A tidbit for Joyceans: what
does Case point out in the background of the card? Yup, the ALPs, a
portmanteau graphic, because the card is tied with the Hebrew letter ALP,
that is 'alef, but the Hittitic word "alpas" derives from some very old word
for cloud, hence a factor in the Joycean cloudery, especially with Issy as
Nuvoleta (little cloud), and thence into many European words including the
Greek "alphos" ("white"), "alps" as mountains (where the clouds are), and
the white grain barley which Graves runs a mile with in The White Goddess.
RIVEREND (& a tip of me cap to the little cloud that is the Riverstart)
Sterling.
-----Original Message-----
From: James Collins ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Thursday, January 29, 1998 5:41 PM
Subject: Re: Surd
> The word SURD is of interest to the Fool. Key 0. From the Latin, SURDUS,
> meaning deaf, silent, stupid. SURD, indistinct, especially in math for
> inexpressible in rational numbers, ABSURD, incongruous, lacking sense. Also
>from the Latin, SUSURRUS, we get, humming, murmuring, rustling, and
> whispering. Partridge suggests the connection of SUSURRUS to English By way
> of Old Norse, SVARMR, SWARM, a vast number of bees, a hive, a crowd, a mob.
> And from Sanskrit, SVARATI, it resounds, and SVARA, a sound, a noise.
> Absurd, silent, inexpressible, incongruous, a hive, a mob. The secret of
> the world is carried on the shoulder of fools. The Pope wears a hive his
> head.
>
> Shamus
>
Subject: Seventeen, 29, & 37
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/29/98 11:31 PM
Thanks again, Art. Both for new info. and corrections of mine.
So much for the old Saros theory.
What are the other two 18+ year lunar cycles? Maybe one of
them will double to 37, if I'm lucky. No books where I am. I
think one of the cycles figures in old Celtic stone markers,
being the time from which the moon sets at its most northern
point until it does so again. The Saros is the precession of
ecliptic nodes? Maybe the third is when the pattern of apses
starts to repeat? Getting past knowing what I'm even saying.
But here's a pretty good lunar 37. In an 1880's dictionary pub.
in Paris, "blue-moon" in English is defined as "37th moon" in
French. I've discussed this on several occasions with the
archaeoastromer Dr. E. C. Krupp, and he seems to think the
French got it wrong, that blue-moon doesn't have that meaning
in English. But it's a big standard dictionary Joyce could easily
have come across (I did), or simply have heard the thing on his
own. The explanation I gave Krupp for the French he does
endorse as likely, and it's this. As we know, the lunar and solar
periods don't coincide. After twelve lunar months, there's
almost 11 days until the end of the solar year. In three years,
this adds up to over a full lunar month (speaking here of synodic
lunations) so that while in a three year period there are 36 mos.
by the Roman solar calendar we use, there are 37 actual lunar
months of the older lunar calendar, and hence 37 new moons
(modern people would tend to pay more attention to the 37 full
moons of course.) So the first very rough appearance of a
period seeming to begin a new replication of a merged solar
and lunar periodicity is 37 moons long. I have found this alluded
to in Native American mythology, which is the actual frame in
which I have worked, not the astronomy, which is why I went to
Krupp, but he says he'll back me up if I ever get off my rear to
publish it, i.e., as most likely scenario for the song-cycles, it will
always have to have a speculative qualification . . . and I haven't
spoken with him about Joyce's mentioning 29 and 37 in the same
line, or having 37 line pages. But again, "round the answer to
everything." 29+ days = the moon goes round its cycle of phases;
37 lunar cycles = the earth goes round the sun 3 times, appearing
in roughly (within about 3+ days?) the same phase in which it began.
These are rough figures, not astronomically precise, but the folkloric
use might appeal to Joyce. And again, in at least one dictionary he
could easily have seen it.
My read on the 24 chptrs. of the two Homeric works is that the
chptr. divisions were not made by Homer, but added later when
his epics were first committed to written form, and the divisions
were made in a Protean manner to equal the number of letters
in the Greek alphabet. Why the Greeks eventually settled on
24 letters is another question.
We may have to get Mikio to send the surds/ghost piece
directly, looking without luck so far. It's brief and well-worth
a cross-listing, though I know we are trying not to overdo
that.
Riverend Sterling.
-----Original Message-----
From: Neuendorffer ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Thursday, January 29, 1998 2:19 PM
Subject: Seventeen
> RIVEREND STERLING wrote:
>
>> The 314(leaves).16(last line) equals pi(times 100) is pretty amazing, not
to
>> mention the cool spotting of a thunderword on page 314. This got me
going,
>> so I counted pages from (& incl.) p. 293 where FW features the Greek
letter
>> pi (this alone shows Joyce in close contact with his printer, believe me .
Subject: A Musical Key
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/30/98 6:13 AM
Another side trip to il Triviato, the
creator of the system of musical
notation under discussion, Guido
d'Arezzo, is listed as a gateway
along the avenue of heroes at
260.13, a gateway leading to the
old circlemaster himself, Vico.
Subject: Catch 22/7
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/31/98 5:37 AM
Dear Art, Gregory, etc. (usual gang of suspects),
Musical "rounds" include:
252.27: So sing they sequent the assent of man. Till they go round . . .
513.22: trippudiating round the aria ((tons of musical stuff on this page))
McHugh gives portmanteaus for "trippudiating" = sacred dance
for joy,
and on the next line Joyce mentions "fiftytwo heirs of age"
with McH.
reading "heirs" as years . . . thus 52 years --
52 years is a very basic and important time period in Mayan calendrics,
but there's got to be SOME limit to
Joyce's knowledge . . . (still, if I know that, why not he?)
Some lines with "round" have the chromatic scale number "12,' but just as
"52" can be the "one trip round the sun" from weeks (annual comes from the
latin word for ring -- with the fringe benefit of "Anna" echoing), "12" has
the same with months. But if the chromatic scale is also implied, we know
that's fine with Joyce.
389.03 round their twelve tables
497.02 exagmination round his factification
we know of the special importance of this line as the title for
the collection of (13?) essays which Joyce guided to set criticism of FW on
the right road -- thirteen is one of Joyce's favorite numbers, appearing as
a title for the poem "Tilly," forinstance, that being the thirteenth bun in
a baker's dozen -- but it is also the beginning of the chromatic scale's
second octave, and as such emphasizes the mystery that as one ascends any
scale one somehow returns to where one started though higher so that there
is a circle that does not
somehow seem circular, hence the emphasis in the Golden Dawn (sorry) on the
spiral, an ascending/descending circularity -- the reason that all cultures
no matter how "primitive" have recognized the musical interval of the octave
is that it is physically impossible to hear a pure musical tone, even if
generated by the most sophisticated synthesizer with oscilliscopic metering,
etc. The reason is this: the octave is the dublin' of a frequency. If we
speak of the old concert pitch A of 440 beats per second, then its octave up
will be 880 hertz and its octave down will be 220 hertz and so ad infinitum
and they will all be heard as "A's," to the extent that if they are sounded
simultaneously, it will be nearly impossible to distinguish them and you
will tend to hear one tone. The reason is: the octave is the first and
dominant overtone harmonic and sound rattles whatever it strikes and if the
medium it strikes is tense and simple, the sympathetic vibrations which
result will amplify the tone through constructive interference. Conversely,
if the soundwaves rattle a limp or complex medium, destructive interference
will result and the sound will die. When sound strikes clothing in a
concert hall, the clothing is so loose and complex that the many waves the
sound creates are canceled. If the soundwaves strike a plywood wall, the
wall being tense and simple may begin to resonate and carry the vibration
and if someone is trying to sleep on the other side, the bass vibes will be
expecially disturbing. The human earworks are designed to carry and amplify
soundwaves until they can be digitalized into electric signals for the
medulla oblongata to transmit into the mind. (Shamus, are you into the
portrayal of the lobster as medulla oblongata crawling from the pool up into
the subconcious in Key 18 of the Case Tarot . . . that's what I thought.)
What happens is that however pure and flute-like a tone may enter the ear,
the earworks will add the octave overtones as it transmits the vibration.
It is not possible to hear a pure tone physically. We can hear relatively
pure tones and separate them subjectively from tones which feature more rich
and complex sympathetic vibrations of harmonic overtones . . . thus almost
anyone can tell in the dark that 440 hertz "A" as to whether (pardon my
English) it is sung by a baritone, sustained on a flute, or whistled by a
train. Each may have 440 beats a second as its root tone, but the baritone
will have more overtones in his voice, 5ths, 3rds, etc.; the train whistle
even more; the flute the least (this assumes also that we are listening to
the middle of the tone's duration -- each medium will also have a distinct
method of beginning and ending the tone ((attack and decay)) which will give
it away. I forgot my point. OK, thank heaven for scrolling! The point is
the octave is universally recognized in all musical cultures as the root
interval between any two tones, because it doubles or halves other octaves,
and this means it is the ultimate reinforcing rattle to the root rattling so
to speak. Technically, if you draw a sine wave graph (sound waves are
transverse, but the graph will work schematically) the higher frequency
will superimpose itself in a manner over the lower frequency such that every
second node of the higher tone will land on the lower tone's primary nodes.
If you've ever tried a punching bag, it's not all that dissimilar of a
meter. Learning to post when riding a horse is another example. You have
to make your impact with your fist or fanny at the exact right moment to be
in synchronicity with the force you are trying to get in harmony with. If
you hit the bag to soon, that is destructive interference, and you slow the
bag down instead of amplifying its motion. If you contact the saddle before
it's about to descend anyway . . . never mind. But that's why almost
everyone will hear a low "A" and a high "A" as an "A" of some kind, though
they may not think of it so. It's quite amazing to realize your ear and
brain can count frequencies of 440 and 880 beats a second simultaneously.
Some better than others, of course, but if you can hear at all, you can hear
octaves. This is why the 13th tone of a chromatic scale has the same name
as the first. Why there are twelve tones to get there is much more
arbitrary, involving various other overtones for the 7 tones of the
diatonic, and considerations in constructing keyboard instruments which
merged the formerly distinct flat and sharp coloring tones which Bach
reduced to the current accidental tones allowing for any tone to begin a
key, etc. I love it. The other person we owe this systemizing of musical
notation to is Guido d'Arezzo of 260.13. Otherwise the history of notation
in music is very ad hoc and sloppy and out of control.
498.26-27 a dozen and one by one tilly tallows round in ring-/campf,
circumasssembled
same thing, lunar months of which there are 12 plus a
partial epact to make a solar year, the chromatic scale of 12 tones whose
13th tone (the tilly) will be (the same) one with the first tone (the root
or tonic)
It goes on and on, which I suppose is the point, but that's more than
goodle-and-poodlenty for now. . . the main thing is:
255.36-37: round the beginning of hap-/piness
((But Art . . . look at that paragraph! and thanks for thunderword on
113.))
Keep up the good work, fellers. You are opening many gateways for me and
others.
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE ROVING AND RIVEREND STERLING
"round answer to everything" JAAJoyce.
Subject: Re: On the Evolution of the Alpha
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/31/98 7:56 AM
I don't suppose I can wiggle out of this by claiming
that the alphabet evolved before and after it was
invented? The alphabet incorporates Egyptian and
Sumerian and Babylonian and Hittittic and Ugaritic
elements and influences and it was the magic mix
of the Levant that made it needed and possible.
But it appears in the 22 letter form in which it's
largely remained as a substratum for variation
since in a rather sudden mysterious fashion. Then
it went into the evolutions you describe. Remember,
the alphabet was hundreds of years old before the
Greeks grabbed it and added the magic vowels for
the first time. There are some tricky "define your
terms" things going on here. Eric McLuhan and I
locked horns on this until we realized we were
talking apples and oranges when we said
"alphabet." He says the alphabet fractured the
Western mind by separating vowels from consonants,
and considers the Hebrew script as syllabic. My
read was that in Hebrew there was no indication of
the vowel at all, you were just suppose to know what
it was. And yakety blah until we realized our definitions
were different. Anyhoo . . . these inscriptions suddenly
appear carved on mine entrances and on drinking
vessels in the hills above the Jordan River and in the
Sinai Penninsula, and nobody really knows the origin,
so my posit of an inventor or inventors is hypothetical,
and you may well be correct in supposing a more
evolutionary unfolding. But it happened way before
the Greeks. Strangely the same day I talked with
McLuhan I ran into a book by a man who claims the
Greek adaption was done by one man specifically
for the purpose of committing Homer to text. I
haven't read it yet: Homer and the Origin of the
Greek Alphabet by Barry B. Powell, '91/'96. My
theory for an invention process is that I perceive
careful thoughtful crafting, especially the choice of
22 letters to represent the number pi. But time and
the river can craft smooth things too.
-----Original Message-----
From: ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Friday, January 30, 1998 9:15 AM
Subject: On the Evolution of the Alpha
> On Fri, 30 Jan 1998, Ross Chambers wrote:
>
>> The Riverend rhetorically asked:
>>
>> <<Why 22? Because the alphabet did not evolve, it was invented.>
> (Mahan) But it DID "evolve," and not neccessarily as "art," but as a more
> practical means of conveying "meaning" in "writing" (not just verbally).
> It was how MEN communicated with their fellow hunters. What was the
> first "most important thing"? FOOD! Thus; "A"=alpha=aleph=OX=food:
> \/
> an OX O----/ men "yoked" the animal: \-/ (an
> /\ /\ upside-down "A")
>
> Romans (after conquring the Greeks and stealing thier alphbet) carved
> language into stone, so, for "strength," they turned the "yoked \-/"
> upside-down into "A")
>
> The next "most important thing" was SHELTER! "B"=beta=beth=HOUSE
>
> a HOUSE -^^- (a "B" tilted on its left side)
>
> On and on..."D"=delta=daleth=DOOR; "G"=gamma=gimel=CAMEL;
> "H"=HHHH=FENCES, &c.
>
> We also can see that the evolution of "our" (the English) alphabet
> contains many cultures, races, and languages; not solely Arabic, Greek,
> and Roman, but African, Phoenician, Latin, et. al.
>
> Moreover, when the Romans "stole" the Greek's alphabet, they had no use
> for the letter "Z" ("zed" "Z"=zeda=SHIELD) but they needed it to
> spell/pronounce certain Greek words. "Z"/zeda was/is the 6th letter in
> the Greek alphabet. Since the Romans "needed" the letter, and since
> they'd already carved "their" alphabet in stone (pun intended), they
> placed the letter "Z" at the very end of the "new" alphabet, where it's
> remained low these many centuries . . .
>
> Now, for the Spanish alphabet...
>
> amm . . .
>
Subject: 22 letters and/or paths
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/31/98 8:34 AM
Depends on who you talk to and believe. According to
the Sefer Yetzirah, Ya, blessed be his name, wove
the whole shebang from 32 threads, which being the
22 letters of the alphabet and the ten numbers of
the fingers. There are four trees of life, one in each
of the four worlds. So if there are 22 paths in each,
that would be 88 paths. The letters remain the same
on the varying world's paths, but their colors change.
Interestingly, the writing system which finally sets the
stage for the 22 letter alphabet historically is Ugaritic,
which had 32 characters. 32 is the maximum number
of electrons which the universe allows in the orbital
shells of atoms . . . or something like that.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ross Chambers ...;
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Friday, January 30, 1998 6:57 AM
Subject: 22 letters and/or paths
> The Riverend rhetorically asked:
>
> <<Why 22? Because the alphabet did not evolve, it was invented. It is
> a
> work of art by someone. Part of that artist or artists' concept was to
> weave from the symbols a portmanteau of significances showing a
> depth of mastery. 22 was chosen for the number of characters because
> 22 is the number for pi>>
>
> ***************************************************
>
> Did the 22 paths (chicken) of the Qabalistic tree of life precede the 22
> (egg) letters of the invented alphabet? Or both spring forth
> simultaneously, fully formed, from somewhere in the Ain Soph Aur?
>
> Regards - Ross Chambers
> --
> ===================================================================
> Ross Chambers Sydney Australia ...
>
> "Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
> G.K. Chesterton
>
> ===================================================================
>
Subject: O rally (593.03-04)
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 1/31/98 11:12 PM
Nice, Art, I love words, I guess we
all do on this list -- big trouble if
we don't -- I'm trying to disengage
and take a break and ever'thing
people are contributing is too
darn interesting --
On the circle of 5ths thread:
224.36 Mi, O la!
>From "mi" to "la" is a perfect fifth,
e.g., in the key of "C," "mi" = "E" &
"la" = "B" -- from "E" to "B" is the
interval of a perfect 5th -- what
we find between the mi and la on
p. 224.36 is "O," the circle, so that
it seems near certain that "Mi, O la!"
reads "Circle of 5th," added to which
McHugh sees it followed by ref. to John
McCormack via "thong off his art" being
the 1930 movie "Song o' My Heart," and
Joyce perhaps with some reason held
that McCormack had bested Joyce as
a superior tenor not by vocal quality but
because Joyce lost a voice competion
on the grounds that Joyce could not
sight read musical notation!
"round ((is)) the answer to everything"
(255.35) is echoed at the line of
rather interesting numeration:
333.03: K? An o.
((Que? is the Spanish interrogative
"What?" The word "que?" in
Spanish is pronounced just as the
letter "K" in English. See in this regard
as well the "why, O why, O why?" on
123.02.)). Of course, 196.01, ad inf.
-- possible ref. in a sonnet of
ressurection by Donne to the
"square wheel," to the effect
of "round the earth's four corners
blow your trumpet . . . " --
-- on your "17" thread: the climax
of affirmation and friendship in
Ulysses occurs on June 17 --
-- the letter associated in Hebrew with
"O" is Ayin, defined in the Langenscheidt
as "16th letter; numeral 70; the eye;
eye of the mind; look, appearance, sight,
face, surface; the sparkling or bead of
wine; fountain, spring." Pretty.
Subject: Dada Mama of Topatopa
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 2/5/98 4:29 AM
One of the prominent Dadaists of the New York
school, Beatrice Wood, will turn 105 on 4 March.
She was in the Marcel Duchamp inner circle and
was and is an important artist, particulary as a
ceramicist and writer. A Net search of her name
will yield many sites. Her address and phone are
found in a site including "Ojai," the town where she
has lived since the 30's. She still works a disciplined
schedule the last I heard. Her main biographical
work, I SHOCK MYSELF, includes her 1917 icon
poster for The Blindman's Ball, with historical back-
ground. Wakers will wish to cf. it w. p. 308's (FW)
doodle. To wish her a happy birthday, write to:
Beatrice Wood
8560 Hwy 150
Ojai
CA 93023
USA
Phone: (805) 646-3381
A website with her address is at:
http://www.ojai.org/wood.htm
I SHOCK MYSELF is published by Chronicle Books of
San Francisco, '85/rev. '88/rpt. '92; ISBN: 0-87701-498.1
"Topatopa" is the mountain behind her home.
Subject: Numbers and music
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 2/5/98 4:43 AM
-----Original Message-----
From: Mr Spicer ...
Mr. But(t)ler,
Bravo.
Your point is well taken. I am reminded by two poems.
Both of which I will paraphrase.
(RS snips great stuff here/there)
The first is off Aeschylus:
pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop
upon the heart
until in our own despair
against our will
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of god
(RS adds "After a great sadness,
a formal feeling comes."
Emily Dickinson.)
(Mr. Spicer asks, like the rest of his
unnumbed countryfolk:)
Am I mad? Am I a simpleton? And how does
a mad yank go about working in Oz?
(RS quotes again: "How can you convince
people who are insane that you are not?
Dr. Ashleigh Brilliant.)
Subject: Numbers and music
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 2/5/98 5:26 AM
Dear Bill and Mr. Spicer,
I suspect/hope that a good deal of the
wild-eyed numerology recently exploding
on our list is motivated by exactly the
question you pose: how could it be? I
think it should be viewed at its firmest
as hypothetical musings, some of which
may lead to theory, or not. How can a book
which prides itself so overtly on circularity
end with an essential circle number and
so on. Much such speculation has been
difficult to introduce to the mainstream
Joycean critics to critique and have on
record, but many readers, as was Joyce,
are fascinated with such aracana, be they
coincidental or planned. In some ways, the
Wake is a vast highly thought-out idea
generator, and if we find ideas not speci-
fically engineered by Joyce, it is one of the
ways Finnegans Wake is lot's of fun. I like
to think that as a sight-impaired genius, Joyce
was particularly able to provide us a vast
innerscape whose Celtic knotlike labyrinths
may lead to the light here, a blind alley there,
but Joyce's blind alleys are a thousand times
more interesting and rewarding than most
author's main thoroughfares. Some of the
numerical and occult surmisings will brand us
no doubt as pioneers in brave imbecility; others
will go done with future analysts as breakthroughs
involving years of thought, cross-disciplinary study,
and sheer moxie of intuition. And not necessarily
divided correctly! Joyce gave us 300 years to pour
over it in a scholarly manner, and we are scarcely
then out the gate. The instant uncensored access
to the net is creating a new widened field for
Joycean debate that he would certainly support.
At the same time, without the guidance you're
giving it would become a meaningless churn of
foam. Above all we must not proselytize, and if we
do, you must continue to rein us over so more
level heads may pass. The temptation to discover
that everything is actually everything else must be
avoided at all costs, for it is sophomoric metaphysics
-- true, longknown, virtually meaningless. In these
regards, your points are golden. In balance, the
observation that Joyce spent infinite time working
complex and coherent subtexts of a codelike nature
into the Wake are as patent as our acceptance that
many of the subtexts are little catalogued or overlooked.
Atherton and others make a well-documented case for
Joyce's mega-integrated sprinkling of numerous types
of hints for us to follow thank goodness, such as the
recently cited "of the cards" shortly before his Wakestyle
quote of Descartes. Ultimately I always return to the
central beauty which you cite, however, the lovely
musicality, the playing upon the mind as a harp. PLEASE
continue to keep us all within handy reach of that as
a Wakean homepage, and we shall go no madder than
we are required from time to time.
The Rambling and Riverend Sterling.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Buttler (Ozemail) ...
I don't want to discourage *any* line of explication which might enhance our
understanding of the Wake. However, before spending time (and bandwidth)
exploring the possibilities engendered in numbers of lines on pages, ratio
of page numbers etc, someone needs to explain how the semi-blind Joyce
managed to count the said numbers and plan ahead (well before the age of
computer-aided type-setting) without leaving any trace in his notebooks or
in the memories of his "helpers".
Subject: 33
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 2/5/98 5:45 AM
And Art,
there's always the mode of beginning
ordinations with 0, in which case the
33's shift to the even more seminal 32.
(As Lao-Tze said, "Don't blame me for
these things, blame Nature.") It looks
silly to do such perhaps, but it gives a
precalculus fluidity to whole numbers,
as rather than a "one," we start feeling
"one arising from zero and becoming
two," etc.
Subject: Rain, snow, hail, and farewell
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 2/5/98 7:35 AM
Dear Everybody-Loves-Saturday-Night,
Cross-posting is not a nice habit, unless worn by Sister Adaire, of course,
in which case we'll cheer her on, but when you see what a harried saint I
wish you to believe me, not to mention that I must unsubscribe for a time, a
few may cheer me as well. We are in the middle of a weather disaster here
on the US West Coast, not as bad yet anyway as what they've had on the
eastern coast of the continent, but we west coasters are a wimpy lot when we
can be, or so we're told, and the Red Cross, apparently due to some of you
telling about my quasi bottomless gift for blarney, have conscripted me.
They've hung a cell-phone on one side of my belt, a tool I know not but
assume it's to do with ancient contemplative Celtic monks, and a pager on
the other which would seem to relate more to the palace. They are shoving
me toward the flood with the title of Human and Government Liason. I've
always dreamed of being a translative interface between humans and the
government, and shall bear myself with a jaunty white hardhat into the fray
for several weeks. S'sad to unsubscribe because the threads just grow more
interesting, but also more prolific, and as it is I'm getting about a
hundred posts a day, and could not stand to delete thousands when I get back
to the old ray tube. I know you were all about to ask me questions by which
I would radiate wisdom, or something anyhoo, but we'll just have to not and
say I did. Blessings to all, I may have to crack the Red Cross's
spreadsheets to get advice from Neil and Jaeza on Celtic-L, Neil can tell me
how to shout "HELP" in good Gaelige, and Jaeza can continue giving me moral
and practical advice on how best to deal with Neil otherwise. I hope all my
friends and teachers on the Joyce lists realize how essential studying the
world's most arcane and complex and surrealistic and scholarly and silly and
difficult writer is to be able to master Red Cross paperwork. Said with
love for both and all.
As we say in California, mucho slainte, and continue expanding your personal
creative spaces until my return.
The Rambling and Riverend Sterling.
"Tutti fratelli." Henri Dunant. (Please wait til I get off to correct my
spellings).
Subject: Annals of Ulster -- Query
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 2/27/98 5:15 AM
Poking around in amazon.com, I found listed:
Annals of Ulster (to A.D. 1131).
1) What ARE the Annals of Ulster?
2) Do they actually end in 1131?
3) If so, why? And if so:
4) Any thoughts on how this might resonate
with the 1132 motives in the Wake?
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE RAMBLING AND RIVEREND STERLING
Subject: Re: FWREAD
From: thouart
Date: 3/6/98 3:47 PM
Dear Ronald (AKA HCEarwig),
This is my guess:
send:
SUBSCRIBE FWREAD Ronald Prowse
to:
listproc@lists.colorado.edu
and welcome,
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE RAMBLING AND RIVEREND STERLING
-----Original Message-----
From: [Ronald Prowse] ...;
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Friday, March 06, 1998 12:30 PM
Subject: Re: FWREAD
> How do I subscribe to FWREAD?
>
> Ronald Prowse
>
Subject: Bits and Pieces
From: thouart
Date: 3/7/98 1:31 AM
Dear Clifford,
James Atherton devotes some pages to
the Dodgson/Carroll/Liddell influence on
FW in his work Books at the Wake. He
alerts one fairly well on how to begin to
see a series of threads that would be
obscure to most of us otherwise, citings
forinstance of the name of a stage actress
who was associated with playing Alice. As
Bill Buttler's citations of Mr Joyce indicate,
even Joyce did not expect anyone to believe
he hadn't read Alice's Adventures, and admits
to some familiarity at any rate, and his intent
to read. Atherton writes as well on other
perceived influences on Joyce by Charles
Dodgson/Lewis Carroll other than those
from Wonderland, and takes the position that
if Joyce was not a devotee when he began
the Wake, his eventual first readings of the
Adventures must have been as the embrace of
a long lost brother.
> I
> cannot seem to find a reference to Carroll in Ellman's biography. Nor in
> another smaller more recent biography can I find a reference. Did you
> find this reference in the Selected Letters. On the other hand, I recall
> reading a more thorough examination of this question, but alas I also
> cannot recall where. Any takers?
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE RAMBLING AND RIVEREND STERLING
-----Original Message-----
From: Clifford Duffy ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Friday, March 06, 1998 9:28 PM
Subject: Re: Bits and Pieces
Subject: Bits and pieces/correction
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 3/8/98 5:03 PM
I made a very wrong statement from
memory about James Atherton's read
of Joyce's reaction to his supposedly
belated reading of Charles Dodgson/
Lewis Carroll, and correcting it is
germane to Clifford Duffy's inquiry as
to the anxieties of Mr Joyce. Rather
that the long lost brother embrace,
apparently my subconcious wish for
how Joyce should have reacted, Mr.
Atherton believes that Joyce's feelings
on encountering the earlier portmanteauist
Dodgson's work was, in Atherton's
poignant simile, that of Scott reaching
the South Pole only to find Amundsen's
flag already implanted there.
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE RAMBLING AND RIVEREND STERLING
Subject: St. Bride's Finishing Establishment
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 3/11/98 4:53 AM
Mike Hood asked:
"2. The rainbow girls (143.25) Glasheen says riddle number 9 is a
picture of the rainbow girls. While this may be so, the riddle seems to
me to be more important as a hint about the perspective of the reader as
an earsighted fargazer. Again, I've seen the rainbow girls as several
other places in FW. What is their significance?"
RSt: Around the late 400's and early 500's the good
St. Brigid, one of Ireland's three patrons, kept a
nunnery of 19 members of which she, as abbess,
was 20th. The number of her nuns always had to be
19. A line of abbesses of Cill Dara followed Bridgid
and maintained the nunnery for many centuries.
Brigid also kept an art school. Joyce has expanded
the unusual numerology of St.Brigid's
attendants to correspond to the number of days
in the month of Joyce's birth -- February (the Abbess
of Cill Dara, Brigid herself, becomes the special added
day of the leap year). Joyce has furthermore combined
the nunnery, now of 28 (with his patrona the 29th), and
then gone on to blend the nunnery into the art school in
the process of which somehow they are now Issy and
the girls (and also the spectra of colours that the cloud
girl Issy can produce at St. Bride's finishing school).
((( [220.3: THE FLORAS (Girl Scouts from St. Bride's Finishing Establish-
ment, demand acidulateds), a month's bunch of pretty maidens]
Above paste-in courtesy of the Williams Concordance [2] at:
http://qinpalace.com/cgi-local/search.cgi )))
"Bride" is a common Irish nickname for Brigid.
As a fancy but logical touch, while St. Brigid's nunnery expands to meet
the calendric demands of being a month, which February alone meets
with four even weeks (excepting when the abbess gets her day in the
leap years), I infer that the weeks progress through the colours in
a new science of religion and art displayed tastefully in the full view of
coeducational audiences. And music and dance would be featured in
such a course of refinement. The synesthesia of sight and sound has many
singinging cites in FW, where every hue has a cry. The colour spectra
which Mr Joyce is careful to establish as balanced, progressive, and
suited for both patrons of art and friends to science (the very course
you'd want for your own girl) enables colour and sound to be
graphed together as harmonicaly related by colours' being much higher
overtone octaves of musical tones. Depending on whether you are
using additive or subtractive scales of colour tones (and bearing in mind
that sound waves are transverse, and colour waves lateral) the sound
frequencies called "C" are much lower octaves of red or its complement,
green. For a full catalougue, of courses, contact the abbesses directly.
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE RAMBLING AND RIVEREND STERLING
Subject: pftjschute
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 3/12/98 12:35 AM
Dear Bill,
When I was a kid and used to ski, there was
a nordic word "schuss," and it meant to put
your skis together, point them straight down
the slope, and oblivious to all else but speed,
do what I think is best described now as we
did then, "haul ass." It was basically the
fastest way to ski, and perhaps too out of
control to be called a technique. "Schuss"
isn't exactly onomatopoeic(?), although it is
somewhat, if the snow's powdery and not icy,
but it gives a feeling of the fast "I don't brake
for anything" sense of the wind shooting by.
If there is some cognancy of "schuss" with a
Germanic or Norse root common to chute/shoot,
it reinforces the fall just taken by Herr Finnegan.
You almost feel as in a free fall when you are
schussing and it results in a lot of real falling.
It was strictly verboten in many places and
contexts, so there is even a little naughtiness
implied. I can say "pft" pretty easily, "f" after
all being an aspirated rather than plosive form
of the "p" sound, with "t" then sort of recapping
the aspiration. "J" is derived from the Latin "i,"
and as such retains a vowel function in north
European languages, ja? So if one gives "pft"
a chance, the sound strikes me as that of a
cat "spitting," a short forceful warning sound.
With no vowels, of course, there's not much
volume. Then you throw in a "y" for the "j,"
since we're about to engage in a nordic sport,
then you're out the chute ("shuss" is pronounced
more or less like "chute" until the esses,
which I recall as having the English "sh" sound).
"Pft-y-shoot,": the great fall of the
offwall entailed at such short notice?
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE RAMBLING AND RIVEREND STERLING
PS: I think "j" may be even more of a vowel in
some eastern European languages.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Buttler (Ozemail) ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Wednesday, March 11, 1998 5:44 PM
Subject: Re: pftjschute
>> There were maybe six or seven "pftjschute"-related messages on FWAKE,
from
> 7
>> through 11 May 1997. I forwarded my copies of them to Bill Buttler.
>>
>> Greg Downing/NYU, at ... or ...
>>
> - and public thanks to Greg for forwarding them to me. I'm still interested
> in anything else which can be added.
>
> Bill Buttler
> Melbourne, Australia
>
Subject: Finagles Waste; annotarie publique
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 3/14/98 6:42 PM
Dear Ross,
PLEASUREBUBBLE HUBBYHOUSE with annotes:
ninetofive -- Dolly Parton movie; Galatea
pagan laing -- R. D. Laing, pop Scot psycho.
dumpstincts -- The Waste King in essence
He sews seemseeds -- cf. Hamlet, e.g., "seems
mother, I know not seems (the Prince)," and "the
very seems of his socks were down-jived (Ophelia)"
stans -- see Watergate; Maurice . . . .
geld me Hobson -- Hobson's Choice
redrum -- cf. The Shining; Tom Thumb; Through The Looking Glass; " . . .
most foul"; the Hen
Otis lifteywater -- cf. Ascent of Man; Going My Way;
Down Derry Down; Ladies Stockings and Foundation Garments
Father, plash me -- Sylvia Plath blamed her father
for her rejections by the New Yorker
sainsburys -- another reference to Hamlet, the little
prince whose father's ghost could not be laid (sans
buried)
Hom? -- cf. American prison slang for compatriot, as
Holmes, or Homey
condgeree -- The Conger's Eel by Liam O'Flaherty
(see O'Flaherty for the Masses by Eric Maria Remarque)
Yorke -- Dick; Play It Again, Samantha
Innis? -- worst mispronunciation yet of Anaïs Nin
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE RAMBLING AND RIVEREND STERLING
Flamenfans Wait!
Subject: An internet course on Ulysses? RE: RSterling
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 3/28/98 8:47 PM
Yes.
YOURS IN HER GRACE'S WATCH,
THE RAMBLING AND RIVEREND STERLING
[>Interested in an internet course on Ulysses?
> U.C.Berkeley's Extension program is considering offering a two-unit
> fifteen-week course combining live meetings over the internet with emailed
> assignments, but they'd like to know if there is enough interest
> out there to sustain a class. If you are interested, and would
> like more information, send a note to me at the address below.]
-----Original Message-----
From: michael Ditmore ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Tuesday, March 24, 1998 9:56 AM
Subject: An internet course on Ulysses?
Subject: Genre
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 4/17/98 3:52 AM
Dear Mike,
one vote for poem; if read for meaning,
FW goes too slowly for the reader
to be a good novel; if read rapidly,
it evolves into a mist of sounds and
feelings and that is not exactly what
novels usually emphasize . . . but I
find much of it to seem invocatory,
which is a very ancient form and
in fact preliterate in origin and the
vocative is mostly heard in Rap now
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Hood ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Friday, April 17, 1998 12:26 AM
Subject: Genre
> Greetings All!
>
> I have what I hope isn't a silly question: Is Finnegans Wake a novel or
> a poem, or does it defy traditional genre categories? What implications
> does our answer to this question have for how we read the book? I've
> noticed two trends in approach: Some readers approach it more like a
> novel, tracing narrative through the book, while others approach it more
> like a poem, weighing individual words more closely--often ignoring
> grammar and narrative. Is there a middle ground? Are my observations
> totally off?
>
> Mike
>
Subject: Joyce Lists Distinctions (a crosspost)
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 4/23/98 8:10 PM
One thing I've been wondering is what has been going on with Bill Cadbury?
In going back through FWAKE-L archives, he is the largest contributor, no?
And his work is of a "heart-of-the-beast" nature, essential stuff for all
other Joycean work to move forward I should think. When I joined FWAKE-L
last Sept., Cadbury's posts were frequent, then for several months nothing,
followed by a post in which he said he'd been having computer problems, then
nothing again. This seems bad for the list if he's not returning to it. Does
anyone know?
=
Also perhaps we who are on both Wake lists need to be more self-policing
with ourselves and others. We must shift threads from FWREAD over to FWAKE-L
whenever a new lister posts a general topic to FWREAD which is not specific
to the week's page; or, when a thread begins logically from a proper week's
page, but drifts into a wider scope more suited to FWAKE-L. Mega-motives
like 1132 can blow-up this way easily as people cite other page occurences
or wider thematic implications. (But FWREAD can handle some latitude of
updates on previous pages, or occasional previewing of course.)
=
So to whom it may concern, and in hopes of quick constructive critiques:
=
THE THREE JOYCE LISTS AS I UNDERSTAND THEM:
=
1. FWAKE-L is for the discussion of any topics about Finnegans Wake:
To subscribe: send a message with the text "subscribe FWAKE-L [your name]"
to <listserv@irlearn.ucd.ie>.
=
2. FWREAD focuses on one sequential page of FW each week:
To subscribe: send a message with the text "subscribe FWREAD [your name]" to
<listproc@lists.colorado.edu>. (Currently on page 089).
=
3. J-JOYCE is all things Joycean, with a reputation for things Ulyssean,
but currently
(1998 March-July) has a subgroup DUBS which is going through each story in
Dubliners sequentially (currently on “Eveline”).
To subscribe: send a message to <j-joyce-request@lists.utah.edu> with the
word "SUBSCRIBE" in the body of the message.
=
For more information on these lists, visit the James Joyce Resource Center
at:
=
http://english.ohio-state.edu/organizations/ijjf/jrc/caught.htm
=
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
=
(((Original Message-----From: Charles Cave >
To: <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Thursday, April 23, 1998 3:43 PM
Subject: What's happening to FWAKE????!!!!
> It used to be junk mail...
>
> Now the FWAKE list wants to discuss Hip-Hop Music.
>
> What happened to all the good discussions on this list?
>
> It seems to me that the members of this list dont want to
> discuss Finnegans Wake any more or don't want to contribute
> to this list. The FWREAD list has a focus....namely, one
> page a week, but this list (FWAKE) is able to discuss ANYTHING
> about FW...yet the discussions are so quiet.
>
> How about each of us contribute some observation or topic
> to the list for discussion? I don't think any of us can
> MASTER Finnegans Wake, but rather, we each ENCOUNTER the
> text and have a unique perspective.
>
> What aspect of FW do you enjoy the most?)))
Subject: Spiders on the run
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 4/23/98 11:23 PM
Jonathan wrote:
"In re the vexed question of hipness, surely we are the victims of some
search engine? There were subject messages on the list in re the wake and
music just before this rash of invitations to get down."
RivS replies:
Glad you brought this up. I had some susupicions this happened, but am not
computer literate enough to be sure such occured. If so, I am probably the
culprit. Right before our invitations to do the twostep, I ended a post on
my perceptions that Mr Joyce wrote a lot of FW in the vocative voice, and
that the vocative today is mostly heard in a certain popular music form in
which a singsong rhythmic chantlike approach to lyric and melody is used
to litanize the banality of urbanity while managing the most wonderful
"rhymes
utiles." Only I didn't give any of that description, just a simple word of
three
letters rhyming with map. So I think you are right, some big spider
scuttling
across deja news made a lock on that word and elicited the poignant and
rather well-received query from the fan(s). Annoying, this debris from
other ships in cyber-space. I apologize, although I probably just set off
some similar alarm for twenty other groups with other buzzwords in my post.
I like the song where they rhyme "acetimenophin(sp?)" with "David
Letterman."
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Warren Pickett ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE
Date: Thursday, April 23, 1998 7:31 PM
Subject: waxing global fecklessness
Subject: I had a dream...02
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 4/24/98 4:01 PM
Will posted:
" . . .(I couldn't help noticing last time I was in
Dublin that the giant's testicals, putatively the Magazine, were
appropriately wrapped up in barbed wire.)
"But if that is the case . . ."
Cf. p. 087: " . . . Ay! Exhibit his relics! Bu! Use the tongue [32]
mor! Give lip less! But it oozed out in Deadman's Dark Scenery [33]
Court through crossexanimation of the casehardened testis that [34]
when and where that knife of knifes the treepartied ambush was [35]"
& "magazine . . . 2. A warehouse or depot in which anything is
stored . . . 4. A receptacle or part of a gun holding ammunition
ready for chambering; also a case in which cartridges are carried.
5. A reservoir or supply chamber . . . " {Music to Joycean ears, eh?}
[Funk & Wagnall's Standard Coll. Dict. '63,'68.]
{RivS:}
Magazine and case are somewhat synonimic, and as a steel
chambering deck, a magazine can be casehardened. A testis is
certainly a reservoir and supply chamber. Why, ma foi!
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
-----Original Message-----
From: ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Friday, April 24, 1998 2:16 AM
Subject: I had a dream...
Subject: 037.36 "fain . . . wi'fennel"
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 4/24/98 4:41 PM
Bill Cadbury posted:
"37.36: I have wondered before, maybe asked before, why rats are supposed to
like fennel."
{RivS:}
Fennel, dill, and anise are herb names which get somewhat interchanged, but
all have a pungent licoriceness to their flavor in some degree or another.
Seeds are a natural rodent food, and fennel is one of the herbs most likely
to appear in seed form in a pantry. Fennel seeds are eaten to prevent
indigestion, and if you ever seen what else rats eat . . . peacisely
FW p. 037: “ . . . a supreme of excelling
peas, [33]
balled under minnshogue's milk into whitemalt winesour, a pro-
[34]
viant the littlebilker hoarsely relished, chaff it, in the snevel season,
[35]
being as fain o't as your rat wi'fennel; and on this celebrating
[36]”
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
--Original message From: bill cadbury ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE Subject: a few things
Date: Friday, April 24, 1998 9:57 AM
Subject: 314.07-10 plumb in center
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 4/24/98 5:29 PM
In response to the Mahan & Boyce & Campbell
thread on Joyce's usage of his books' centers,
I believe it is Art Neuendorffer who pointed
earlier this year to the center of FW, p. 314,
as having a thunder word:
"Bump!
[.07]
Bothallchoractorschumminaroundgansumuminarumdrum- [.08]
strumtruminahumptadumpwaultopoofoolooderamaunsturnup! [.09]
-- Did do a dive, aped one."
[.10]
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: HALP!!!!!!!!!!!!
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/6/98 7:13 PM
. . . and that in the originally vowel-free
spellings of Semitic alphabets, "1001"
is "ALP + ALP," pronounced <'elef >
and <'alef>, and respectively being
the numbers "1000" and "one." "A"
in Hebraic transliteration is not a
vowel, but rather the glottal stop. "P,"
unless otherwise specified, is aspirated
like the Greek "phi" or English "f." The
reader guesses the vowels from context.
By the way, does anyone know how
Mr Joyce actually pronounced "ALP?"
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
/
-----Original Message-----
From: Jonna Kay Beck ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Wednesday, May 06, 1998 3:50 PM
Subject: Re: HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!
> On Wed, 6 May 1998, alicorn wrote:
>
>> Ytirarevni wrote:
>>> "Bababadalgaraghtakaminnaronn-konbrontonnerontuanskawntoo
>>> -hoohoordenethurnuk!"
>>>
>>> what does this mean???????????????????
>>>
>>> brian
>> One of the hundred-letter words denoting a thunderclap.
>>
> Don't forget that the tenth thunderclap actually contains 101 letters,
> making all ten claps eequal 1001 letters, thus referring to Sheherezade's
> tales.
>
Subject: Re: HALP!!!!!!!!!!!!(02)
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/6/98 8:38 PM
works for me
\
-----Original Message-----
From: Allen Mahan ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
Date: Wednesday, May 06, 1998 5:09 PM
Subject: Re: HALP!!!!!!!!!!!!
> On Wed, 6 May 1998, Riverend Sterling wrote:
>
>> By the way, does anyone know how
>> Mr Joyce actually pronounced "ALP?"
> (Mahan) Nora? I'm guessing, here...
> amm . . .
>
Subject: 030.04
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/6/98 11:37 PM
Greg Downing posted:
\
I'm not sure what the exact deal is with "chalking halltraps," but the
verbal formula used here is pretty familiar. You say "when [some ancient or
biblical figure] was/did x" in order to express vividly and hyperbolically
the idea of a very long time ago.
/
[RivS: WS seems to satirize the form by
having Hamlet pretend to confuse it with
current gossip -- ]
\
(from Act II, Scene 2 [a room in the castle])
/
HAMLET
I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players;
mark it. You say right, sir: o' Monday morning;
'twas so indeed.
\
LORD POLONIUS
My lord, I have news to tell you.
/
HAMLET
My lord, I have news to tell you.
When Roscius was an actor in Rome,--
\
LORD POLONIUS
The actors are come hither, my lord.
/
HAMLET
Buz, buz!
\
[Well, we have to allow Mr Joyce's
competitors to occasionally share the
spotlight!].
/
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 037.36 Fennella as she is
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/9/98 8:35 PM
A secondary connotation of fennel,
one most likely familiar to Mr Joyce:
/
"<The Fairy Goddesses, Aine and
Fennel (or Finnen). --> 'There are
two hills near Loch Gur upon whose
summits sacrifices and sacred rites
used to be celebrated according to
living tradition. One, about three
miles south-west of the lake, is called
Knock Aine, Aine or Ane being the
name of an ancient Irish goddess,
derived from <an,> "bright." The
other, the highest hill on the lake-
shores, is called Knock Fennel or Hill
of the Goddess Fennel, from <Finnen>
or <Finnine> or <Fininne,> a form of
<fin,> "white." The peasantry of the
region call Aine one of the Good
People; and they say that Fennel
(apparently he sister goddess or a
variant of herself) lived on the top of
Knock Fennel' (termed Finnen in a
State Paper dated 1200)." Count
John de Salis, of Balliol College,
cited in <The Fairy Faith in Celtic
Countries> by W. Y. Evans-Wentz
['11;'66;'94].
\
So our Good Fennel, among other
worthy attributes, appears to be a
sisterly manifestation of our Good
Anna Livia. Fennel is also, it seems,
cognate with our Mr Finnegan and,
as a reification of "white," she even
sneaks into the cloudlike drift of Issy,
the raingirl. Now if we can only prove
that Issy rats her hair . . .
/
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Issy's Letter
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/10/98 3:22 AM
Dear Laurel,
/
I am not good at spotting long sections of the Wake, so I'll take
your word for it that there is a letter here by Issy. If so, then the
ending seems easy enough, page 461.30-35. Line 461.33 shifts
to the voice of Juan, someone referred to in line 31. The same
line gives another name, Jaime. Juan and Jaime are the Spanish
for the English names John and James. These names appear in
various forms throughout the Wake (cf. lines one and two from
page 216: "Tell me of John or Shaun? Who were Shem and Shaun
the living sons or daughters of? Night now!" Shem is a Hebrew
form of James.) So to some extent the letter seems to be to both
James Joyce and his father, John. The glass in hand fits the
stereotype image of John Joyce.
\
Page 461:
Coach me how
to [.30]
tumble, Jaime, and listen, with supreme regards, Juan, in haste, [.31]
warn me which to ah ah ah ah....
[.32]
MEN! Juan responded fullchantedly to her sororal sono- [.33]
rity, imitating himself capitally with his bubbleblown in his
[.34]
patapet and his chalished drink now well in hand.
[.35]
/
Compare with page 457:
Well, here's looking at ye! If I never leave you biddies till
[.05]
my stave is a bar I'd be tempted rigidly to become a passionate [.06]
father.
[.07]
\
In the lines immediately above we may hear John Joyce talking
before the letter begins. Again, the implication of a drink in hand
by the toast "Here's looking at you."
/
Could we get away with starting the letter at line 25? There seems
to be some narrative tag shortly after, but it reinforces the feeling
of a letter: "she tactilifully grapbed her male corrispondee [line 28]."
What we would seem to have then is a letter addressed to someone
in the writer's presence. But such conundrums hold out little in the
way of impedance to a Wakean. Good luck! I usually prefer to
concentrate on one to six words at a time.
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
/
-----Original Message-----
From: Laurel Sicks ...
To: FWAKE-L@listserv.heanet.ie <FWAKE-L@listserv.heanet.ie>
Date: Friday, May 08, 1998 8:35 AM
Subject: Issy's Amourous Letter
> I am tryin to translate this letter which is supposed to be from Issy.
Whos
> is it to? Is it to the writer, James Joyce. I thought there was a name in
> the text which suggested Joyce. Am I away off mark as I think I must be?
I
> f anyone has the time, can you give me meanings for the words that are not
a
> lready given meaning? Also can you give me the exact beginning of the
episo
> de and the ending? That should keep you busy! The text may appear wierd
as
> I am using a Japanese System. Laurel Sicks
>
> Notes on Finnegans Wake
> by the Wake Ass
> CHAPTER 14 (Book III, chap. 2, pp, 457-61:
> Issy replies in an amorous letter
> (title after that used by Bernard Benstock in his
> "A Working Outline of Finnegans Wake."
Subject: 123 FW & <U> Refs
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/16/98 12:17 AM
-----Original Message-----
From: Allen Mahan ...
Date: Friday, May 15, 1998 3:54 PM
\
> 123.05 -- "a colophon of no fewer than seven hundred and thirtytwo
> strokes tailed by a leaping lasso--" The number of pages in the 1st
> edition of _U_.
/
RivS asks:
\
Is then the tailing leaping lasso the terminal
"S" of Ulysses (which then leaps in Viconian
fashion to the verso across from the first
page of text?) YES! (OK, MAYBE!).
/
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 037.36 Fennella as she is(02)
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/17/98 4:54 PM
Dear listenfolk,
\
This is a reposting from the recent
dead zone in the first half of May.
(Was all posting then undelivered?)
It applies to the "rats are fain on
fennel" thread introduced by Bill
Cadbury, and expanded on by Ross
Chambers, et al. There is perhaps,
in addition to the obvious ties made
below to Joycean themes around the
names of "An" (Anna Livia) and "Finn"
(Tim Finnegan), a more attenuated
nuance: "fain" suggests "fay" by sound,
although the words are not cognate.
If Mr Joyce learned that Fennel was
a sisterly remamafestation of the
Irish goddess Ane from the book below
cited, he would have known that "Faith"
and "Fairy" are cognate with Old French
words, "fae" and "fei" respectively. I am
assuming "fay (fairy)" and "faith" both to
derive from the the Latin "fata," the Fates
who are aka The Weird Sisters, who
perform so many marvelous cameos
throughout <Dubliners>.
/
-----Original Message-----
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: Saturday, May 09, 1998 5:35 PM
\
A secondary connotation of fennel,
one most likely familiar to Mr Joyce:
/
"<The Fairy Goddesses, Aine and
Fennel (or Finnen). --> 'There are
two hills near Loch Gur upon whose
summits sacrifices and sacred rites
used to be celebrated according to
living tradition. One, about three
miles south-west of the lake, is called
Knock Aine, Aine or Ane being the
name of an ancient Irish goddess,
derived from <an,> "bright." The
other, the highest hill on the lake-
shores, is called Knock Fennel or Hill
of the Goddess Fennel, from <Finnen>
or <Finnine> or <Fininne,> a form of
<fin,> "white." The peasantry of the
region call Aine one of the Good
People; and they say that Fennel
(apparently the sister goddess or a
variant of herself) lived on the top of
Knock Fennel' (termed Finnen in a
State Paper dated 1200)."
/
The above notation is by:
John de Salis, of Balliol College;
cited in <The Fairy Faith in Celtic
Countries> by W. Y. Evans-Wentz
['11;'66;'94].
\
So our Good Fennel, among other
worthy attributes, appears to be a
sisterly manifestation of our Good
Anna Livia. Fennel is also, it seems,
cognate with our Mr Finnegan and,
as a reification of "white," she even
sneaks into the cloudlike drift of Issy,
the raingirl. Now if we can only prove
that Issy rats her hair . . .
/
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
\
(PS . . . or are we to believe that
the rats on Knock Fennel are fairies?
That WOULD require faith!).
Subject: More musical references
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/27/98 5:34 AM
Dear Bill Buttler, et al.,
/
This letter you're quoting and the passage you've
matched it with seem rather special and poetic.
I wonder if one reason James Joyce named his
son "Giorgio" (and am I correct in recalling that
he was also called "George") was the
association with St George's Channel, which
Giorgio's parents crossed as the first step in
their own flight (soon to lead to Giorgio's
conception). Mrs. Nora Joyce's maiden name
of "Barnacle" refers to an Irish seabird, a goose,
and we know of Joyce's role in apotheosizing
"quark," the English word for the cry of a
seabird. (In more serendipitious musing, one
of the major works of Mr Joyce's literary father,
Ibsen, was [in English] "The Wild Duck," and the
heroine of Ibsen's most important play is named
"Nora (The Doll's House)." No wonder Mr
Joyce got such a kick in their early days when
Nora Barnacle showed him a press clipping about
the playwright and asked, "Is this the Ibsen you
know?" I've imagined he must have been tempted
to say, "Yes, darlin', and knowing my great need
for it, he seems to have created you to help me
in the sad event of his passing." And Lord knows
the good patient lady had a long go of it before
himself let her hear the bells. But he did, and only
from loving her more than strongly than he hated
anything else.
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
/
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Buttler (Ozemail) ...
Date: Tuesday, May 26, 1998 5:08 PM
\
> FW 548.33:
>
> "I wound around my swanchen's neckplace a school of shells of
> moyles marine to swing their saysangs in her silents"
>
> Letters III, 27 December 1934, to Giorgio Joyce:
>
> "*Silent, O Moyle*: Moyle is that part of the Irish Sea which is now called
> St George's Channel. The three daughters of Lir (the Celtic Neptune and the
> original of Shakespeare's King Lear) were changed into swans and must fly
> over these leaden waters for centuries until the sound of the first
> Christian bell in Ireland breaks the spell".
>
> regards,
>
> Bill Buttler
> Melbourne, Australia
Subject: 127.01 [095]
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/31/98 3:02 AM
RE/StanApple & alicorn [127.01] --
[095]:
with his limelooking horse- [14]
bags full of sesameseed, the Whiteside Kaffir, and his sayman's [15]
effluvium and his scentpainted voice, puffing out his thundering [16]
big brown cabbage! Pa! . . . [17]
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: concords.
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 6/12/98 5:19 PM
http://shaman.lycaeum.org/~martins/Finnegan/
\
http://howth.engl.uni-koeln.de/queryjoy.htm
\
Above are alternative concordance searchers,
for FW and U respectively, in lieu of the much
missed John Williams sites. The FW site has
one advantage in providing control over the size
of included context, but one big flaw: the page
numbers are incorrect, tending to fall behind on
a rising curve of error. Good news? Line #'s
are correct, so by the time you look ahead a
few pages, you find your place in the text's
real-world pagination. If you get twenty+ hits,
of course, that can be labor intensive . . . but
within the realm of the do-able.
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Fw: Ulyssean abecedarics
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 6/13/98 3:26 AM
BOOK: Part I. Chapter 5. Page 123.
\
of all those fourlegged ems: [RivS—alphabetic character theme indicated by a
reference to the printers’ spacer twice the width of an “en”]
/
and why spell dear god with a big [1] thick dhee [RivS—alphabetic theme
linked to deity, and the Irish “D” words of divinity, as the ancient Anna
called “Dana,” and the root for “oak” seen in “Druid” and the “dara” of
“Kildare”; cf. Mikio/Ross on "dear knows"]
\
(why, O why, O why?):[RivS—YOYOY, i.e., words which are hononymic to the
names of alphabet characters, but have deep content and feeling]
/
the cut and dry aks [RivS--the rape of the oaks’ {“aks”=oaks+axe} groves
ended druidism’s power centers]
\
and wise [2] form of the semifinal [RivS—a direct reference to the
character which begins and ends <Ulysses>, the “S,” which is shaped like the
wise serpent, "semifinal" for the “S” is an ending but also a beginning as
the serpent in its wisdom bites its tail to represent eternity]
\
and, eighteenthly or twentyfourthly . . . [RivS--the numbers of the Celtic
Tree Alphabet and the Greek Alphabet furnish, respectively, the numbers of
chapters in <Ulysses> and the <Odyssey>]
/
[3] . . . lastly when all is zed and done [RivS—zed is the final letter of
the Standard Received English Alphabet]
\
the pene- [4] lopean patience of its last paraphe [RivS--for anyone doubting
the question, a direct reference to the fact that in <Ulysses,> Penelope is
awarded the final say at last]
/
a colophon of no fewer than [5] seven hundred and thirtytwo strokes tailed
by a leaping lasso [6] [RivS—discussed in recent posts initiated by Mahan,
RivS, Boyce, et al., & the focus being pagination association with <U> and
the possibility of the leaping lasso being the initial and terminal “S” of
<U>]
\
who thus at all this marvelling but will press on hotly to see the [7]
vaulting feminine libido [RivS--the standard praise first given to <U> was
for Mr Joyce’s potrayal of a feminine innerscape]
/
of those interbranching ogham [8] [RivS—refers to another old Celtic
alphabet by a treetalk qualifier]
\
uniform matteroffactness of a meandering male [10] [RivS--might refer to “S”
by invoking the the god of winding streams, Meander, in regard of the
streamlike letter; Ulysses is of course present as well, for he was the
world’s most meandering of men]]
/
paddygoeasy partnership the ulykkhean [16] [RivS--<Ulysses> is well and
briefly described in terms of its being a book combining Irish and Greek
themata, a traditional Irish formula since the Middle Ages, hence
“easygoing” and “paddy” {from Ireland’s initiator of the Medieval Period,
St. Patrick, and his name’s devolution to a mild perjorative as
Patty=Patty=Mick}]
\
bestteller popularly associated with the names of the wretched [23] mariner
[24] [RivS--the wretched mariner of course being Ulysses]
/
The original [31] document [32] . . . showed no signs of punctua- [33] tion
of any sort [RivS—probably a portmanteau ref. to the unlikelihood of getting
a period out of either Nora’s letters or Molly’s monologue]
\
holding the verso against a lit rush this [34] new book of Morses responded
most remarkably to the silent [35] query of our world's oldest light and its
recto . . . [36]
[RivS—Mr Joyce designed <U> to begin with an illuminated initial, the same
one in fact, “S,” which begins a Bible in the Irish language. The author of
Genesis, Moses, is thus referred to in a very Qabalistic manner which
implies that Moses included codes in the Pentateuch, just as did Joyce in
his own works].
/
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
\
PS I kept away from Mr McHugh('80,'91) until safely done. Now looking on
his read, there is considerable confirmation, and also some very germane and
observant allusions to the themes of Ulysses and abecedarianism which I
missed, forinstance and most particulary the brilliant identification
<McHugh's> notes on 123.30-33 regarding both Tiberian subscript in Hebrew
and FW's everpresent Phoenician element.
\
-----Original Message-----
From: Riverend Sterling
To: fwread <fwread@colorado.edu>
Date: Monday, May 18, 1998 1:47 PM
Subject: 123: Ulyssean abecedarics
Subject: Pp. 293; 314; 628
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 6/14/98 3:47 AM
[Venal sin off the crosspost versus the
more cardinal one of threading on a
page not current to fwread list? Don't
worry about not having the posts being
corrected, you're that much better off].
\
To any poor soul who has plowed, or
planning to plow, through my pi thread
reprint from Allen [Mahan] . . . I've not reread
them to see what else I got wrong, but
there is one serious error woven through
these hasty puddings which I later corrected
offline, as the original posts were all offline:
in my midnight whatever, I wrote "diameter"
where I meant to write "radius."
\
The "radian" is indeed named for the "radius."
If the math-intolerant will remember the good
old formulae for basic circle math, this
is all we are talking about. Dividing any circle's
circumference by its diameter yields the number
called "pi," an irrational and non-algebraic number
which is rounded off commonly to 3.14.
\
The radius of a circle, that is, the distance from
center to perimeter, is half the diameter (diameter
being a line from perimeter to perimeter through
the center). Therefore, the radius into the
circumference of any circle is twice pi, and thus
is 6.28. Stated directly, any circle's circumference
is 6.28 times longer than its radius. If this ratio is
"de-decimalized" to render a whole number, that is,
if 6.28 is multiplied by 100, we reach the number
628, which is also the number of pages in Finnegans
Wake.
\
Since FW is the world's most circular of texts, it is
compelling to explore what is at least a blatantly
incredible coincidence for any signs of intentionality
in regard of this significant pagination. In this light,
it seems noteworthy that the page identical to the
standard pi number (in pagination), page 314, has
one of the ten thunderwords of the Wake. There
are countless other intertwined math threads in
the Wake, but the quasi related pp. 314 and 628
having a very "smoking gun" quality. If we had any
idea what we were trying to prove, we might be
even gladder of such evidence.
\
Readers of course are referred as well to 293.12-14.
Art Neuendorffer pointed me in these directions, and
deserves only the credit. The mistakes are mine.
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 029. 14 & 15: Eriugena
From: thouart
Date: 6/22/98 6:14 AM
FW 029.14 & 15: "Creator he has created for his creatured ones a creation."
\
The above sentence is a reference to a main tenet of the ninth century
philosopher Johannes Scotus Eriugena (literally "John the Irishman from
Ireland"). The giveaway is the four different forms of the root "create"
flowing from one into the next. While not Viconian, because not dependent
on time or mankind, a circularity is imparted.
\
Eriugena's discussion of created and uncreated is a main subject of Book I
of his Periphyseon. His term "nature" applies to all things, "those that are
and those that are not." He divides nature into four categories: (i) that
which creates and is not created; (ii) that which is created and also
creates; (iii) that which is created but does not create; and (iv) that
which neither creates nor is created. Eriugena explains that categories (i)
and (iv) apply only to God. Only God is uncreated, and we may speak of Him
as both creating and not creating. (There is not a division in God, but in
our thought of God -- a very important distinction in terms of heresy).
\
The way I present this to myself is not strictly what Eriugena probably
intended, but it enables me to get an initial overview, albeit somewhat
distorted. First comes (i) God, the uncreated being who creates (ii) me,
who is a created being who also creates (iii) a chair, which is a created
being which cannot create, but is part of (iv) creation, which is, in its
totality, the passive side of God. Technical philosophers do not consider
Eriugena "guilty" of either pantheism or polytheism, but as you can see, he
was willing to push the envelope. Here,in Eriugena's words, is the four
part thesis of how God emanates and returns through creating:
\
THE DIVISION OF NATURE (PERIPHYSEON) (in Part) [John Scotus Eriugena,
Periphyseon (The Division of Nature), translated by I. P. Sheldon-Williams,
revised by John O'Meara (Washington, DC, and Montreal: Dumbarton Oaks and
Editions Bellarmin, 1987)] [CHAPTER 1] --
\
"ALUMNUS: Pray begin.
\
"NUTRITOR: It is my opinion that the division of Nature by means of four
differences results in four species, (being divided) first into that which
creates and is not created, secondly into that which is created and also
creates, thirdly into that which is created and does not create, while the
fourth neither creates nor is created. Does such a division seem right
to you or not?"
\
Here is some biographical information:
\
John Scotus Eriugena (or Erigena, c.810-c.877). "Scotus" at the time meant
"Irish," not "Scottish." Eriugena means "born in Ireland," and he
represents the intellectual activity that distinguished Ireland during the
Dark Ages. (Having never been part of the Roman Empire, Ireland suffered no
deterioration from the Empire's fragmentation . . . just Viking raids).
Eriugena gained his fame after being called to the court of Charles (II) the
Bald (who was King of France 843-877 and crowned Emperor by the Pope in
875). Eriugena also illustrates the danger of original thought . . . his
works were condemned as heresy, centuries after their author's death.
\
One of the best known stories about Eriugena is that when he was at the
court of Charles the Bald, a jealous courtier asked him one night at dinner,
"Tell me, learned one, just what is the difference between a drunkard and an
Irishman (sottus/scotus)?" Eriugena looked across at the boorish courtier
and replied, "I should say exactly the width of this table."
\
Can we doubt Mr Joyce loved him?
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: noetic's rainbow
From: thouart
Date: 6/22/98 12:53 PM
Dear Martin,
\
In response to your marvelous assessment of the problematics of FW,
surprisingly concise in terms of its coverage, and refreshing to see in a
list of devotees, I must initially throw my hands in the air. You are
posing a question which generates a million answers, none of which will be
right or wrong. And that already gives one view into the glories and
sorrows of trying to shake out a stable meaning from a “colliderscope.”
\
As another recently-joined list-member put it so well, (I am paraphrasing
from mememoremee): “What is your favorite edition to throw against the
wall?” So in that aspect, it is an opportunity for those both blessed and
cursed with an unusual combination of love of scholarly research, an
ecumenical sense of humour, and something else that I forget at this moment,
to embrace, regardless of one’s own racial story, the legendary spirit of
Celtic contentiousness summed up by the aging Irish king who stood in the
sea slashing at the tide with his sword. The gift Mr Joyce has provided for
such poor overlit imbeciles as we is that the longer we stand waisthigh in
this futile combat, the more we become impressed with the fact that he has
been courteous enough to provide us with a real ocean, and not a sewage
outlet.
\
So I say to you, if you are what passes for wise in the catalog, “Run now,
run back to the mainstream while yet you may!” If not . . . there is always
plenty of room in the surf, we do stop for lunch, and we love company as
long as you stand far enough apart that our swords do not clang too often
against each other.
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: getting it
From: thouart
Date: 6/22/98 1:20 PM
Ruth Bauerle posted:
\
"Read the Wake aloud. Always
With an Irish accent."
\
[RivS]: Which invaluable advice I iterate, adding
that one may receive a good example of how by
multiple listening to Mr Joyce's own recording of
the ALP section (when will somebody please give
it a digital remastering though!? all the scritchy-
scratch can now be removed to give pristine sound
. . . or has this indeed been done?) and add this:
\
A devotee, whose name I unfortunately do not have
to hand, wrote of his anxiety when his father, an
American immigrant who, though originally from
Dublin, was nevertheless what is commonly
referred to as "a normal person," picked up a
copy of the Wake from his son's coffee table. For
several pages, the father's brow crinkled into deeper
and deeper furrows, until suddenly they were
smoothed away, and the father relaxed and said to
his son, "Oh, I get it. It's like being in a busy Dublin
pub where you are listening to twenty conversations
at once." The son was both relieved and amazed.
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
\
-----Original Message-----
From: Ruth Bauerle ...
Date: Monday, June 22, 1998 7:13 AM
Subject: 097.16 Father Allbrewham
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 6/24/98 5:42 PM
On the call for alcohol at the Wake
thread, this [097.16]:
\
(may Allbrewham have his mead!) the creamclotted sherriness of
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: The earworker (& wee draps)
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 6/25/98 7:24 AM
Bill Buttler's latest post on the thread of how to best read the
Wake, and particularly the now dominant subthread of reading
it aloud (the main way of reading everything before our own
century according to Eric McLuhan -- personally I read "aloud"
within my mind, so my mind hears me reading, a distinctly
different method than reading with only the eyes, but not
externally audible -- I taught myself in school in order to be
able to retain information for testing -- slower that reading for
speed, it assures better understanding and seems to lock data
into larger and more accessibles ranges of mental files and
keywords for later accessing -- but anyhoo) --
\
I see Joyce's letter to Miss Weaver also has something for our
lister(s) on the alcohol in the Wake thread: i.e., "half a glass of
Irish whiskey" heard from reading "half a glance of Irish frisky"
and I suppose one leads to the other.
\
And gadzooks, there's even a drop of the crayture in Bill's goldmine
of a signature from chapter five: " . . . the sack of auld hensyne,"
as not only is sack a wine, but the phrase sends the earworker
quickly to "We'll drink a glass of kindness yet for the sake of . . . "
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
\
Bill had posted:
\
"Apropos the question of reading FW aloud - I finally found the reference I
was looking for. It is from Letters I, to HSW, 27 June 1924:
" 'For instance, Shaun, after a long absurd and rather incestuous Lenten
lecture to Izzy, his sister, takes leave of her 'with half a glance of irish
frisky from under the shag of his parallel brows'. These are the words the
reader will see but not those he will hear.' "
\
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Buttler ...
To: Fwread <fwread@lists.colorado.edu>
Date: Thursday, June 25, 1998 3:34 AM
Subject: Eureka!
Subject: Shak'n'Bacon
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 6/29/98 12:41 AM
Dear Ross, thank you for this thread:
\
" We are quite satisfied with labelling his creed [Bacon-Shakespeare rc]
as a specimen; and placing it in a museum of intellectual curiousities,
side by side with those of the Pyramid-religion people and the
Anglo-Israelites, as interesting examples of the fantastic paradoxes
which serve many as matters of faith and philosophy at the present day."
[RivS -- I always love this sort of thing. The Pyramids certainly are of
a religious nature, and there certainly are Anglo-Israelites by several
valid definitions].
\
. . . [this] type tyrant will have to include lapsing London along with
Indian America and Barbaric Australia [RivS -- say, I'm not sure
we want to be lumped together with London!].
\
For it is the ambition of the half-evolved
lower literary organism to be thought to live on higher life-stuff than
its native bathibius . . .
[RivS -- exactly why I study Mr Joyce].
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
\
Ross had posted:
\
William Brockman posted information re William Thomson, proponent of
the "Bacon wrote Shakespeare" school. This was in response to Edward
Burns' query re Adaline Glasheen's note to Thornton Wilder which
mentioned: " One Anti S book- 'A Minute Among the Amenities', lovely title"
The FW link is 502.25-.26 "--The amenities, the amenities of the
amenities with all their amenities." and I would very much appreciate
any elucidation on the passage revealed by this new information.
I have located a copy of this "book"--a 24pp pamphlet in fact--in the
Mitchell Collection of the State Library of NSW. It is a refutation of
various negative criticisms, particularly those published in Australian
newspapers . . .
\
-----Original Message-----
From: Ross Chambers ...
To: FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEANET.IE Date: Monday, June 22, 1998 10:31 AM
Subject: 502.25 "amenities" 1 of 2
Subject: DUBS Graceshus!
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 6/29/98 11:58 PM
Using the 1969 Viking Critical
edition, we see Mrs Kernan
in "Grace" recalling on p. 170:
"Edmund Dwyer Gray was
speaking, blathering away . . ."
The notes on p. 499 add: "170.17
'Edmund Dwyer Gray' -- son of
Sir John Gray, he was noted for
his indecisiveness."
\
In the ALP passage of Finnegans
Wake, the two washerwomen
(again, the two sisters who herald
death in Irish folklore) are indecisive
about something misty spotted near
the golden falls, and one says:
\
"What is it but a blackburry
growth or the dwyergray ass
them four old codgers owns."
[FW 214.32 & 33]
\
Perhaps the allusion here to Edmund
Dwyer Gray includes then his own
indecisiveness along with that of the
washerwomen? No, probably not.
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Fw: Raccontami di Anna Livia.
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 7/10/98 4:05 AM
Mr Joyce's supervised French translations, from
my minute exposure to them, are very revealing.
Cf. J. Joyce, Ph. Soupault, P.L. Léon, E. Jolas
and A. Monnier: "Anna Livie Plurabelle" (1931)
with the final English in the following examples --
\
[FW p. 215.16/17]:
And every crutch had its seven hues. And each hue
had a differing cry.
\
Et chaque crochette ses sept couleurs. Et toutes les
couleurs des cris différents.
\
[In English, hue can be sound or color. In French,
Joyce opted for the color side of the ambiguity,
indicating his priority was synesthetic. Color is
sound.]
\
[FW p. 196.01-06]:
O tell me all about Anna Livia! I want to hear all
about Anna Livia. Well, you know Anna Livia? Yes,
of course, we all know Anna Livia. Tell me all. Tell
me now. You'll die when you hear.
\
O, dis-moi tout d'Anna Livie! Je veux tout savoir d'Anna
Livie! Eh bien! tu connais Anna Livie? Bien sûr tout le
monde connaît Anna Livie. Dis-moi tout, dis-moi vite.
C'est à en crever!
\
[Vs. FW p. 215.03-05]:
Wait till the honeying of the lune, love! Die eve, little
eve, die! We see that wonder in your eye.
\
Attends moun amour que la lune s'y mielle. Meurs
petite soeir, petite soeir meurs. Dans tes yeux on voit le
paradieu.
\
In the "little eve" passage, die is die; in the "O tell me
all" intro., the "die" is cast into an idiom accenting the
casual slang of the washerwomen, "You'll blow your
mind!" being not too far off . . . but not right on. "It is
to burst from it" is certainly incorrect usage for any
meaning in English, but connotes the theme of death
in FW I;8.
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Some one say Mackintosh?
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 7/20/98 4:19 AM
Several passages in Russell Kirk’s work on the Irish statesman, orator, and
man of letters, Edmund Burke (1729-97), remind me of another Dublin-born
wordsmith. First, on pp. 32-33 (of <Edmund Burke> 1967/1988), Kirk writes
of Burke’s early work titled <The Sublime and Beautiful>:
\
“In his emphasis on the terrible and obscure, Burke was breaking with
eighteenth-century classicism . . . [according to Burke] one must observe
phemomena and their influence upon mind and heart, rather than deduce neat
conclusions from abstract propositions. The world, Burke saw, was still a
place of wonder and obscurity, not a rational construction . . . Burke also
penetrates, with considerable originality, into the emotional nature of
words, defending their evocative quality, as against the rationalistic
argument that words ought to be mere accurate symbols of objective things.”
\
Later, on page 197, we learn that, in the last year of his life, Burke was
visited at Christmas by his honorable opponent, James Mackintosh.
“Mackintosh described, in glowing terms, the astonishing effusions of [Burke
’s] mind in conversation: perfectly free from all taint of affectation; he
would enter, with cordial glee, into the sports of children, rolling about
with them on the carpet, and pouring out, in his gambols, the sublimest
images, mingled with the most wretched puns.” [Is this then an Irish
habit?]
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Lambing Day
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 7/23/98 8:04 PM
Dear Jerry,
\
Yes, this would be most disturbing to receive the impression that St Brigid’
s day is not 1 Feb right after my posting which indicated that my entire
reputation, and the wellspring of all of Mr Joyce’s works, and the heart of
the auld sod itself – that all these revolve around that Good Lady and her
day of recognition. I have forwarded two other people’s postings from the
CELTIC-L list in support of my data, and am including in this post several
website addresses in the same cause, as well as excerpts from them. The
third site’s excerpt will shed some light on the situation, the problem
being that Vatican II, in its vastly ineluctable wisdom, set in force the
supposed decanonization of Brigid on the grounds that her origins were pagan
myths. The frothy bubbles of these small sinking minds’ attempts to
disguise themselves as theological judges have had scant success, but since
most days are associated with more than one saint, a recently imprimatured
calendar of saints might not mention St Brigid, hoping to obtain a “nihil
obstat” or something. The Brigitte of 23 July is probably the Swedish saint
of that name. I have seen close to a hundred listings assigning 1 Feb to
the patrona bona dea of Ireland, St Brigid, the Mary of the Gael. But I
have no desire to slight Sainte Ella, or her beautiful little yellow basket.
Merely to have a shared feast day with St Brigid is a great honor, and the
scurrying little beetles of the refrectory will surely dine on these saints’
crumbs, and grow sleepy, and dream of even greater feats of wisdom in the
graceful sun of St Brigid’s sunny smile of amused forgiveness. Best wishes,
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
\
http://www.clannada.org/docs/brigid.htm
\
St. Brigid is among the most popular of Irish saints, second only to St.
Patrick. Known as "Mary of the Gaels," she has accrued many of the
traditions which were earlier ascribed to Bride, Irish triune goddess of
smithcraft and poetry, for whom she may have been named. Most notable among
these is that St. Brigid's feast day is February 1st, the same day that the
festival of Imbolg dedicated to the goddess Bride was celebrated. Numerous
accounts of her life began to circulate after her death; the earliest of
these is a fifth century account written in Irish, the Bethu Brigte. The
seventh century Vita Brigante, which was written in Latin, is also
frequently cited as a source on Brigid's life.
\
http://www.st-brigid.org/brigid.htm
\
Born in 451 or 452 of princely ancestors at Faughart, near Dundalk, County
Louth; d. 1 February, 525, at Kildare. Refusing many good offers of
marriage, she became a nun and received the veil from St. Macaille. With
seven other virgins she settled for a time at the foot of Croghan Hill, but
removed thence to Druin Criadh, in the plains of Magh Life, where under a
large oak tree she erected her subsequently famous Convent of Cill-Dara,
that is, "the church of the oak" (now Kildare), in the present county of
that name. It is exceedingly difficult to reconcile the statements of St.
Brigid's biographers, but the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Lives of the saint
are at one in assigning her a slave mother in the court of her father
Dubhthach, and Irish chieftain of Leinster. Probably the most ancient life
of St. Brigid is that by St. Broccan Cloen, who is said to have died 17
September, 650.
\
http://www.oakgrove.org/GreenPages/bos/2982.txt
\
Brigit is clearly the best example of the survival of a Goddess
into Christian times. She was cannonized by the Catholic church as
St. Brigit and various origins are given to this saint . . . She became a
nun
and later an abbess who founded the Abbey at Kildare. The Christian
Brigit was said to have had the power to appoint the bishops of her
area, a strange role for an abbess, made stranger by her requirement
that her bishops also be practicing goldsmiths. Actually, the Goddess Brigit
had always kept a shrine at Kildare,Ireland, with a perpetual flame tended
by nineteen virgin priestesses called Daughters of the Flame.
\
When Catholicism took over in Ireland, the shrine became a convent
and the priestesses became nuns but the same traditions were held
and the eternal flame was kept burning. Their tradition was that
each day a different priestess/nun was in charge of the sacred fire.
\
In the 1960's, under Vatican II modernization, it was
declared that there was insufficient proof of Brigit's sanctity
or even of her historical existance, and so the Church's gradual
pogrom against Brigit was successful at last and She was thus
decanonized. It is very difficult to obtain images or even holy
cards of St Brigit outside of Ireland anymore.
\
Her festival is held on Febuary 1st or 2nd. It corresponds to
the ancient Celtic fire festival of Imbolc or Oimelc which
celebrated the birthing and freshening of sheep and goats (it really
is a Feast of Milk). This festival was Christianized as Candlemas
or Lady Day and Her Feast day, La Feill Bhride, was attended by
tremendous local celebration and elaborate rituals. Her festival
is also called Brigit. Brigit (the Goddess and the Festival)
represents the stirring of life again after the dead months of the
winter, and her special blessings are called forth at this time.
Subject: Brigittine bounty
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 7/24/98 2:51 AM
Dear Jerry, et al.,
\
This is all I could find so far on St Brigit of Sweden,
(other than a really bizarre site attacking "shoddy
scholarship by neopagans" who are "trying to make
people think St Brigit is Irish[!]" I'm telling everyone,
there are TWO St Brigits, one IS Irish and the
other, a much later one of the 14 century, is
Swedish, and that is the she and the she of it,
and I wish there were a hundred more):
\
http://www.svkyrkan.se/svk/fra/history.htm
\
Ces liens, cependant, ne garantissaient pas un
soutien inconditionnel de l'Eglise à l'Etat, témoin le cas
de Brigitte de Vadstena, Ste Brigitte (1303-1373). Elle
était la fille d'un grand notable (lagman) de la province
d'Upland, elle-même épouse d'un lagman et conseiller
du royaume. Elle dénonça les abus de la papauté ainsi
que les abus du pouvoir royal. Ste Brigitte fut canonisée
en 1391.
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 130.31&32
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 7/24/98 7:30 PM
" . . . forth of his pierced part came
the woman of his dreams . . . "
\
coincidentia oppositorum, and all
that -- (I am the eggman?) --
\
Shemolina Pilchard
Subject: 101.13&14; Part II
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 7/25/98 4:31 AM
Finnegans Wake; page 101; lines 13 & 14:
". . . what price Peabody's money, or, to put it
bluntly, whence is the herringtons' white cravat . . ."
\
I have surfed around the big search engines, and
cannot find any other prominent Peabody Harringtons
other than John Peabody Harrington (1884-1961).
Peabody was his mother's maiden name, and the
combined appellative seems uncommon. I mention
this because I have trouble believing that I just ran
into the man whose work I studied for 12 years (JPH:
1976-1988) suddenly giving the old peek-a-boo from a
work by the man I've studied the last 12 years (James
Joyce:1986-1998) -- and you see the seamless segué.
\
So I am most interested in, and encourage any able to
suggest to me, alternate or serendiputious readings. On
the other hand, I am faced with trying to understand the
context and purpose and possiblility of J. P. Harrington's
appearance in Finnegans Wake, hitherto unnoticed by
myself and not referred to in any publications I have read.
While I am in the forefront of neither Mr Joyce's nor Mr
Harrington's scholars, I am perhaps near the forefront of
scholars bizarre and socially ignored sufficiently to devote
major attention to both men over an extended period of time,
so I suppose I am pressed to bring the matter to the
attention of those advanced in at least one field or the
other -- particularly should this help demonstrate to me that
I am out of my mind before further embarassment to all is
done in my pursuit of this thread.
\
There is no mention of JPH in the standard three vols. of
Mr Joyce's published letters; I would certainly have noticed
such reference in the standard works of biography and
exegesis. But ditto goes for much of whom and what we
see bobbing about in the Wake. JPH did not spell his
patronymic as "herrington," but to demand standard spellings
in the Wake is to invite madness. "Peabody" and "herrington"
are not adjacent in the text, but again, the work in question is
the fantastic colliderscape of a dreamer's earworks, and the
words but a breath apart and linked by several rhetorical
devises. 1) Both "Peabody" and "herrington" appear as quasi
names ("Harring-" and "herring-" having quasi cognancy via
the Old English "hæring" reinforcing this some, since it
appears the words split the "æ" between themselves . . .
diffusive drivel were we not speaking of our attempts to
sift a mind of Mr Joyce's ilk); 2) the two quasi names are
presented as equivalents via their status as mutual
alternatives indicated by the conjunction "or"; 3) the usage
of the interrogative adverbs "what" and "whence" enhance
the sense that "Peabody" and "herrington" might form a
type of dvandva (an equal but separate pairing forming
an entity, as "secretary-general," or "Peabody Harrington"
as a quasi Hispanic-style surname formed of family names
from a child's mother and father both, as is the case with
JPH).
\
Of more interest I would think is the fuller context of the
passage in review. The Peabodys are a prominent East
Coast family of the United States. JPH's father was a
Santa Barbara attorney (the city which served Reagan as
"The Western White House"). JPH himself graduated from
Stanford, where President and Mrs. Clinton's daughter,
Chelsea, is currently in attendance. JPH rejected a Rhodes
scholarship(!) to pursue his own lines of education and
research. With no way for us to know for sure, we can at
least say that the Wakean passage possible citing JPH has
overtones which reflect JPH's rejected opportunities for a
fast-track career of wealth, fame, and relative ease.
\
By this hypothesis, "what price Peabody's money" is a rough
equivalent to "what profit is there in gaining the world if one's
soul be lost?" (A rather good question, I think . . . and not a
rhetorical one necessarily -- and please note, it does not posit
its terms by a mandatory mutual exclusivity). If we are, as is
obvious, given the classical Hebraic construction of one answer
(or concept) implied by the posing of two questions, then
"whence the herrington's cravat" is meant to bring home more
strongly the sense that one must follow one's own best
judgement, even if it means missing those TV dinners by the
pool, for the cravat has associations of privilege akin to spats
(though in reality both appear in the garb of rich and poor).
To put it simply, fancy clothes come with a price; for a scholar
who is brilliant, egoistic, intuitive, and offbeat, it usually will mean
making major early career choices between buttkissing and
birdflipping (and sure the world needs frequent applications of
both skills by judicious, gentle, and dignified appliers . . .) BUT --
\
I think we know the basic slope to the road chosen by James
Joyce and John Peabody Harrington, that is, neither was likely
to reach the lowlands afore ye. Each genius worked outside
the Pale, an idiot savant feared and envied. Both linguists
achieved enduring seminal works by a quietly fierce belief in the
accuracy of their personal sirens. Neither was deluded.
\
The following brief excerpts from letters between Ethnolinguistic
giants Sapir and Kroeber discuss J. P. Harrington's assignment,
soon revoked, to the orthography committe of the American
Anthropological Association. Joyceans may note resonances
with the sophmoric and aggravating brilliance of another wordman.
\
"I should not be surprised...if you would have a great deal of
trouble from Harrington. He is as keen and well informed on the
subject as anyone in the country, but perhaps because he is a young
man has shown a riotous inclination to indulge in the expressions of
fine shades of sounds in the symbols used for them..." [Kroeber to
Sapir, 1/6/13: SKC, letter 79, p.76]
\
"I am somewhat afraid that Harrington is more interested in exhibiting
his wide acquaintance with phonetic matters than in getting down to
business." [Sapir to Kroeber, 4/28/13: SKC, letter 96,p.96]
\
"I find Harrington very hard to fathom. His general attitude is extremely
broad and reasonable, but he seems to completely contradict it at times
by most surprising individual recommendations..." [Kroeber to Sapir,
5/8/13: SKC, letter 98, p.97]
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Correction (Harrington&Joyce)
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 7/25/98 5:20 AM
In paragraph #6 of the post
101.13 & 14 (on a possible
reference in Finnegans Wake
to John Peabody Harrington),
<herrington's> is incorrect.
\
<herringtons'> is correct, with
the apostrophe indicating the
possessive of a group, the
Harrington family in my
hypothesis; -- and <herringtons'>
is Mr Joyce's spelling. Like J. P.
Harrington, I would probably not
have lasted long on an orthography
committee. I apologize, but will strike
again no doubt, -- best wishes,
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Harrington phonetics
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 7/25/98 5:22 PM
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Buttler ...
To: fwread <fwread@colorado.edu>
Date: Saturday, July 25, 1998 3:49 AM
Subject: RE: 101.13&14; Part II
\
". . . in view of JJ's comments to Mercanton re the rules of
phonetics (discussed on this list earlier in the year). Are you
able to give us a potted summary of Harrington's ideas?"
\
[RivS]: I wish I could, but my studies of Harrington's work focused
solely on his transcriptions of the testimonies of his informants on
the native cultures of the southern California coast, so while I learned
a great deal about the Chumash and some about the Gabrielino and
such, I learned little of Harrington's methodology. Harrington published
little during his lifetime, and that all in academic journals which go
instantly out of print. I heard from a man who'd served one summer to
Harrington as a field assistant while in college that Harrington told him,
"If any anthropologists ever visit us, say nothing to them, not even your
name." Harrington's goal was to record Indians in their own voices, by
transcription and some use of wax cylinder recording. In this he was
intensely successful, so that the many books published from his work
after his death are indeed direct information as given by those elderly
informants, and contain scant commentary by Harrington. So you learn
little about phonetic models or stratigraphic analysis techniques, but you
can build one hell of an ocean-going sewn-plank canoe if you've a mind
for it, and study the notes with care. The only detailed study of
Harrington
made during his lifetime was done by a Chumash woman who wrote her
17 volumes of notes in Chumash. When she died, the language died with
her. Her notes are, however, the best current hope for its resurrection.
I see in Amazon that a book on Harrington's notes at the Smithsonian has
been recently published. At $85, I shall have to wait. I am now too far
removed from that field to request a review copy, and I suspect it would
be largely in the form of a catalog. Any light it sheds on Harrington's
inner
workings would seem to be against his will, though I would be most
interested myself in how he regarded these "fine shades of sound" which
disturbed Alfred Kroeber -- not to mention how Mr Joyce came upon him!
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
\
Finnegans Wake; page 101; lines 13 & 14:
". . . what price Peabody's money, or, to put it
bluntly, whence is the herringtons' white cravat . . ."
Subject: FW 100.31/32 & U 08.495
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 7/25/98 5:44 PM
Sharon Hale posted:
"Silvers from the sea are a type of salmon (Sam N.)?
There are a lot of fishy things about HCE"
\
[RivS]: " . . . pathetically few of his dode canal
sammenlivers cared seriously or for long to doubt
. . . " FW 100.31/32
\
But Sharon also pointed to another fishy character:
"Riverend=Sea
Sterling=a type of silver"
\
[RivS]: And so we must flounder upstream to Ulysses
08.495: "Provost's house. The reverend Dr Salmon:
tinned salmon. Well . . . " Curiouser and curiouser.
\
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: clueless in shemland 02
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/3/99 1:48 PM
Karl posted today:
Do you know the bit by Phillpe Solers which ends:
"This is why it (FW) is a matter of the most forceful act
ever accomplished against political paranoia and the
overhanging weight of its deadening discourse, outside of all
humor. Let me stress then that Finnegans Wake is the most
formidably anti-fascist book produced between the wars."
Right on. Joyce always emphasizes the awakened state.
>From his adaptation of the epiphany to the desire to
awake from history's nightmare to his final book's title,
we always see Joyce's call to awake. The jarring and
unnerving intellectual intrigue's running throughout FW
word meanings do not mesh with or enhance the trancelike
voice of the implied aural rhythms, so that the disharmony
is increased by the chanting musicality of the Wake, as
if the author had to shout his horrid doctoral level wordgames
over a crowd of drunken celebrants and singing mourners.
Everything in FW is thus the complete opposite and antidote
to the smooth encouraging patterns of the cults with their
mandatory special dialects of deception and disempowerment,
their intense inspiring speeches, their homey gift for lowkey
interpersonal banter, their instinct for balancing intimidation
with narcosis. Joyce challenges us to fight with him across
all time and space over every word he writes. There could
not be a writer or book more incorrect to refer to as cultistic
than James Joyce and Finnegans Wake.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Fw: Truth
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/5/99 4:52 PM
-----Original Message-----
From: Ross Chambers ...
To: J JOYCE LIST MAIL <j-joyce@lists.utah.edu>
Date: Wednesday, May 05, 1999 9:50 AM
Subject: Truth
Greg D. posted:
<<OED queen n., meaning 12. A male homosexual, esp.
the effeminate partner . . . Cf. quean 3 . . . earliest citation yet
found: 1924 Truth (Sydney) 27 Apr. >>
Ross after snipping:
"Truth was a newspaper . . . Cyril Pearl . . . followed the history of
its founder, Ezra Norton, in . . . "The Wild Men of Sydney." The
following is a snapshot of the newspaper in 1905. . . 'Hangmen I
Have Met' or 'Abortionists of Old'; or an illustrated guide to the
whores of Melbourne . . .: 'GOOD NIGHT DEARIE'
Salutations of the Sexual Sinner
Types of Trollops,
Trulls and Town Walkers
With Sketches of Well-known Street Strumpets' "
"They don't make them like that any more!
"Ross Chambers (who gained some of his sex education from Truth)."
Note that the parenthetical comment is from Ross himself. From RivS:
True, but as recently as 1967 the tradition was alive in southern Cali
when Westways, the house organ of the Auto Club, published an
illustrated (by a colorful two page hand drawn map) tour of all the
best bawdy houses of the capital of Mexico. In this multi-page and
lighthearted classic, the author, Robert Bryan, escorts his boss on uno
viaje muy autentico, a drunken Irish American response to the late mid
Sixties and generally gay fiesta permissible if stretching the envelope
by virtue of that it was in another country. Hard to think of an editor
at Westways magazine approving such a concept now, let alone
participating onsite! But it happened, moving west. Is Joyce responsible?
All too obviously. Robert Bryan followed in the tradition of Portrait of
the Artist and the Circe chapter in Ulysses. It was literature now,
Judge Woolsey said so in 1933, blah blah and suddenly you are being
goosed by invisible strangers in a pitch black hallway which opens
into a strobelit dance floor below hanging cages of dancing naked
vampires of all the sexes Durrell lists on the wrappers of the
quartet, I forget how many, and . . . never mind.
The date 1924 for the bold pioneering usage of "queen" in print
suggests the public scandals around those years carried in the
Sydney press about the Theosophical author, radio star, and
Bishop, Charles Webster Leadbeater, the discover and mentor
of the philosopher and orator Jiddu Krishnamurti, and the longtime
associate of Annie Besant, Besant herself the close cousin of
Katharine Kitty O'Shea, the poor lady unfairly, inaccurately, and
cruelly called the Great Whore of Ireland, a title the competition for
which . . . never mind.
Speaking of Parnell . . . speaking of Joyce . . . there seems a likely
reference to the visits by Jiddu Krishnamurti in his younger days to
Bishop C W Leadbeater's Sydney enclave in the Wake. Mr Joyce
would hardly wish to miss bringing in hot gossip from Shem Hell.
<<Our Chris-na-Murty! 'Tis well you'll be looked after from last to
first as yon beam of light we follow receding on your photophoric
pilgrimage to your antipodes in the past . . . .>> FW 472.15-18.
For a more attenuated tie-in:
<<Bisships, bevel to rock's rite! Sarver buoy, extinguish!
Nuotabene . . . something to right hume about. They were
erected . . . .>> FW 606.13-16.
<<. . . of one sum in the same person? He comes out of the soil
very well after all just where Old Toffler is to come shuffling
alongsoons Panniquanne starts showing of her peequuliar
talonts . . . .>> FW 606.28-30.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
<<. . . the whores winken him as they walk their side; on
Christienmas at Advent Lodge, New Yealand, after a lenty
illness the roeverand Mr Easterling of pentecostitis, no followers
by bequest, fanfare all private; Gone Where Glory Waits . . . .>>
FW 130.06-10. \\\///I
Subject: prankquean a mollycoddle? 021 & 269 FW; 12.505 (305:41-42) U
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/5/99 10:50 PM
For loodheramauns and warthogs: there always
someone to be ashamed of besides yourself.
<<And, be dermot, who come to the keep of his inn
only the niece-of-his-in-law, the prankquean. And the
prankquean pulled a rosy>> FW 021-12-13.
The genus of "sex scandals" runs along the specific of
the rape of the Abbess of Kildare ordered by Dermot
MacMurrough in 1132, and the usual vague intimations
of homoeroticism seems to appear with what also
seems the concomittant ambiquity. One interesting
piece of data which the current debate on such things
has brought to the foreplay, I mean foreskin, I mean
foreground is that while apparently "queen" only
recently came to be documented as a having a
homoerotic meaning, "quean" goes back to Elizabethan
times for "effeminate man" or "molly-coddle," a word
used for Leopold Bloom in Cyclops (first line
on p 306 in the 1961 edition of U). In the usual manner
of inconclusive tantalizing, the paragraph uses the
phrase "queer story" seven lines later.
Chivalrous Terence had posted today: "With all the
discussion on the FWake List about 1132 in FW I don't
remember any discussion about Joyce's use of Sec. 11
subsec. 32, the anti-homosexual law Sec. 11 with
Joyce's added subsec. 32, that brought poor Oscar down."
The discussion which forms a paragraph running on pp
268-270 in FW seems to refer to Mr Wilde's difficulties.
The paragraph is aptly labeled ". . . THE INFLUENCE OF
COLLECTIVE TRADITION UPON THE INDIVIDUAL,"
the very crux of Wilde, who pitted the Classical
traditions against the modern with himself as the
arbitraguer and rugged individual. Marginalia whip along
the teehee homoerotic theme with italicized references to
"my can," "fight the fairies," "erse," and "if you'll suck."
Foodnotes toss in "pink's cheek," "men's uration," and
"nuts."
<<It's a wild's kitten, my dear, who can tell a wilkling
from a warthog>> we learn on FW 269.11-12.
At line 18 of the same page we encounter the essential
gay couple of the gods, glib Ganymede and zealous
Zeus. At lines 21 and 22, we are informed that, no
matter what we may believe and hold dear to the
contrary, that << thou arr, I am a quean>> and must ask
<<Is a game over?>> to which the answer is no, <<The
game goes on>> and on and on like that damn pink bunny.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: prankquean a mollycoddle? 02
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/6/99 8:18 PM
Along Karl's points, with which I heartily concur,
there is this aspect to Joyce which I call the
naughty schoolboy humor, or the teehee factor.
Picasso said of himself that his genius was to
be able to still paint as a child after he had
entered adulthood, and do others seem to
discern any that in Mr Joyce?
The Wake especially lends itself to such
because of its style and format, which
allow for anything and tie it all together
with a constant reploughing in the
basic fields of linguistics. Thus I keep
feeling that the author has whipped
into a froth certain very silly conceptual
sorts of wordplays.
Mr Joyce, for an example, strikes the
pose of a Molière nouveau rich buffoon
and pretends that since he is a "man
of letters" that that means he must
devote convoluted diatribes of
psuedo scholarship to eternal
regurgitation of things about the
alphabet, the most literal interpretation
of literature meaning composed of
letters (litterae; alphabetic characters).
By the same token, Mr Joyce cannot
mention grammatic roots without making
a play upon "root" as "penis" anymore
than he can write "tongue" for "language"
without lifting the lace on the window
of oral sex practices.
I agree that is important to realize that
this works both ways. Mr Joyce is
interested in homoerotic nuances in
word usage because he is interested in
language as it really works, and because
homosexuality is common but not to be
spoken so that subtle imaginative half-
disguises of agreed upon and spontaneous
wordgames develop which are linguistically
interesting. At the same time, there is
a definite Beavis and Butthead side to
Mr Joyce, a tittering child elbowing his
mate in the next desk because Sister
Concepta referred to St Peter's as the
noblest of man's erections.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: antipodal bowdlers critiqued
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/7/99 5:22 AM
In response to Ross's alert (and after studying the
information on attempts in a similar vein in the USA
thanks to an article by Donald Theall), I used the
kind service of Senator Richard Alston to email him
the following today:
(to: http://www.richardalston.dcita.gov.au/contact.html )
"Dear Senator Richard Alston, and staff,
"A friend in Sydney, someone I trust, has sent me the following note
of concern: ". . . the Government has rapidly cobbled together a bill
which would empower the Australian Broadcasting Authority to require
ISPs to deny access to "offensive" sites."
"As a member of a nation which came close to, but escaped, such a
program of website content regulation, I feel compelled to advise
strongly against it. The goals are well-intentioned, but censorship does
not work, and in the process, seems almost always to turn into a nasty
affair run by very limited and unpleasant sorts of people who are
propelled by hidden agendas of their own.
"Censorship creates robots discouraged from developing decent
powers of discriminating and objective thought. Children who are
raised to be strong-minded, balanced in opinion, and who are able
to make judgements which are independent, informed, and fair --
these are society's treasure. Such children are usually some of the
first victims of a censorship-prone society.
"One concomittant of a free society is our right to be offended. It is a
bittersweet right at times, but one to be cherished . . . unless you are
ready to give up having a free society.
"Thank you for your time, and best wishes to you."
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: JJ's Utterings: (Novice from CANADA)
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/7/99 1:56 PM
Dear Cait R Coogan,
Good stuff -- thanky vous!
My judgement: there is nothing lifted from
the Wake in a manner which conflicts with
the law or good taste. Small fragments are
used for the overt purpose of citation, not
theft, and no long passages from the Wake
occur, just allusions in the classical tradition
of educated poetry. If you are concerned
not to offend the estate, I would address
the title, not the content. Other books do
have titles with Finnegans Wake within
them, but "Images from FW" courts a
misinterpretation. "Images Suggested by
FW" is more accurate, but perhaps not
poetic to your ear. Marshall McLuhan wrote
and published a book called Surfing in the
Wake. It shows what can be done to make
the title refer to FW with FW type wordplay.
I say "nihil obstat -- imprimatur! (there is no
objection -- let it be printed."
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: FW page 268/269
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/8/99 2:50 AM
Dear Elaine and list,
It's late and I am going to dodge out
of looking up the passage again by
not approaching things textually, but
just to agree with your general point.
Not only is this passage seemingly
mingling both hetero and homo
imagery, and each somewhat
inconclusively, and each merged with
nonsexual imagery, but I imagine that
is true throughout the book, though
someone I hope will disprove that,
but all in all, we do seem to be in a
dreamlike flow of layered images which
hook into each other like water molecules
sharing electrons so there is a huge sense
of flow but it is impossible to disentangle
specific particles -- thence the terms
of the kaleidescope family in the Wake:
colliderscape being one, there is at
least one other. It is as though the
dreamer is having sexual feelings during
sleep which are looking for a place to
land without much real effort or focus.
Sounds good, I think I'll try it here
pretty quick. Zzzzzzzzzzz . . . .
At his mealy-mouthed best,
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: A Sterling Hoax?
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/8/99 3:03 AM
Dear Bruce,
Thank you for the clarification/correction. I meant to
look the thing up on a book search but spaced it.
A clerk mentioned the book to me as by M Mcluhan
when I was trying to order Eric Mcluhan's book on
the Role of Thunder in FW. Glad to have it cleared
up.
Best wishes,
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: poets don't require money, infinite credit suffices-Baudelaire
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/8/99 4:09 AM
Collected Books: The Guide to Values. By A Ahearn
& P Ahearn. G. P. Putnam and Sons: NY, '91.
"Finnegans Wake. London, 1939. Buckram. [1] One of
425 on large paper, signed. In slipcase, $4500.
[2] London, 1939 , $1500. [3] New York, 1939, $500.
[RivS]: Notice that the above are 1991 prices. The
Ahearns have since published a NEWER edition of the
Guide to Values. Internet book searches such as
ABE or Bibliofind have made PRICE guides slightly
less important, as you can usually find a range of
actual for-sale-now prices, but the POINTS to look for
remain invaluable. Here are the general points by
which to identify a Faber and Faber (publisher of
the London edition of FW) first edition:
First Editions: Guide to Identification, 3rd edition.
Zempel & Verkler. Peoria, Illinois: Spoon River Press,
1984, '95. IF (newer editions only) the foot of the
title-page verso [opposite side of the leaf the title-page
is printed on] has a number removal list, it must begin
with "1." [In other words, many publishers have come
to start an edition with a number string running from
1-10 at the page's bottom on the back of the title-page
-- as each subsequent printing is run off, the printer will
remove a number, working from one to ten. If it is a
seventh printing, you will see "7 8 9 10" or sometimes
"10 9 8 7." Look in a few books printed in the last
twenty or so years, and you will find such a thing
within looking too hard, most likely. This should
not apply to most hardbound copies of the Wake,
maybe none? The following will:
The verso [back] of the title page should state
"First Published in 19-- by Faber and Faber Ltd."
BUT Faber and Faber does not usually mention
whether a previous American first edition exists.
[RivS: This can be a major factor in the game of
collector's values, particularly if the author is an
American.
[RivS: It is not considered as improper if
a bookdealer places a first edition out as such
and does not mention that the edition does not
"follow the flag," that is, is not the first edition
from the author's homeland. Or that it is a first
trade edition, and not an earlier run made for
collectors, as in the case with the Wake, which
had a limited run of signed large editions in a
slipcase. Joyce didn't publish in Ireland, so
England has for FW been granted the pole
position pricing. Hence the three prices above,
hence the immense value of the guides to the
basic "points" that collectors and dealers look
for in setting values. Is it a game? Bigtime, but
at least there are rules and guides. And the
occasional "yardsale" with the Poe holograph
lining the parakeet cage for 50 cents. Still it's
not time efficient, you have to be driven by
the imps of hobbydom or major grants, etc.
[I am trying to remember the preferred FW printing
of serious scholarly readers. Is it the seventh
which came out in 1958 (and all ones after)?
Anyway, the first edition, at least in the
States, came out with a little booklet laid
inside with a long list of author's corrections.
The second through the sixth(?) printings
incorporate those corrections as a long list in
the book's back pages, and thus constitute a
second edition. In 1958, a third edition came
out which incorporates the corrections into the
main body of text, and that is preferred by
READERS (not collectors) because few of us
will stop at each sentence in the Wake and
check a separate booklet or final signature
for errata. No edition, so far as I know (not
very) is considered authoritative, and people
like Bill Cadbury (if there are any like him),
or at least Bill, anyway, are still going over
the drafts and notebooks and such sources
comma by comma. At that level of examination,
some of the printed "corrections" are not even
internally coherent, let alone set in stone.]
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 013.17 They will be tuggling foriver.
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/8/99 10:41 PM
Dear Laurel,
Your letter has caused me to feel very concerned about
you. It is a frightening letter, filled with violent images,
and I cannot tell if you are writing about yourself or
another person . . . or both? At the same time in the
midst of your hectic outpouring, you ask some very
direct and important philosophical questions which
affect the lives and souls of all of us, questions we
should discuss when we are clear and calm, but don't.
I admire your ability to keep your eyes on these
higher issues when it is obvious you are in real pain
and fear, not "merely" discomfort and anxiety.
I feel feeble to address these questions, which I
certainly cannot answer anyway, in view of the
depth and seriousness of your tone. But such
considerations rarely keep the Riverend quiet,
though your post has come the closest to leaving
me aghast and agape since I entered the land of
Emailia. So I attempt to respond not because I
am likely to contribute much, but because you are
a sister on the path with us in this difficult time
and I just want to give it a try.
CAN A PERSON WHO SUFFERED ONE EXTREMELY
SERIOUS PSYCHOTIC EPISODE WHICH INVOLVED
MURDER, BE SAVED FROM SLIPPING AGAIN INTO
A POTENTIAL 2ND EPISODE?
Yes. Not only yes, but the horror of the first episode
should be the inspiration to avoid the second outbreak.
As tension builds, and the magnetism of destruction
and senseless violence steals through the soul and
body like a sleep with no solace, the urge to blow the
lid off the jar for release becomes more and more
seductive -- but the truth, and it is not a sad truth, is
that releasing tension through senseless violence and
destruction provides no more relief than when we
pee on ourselves in bed. To overextend the metaphor,
you, myself, anyone not catheterized, has got to awake,
get out of bed, and go to the bathroom. In terms of
reality, this may mean supervised medication for
therapy, talking with the right people, frisbee in the park,
or what I am currently using, which is Tai Chi. But it is
usually a given that if your current situation is dragging
you down, the antidote will be something new, a pattern
breaker. It must be something, or several things, that raise
the vibrations. My late aunt claimed that veritable
armies of demons flee from a room as soon as a bowl
of fresh fruit is put on display. Photographs of people
one respects can be of great help. For me, these are
good things, but only if I also spend several minutes
every few hours making up childishly obscene lyrics
about my neighbours, television personalities, and our
American political leaders. When circumstances permit,
I also make up dance steps while I sing the lyrics. It
makes me feel I am back riding around with my high
school friends, we always did that. We never heard of
Davy Crockett, but sang often of Davy Crock-of-Shit,
and so on. So I have DavEEEE etc and the beautiful
slow flow of Tai Chi postures, and it gets me back to a
peaceful mode. The fact that it would convince all the
sort of people I can't please that I am completely bonkers
reassures me that I remain on the right path, here at
the white house, and in charge. Therefore I have no
need for jerky acts of counterproductive psychodramatic
violence, or what Lao Tze called the bumbling acts of an
apprentice.
Next.
The slaying of an innocent animal in reaction to paranoia
is a very bad thing which must never be repeated period.
Again, the horror of the first episode must be viewed as
the voice of your guardian angel giving you the holy
keys to redemption. What is done is done. Free will
exists only to the extent we can become properly seated
in the present moment. To the extent we live in the past,
we have no free will. The future, on the other hand, is
so free we cannot touch it yet. But each second without
exception that we experience the present we must
dedicate to the salvation of all. Learn it again, start with
yourself, let it grow slowly. I have on occasions turned
to, and often received help from, really rather
frightening people, because I know that in that
present moment, they have the same freedom to be
kind as anyone else, and perhaps more inspiration.
As to the third question, can clarity be achieved and
used as a means of self-control, if a person is
going through replays of previous breakdowns while
experiencing a severe hormonal imbalance? As you
know, you have put your finger on the center of a
great huge beast. We all are born into the bodies
of jungle apes. Society immediately sets out to
tame our spirit, in the process of which that spirit
is often broken by other bumbling apprentices and
then we turn upon ourselves. "I don't negotiate with
terrorists" does not generally go well when the
terrorist is your internal ape in a childhood rage
at the betrayal of its instincts for a direct and
physical way of life. We have to negotiate with
our inner apes and demons, because they are
in fact us. Everything in the world is unto itself
the softest tenderest most vulnerable thing
in existence. When the inner conflicts in the
mental and emotional arenas play out as
chemical imbalances in the bloodstream and
endocrine system, the first stage of negotiation
may be chemical correction through medication.
In order for medication to feel right, and not like
an invasion from alien shores, the resultant and
initial relief must be used to incorporate other
positive life changes, from my aunt's fruit bowl
to a daily walk to solving the conundrum of
who was the "WH" of Shakespeare's Sonnets
to dancing the Davy Crock-of-Shit song -- my
things, as you see, are not very people oriented,
but that's me. I try to make up for that antisocial
side of my ape with Red Cross work and telling
cornball jokes to the cashiers at supermarkets.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO EXERCISE FREE WILL &
REFUSE TO ACT CRAZY THOTS OUT?
Intentionality is very central. The mind is a
conversation between a considerable number of
voices to one listener. The listener has a voice
as well, but it is a subtle voice because it begins
in the womb without words. You have to peacefully
but firmly begin to let the other voices know what
you wish and expect, and when you want a little
quiet. A voice in the head has no more power than
your spirit gives it. The spirit is strong, it is a fire,
it is wild, it does not desire to be understood or
to understand, it is what it is, and that is why
we called a proud and fiery horse spirited. The soul
is different, it is always trying to understand and be
understood. When the spirit and soul work in harmony
to administer the heart, and the mind, and the body,
the possiblility opens immediately for things to improve.
Even in the worst of earthly hells, places designed to
disempower whoever can be trapped in them, places
like a concentration camp or military press conference,
anyone working with soul and spirit is that far ahead
of the game. As Dylan Thomas wrote, "I sang in my
chains in the sea."
It is not by our chains that we are judged, but by our
songs. (Excluding, of course, I hope, the Davy
Crock-of-Shit song.)
"Above the stupid orgies' detritus and smoke in the
holy hush of dawn the holy self revives," something like
that. From Baudelaire.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE STRONG ENOUGH WITH
GOD'S HELP TO SAVE YOURSELF . . .?
Sort of. You must join into the effort wholeheartedly
yourself, because God needs our help and
guidance and love just as we need God's. Think
of the petty asininity and profound awfulness
God gets exposed to every day. Look at the
mistakes God makes century after century. We
are all children, we are all in this together. Prayer
is very helpful, don't get me wrong. But it's a
two-way street. Our angels and demons come
to us for guidance and strength, they can't
fathom that we are just as wierd and mixed-up
as they. What they can do for us in return is
absolutely amazing at times, but you can't
depend on it. Again, its all a conversation at
Finnegans Wake.
When falling asleep in a state of anxiety, one
again should reassure the mind that things
are on a positive road, because the mind is
a terrible worry-wart. It is designed to solve
problems, and will create them if it is too
hyped-up. One technique I use is to recall
very scary times in my past when I prayed
to escape . . . in my case, I usually remember
a flood I was trapped in for days in rugged
inaccessible mountains in the winter, and how
all I wanted day after night was simply a dry
warm bed, and I say, damn if I didn't pull it off!
I survived the flood, and am in the warm dry
bed, and here I must not worry about some
stupid city games based on inflated ideas of
my starring role in the daily comico-pathetical
tragedy. Dav-eeee, Davee, etc.
Did Joyce roll around in the free will problem?
I think so, and I think you have identified both
of the great questions of 20th c philosophy:
1) Why do I feel this personalized inchoate
sense of alienation beyond reason? and
2) What is the point of having limited free
will, it's a contradiction in terms, but the
undeniable reality of existence?
These are not questions designed to have
answers, they are the emotions of brains
which are too big to be satisfied with a
dog eat dog system of jungle jingoism.
These foriver tuggles are peeling the eggshell, and
herald the constant attempts toward the revival
of the holy self. It is the marvelous nature of the
soul to be reborn. It hurts like hell, it hurts real
good, it is tingle on the sky scale. The absolutely
worst possible reaction is destructive violence,
like a struggling swimmer striking against a
rescuer. Gently, gently, the universal mother is
saying to us. You cannot storm the gates of
heaven. You have to be tough to be alive, you
have to be tough to be dead. One thing we know,
we have a whole lot more time to get to be dead
than to be alive, so we have to use these eyes
to see all the beauty we can. One thing I think
I've discerned from Joyce and my grandma,
working on me as they do together, is without
we the living, we the dead would have no eyes
at all; and without we the dead, we the living
would be without our souls. It seems like an
imperfect system, but it may well be a work
in progress. Whatever it may be, we are all in
it together. Yes, all of us -- everyone.
Keep the faith, Laurel. The world needs Joyceans!
The world needs you, or it wouldn't have bothered
with you to begin with. Nor a blade of grass,
or a star. Is there a great cosmic plan then? I
don't think so. Just something out there in here that
loves creating things.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 375.08 & 17-18.
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/10/99 4:28 PM
The issue initiated by Susan is a crucial one
to our times, especially for anyone involved
in crisis reponse on any level -- how to balance
privacy issues with a free atmosphere of
discussion. We are, after all, being labeled
as The Information Age, and that cannot be
all good. I, for one, am really tired of hearing
politicians talk about "family values." My family
is none of the government's business, but then
again, I grew up in farm country, and my
attitude is no longer realistic. Anyway. This is
yet another deep subject we must thank Laurel
for introducing, and there is no ideal solution.
All in all, I am afraid we must get used to living
in a constant ambience of crisis intervention as
a modern way of life. If you don't reach out, they
come for you. The whole planet seems to be
bleeding and on fire, although the "deep down
freshness inside of things" cited by Manley
Hopkins is right there too, and the Holy Spirit yet
hovers over all with spread wings. It's really a
hell of a deal.
And Mr Joyce, our topic around which we've come
together? Himself appears to have been a fairly
staid homebody at heart, a highly disciplined sort
who never allowed his wild ape to interfere with his
career goals (but I read a post last year to the
effect that the Jolas's and Gorman, perhaps others,
contriubuted actively to gild the "not a Bohemian or
dancing drunkard" image of Mr Joyce. Anyhow, we
know he was at best a calm eye in a storm. Not only
was his daughter Lucia the sad victim of mental
illness of a debilitating intensity, but so also was
Joyce's poor daughter-in-law, Helen Fleischman
Joyce. The sister which Joyce seemed closest with,
Eileen Joyce Shaurek, suffered the suicide of her
husband, Frantisek, and Mr Joyce helped Samuel
Beckett recover from a serious stabbing inflicted by
a disturbed man on the sidewalks of Paris. In the
end, it was the most dominant and invasive explosion
of mass mental disease in our century, the "Nazi priers"
who seemed to have killed Mr Joyce by causing
his intestines to writhe in nervous exhaustion due to the
year he attempted to prevent his son, Giorgio, from
falling into Nazi clutches -- having to escape to the
sanctuary of Switzerland saved Giorgio, but cut the
Joyce's off from their Lucia who had to remain
institutionalized in France (and the capture of
Paul Leon by the Nazis, a capture which partially
derived from Leon's heroic and successful attempts
to retrieve and see to the safekeeping of Joycean
documents left in Paris, eventually resulted in Leon's
death under Nazi detainment -- Joyce died fighting his
personal war against mass insanity. And like Paul Leon,
Mr Joyce won his goal of preserving what he loved, but
died on the field in so doing).
En otras palabras, we are with you in Tokyo, Laurel.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls indeed. Much of history
really is a nightmare seen through a glass darkly. Is
there hope? We'll just have to wake and see.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 146.20: married to reading
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/13/99 4:53 PM
My mail is working at last. Cait's story of
two men by the hospital window is quite
a beautiful one. You may have heard a
story that in both heaven and hell people
are seated at a grand feast table, but with
collars around their necks too wide for
them to reach around, and so cannot feed
themselves. In Hell, the people scream,
complain, and curse everything for ever.
In Heaven, the people simply resort to
feeding one another. Before I learned to
read, I used to "read" to other children by
opening a book, and then making up
stories which I claimed I was reading from
the book. That is how bleezing impossible
it is to shut me up!
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 556.19 child of tree
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/13/99 8:17 PM
Dear Mr Spicer, et al.,
<Coded languages, funny tales, the neccesity of
human interaction concerning the work and perhaps
most importantly the transcendental quality of
the words.>
A marvelous description of Finnegans Wake! Your
reference to the fact that it takes a (global) village
working together to read the book correctly I found
very thought provoking. There is reference to
Scheherazade, the woman who spins the 1001 tales
of the Arabian Nights, in FW, and the number 1001 is
one of several numbers which Mr Joyce constantly
weaves throughout the work.
051.04-05: <scherzarade of one's thousand one
nightiness>.
In Hebrew transliterated into Anglo-Roman script,
the words for "thousand" and for "one" are both
written as "ALP," the initials of wakean heroine
Anna Livia Plurabelle. In speaking Hebrew, the
two meanings for ALP are distinguished by two
different pronunciations. ALP+ALP thus = 1001
('elef + 'alef).
Near the quasi end of FW, there is wordplay upon
the Arabic (South Semitic) pronunciation of ALP,
which is "alif," pornounced as "all leaf." At 619.16
is this paragraph: <Alma Luvia, Pollabella.> Several
lines below we find "Only a leaf, just a leaf . . ."
(619.22) which gives us the number 1001 by this
route: ". . . a leaf . . . a leaf . . ." pronounced
"alif alif" which again in Semitic languages is
spelled ALP ALP which means, among other
things, 1001. This sheds a little light on the leafy
imagery associated with "Alp, mother of Shem,"
(page 420), which grows thickly toward the book's
final leaves. Semitic languages, like Greek, use the
same words for numbers and letters, so ALP is not
only "one" but the first letter of the alphabet, so
"Alp, mother of Shem" also means "Alif, mother of
the Semitic alphabet," and in the Qabala, ALP is
indeed one of three alphabetic characters referred
to as "mother." ALP is considered as having given
birth to the other two letters accorded the honor of
being referred to as mothers in the alphabet. Those
other two letters are Shin and Maym which in Hebrew
spell "Shem." And on we go and on we go.
Arabian stories have cameo appearances in other
Joycean works. One of the stories in Dubliners, Araby,
is about a boy's harsh awakening to reality from the land
of fairy tale romance. Sinbad the Sailor, as an Arabian
counterpart of Ulysses, gets sent up in the novel of that
name as Darkinbad the Brightdayler, etc.
Perhaps most significantly, or maybe with no significance
at all (the usual Wakean problem), the first thunderword
(page 003) begins with the name of a most prominent
character in the Arabian Nights, (Ali) Baba, and the number
of letters in all ten thunderwords combined is 1001.
Best wishes,
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: virus alert 1999 May 14 fwake-l
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/14/99 6:27 AM
This is a virus alert.
The alert involves a virus in a listmember's
computer. It is not in my computer, which
never became and has never been infected.
I don't know how serious a virus it is.
I detected and deleted the virus on 14 May,
and ran a deep scan using definitions from
10 May (it was caught with definitions from
around 25 April) and all my computer files are
uninfected. The virus was in an attachment
mailed to me by Cait Coogan which was
to open in Word. Poor Cait had mentioned in
a post about having mail problems, but I don't
know if there is a relation to the virus. Until
Cait can delete the virus or mail from another
and virus-free computer, do not open any
attachments from Cait Coogan or any from
the address <crcoog [at] pop.intergate.bc.ca>.
Everyone seems agreed that viruses cannot
infect regular email, but can infect attachments
which arrive by email. Therefore there should
be no worry about opening and reading any
basic posts from Cait, just immediately delete
any attachments or at least scan them in a 'Net
updated virus detection/deletion application. It
is given out that some/many viruses do not really
do much, while of course many are damaging, so
Cait can have the virus and not know it. If you
have opened attachments recently, you might
want to do a virus scan with your appropriate
software.
I detected the virus when I saved the attachment
to a floppy disk. At no time did I open the file.
I deleted the file from my mail account and from
the diskette. According to my log, the file had
been infected with the <097M.Tristate.C virus>.
Does anyone know anything about it?
Sorry to be an alarmist. Never a dull moment.
Best wishes to all, and sorry to be the one to
break the news to you Cait,
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: who knows what evil lurks in the heart of the gnarlybird
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/14/99 7:55 PM
Several questions involving the Joycean oeuvre
reincarnating in the genres of mystery appeared
in the 1998 "No Cheating Before Go" quizes on
the jjoyce list (U Utah). Will try to forward some
of the relevant posts, so delete the forwards toot
suite if you are not into this thread.
Fwake-l listers should consider subscribing to
jjoyce (and to fwread) so that proper threads
go to proper lists -- so,
THE THREE JOYCE LISTS AS I UNDERSTAND THEM:
1. FWAKE-L is for the discussion of any topics about
Finnegans Wake: To subscribe: send a message with the
text "subscribe FWAKE-L [your name]" to
<listserv@irlearn.ucd.ie>.
2. FWREAD focuses on one sequential page of FW each
week: To subscribe: send a message with the text "subscribe
FWREAD [your name]" to <listproc@lists.colorado.edu>.
(Currently on page 139).
3. J-JOYCE is all things Joycean, with a reputation for things
Ulyssean, but anything to do with Mr Joyce and his oeuvre is
fair game. This is perhaps the most professionally-oriented, and
at times contentious, of the three lists. To subscribe: send a
message to <j-joyce-request@lists.utah.edu> with the word
"SUBSCRIBE" in the body of the message.
For more information on these lists, visit the James Joyce Resource
Center at:
http://english.ohio-state.edu/organizations/ijjf/jrc/caught.htm
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Fw: Joyce mysteries
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/14/99 7:57 PM
-----Original Message-----
From: Brandon Kershner ...
To: j-joyce@lists.utah.edu <j-joyce@lists.utah.edu>
Date: Friday, February 20, 1998 8:48 PM
Subject: Joyce mysteries
Amanda Cross, author of The James Joyce Murder, is a pseudonym for the
feminist critic Carolyn Heilbrun, who contributed a dubious Afterword to a
book called Women in Joyce, edited by Elaine Unkeless and Suzette Henke.
The Death of a Joyce Scholar, the book Greg referred to, is by Bartholomew
Gill, and has a substantial Beckettian element as well. I believe Gill was
American-born but educated at UCD.
Brandon Kershner
Subject: Fw: NO CHEATING BEFORE "GO!"
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/14/99 8:00 PM
-----Original Message-----
From: Gregory {Greg} Downing ...
To: j-joyce@lists.utah.edu <j-joyce@lists.utah.edu>
Date: Friday, February 20, 1998 7:27 PM
Subject: Re: NO CHEATING BEFORE "GO!"
The James Joyce Murder, 1967. There are fifteen chapters, not in the same
order as the Dubliners stories. Thus, 1. is The Boarding House, 6. is The
Dead, 11. is The Sisters, 15. is A Painful Case. There is also a one-page
prologue and a half-page epilogue.
Greg Downing/NYU, at ... or ...
Subject: Fw: NO CHEATING BEFORE
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/14/99 8:15 PM
> HINT: the mystery novel Finnegan's Week is linked
> by title to the Wake, and not by plot.
The author is Joseph Wambaugh,
1993. Finbar Finnegan is a San
Diego police detective. The story
involves the toxic waste disposal
industry in Tijuana. It's OK to not
read it and say we did. Thanks for
your response Karen. RSt.
> (RSt: The Death of a Joyce Scholar has the conceit that a
> Dublin police detective must acquire a basic knowledge of
> Ulysses quickly in order to "crack" a murder during a
> Joycean convention held in Dublin on Bloomsday).
-----Original Message-----
From: Riverend Sterling
To: Karen Eblen ...
Date: Saturday, February 21, 1998 2:13 PM
Subject: NO CHEATING BEFORE "GO!"
Subject: Fw: no cheating 02 update 02
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/14/99 8:25 PM
> c. In a very famous movie a very famous song is sung in a cafe under
> emotional and dangerous circumstances. Name the song, and cite where and
> when Joyce had already sang it under similar circumstances.
Kelly Anspaugh answered:
In "Casablanca," the "Marseillaise," sung in response to a gang of Nazis
singing. Joyce in Paris cafe prior to German occupation?
<<RSt: You know the scene, Rick's Café Americain . . . Major Strasser is a
special guest at the café that night. Dooley Wilson is taking five for old
times sake while the major's table takes over the piano. The countersinging
of the French anthem is lead of course by Victor Laszlo. And in 1939,
several years before the movie, we read in R. E. Ellmann, '59/'82/'83 (pp.
727 & 8): "During these shattering days, when La Baule was filling up, as
during the first World War, with refugees, Joyce renewed his friendship with
Dr. Daniel O'Brien, who was stopping there for a time too. O'Brien, having
been trained in psychiatry, gave Joyce what help he could with Lucia, but
mostly he companioned him in his misery. One night they went together to a
large restaurant with dancing at La Baule. It was close to where the French
and British soldiers were encamped, and two or three hundred of them having
crowded into the place, they began to sing the 'Marseillaise.' Joyce joined
in the singing, and gradually his voice caught the soldiers' attention.
They turned and stared at him, and then a group hoisted him onto a table so
he might sing it all over again. As O'Brien recalled later, 'You never saw
such an exhibition of one man dominating and thrilling a whole audience. He
stood there and sang the "Marseillaise" and they sang it again afterwards
with him and if a whole German regiment had attacked at that moment, they
would never have got through. That was the feeling. Oh, Joyce and his
voice dominated them all!'">>
g. Post-graduate work: in what Raymond Chandler novel is Joyce mentioned,
and how? [RivS to fwake-l listers on 1999 May 14: jjoycers were never able
to answer this one, and it is open to this day. If you want to one-up them,
go ahead. What's stopping you? Losing your touch, or maybe you're just plain
yellow? Go ahead -- reach for your mouse. Well, do you feel lucky?]
-----Original Message-----
From: Riverend Sterling
To: jjoyce <j-joyce@lists.utah.edu>
Date: Saturday, March 14, 1998 4:01 AM
Subject: no cheating 02 update 02
Subject: FW for Dummies/Idiots Guide to FW & Ulysses
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/17/99 7:31 PM
Last night on "60 Minutes" actor Sean Connery
seemed to identify Ulysses and Finnegans Wake
as the most valuable keys to his becoming a
successful actor, and as well to elevate the
two books to be highpoints of literate culture.
When asked by the interviewer how Connery had
been able to evolve from part-time model and
hod-carrier to being one of history's most
successful actors, Connery explained that after
receiving his first role, in the chorus of South
Pacific (a Brit production), he asked a friend how
to improve himself in preparation for becoming a
viable professional actor, and was told to learn to
speak more properly, and to expand his horizon
through reading. Over the next year, Connery said,
he read ". . . all of Shaw . . . and those two
Buttes, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake." The
actor went on to state that what he learned in
going to the dictionary was itself a magnificent
doorway to knowledge, and he next revealed
himself to the interviewer as a true and typical
member of the Joycean community by stating that
the parts he did not understand did not discourage
him when he read Mr Joyce's work. We have
been there, and happily remain there!
Were I interested in publishing a popular guide to
Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, something which
could have the freedom and humour not appropriate
to the academic presses without being hostile in
the slightest to accuracy, now is definitely the time.
I would strongly suggest sending out feelers to Mr
Connery very quickly for the solicitation of a preface
by this wonderful Celtic star of the silver screen.
What could possibly please more our Mr Joyce, the
founder of Dublin's first cinema theatre?
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: FW for Dummies/Idiots Guide to FW
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/17/99 7:38 PM
Dear Tim,
You posted,
'I've got the original underground comic
version of "Prisoner of Hell Planet".'
Is this the work which has a line to the
effect that "every second that time passes,
my teeth get worse?"
I frequently cite this long lost comic to
people after listening to their litany of
complaints and ingenuous amazement of
our times being so out of joint, saying
"Welcome to the Hell Planet."
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Connery's Carricagurra Canteen
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/18/99 5:54 PM
Sean Connery's name was introduced by myself as
a possibly good choice for someone to preface a
popular and accessible approach to the Wake for
the general reading public. Mr Connery was not
chosen because he is a political leader, but because
he is popular and very-well-known by most people on
earth, but has a true interest and respect for Mr Joyce's
works. To require someone who fits this bill to also
provide us with other leadership qualities may be asking
too much. The function of a lens is to allow light to go
from point A to point B, in Mr Connery's case, from a
vast public mythos in which James Bond is a ruling
deity to a tiny but entrenched mythos in which wordgames
about a woman named for a Celtic river goddess whose
initials spell the name of the original alphabetic character
in the northwestern proto-Sinaitic alphabet are discussed
with passionate scholasticism -- to ask Mr Connery to also
empty and clean out the garbage pail of history's nightmare
for us as long as he is in the vicinity is to push in an infinity
of criteria from a third wing of the party which will then open
the door for the fourth through millionth other good causes
crying at the door -- and not one of us will then be found fit
to do one damn thing, because we all are sinners, everyone
of us. Were Mr Connery to abuse his so far fictive preface
of a popular Wakean guide to promote a personal agenda
of offensive political beliefs, that would be another matter,
but should Mr Connery actually deign to lend his name and
thoughts to such a project, he should be initially offered a
fresh palimpsest in our minds that he may do his best to
give a decent account of himself. Redemption is always a
breath away, or least the freedom to move in that direction
is ever-present.
Is Mr Connery "anti-feminist" by the way or is he in
disagreement with some militant planks of the feminist
agenda? To denigrate a person for having strong views
about politics is unpleasant. To disagree with prevalent
opinions lumped together as "feminism" is a perfectly
legitimate right of any citizen of a free country, and not
the same as attacking the totality of specific individuals.
The line to me is drawn between MY discomfort with
another person's way and beliefs versus actively working
to make life uncomfortable for a person who disagrees
with me. It is a line people of passion cross at times, but
the distinction should never be lost or thought to be minor.
None of this means that Mr Connery's alleged anti-feminist
views should not have been brought forward. Again, the
goal is to be awake when decisions are being contemplated.
Does it preclude his thoughts being received with an open
mind. No, and nobody has said so, so what in the hell am
I writing this for -- well, it's in the air everywhere, but most
people are hesitant to discuss the thing, so I did. That has
always been a big problem in my life, the major effort to
insert the loafer into the oral cavity.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: nothing you can do that can't be done
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/18/99 7:02 PM
Allah is great because
Allah is merciful.
Mary's power is not from
the moon, but over the moon.
Her power is derived from the
goodwill of each heart which
gives way to its kindest impulses.
If the night were a slate, then the
moon would be chalk. Each dawn
the spirit associated with Maryam
of Nazareth erases the sky and
one more freshness is given in hopes
we may yet awake from the nightmare
of history.
There is nothing easier to find on earth
than powerful logical reasons to justify
any form and direction for hatreds. To
continue to adopt the absurd stance of
goodwill toward all when you live on the
Hell Planet is called the contradiction of
harmony, and it leads toward the mastery
of the individual over fate which is at the
heart of both existentialism and liberation
theology.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 051.04-05: scherzarade of one's thousand one nightiness
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/19/99 6:52 PM
On the 13th instant, Mr Spicer opened a thread
on the influence of Arabic and Persian themata
in the Wake, with a particular interest in Sufism,
and a more peripheral enquiry re/ 1001 Nights.
The latest issue (a double issue) of James Joyce
Quarterly, "ReOrienting Joyce" (guest editing by
Kershner & Shloss), features a number of articles
focused on the East in Mr Joyce's work, and
primarily the Near East. The cover has an especially
attractive display of Kufic Arabic calligraphy from the
12th c (1132! 1132!) in the service of the Koran's
sixth Sura.
Articles from the this issue (35;2-3 Winter/Spring '98)
which bring up, along with other things, 1001 Nights
include:
"All in a Night's Entertainment: The Codology of
Haroun al Raschid, the Thousand and One Nights,
Bloomusalem/Baghdad, the Uncreated Conscience
of the Irish Race, and Joycean Self-Reflexivity" by
Zack Bowen
and,
" 'In the Name of Annah': Islam and Salam in Joyce's
Finnegans Wake by Aida Yared.
Articles which comment on 1001 Nights with neither that
work nor Finnegans Wake as the primary subject material
include ones by R. Brandon Kershner (on Ulysses & Orient),
Heyward Ehrlich (on Araby), Carol Loeb Shloss (on the
harem), and Abdellah Bouazza (on Ulysses & Tigris).
I will not attempt any redactive abstraction to summarize the
content or theses of the above articles, since they of a type
to be read in entirety. One can certainly say in regard to the
articles as a body that Mr Spicer appears to have been on
to something.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: nothing you can say that can't be sung
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/19/99 7:00 PM
Dear Elaine,
my pleasure, and much grace to you --
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Idiots' Guide to The Idiot?
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/20/99 8:52 PM
Best approach, and most collectible version
in wraps, of Crime and Punishment has got
to be the Classics Illustrated.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: now I've said my abc's
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/21/99 1:39 AM
> It was the Jews who invented alphabetical writing, Shlain
> assures us (here flying in the face of scholarship).
Current and conventional wisdom seems to indicate that
the alphabet, defined as the system of a small batch of
phonograms named for its first two characters, 'alef and
beth, has origins in the north-western area of Semitic
nations extant in the fourth millenium back from ourselves.
Who specifically devised the alphabet, and it shows signs
of concious design more than a blind evolution although it
draws from various pre-existant writing systems for some
of its symbols, the origins and originator are a deep
mystery. The first alphabetic inscriptions are graven in
Sinaitic mines and on cups and sword-hilts found in the hills
above the Jordan's west banks. This would seem to
indicate a movement toward literacy by soldiers, slaves,
prisoners, and bandits, or at least by their associates.
The alphabet seems to have been a rebellious reaction
to the elitist guilds of the highly trained scribes who used
very complex and difficult systems of writing which were
unavailable to the rest of society. There was good reason
for the originator(s) of the alphabet to remain anonymous.
Thus we simply do not know who created the alphabet,
and the Sinaitic mines and hill country west of the Jordan
and east of the sea were areas you were likely to run
into all the worst sorts from the Levantine, Pontian, Two
Rivers, and Mediterranean communities. The mines were
likely to be Egyptian owned and managed, but the mine
workers were of all nationalities, including Semites and
Hittites, the former group including proto-Jews along
with Canaanites and Moabites and others, while the
Hittitic people in the Levant were Indo-Europeans who
wrote with a Semitic script! It was exactly this mishmash
of all of our greatgrandparents which both demanded a
simplified universal writing system, and which made it
possible by a universal selection of speakers onsite.
So to say that the alphabet is the invention of anyone
or any society is inaccurate. The closest truth to
claiming, for better or worse, that the alphabet is the
invention of the Jews is that the Jews are a Semitic
people, and that the alphabet first appeared in the
north-western territory of the Semites as they existed
around 3500 years ago. That alphabet was soon
adopted and spread by Semitic peoples, but it is not
the Jews who are identified with the diaspora of the
proto-Sinatic alphabet, but that is rather credited to
the Canaanites and the Phoenicians. If one is tempted
to say, well that's the same as the Jews, then one
should reread some of the more unpleasant parts of
the Bible. Although the Jews are said to have coexisted
in a more friendly and civilized manner with the
Canaanites than the Hebrew Canon lets on, it is obvious
that the Jews do not aspire to be known as Canaanites
any more than the Semitic peoples called Arabs can
be accurately referred to as "well, the same as the Jews";
or Celts called, "well, the same as the Anglo-Saxons."
The ultimate truth is that almost every "truth" about races
is at least half fantastic distortion at best, and we all have
a commoner mother whether we want to run right out and
embrace all our long lost siblings or not.
On one level or the other, all rivers run past Eve and Adam's.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: a wake and its dreamer
From: Riverend Sterling
Date: 5/21/99 5:57 PM
Terence's recent and fascinating post on the
role of schizophrenia in Mr Joyce's life, both
personal (family) and public (art) asked the
question as to, since the interfaces and lap-
overs between avant-garde art and mental
disorder seem patent, what if any are the
subjective biochemical differences between
the states of mind that we find to be neatly
summed in the little Wildesque dichotomy
Jung coined about Mr Joyce and Lucia Joyce.
(And on which Dr Jung might better have said
nothing, since he had reviewed Miss Joyce's
case clinically, and she should have had some
right to privacy granted as a result).
So speaking more generally, I believe one major
biochemical difference can be seen. When we
dream, the body's ability to act out the dream
by physical movements is usually severely and
blessedly curtailed through the disconnection of
the motor impulses from the dreamer's mind. I
may dream I am running, but very seldom will
that be obvious to an observer of my sleeping
body. Occasionally people will jerk about a bit,
and in unusual cases, people will sleepwalk, but
these are various levels of dysfunctionalism which
may indeed indicate significant mental disturbance
lurking in the wings. What occurs in the wholesome
sleep is a chemical dislocation which removes any
orders a mind delivers to the physical nervous system
by a short-circuiting of the synaptical chain. Incoming
sensory data is not part of this chain, and hearing
remains keen enough to influence dream content,
since we cannot "shut" our ears as we do with our
eyes.
Several exotic mental states lie between sleep and
awakeness. One is hallucinatory, in which dream-
like fragments invade reality as black clouds of
night-time sparkling with stars might cross a sunny blue
sky. The problem is that the perceiver is awake, and
therefore has motor control to react to something
which in effect is not there. If the perceiver is cool,
other forces of conciousness will over-ride the desire
to react physically to the hallucination in inappropriate
or even dangerous ways. If not . . . no need to tell you
more -- the world today is redolent with people over-
reacting to things which do not exist anyway.
In a fourth state, "lucid dreaming," the perceiver also
experiences the free association of vivid storylike
imagery proper to dreaming, but either by accident or
will, the perceiver becomes or remains somewhat
awake, and concious that a dream is occuring. The
dream is thus experienced both objectively and
subjectively at the same time. This is not the same
as the common activities of the imagination, and
lucid dreaming has the distinction of being more
movie-like as time unfolds, and the perceiver is apt
to go in and out of remembering that a dream is
taking place.
Lucid dreaming may be further divided along the lines
of whether the lucid dreamer has simultaneous motor
control. It gets complex, these are not rigidly defined
states, almost by definition of what a dream is, and
I suspect these states are better understood by
earlier systems of metaphysical technology than by
by modern mainstream psychology, which is prevented
from grabbing the bull's horns by insisiting on the
"scientific" approach. Since we speak of subtleties of
interplay between subjective and objective states in
one timeframe of experience, anyone who starts from
the premise of "objective good/subjective bad" as the
criteria for data collection, is doomed to at least
partial failure. But it will of necessity provide the
focus for the science of the future.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: the joker laughs
From: the recent past
Date: 1/15/00 3:27 AM
Dear Eric,
Maybe the fact that we are racking our brains trying
to read a book which, at a glance, almost anyone
will inform us has surely the most awfully written text in
publishing history (yes, Finnigan's Wake), should tell
us something!
Best wishes,
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: this, that, and, oh bother, what, yes, the other thing
From: the recent past
Date: 1/15/00 5:24 AM
RE/the opinion that the 2nd, ie verse, section of Pale
Fire is intended to be poor writing:
"Shade's poem seems to be a fairly straightforward bit of
personal reminiscence, as unmarked by worldly concerns
as it is by any hint of literary talent."
the above opinion by MM Keep and McLaughlin From:
http://web.uvic.ca/~ckeep/hfl0244.html
Their article begins:
"Vladimir Nabokov's 1962 novel, Pale Fire, is widely considered
a forerunner of postmodernism and a prime example of the
literature of exhaustion."
Which comfortable road of cyclic reappearance brings us to
Kiran's comment on Beowulf -- I didn't find it quite as awful as
most do, although it smelled slightly of fish oil. Since it is valued
most especially as an example of early Old English literature, I
think it helps to secure a facing text in both Modern and Old
English, and try to learn the basics of OE pronunciation, and
read some of Beowulf aloud in OE. Furthermore, there is a
fringe benefit. Just as reading Chaucer makes Shakespeare easy,
so does reading Beowulf (in OE) make reading Chaucer easy.
To make reading Beowulf easy, you can prep yourself with
a) explanations of proposed hierarchical flowcharts by the
American Red Cross; b) speeches by political leaders which
begin "let me make one thing perfectly clear"; c) hiway information
signs in Flagstaff, Arizona (try to pick a night when it is snowing).
As to Tristram Shandy, my only advice is to make sure you are
getting an edition which retains the original page of wallpaper, or
whatever it is. It is a most easygoing page, and it is meant to
be there by the author, I would think.
Can anyone recall the 18th c eccentric English author who published
a book with no punctuation, and then published a second volume with
ONLY the punctuation?
I think this all has pretty clearly to do with Finnegans Wake, the
Mendippean thing (see Eric McLuhan's book on Wakean thunder),
etc. Now to strap up my hobbyhorse, and AWAAAYYYY . . . .
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
an
Subject: AD 1132 Jan 31 old year's eve, freebutter year of Notre Dame, the year of buy in disgrace 02
From: the recent past
Date: 1/15/00 6:04 AM
Here is my latest revised form of the Brigidine hypothesis
as first posted to this list about two and a half years ago.
I have much more data collected, but not yet incorporated
into this article. It is all corroborative. Especially essential,
and quite difficult initially for a y2k mindset, is the need to
grasp Medieval time, and then to further grasp Mr Joyce's
adaptation of it for his own artistic usage. Central to this,
and something I am gathering more and more sources which
are reinforcing, is that time has become less fluid in our time.
It has to be understood, as it was by Mr Joyce, that St
Brighid's Day began in observance traditionally on the evening
of January 31, and extendend, depending on where one was
within the British Isles, to the evening of February 02. This
48 hour "day" thus extends from the "last of the first" theme
in Finnegans Wake (last day of first month, Jan 31) to
encompass Mr Joyce's birthday, and favoured publication day,
Feb 02. In hardcore lunar time cultures, the event's timing
would most likely have been even more flexible, as it was
set from glen to glen, so to speak, and various communities
had the option to time it with particular lunar phases, the
new or full moon to be specific, something which would
change from year to year. This remains the situation with
Easter in our own day, which in Catholic liturgical time, must
follow the first full moon of spring (as defined by the vernal
equinox).
I send this in every year or so, this time by the suggestion of
Florentius, for which much grace. You will be grateful I have
not yet incorporated any more text, I am sure.
1132 AD & SAINT Brighid
Notes on Some Implications in Chapters II;4 and III;1
of FINNEGANS WAKE
by the Riverend Clarence Sterling c. 2000
“St Bridget’s Crosses . . . must be made on St Bridget’s Eve,
after sunset on the last day of January. St Bridget’s Day
marks the commencement of the pastoral year.”
Pennick, N. The Celtic Cross (1997).
“Wee, cumfused the Gripes limply, shall not even be the
last of the first, wee hope, when oust are visitated by the
Veiled Horror.”
Finnegans Wake. 156.31-33.
>From James Joyce, the genius who placed the portmanteau word among the
stars, comes (inevitably) the portmanteau number (saints preserve us). So
while reaching into the 1132 satchel, I want to emphasize that what I shall
pull out will in no way contradict the other outstanding interpretations
extant. My lemma should rather reinforce others, and gild our appreciation
of James Joyce's awesome skill at making numbers and ideas mesh and
reverberate. There is however a "smoking gun" significance for 1132. This
stumbling student of Mr Joyce’s required some time to discover it. Clues,
however, confirm my radix for 1132 in Finnegans Wake once dug ( -- at least
it’s within the Heisenberg parameter stating that an area of uncertainty can
never be reduced to zero).
What we know quickly from the text is worth reviewing at this point. Most
germane is that Mr Joyce wants us to realize that 1132 is a date, a year.
Surveying what might be called the 1132 section of FW (pp. 387-420), we note
references to:
1) < the year of the flood 1132 > (387.23);
2) < the freebutter year of Notre Dame 1132 > (388.20);
3) < around about the year of buy in disgrace 1132 > (391.02);
4) < old year's eve 1132 > (397.30);
and in the final page featuring 1132 (as a numeral anyway), we have what
seems the dénouement -- not only a year, but a specific day in history,
5) < 31 Jan. 1132 A.D. > (420.20).
The other 1132 entries in this section of FW largely involve playing upon
the numeral as part of a street address, by which we are instructed perhaps
that not only is a specific time in mind, but a specific place as well.
Let us then take time and space to be the vertical and horizontal planes of
a Cartesian grid. Each intersection of time and space will mark some
particular event. But what? Again, it's worth iterating that hints abound,
but their value is mostly post facto. These clues are esoteric and encrypted
to the extent that we are as in a dark room and unlit signs pointing to the
light switch are of little use. But even after the light becomes present, to
be intelligible the signs must be in a language we know. This means escaping
from the wind of my extended metaphor to a much more pleasant focus of
discussion, and that is the patron saint and guardian spirit of Ireland, St
Brighid, so respected as to be called The Mary of the Gael.
One should like to spend a great long time on the subject of St Brighid, but
she still would not be done justice by such meager skills as I muster, and I
suspect she will pardon me for appearing crass in bringing to the table only
a handful of knowledge chosen because it applies to our search:
a) yes, Ireland is blessed to have three patron saints in all, including
(with Brighid), Pátric (Patrick) and Colum Cille (Columba);
b) yes, some scholars within and without the pale of the Church are
disturbed by the fact that Brighid reappears in various guises in various
times and seems part historic, part mythic -- part Christian, part pagan –
part here, part there, and so on -- but that is no problem for Joyceans and
other such simple-hearted souls of the laity;
c) one of her dualities is that she is herself; -- but also an incarnate
representative of Mary;
d) as a saint, Brighid is the protectress of dairymaids; as a Celtic
"supernatural lady," her attributive associates are the cow and lamb;
e) as a saint, her feast-day is February 01; as a Celtic "supernatural
lady," she is associated with February 02, lambing day (one of the four
primary Gaelic holy days, Imbolc, meaning "bag of cream” or
“butter-womb") -- and due to the standard lunar calendrics of Celtic
Ireland, which began a “day” at the sunset of its preceding eve, St Brighid’
s Day has some right to being seen as beginning on St Brighid’s Eve (the
sunset of January the 31st), and extending from there to encompass both the
1st and 2nd of February, so that various celebrations in Brighid’s honor
will occur over a period of 48 hours plus the tilly if we include in our
survey Eire, Scotland, and the Hebrides;
f) as a saint, she founded the Cella Roblorum, or Church of the Oak
(Cill-daur > Kill-dara > Kildare), which I think (therefore I am probably
wrong) is not too far from the Liffey headwaters; as an ancient Celtic
goddess and representative of the Bona Dea, Brighid has never left us
and is capable of appearing anywhere anytime in any guise;
g) as the first abbess of Kildare, she was followed by an unbroken line of
abbesses who commanded great respect from the people and were responsible
through Brighid’s order for maintaining by precise ritualistic means a
continuous fire ignited by St Brighid before her death in ca. 522. The
abbesses were assisted in this by a self-replenishing school, comprised at
all times of exactly 19 nuns.
In 1132, a truly horrid and disgusting event occurred which one does not
care to have to relate, but it must be confronted, and that is the rape of
the Abbess of Kildare by a soldier -- allegedly ordered by Dermot
MacMurrough of Leinster for the purpose of destroying the sanctity of that
abbess, and thus rendering her unfit for her office. This is said to have
been done so that MacMurrough might enhance his power by imposing in her
place a kinswoman of his own. The travesty was amplified by depredations on
the monastery of Kildare.
The rape of the Abbess of Kildare is an especially disturbing instance of
that aspect of Irish politics (perhaps endemic to most politics) which Joyce
naturally despised – the ugly face of internal betrayals evoked by the image
of an old sow eating her children. (It has a savage resonance with the
issue which awoke in childhood Joyce’s passionate disdain for the banality
of evil, and that was the verbal rape of Katharine O'Shea by the clergy
through which the political power of Charles Stewart Parnell was broken).
Meant as an opening move in MacMurrough’s checkered rise to power, the rape
of the Abbess of Kildare threw open the gate on a hellish path which led to
the Norman occupation of Ireland. St Brighid’s house had been purposefully
shattered because it bred harmony. We still try fitting together the broken
shards.
James Joyce was intensely proud of being born on February 02, lambing day,
that is on Imbolc, which by the old reckoning shares the claim for being St
Brighid's Day along with February 01. Joyce considered St Brighid to be his
muse and liked to have his works first issued on February 02 to honor her.
She is invoked in all post-Chamber Music work. As St. Bride, Brighid
continues to maintain her abbey in FW, where it is become a Finishing
Establishment for the “THE FLORAS” . . . < a month’s bunch of pretty
maidens > (220.03-04). She is Maria in Clay, the moocow in Portrait, the
old milk woman in Ulysses, the maid in Exiles (don't miss the milk truck),
perhaps the broken branch in Tilly (one means allowed to stoke the sacred
fire at Kildare was to wave air over it with a branch), plus a thousand
references to milk and bovine things in the Joycean oeuvre.
Brighid was born herself by manifesting from a bucket of milk being carried
out the door by her mother, a milkmaid. And the Irish Catholic Church,
before it came under the foot or aegis, as you will, of the Roman Catholic
Church, baptized in milk rather than water. Within our fleeting 20th
century, Irish farmers have been seen crossing yet the flanks of
their cows by means of milk-dipped fingers.
For those still with me, we return to the clues of our quest:
1) < the year of the flood 1132 > (387.23);
In the passage from p 387 through p 420, a character is imparted in steps to
the number 1132, whose essential characterization is that it is a year, and
387.23 sets the motif. The reader learns furthermore that 1132 was the year
of the flood. In one gloss, < the year of the flood > has the ring of a
provincialism, a way of telling time that is too local for modern senses. On
a grander note, < the year of the flood > calls the Diluvian chapters of
Genesis to mind (cf U 084:06 Random ’61). The two inferences enhance one
another’s conjuring of a Way-Back Machine landing and opening its door to
us – but there is no direct sighting of Brighid’s hem as it slips into the
astral.
Not until we skip down a line to 387.25 and read < Her Grace the bishop
Senior >. This is a nearly bald allusion to St Brighid, as it has often been
alleged that she achieved the unique position of being ordained a female
Bishop. Her Catholic apologists have noted that the absurd thought of a
woman with a bishopric precludes its possibility, and have explained that St
Brighid was merely accorded the equivalency in power and respect.
Water. Color. I offer those two entities as forming a soft dichotomy for
dividing up the motives and conceits of the Wake. When matched with the
moieties space-of-being versus time-for-grace (the polarity fueling the
mock-comico-serious dissension of Wyndam Lewis and James Joyce
respectively), then time must obviously be assigned to the camp of Water, as
the function of time is the tide, and the river its simile. P 387 provides
an imagery of time and the tide through the citation of historic and
legendary disasters at sea, the voyage of Noe (the Irish for Noah), the
shipwreck of Henry I’s son in 1120, the drowning of Pharaoh’s army, and the
execution of that good submariner, Sir Roger Casement -- all aqueous events
which followed variotous improprieties.
The linkage of the flood with the year of . . .1132 is to establish that
1132 is not only a time, but a bad time that recapitulates and anticipates
crises from other ages, in the allegorical sense that Brighid reincarnated
Eve and Mary. All in all, good times rarely signal the shift of Viconian
gears, and bookwise we are but a dozen pages from the end of the second part
(Part Three begins at p 401), and not many more pages again, we hear the
10th and final clap of thunderous repercussion at 414.19-20.
Meanwhile the bride-ship of Yseult sinks slowly in the west, as the heroic
voices of the evangelists prepare to yield the floor to Shaun, the Hardware
Saint and proper people’s voice. This at least is what I have read, for in
truth, on my own I rarely can follow a thread of meaning through more than
five consecutive words of Finnegans Wake, let alone be carried along by the
narrative flow. And you see how I try.
2) < round about the freebutter year Notre Dame 1132 > (388.19-20);
By freebutter, we are implied St Brighid's dairymaid attributes, and
reminded of her primary passage and annual re-origins from the butter-bag
(or womb) each Imbolc, but more directly, Mr Joyce’s agglutinate,
freebutter, acknowledges folkloric testimony to the effect that no one ever
went without butter in Kildare when St Brighid was there. She had magic,
whoops, blesséd cows, and the good lady indeed gave away a great deal of
free butter to her parishioners;
Notre Dame (Our Lady) points to her as The Mary of the Gael;
< 1132 Brian or Bride street > (388.26-27) cites St Brighid’s common
nickname of Bride (sometimes modified to Bridey or Biddy), in conjunction
possibly with Brighid’s son, Brian, upon whose death Brighid invented
keening, and thus to some extent the wake itself (and perhaps as well a
Brigantine writer is cited, Brian O'Naillgusa -- and inevitably the Brian of
all Brians, Brian Boru, the high king slain at the Battle of Clontarf in the
early 11th century);
< at or in or about the late No. 1132 or No. 1169 > (389.13); the
Norman-Anglo Conquest of Ireland began in 1169, when a mercenary invasion
force sailing from Norman-occupied Wales captured Wexford and Waterford. A
year later the Normans took Dublin, and over the next century, 75% of
Ireland would fall, including virtually all of the vital coastal areas along
the eastern banks.
Dermot MacMurrough’s wily reign of deceit, beginning in 1132, paved the way
for the Norman occupation. Church politics in these affairs is glossed by
plays on Kill (church, cf Kill-dara) in lines 389.06-07, eg
Killeachother; -- and an allusion to Mary via Fatima (389.15), her
Portuguese apparition; -- and to Mary’s son, Jesus, as Fitzmary (389.13),
meaning “the son of Mary.”
“ . . . the matther of Erryn . . . was to rule . . . the grandest
gynecollege” (389.06-09]). Mr Joyce reminds us: the mother of Ireland (first
Brighid, and then later her vicars, the succession of abbesses at Kildare)
for centuries ruled a famed, powerful, and beloved clerical assembly whose
heart was a corps of 19 nuns and the abbess herself (gyne is Greek for
“woman”; collega is Latin for “colleague”; a “college” is a body of clergy
living together – it is hard to imagine that there is no intended reference
therein to Brighid, and to Kildare and the noble nuns);
3) < year of buy in disgrace 1132 or 1169 or 1768 > (391.02);
-- and the treachery of greed echoes for six centuries leading to the Irish
“agrarian outrages” in the latter half of the 18th century. Buy sounds
agrarian Anglo-Irish for “boy.”
Don't miss the appearance of the villainous MacMurrough on the facing page
as Mahmullagh (390.09), followed soon by the poignant: < The good go and the
wicked is left over. As evil flows > (390.29-30), and what could be
MacMurrough’s brusque and desperate orders to the soldier-rapist: < Woman.
Squash. Part. > (390.32-33);
4) < old year's eve 1132, M.M.L.J. old style > (397.30);
-- the clarification that we are to view the date (when we come to it fully)
by the old style, the Celtic moon-based calendar, that is, hidden within
what at first glance one assumes to be a reference to the Old Style, or
Julian, calendar-system which preceded our modern Gregorian system of
calendrics. The old style older than the solar Julian or Gregorian, the
lunar, begins each day of record at sunset (old year's eve), blurring our
modern distinction between "days" [cf “Christmas Eve” on December 24];
-- now, with the light on, we come to the dénouement:
5) < 31 Jan. 1132 AD > (420.20) is henceforward seen blurrily but with some
confidence as a finger pointing to the awful rape of the Abbess of Kildare,
recorded as occurring in that year (1132) to a woman charged with
perpetuating the spirit and ritual and facility and order of the saint whose
day is February 01, an extension of the eve of January 31 by the old style).
< Once Bank of Ireland's > . . . <Now Bunk of England's> (420.32-&-34). The
cynical violation of a holy maid in a soldier’s bed made the shores (banks)
of Ireland into England’s bunk for 750 years.
< Milchbroke. Wrongly spilled > (420.33). You may cry over the spilling of
sacred milk.
Although the Riverend is on record as requesting no followers, I sincerely
thank you for attending his discourse, and apologize for its length.
Meanwhile, the top of the morning to you, a phrase, by the way, which refers
to the cream which rises to the top of a dairy bucket just as did once the
infant St Brighid.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling 1998SEP22
POB 1584 Ojai, CA 93024-1584
Adapted and developed from my e-mail to the Joycean newsgroups, first to
< fwake-l@listserv.hea.ir> in Sept 97; later to <fwread@ lists.colorado.edu>
and to <jjoyce@listserv.utah.edu> in July 98.
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING:
The Annals of Loch Cé: A Chronicle of Irish Affairs, 1014-1590. ed. W. M.
Hennessy, 2 vols. (London, 1871; reflex. facs., Dublin: Irish Manuscripts
Commission, 1939). 1132.
Condren, Mary. The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in
Celtic Ireland. Harper & Row: San Francisco, 1989. pp. 107 & 112-113.
Curtayne, Alice. Saint Brigid of Ireland. Dublin: Brown and Nolan, 1931.
SEE ALSO:
Dolley, Michael. Anglo-Norman Ireland. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1972. p.
30.
Gwynn, Aubrey. The Twelfth Century Reform. Dublin: Gill, 1968. p. 54.
" " with R. N. Hadcock. Medieval Religious
Houses. London:
Longman, 1970. p. 320.
Pennick, Nigel. The Celtic Cross. London: Blandford, 1997. pp. 92-93.
This is the location of the citation which prefaces this essay. It
corroborates the identity in folkloric Ireland of the 31st of January with
Saint Brighid, and that it was as a New Year’s Eve in the religious lives of
the people. As the “last of the first,” that is, as the last day of the
first month, the 31st of January is the date of the letter described in FW
111.05-24 [“of the last of the first to Dear”]. The letter is ascribed to a
hen given
a popular form of the name of Brighid, that is, Biddy the Hen.
ROSS CHAMBERS ... HELPED GREATLY IN LOCATING THE
ABOVE RESOURCES.
FOR WHAT IS SEEMINGLY THE EARLIEST APPEARANCE BY SAINT BRIGHID IN THE
SCHEMATA FOR FINNEGANS WAKE, SEE PAGE 51-LINE 12b, OF THE BUFFALO NOTEBOOKS
OF JAMES JOYCE: VI.B.10 [1922-1923].
FOR AN EARLY “1132 AD . . .” IN THE SCHEMATA, SEE THE LIST ON PAGES 129-130
OF T. CONNOLLY’S EDITION OF SCRIBBLEDEHOBBLE (pp. 746-7 of the original)
[acc. to Bill Buttler < ... >].
The best book on St Brighid in our century is Finnegans Wake by James Joyce.
Not many pages seem to go by without a reference perceived by the dedicated
Brigidine reader.
Another must is to read the description of Brighid's Book by Gerald of Wales
as recorded in his 12th c Irish travelogues. I think that Mr Joyce must have
patterned his concept of Wakean structure from Gerald's account of this
mysterious Brigidine work.
Cogitosus, a monk of Kildare in the eighth century, expounded the metrical
life of St. Brighid, and versified it in good Latin. This is what is known
as the "Second Life", and is an excellent example of Irish scholarship in
the mid-eighth century.
Most of the lore of St Brighid must be followed as a thread wound in and out
of works in which she makes all too brief appearances, and the tales are
legion once a personal collectanea is assembled. Be prepared to recognize
her various faces. She is both a pre-Christian and post-Vatican II pagan
supernatural lady and, from the time of her thriving around 500 AD, until
1967, a mainstream saint of the Church. She spells her names more ways than
the author of Finnegans Wake even could have devised! Hardest at first to
associate with “Saint Brighid” is the Welsh version of “San Ffraid.” (Cf FW
172.21 where Mr Joyce’s Wakean namesake, Shem, is referred to as <fraid
born>, indicating that Shem’s birthday may be the same as his creator’s).
I am including some Brigidine weblinks, and they in turn have weblinks that
have weblinks, and they had weblinks before them:
1) < www.chalicecenter.com/imbolc.htm >,
2) < www.cin.org/saints/bridget.html >,
3) < www.clannada.org/docs/brigid.htm >,
4) < www.imbas.org/brighid.htm >,
5) < www.jough.com/joyce/essay/riverend1.htm >,
6) < www.knight.org/advent/cathen/02784b.htm >,
7) < www.nesta.org.uk/fwake/fwake.html >,
8) < www.ncf.carleton.ca/~dc920/saintale.html >,
9) < www.oz.net/~dmagnat/wendybrig.html >,
10) < www.technovate.org/whiteoak/imbolc.html >, &
11) < www.toad.net/~sticker/thesaint.html >.
"What sort of reverence is shown to the saints when we
place their pictures on the floor and then walk on them?
Often someone spits in an angel's mouth."
-- BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX: APOLOGY
\\\*///
Subject: half a hlaf better?
From: the recent past
Date: 1/16/00 1:00 AM
Jack Kolb responded:
"Old English is another language, much closer to Dutch than to English.
(I'd courteously disagree with my friend Riverend; I don't think it's much
of an introduction to Chaucer. Chaucer's middle English is more or less
comprehensible to a modern reader, with notes and a facing text. Old
English is not.)"
Rivs: I have to agree when put to the fire. Thus my emphasis on trying to
learn at least the most basic rudiments of OE, even just the pronunciation,
as being superior to reading a flat prose attempt at translation -- but Jack
is right. Middle English is more accurately the early stages of Modern
English, and Chaucer is user-friendly Middle English to boot. OE is Frisian
Lite, or some crazy southern Norse. It is not only another language, but
an inflection rich classical language, with a nasty series of permutations
in words from case to case, and such. Better for such as I to settle for
pondering Runic headstone inscriptions, there is a pretty limited text that
can be carved on rock for a grave. But again, struggling for a few months
with a bilingual text of Beowulf will help with the Runic inscriptions. And
also <Men like to ants or emmets wondern upon a groot hwide Whallfisk>
013.33-34.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: swirling fluid graphics
From: the recent past
Date: 1/16/00 1:45 AM
>From Kiran:
"What is the literature of exhaustion?<seriously> . . ."
RivS -- < http://web.uvic.ca/~ckeep/hfl0258.html > says that,
"In 1967, John Barth published a controversial essay in The
Atlantic which amounts to a manifesto of postmodernism.
The essay was called "The Literature of Exhaustion" and in
it Barth proposed that the conventional modes of literary
representation had been "used up . . . ."
RivS --
Apparently the literature of exhaustion concerns itself with way
to keep alive old gasping forms by reviving them with new
techniques, licenses, media. Borges is supposed to be a
hero to the camp. Hypertext is mentioned as a medium which
may be able to defibrillate the flat-line of the mainstream.
This site:
http://anthro.spc.uchicago.edu/~dphoberm/Narrative_conventions.html
on narrative conventions has a little about the literature of exhaustion,
and links through "lexias" to a site about hypertext versus narrative
conventions, and states that,
"Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, James
Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, are
all examples of works which utilized numerous narrative and /or
typographical conventions in order to represent the complexity of
experience in non-linear fashion." Then, in another part of the forest,
Kiran: ". . . which page are you talking about?"
RivS -- Traditional copies of Tristram Shandy have a marbled page
somewhere in the midst of the text, a page with no words but these
swirling fluid graphics such as you see as fancy endpapers in old
editions. I have forgotten how the page is featured in the narrative
context, but there it is. And then it starts getting deleted from
newer, less expensive editions -- I don't know the full story.
Kiran cites Rivs: "To make reading Beowulf easy, you can prep
yourself with a) explanations of proposed hierarchical flowcharts by
the American Red Cross . . . ."
Kiran asks, "What???? Please Explain, as we say around here."
RivS -- I wouldn't try making sense out of something that doesn't.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: <Like four wise elephants> Finnegans Wake 513.35
From: the recent past
Date: 1/17/00 5:19 AM
Here, I've tried to paste up my previous post to include the
name of the book being cited, not just its page numbers.
A little reminiscent of the San Francisco DJ (name anybody?)
who use to read baseball scores without the teams' name,
and temperatures thoughout the nation without mention of
which cities.
I am especially trying to get it right because I have thought for
some time that it seemed an interesting allusion, no less for the
waking dilemma of whether it be Joyce's or the reader's device.
It requires careful reading, not always the wrong approach to
any author (sorry, major syn tax owed on that line). The musicality
of Joyce is at play, at any rate. Why else the juxtaposition twice
of lubber- and elephant-? The similar association of paper/page
and "four in type/quobus quartet . . . four wise . . .?" Why else
is indeed the question. There may be no why else, the jingling
itself is pleasant, and suggestive of the eternal return in its sense
of leitmotif. Four/paper and quartet/page are key notes defining
a cluster of melodic phrases which can be identified with each
other in spite of changes in key, rhythm, even modality and meter,
because a page in the sense of a leaf of paper has four axial
points, and four edges. A page of paper is wide and white. What
a page of paper has to do with elephants and lubbers, or what
elephants and lubbers have to do with each other, I do not know,
but the evanescent Hemingway allusion may help. The cumulative
stops of page 124 in Finnegans Wake are in a context of much
wordplay involving printics, particularly punctuation and pages
(verso & recto), and in a localized context of violent language
describing invasive penetration:
<it was but pierced butnot punctured (in the university sense of the
term) by numerous stabs and foliated gashes made by a pronged
instrument.>
FW 124.01-03
In the terse taut dialogue by Papa Hemingway he named "Hills Like
White Elephants," a man and a woman, both unnamed, are at a
railside cantina somewhere between Barcelona and Madrid. They
are going to obtain an abortion for the woman. They do not talk
about it much, or anything else, but the pain and hopelessness is
electric, and the ultimate phatic nothingness of English robo-talk
is given its definitive place in literature at the story's anti-climactic
closing: "I feel fine," from the lady off to have her unborn baby killed.
Is this behind FW's <A take back to the virgin page>, for in an
awful sense, an abortion is that, an attempt to revirginize a pregnant
body, and "a fresh page" is synonymous with a new start, especially
a wide white page. The unnamed lady in Hemingway's piece is perhaps
attempting a bit of fresh start by opening the story's conversation with
an imaginative pleasantry, that the hills past the trees and river are like
white elephants. It doesn't work. The conversation turns openly bitter
in its numb way within several exchanges in the repartee.
Even though the conversation is on paper, the reader feels the wounds.
<These paper wounds, four in type, were gradually and correctly
understood to mean stop, please stop, do please stop, and O do
please stop respectively> FW 124.03-05
In "Hills Like White Elephants," shortly before the ending (which can
be said, I suppose, of any place in that brief text), the lady asks:
<"Would you do something for me now?"
"I'd do anything for you."
"Would you please please please please please please please
stop talking?">
[From the closing of "Hills Like White Elephants" E Hemingway (1927)]
Far from page 124 of the Wake is this:
<A take back to the virgin page . . . The quobus quartet were there
too . . . flopsome and jerksome, lubber and deliric . . . Like four wise
elephants>
FW 513.27-35 [<wise> cf Ger "weiss" = Eng "white"]
While only the content and rhythm of FW 124.03-05 seem, by mimesis,
to remind one of "Hills Like White Elephants," the cited passage of
FW 513.27-35 contains the above elements from both: the white
virginity of a blank page, the four-wise motif, and et voila,
some white elephants ("white" being in German -- but most elephants
in Finnegans Wake are white, except for the pink one).
Just to tweak my woofer, and lure me further into the quicksand of
your iffy assessments on my credibility, Mr Joyce tosses in the weird:
<What a lubberly whide elephant for the men-in-the-straits!>
300 n 4
which says nothing of hills, paper, pages, or fourness, but has the
intriguing "lubber," quasi a name of one of the quartet of white
elephants on p 513, now in adverbial form near your neighborhood.
I don't imagine any one cares about any of this, I apologize for
rambling on. But it is what I do, and I try to stay on the road (that
road which all men scorn).
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Sherwood spotted in another part of Forest
From: the recent past
Date: 1/17/00 7:09 PM
A hip member has informed me offlist that the
wonderful San Francisco DJ (in the early 1960's,
anyway) I was trying to name is Don Sherwood.
(I don't know what Don Sherwood is doing at this
time, myself not being as hip as I once was wont).
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: man delights not me: no, nor woman neither
From: the recent past
Date: 1/17/00 8:41 PM
Lucia wisely reminded us:
' "I know," interrupted the Sphinx crossly. "But you
didn't say Woman."
' "But when you say Man, you mean Man AND Woman
- heavens above, everyone knows that."
' "That's what you think," said the Sphinx - and she
disappeared into the night.'
RivS calls upon ShSp to add (not noting the flock of angels
rushing in the opposite direction):
(in another part of the castle)
Hamlet
The body is with the king, but the king is not with
the body. The king is a thing--
Guildenstern
A thing, my lord!
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
pee ess, hey, how come women get their own word, but
men have to share theirs! do we need to have men,
women, and unwomen -- It may be, very likely . . . though
by your smiling you seem to say . . . what . . . what?
Subject: <heruponhim in shining aminglement> p 092 & environs
From: the recent past
Date: 1/18/00 9:30 PM
Four themes (among infinite themes) form an immediate and
relevant context for paragraph 092.06-32 in its setting --
Theme I = At the Drunken Bar:
<the gentlemen in Jury's> 091.19-20
[ref to a Hotel Bar then in Dublin, now in Zurich as James Joyce Pub:
< http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/3662/joyce.htm >]
<the inexousthausthible wassail-horn tot of iskybaush> 091.27-28
[a cornucopia of holiday whiskey]
<the firewaterloover returted with such a vinesmelling> 093.07-08
[along with more whiskey {firewater} and wine, is a Qabalistic
reference to a line of the Sefer Yetzirah 1:12 {Gra version}: "Fire
from Water," ascribed to Isaiah 64:01-02, a vision of ages changing
in cataclysm, "Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou
wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy
presence, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the
waters to boil . . . ." In his gloss of SY 1:12, Aryeh Kaplan states
that "fire from water" is the lightning generated by a rainstorm;
we know it's Old Bushmills; and then there is nuclear fusion. In
Biblical terms, a fire-water lover is one who desires a current age
to be destroyed that a new and better one might replace it, the
mindset of many alcoholics and temperance workers]
Theme II = At the Pagan Epiphanies Festival:
<light of this world> 091.25
[the pre-X'tian lunisolar god(s) adapted into X'tian mythos]
<ab-god of the fire> 091.28-29
[same-o; ab, the fire father, reappears in Judaism as the
god in the burning bush; in Ireland, the fire goddess,
Brighid the Bright, turns into a X'tian abbess whose nuns
maintain a sacred fire within a brush hedge]
<thereinunder proudly showing off the blink patch to
his britgits> 093.04-05
[a pagan epiphany -- the priest exposes his tenders to
the vestals, the devotees of Brighid --]
<even of a tumass equinous> 093.09
[the equinoctial ceremonies, anticipated in Ireland by
Imbolg, the opening of spring dedicated to Brighid,
begin at evening -- also, a ref to celtic horse goddesses,
and Aquinas -- again, the mass as pagan in origin]
<twofromthirty advocatesses> 093.12
[St Brighid's 19 fire-maintaining nuns are become in
the Wake the 28 Floras, a month's bunch of pretty maids,
from St Bride's Finishing School -- this allows Mr Joyce
to play upon the flux of February, the month sacred to
Brighid, and to himself {b'day}, by having Issy become a
silly surrogate of Brighid as the 29th leap day -- the
"two-from-thirty = 28 days of Feb" device will reoccur soon]
<the chassetitties belles> 093.19
[the naughty schoolboy side of Mr Joyce can't help from
reminding us that celibate nuns and temple prostitutes
are one at the Wake -- honky-tonk angels]
Theme III = In Eire, With a Lovely Tear in Our Eye:
<Tyre-nan-Og> 091.25-26
[the Irish posthumous fairyland you tell peasant children about
when the stewards of the landlords have locked them from the
upper decks of a sinking cruise liner in order to save all lifeboats
for the nobility, lending "upper crust" a new patina of callousness]
<from Fillthepot Curran his scotchlove machreether> 093.32-33
[shades of theme i -- drunkenness merges mistily with fine
sentiment, filling the pot {one meaning leads to the second,
after a brimming overflowing flagon is quaffed, it's off to the
back for a bit of chamber-pot tinkling}, bringing about a whiskey-
fied love for . . . for another drop of the creature, and I really
mean that from my heart, babe {"mo" = "my"; "croidhe" (cree)
= heart (PW Joyce date, courtesy of Ross Chambers)}, and
to thicken the slurry, Philpot Curran is one of the army of those
credited with a version of "Mother Machree!"]
<Samyouwill Leaver or Damyouwell Lover> 093.34
[Samuel Lover is the leading candidate for the penman of
the best know "Mother Machree," and a superb Irish
storyteller to boot, and famous for telling his true love
that she was welcome to live forever in his heart rent free]
Theme IV = Shameless In a Shameful War:
<Warhorror> 091.30 [speaks all to well for itself]
<upon the halfkneed castleknocker's attempting kithoguishly to lilt his
holymess the paws and make the sign of the Roman God-> 091.36
[soon after the Macbeths kill their royal guest, Duncan, an act which
starts a very nasty war, the bloodstained thane hears a knocking at
his castle's south entry, an insistent knocking which becomes the signal
of Macbeth's desire to undo what is done. Already, and from now on,
Macbeth is unable to bless himself. Quickly the distraught regicide
becomes himself undone. "Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou
couldst!" {Macbeth II.2 another part of the castle}]
<the testifighter> 092.04
[cf <violer d'amores . . . to wielderfight his
penisolate war> 003.04-06 the association of rapist and warrior arises
here and there in the Wake, the penis and testicles' perversion as
weapons, the desire to humiliate one's enemy by abusing them
sexually, so that they lose their dignity and become mere things-but as
Macbeth finds, the unbridled warrior risks becoming isolated himself]
Paragraph in question 092.06-32:
<the maidies of the bar, (a pairless trentene, a lunarised
score)> 092.12-13
[the temptresses, a la Sirens, goddesses on a strand, or
the evening shift at the pub -- thirty-one {in French} minus a
pair is twenty-nine, the number of the 28 Floras plus Issy,
and thus as well the leap-year with its 29-day February --
the fact that Issy and the Floras are wakean stand-ins for
Brighid (and later her succeeding line of abbesses) and
her 19 nuns is acknowledged by juxtaposing "thirty-one
minus a pair" with "a lunarised score" -- the meaning here
is that the 29 Floras with Issy are the wakean equivalent
of the 20 {score} nuns with abbess of Brigidine tradition,
with the numeric difference between a coven/abbey/school
of 20 and 29 resulting from Mr Joyce's artistic priorities
involving "lunarising" the Brigidine 20 by expanding their
number to reflect the days of a month (moon-th, the days
of one lunar cycle of phases), so that the Floras be a
month's bunch of pretty maidens]
<the swiney prize> 092.15
[First Witch: Where hast thou been, sister?
Second Witch: Killing swine. {Macbeth I.3 on the heath near Forres}
On page 90 is the fourth thunderword. It is precipitated by a final
reference to trees and the countryside. Eric McLuhan calls the fourth
thunderword "The Fall of the Garden Itself." A Pastoral Age of
childlike innocence has ended, and the urban age of holy whores is
upon us. The word "pearced" also appears shortly before the
age-change chimes. I have glossed elsewhere on the hypothesis that
among other things, we are invited to think upon the obsession of St
Augustine on an incident in his own childhood. The then-unsaintly
curmudgeon was out with some other local hellraiser boys, when they
decided to vandalize a neighbour's pear tree, ripping down the
forbidden fruit to throw at a herd of pigs. This senseless act of
trespassing, theft, and hostility to animals later became representative
to St Augustine of his personal fall from grace. At any rate, after the
100-letter clapper strikes on page 90, a bunch of pigs starts running
amuck through the following pages. It this is a valid wakean thesis, then
"swiney" in part is tied to the previous "pairless." And the bubble-babes
from the heath remind us of the ultimate prize for swine.]
<Oirisher Rose> 092.18
[The teary-eyed Irish songfest theme -- "My Wild Irish Rose," by one
Chauncey Olcutt, whose "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" is right up
there, and entitles Chauncey to be another claimant for "Mother
Machree"]
<mechree me postheen flowns courier> 092.20-21
["my heart and my pocheen(sp?) {homemade Irish bootleg
vodka} runneth over" -- <flowns> = flowings; <courier> =
one that runs -- in short, more Irish booze-fueled sentiment]
<to belive them of all his untiring young dames> 092.21-22
[more singalong with the bar sirens, the misty-eyed
maidens of the Rhinegold, with their endearing charms
becoming younger as the evening ages]
<treats in their times> 092.22
[Did Chamberlain invent "Peace in Our Times?" I suspect it
was thematic to the post-Great War mindset]
<Ymen> . . . <Lunar Sisters' Celibacy Club> 092.22-25
["One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other . . . But
wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'? I had most need
of blessing, and 'Amen' stuck in my throat." Macbeth II.2
More on the dynamic tension between the barmaids in the
sentimental songs version, the virginal vestals of the holy
fires, and the temple whores who are fair game for the bold
marauders -- Hymen as Issy as the Inviolate Abbess of
Kildare who must be violated in amour to penis-isolate her
from respect of the people of Leinster, and so break the
power long held by the Brigidine Abbey of Irish vestal
virgins, the lunar sisters' celibacy club]
<a lovelooking leapgirl, all all alonely> 092.25
[again, Issy as the 29th day of February]
<heruponhim in shining aminglement> 092.28
[cf <himundher manifestation> 092.09-10)
one of those so-beautiful phrases that bob
by in the muddy filthdump of Anna Liffey's
wake -- the true desire buried far beneath
the bleary boozery toughtalk and shallow
songs of the gentlemen of Jury's -- for the
sacred embrace that sets the dark aglow]
<sheeshea melted most musically mid the dark
deepdeep of his shayshaun> 092.31-32
[the holiness of the sacred embrace is even
accorded to that poor woman maligned so
shamelessly by the Irish as The Great Whore,
Katherine O'Shea, who became Mrs Parnell.]
So what? As the towns replace the forests and the heaths,
the vacant-eyed men gather in loose clusters within the night,
and pay wan-cheeked women for what had flowed free
rurally, that is, for companionship over the bowl, and for an
embrace in the moonlight. As they drink, their hearts begin
to rewarm, and they try to forget what a daily fistfight their
lives in the city are, that to make ends meet they have had
to kill what they loved and desanctify the ancient pagans'
celebrating of the sky, and fell the trees which once they
adored. They sing beautiful songs filled with sentimental
values of a lost way of living -- its symbols are a wild rose,
a fairyfilled land of eternal youth, an aging parent -- all the
things which we cannot hold, which melt away from our
hands the harder we grasp. In the morning, the war will
continue its weary marches up and down the foulsmelling
streets. In the meantime, let us remember that night
among the corn-brakes with Annie, boys -- a full-moon
nymphomaniac, and a truly lovely mother she was.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: floodgates are open
From: the recent past
Date: 1/19/00 4:25 AM
< the year of the flood 1132 > (387.23)
In this regard, Florentius posted:
"To me, "the year of the flood 1132" means the 1132nd year <after>
the flood . . . ."
and in a subsequent post, added:
"Well (St. Brigit's). The first entry in the Annals of the 4 masters:
" 'The Age of the World, to this Year of the Deluge, 2242' . . . ."
Florentius also makes the interesting observation that A.D. can
be read as Ante Deluge (which reminds us in turn of the infamous
"Apres moi, le deluge" of one of the Louis the Lasts). Andrew Blom
has written some good material on 1132 as the year of the flood,
and it is worth looking through list archives in hopes Blom posted
it to fwake-l. Whatever you find by him will be worthwhile anyway.
As a seemingly common phrase in Ulyssean Dublin, "year of the
flood" rolls through the mind of the artist formerly know as
Leopold Bloom in Lotus Eaters, U 05.465 (084.06). The context
is Bloom's attempt to recall the address of Hamilton Long's, state
apothecaries (drugs being tied to the theme of poppy ingestion).
His conceit is that chemists rarely relocate, because their
<beaconjars too heavy to stir>. Ergo, Hamilton Long's must still
be where they used to be. Further acknowledgement of the
hoary stability of said establishment, muses Bloom, is his
mental notation that it was <founded in the year of the flood>.
In the Ulyssean usage, then, <year of the flood> is not a precise
or specific time, but a folkloric "long time ago." The Great Flood
of Noachian times is involved, but dimly. In that sense, 1132
is just a distant year in the remote past. But the deluge recorded
in Genesis should not be dismissed from the allusional set of
1132 as a year. The Biblical Flood is the world's best known
Viconian myth, and figures heavily in FW, see my site:
< http://www.joycean.com/essay/riverend1.shtml >
and have we got a car for you!
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: elementary, my dear penguin
From: the recent past
Date: 1/27/00 3:59 AM
Jack Stone posted that:
". . . Grafton rather fumbles his one reference to
Joyce, remarking that 'the _New Science_ even
inspired James Joyce to devise the complex
structure of _Ulysses_' (xiii)--which is sort of
true, I guess . . . ."
RivS explains:
The thing is, although the cyclic nature of history in various
systems of philosophic chronology posit the periodic
replication of broad patterns from the past, the variations
and anomalies and outright deviations from the patterns
are what make the times alive, and not flat dead mirrors.
Mr Joyce is very good about showing how flotsam of
one age reappears in grossly different rearrangement
in another, how the vestal fires of an island goddess
return years later as something you burned on the stove
making breakfast for your wife, etc.
Thus we note that in another of the Viconian mill wheel's
revolutions, during its experience of the always difficult
and decadent democratic age, it IS Ulysses, and NOT
Finnegans Wake, which is identified with Vico's New Science.
It needs to be noted as well, however, that in that separate
and not quite equal regurgitation of our current era, that our
favourite author's last name is "Jois" (same pronunciation);
that James Jois is of mixed Kinsusha and Mayan ancestry;
and that the writes in profound detail of a single day in his
native city, Belize, several decades before its escape from
the yoke of colonial administration by the British.
Molly, of course, is still Molly -- but in an eerie twist of fate,
or the lack thereof, the controversial final work by James Jois
is titled Finnigan's(sic)[sic] Wake, and is easily understood by
schoolchildren (though few others), in spite of its text being
nearly identical -- biggest single deviation is that the sentence
split from page 628 to page 003 is left to the individual reader's
discretion, so each copy has to be custom ordered from the
printer after weeks of consultation and argument (done, of course,
in public on email listgroups).
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: you should have seen them kicking edgar allen poe
From: the recent past
Date: 1/27/00 3:09 PM
-----Original Message-----
From: David E. Mark ...
To: <FWAKE-L@LISTSERV.HEANET.IE>
Date: Thursday, January 27, 2000 11:38 AM
Subject: Re: elementary, my dear penguin
I've never tried penguin, but if you say it is delicious I will.
RivS: Don't poke too much fun at the gracious compliment
Harold paid me . . . I have just been eating major crow on
two other lists!
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 099.01 <golddawn glory >
From: the recent past
Date: 1/28/00 3:14 AM
Thank you, Chris Tus Rex, for your forwarding and editing of
Golden Dawnery From: http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org/tarot.htm
containing data from "Soror I. D. D."
A few annotations:
"Sepher Yetzirah 1:1" This brief compact text, dating back to around the
second century, outlines a mystical theory of the relationship of the Hebrew
alphabet to the creation of the universe. Sepher Yetzirah is, in my opinion,
a key Wakean source. (<longsephyring sighs sought heartseast for their
orience> 418.29)
Mr Joyce would have had particularly easy access to the English translation
of Sepher Yetzirah published in 1887 in London by William Wynn Westcott,
one of the founding members of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
William Butler Yeats was another prominent member, and George Russell,
the first publisher of Mr Joyce's fiction, was also associated with the
Golden
Dawn, although he appears to have had a much more peripheral connection
than did Yeats.
"Zero relates to Unmanifest Deity . . . ." writes Soror I.D.D. Compare that
with:
<Ainsoph, this upright one, with that noughty besighed him zeroine.>
261.23-24 ("Ain soph" is Qabalistic Hebrew for "endless limitlessness,"
a reference to deity beyond all conceptualization).
"The letter Aleph, is given to the 11th Path and . . . means "Ox" or "Bull,"
but more specifically it symbolizes creative power . . . Aleph has a
numerical value of one . . . ."
[RivS]: The eleventh path is the central path in the diagram of the 32
paths, the middle of the three horizontal paths. All letters of the alphabet
issue from this path, because ALP (the standard transliterative spelling of
"Aleph" from the Hebrew spelling) is their mother. By extension, ALP is the
source from which flows all literature (works made with letters). In one
pronunciation, ALP is a single bovine creature, and the number one in
Hebrew; in a slightly varied pronunciation, ALP is a herd and thus is
Hebrew for "thousand." Because ALP in Hebrew means both "one" and
"one thousand," 1001 (the total number of letters in the ten thunder words
of the Wake) is, in Hebrew, "ALP and ALP." ALP as "cattle; herd" also
conjures a vision of St Brighid, one of Ireland's three patron saints,
who was once a dairymaid, and who is traditionally associated with
cows, milk, and butter (and one of whose feast days is also the
birthday of James Joyce). ALP (Aleph, the first Hebrew letter) is of
course the initials for Anna Livia Plurabelle, and so contains a deep
richness of Wakean imagery.
"Its first two letters spell out the word AL or "God . . ."
Note also that "al" is Southern Semitic (Arabic) for "the," the word which
"ends" the Wake. Note as well that just as "al" is a root word both for
"god" ("Allah") and "the" in Southern Semitic, that "the" itself is a root
for
"god" (eg, "the-ology"). This holds for the Northern Semitic (Phoenician
and Hebrew) root for "god," which is "el," which appears as "the" in
Spanish.
As is explained by Soror I.D.D., the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet,
Tau, properly translated as TV, also yields considerable symbolic
profundity in Qabalism, and is not considered as simply the final
letter of a linear alphabet, the way we think of "zee." Qabalists think of
the alphabet as circular, the same as Mr Joyce considered the text of
the Wake. "V," as indicated, is the conjunction "and" in Hebrew, so the
spelling of the "final" letter, TV, is "Tau And," given in Qabalism as
"End and . . . ," implying that endings are not the end.
Note that Jesus of Nazareth did not really say "I am the Alpha and the
Omega." He rather said something closer to, "I am the ALP and the
TV ( the Aleph and the Tau)," a phrase rich in interpretations (including
"I am you").
<And you have it, old Sem, pat as ah be seated!> 249.17-18.
("There it is: Old Semitic -- as simple as ABC").
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 107.34 <it's as semper as oxhousehumper!>
From: the recent past
Date: 1/31/00 1:28 AM
<it's as semper as oxhousehumper!>
107.34
To continue on this shiny thread, as McHugh annotates,
107.34 "translates," as it were, to "simple as ABC,"
since "humper" in this context is the third letter of the
Northern Semitic alphabet (eg Hebrew), which is camel.
Ox=Alef;house=beth;camel=ghimel.
Also of interest is to note that this is echoed in the later
passage recently cited: <pat as ah be seated!> 249.17-18,
right down to the exclamation point!
It is helpful to add the Greek correspondences, more
familiar to some readers:
A=alpha=alef (aleph)=ox
B=beta=bet (beth)=house
C/G=gamma=ghimel=camel
The "C/G" configuration is to indicate that in the original
alphabets, the third letter was a hard gee in pronunciation.
The Anglo-Roman "C" is a modern sort of hitherandthithering
character, being sometimes the equivalent of ess, other
times like kay, or in compound characters as "ch," or "cz."
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Do you tell me that now? I do . . . .
From: the recent past
Date: 1/31/00 2:55 AM
Eric asked if Chris Tus REX or I had any thoughts re/
<Holy Scamander, I sar it again! Near the golden falls. Icis on
us! Seints of light!>
214.30-31
If this means in regard to the Golden Dawn, there is an
attenuated at best possibility. After the initial heydays of
that order, Golden Dawn continued to operate for several
decades in Paris under the directorship of the intense and
gifted artist/mystic Moina Mathers, whose maiden name
was Mina Bergson. I have read that she and her brother,
the philosopher Henri Bergson, were of Irish-Jewish
descent, which I would think should have intrigued Mr
Joyce.
Mina Bergson seems to give a cameo appearance early
into the Wake: "Make strake for minnas . . . of the
shortlegged bergins" 012.25-26.
Anyway, as with all the Golden Dawn, Mina had profound
interest in Egyptology, and their is a striking picture of her
ca 1900 as "a priestess of Isis" at:
http://www.cafes.net/ditch/GDgallery.htm
But back to page 214, and the Golden Falls. The main interest
to me at that juncture of the Wake is that the author has taken
a severe and horrid personal disability, his iritis and its
incipient blindness, and woven that experience into a beautiful
tapestry of poetic imagery wherein it is metaphoric with several
other strands, the onsets of night and death, and two Liffeying
washer ladies gossiping and sparring with each other as they do
what modern children call "morphing" (from "Power Rangers")
or "evolving" (from Pokemon) -- ie, changing from one being
into another.
One of the washer ladies keeps seeing an unidentified something,
a light through the mist, which was how everything was appearing if
at all through the author's glaucoma. The various guesses made
as to what is being seen are both comic and pathetically poignant:
1. <the great Finnleader himself>;
2. <a blackburry growth>;
3. <the dwyergray ass them four old codgers owns>;
4. <the Poolbeg flasher>;
5. <a fireboat coasting>;
6. <a glow I behold within a hedge>;
7. <my Garry come back from the Indes>.
None of it can quite come into focus, for <My sights are swimming
thicker on me by the shadows>, and the long 73-line paragraph ends
with a simple reference to the author's earliest childhood memories:
<rathmine>, Wakean for the Dublin suburb whose images by now
were probably clearer in the writer's mind than were the furniture and
people and walls of the room in which he sat.
<Throw the cobwebs from your eyes> the passage shouts, and therein
lies, I believe, the essential philosophy of Mr James Joyce. What he
could not command his body to perform, he showed for the rest of us
in his art -- the epiphany of the mind, the heartfelt embrace of life as
she is sung, the spreading of your washing proper before the night.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 32nd day of year
From: the recent past
Date: 2/1/00 3:59 PM
Culling through Eric's rich field of Brigidine calendrics, this:
"I just read that after the 19 vestal virgins took their turns
tending the fire, Brigit herself watched it the 20th day. This
is echoed, isn't it, by Issy being the 29th (leap-year) student
at St. Brigit's academy. Issy, as the young ALP, is
Brigit-in-training?"
Rivs: It seems undeniable that calendrics was an obsession
of Mr Joyce's which finds its apotheosis in the mythamatics
of St Brighid. Not only has Mr Joyce adapted the "19 + a
Tilly = 20" fire maintenance roster which the Abbey of Kildare
kept in rotation for many centuries, changing it in FW to fit
the month of his birth as "28 + a Tilly (the epact, or intercalary
day of the Julian leap year, or in 2000, the rare Gregorian
leap year) = 29" but in those instance where the Floras shift
to being a week rather that a month, in order to reflect the
rainbow's ROY G BIV configuration, Mr Joyce is paying
homage apparently to those accounts of the Brigidine fire-
keepers which list their number as seven (plus the Abbess).
It is also noteworthy in a more indirect context that those
supreme calendricists, the Maya, used a vigesimal system of
counting, and thence a 20 day month. The 20th day, as in
the Brigidine system, was an obvious Tilly (epact), because
the Maya broke their numerical system at that point, going
into a place-holding system, so that "19" would be in one
place, represented by "zero," and "20" in another, just as
we do with our decimal system, where "10" equals "one"
plus "nine." In other words, the Maya had pictorial glyphs
for numbers up to 19, at which point the system switched.
"28x13=364. (According to Robert Graves, the Druid tree-alphabet
calendar comprised 13 months of 28 days each.) Could the 365th
day (the 29th day added to the last month) have been February
1st (the next day marking the start of Spring, and therefore a
new year)? This would make it correspond better with the
festival year."
RivS: Note that in the Graves system, the month in which James
Joyce was born is "Ash," ie, "Rowan." The ashplant is a major
motif in Ulysses, and the figure representing Mr Joyce in
Exiles is Richard Rowan (note as well the maid, Brigid, and the
milk truck).
As to New Years, it is well recognized that Brighid's Day (the
eve of Jan 31-the eve of Feb 02) marks the Irish New Year
and the beginning of the liturgical calendar of the Irish Church.
A few other appropriate comments:
Mr Joyce expressed a desire to die on his birthday, like
Shakespeare (although conventional wisdom places
Shakespeare's alleged birthday as really a baptismal day).
Although Mr Joyce did not "succeed," he did die on the
Gregorian day of the Julian New Year, 13 January, and the
rape of the Abbess of Kildare is recorded as being on New
Year's day (but not centennial to Mr Joyce's death, due to a
six day epact caused by the Julian Calendar's imprecision as
regards the precession of the equinoxes).
(Langston Hughes did get the job done, being born on Feb 02
of 1902, and leaving us on Feb 02 of 1967. Molly Bloom's
place of origin, Gibraltar, seems to have tipped its hat to the
Joycean mythos by having a freak snowfall on 1954 Feb 02.)
"Imbolg," the Gaelic for the holiday corresponding to St Brighid's
day, is of uncertain meaning. "Im" seems to be cream in Ireland
and "butter" in Scotland. "Bolg" has associations with "bag" and
"belly," so both the womb, the milk sack, and the fourth stomach
of a ruminant are candidates for "Imbolg." Mr Joyce couldn't decide?:
<bag belly> 054.22
The Wakean stand-in, the low sham Shem, was born on St Brighid's
day just like his creator:
<the fraid born fraud> 172.21
In Wales, Brighid's name is spelled "Fraid" and "Ffraid," similar to the
Irish form of Brighid as "Bride," with the shift of plosives.
<Fireless> 172.25, quasi a reference to the post-Brigidine era of Ireland,
and in this instance also quasi a signature to a letter or telegram, seems
appropriate, as the shamed post-Brigidine era is where we would expect
to locate Shem.
Top of the morning to all,
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: vico versus the blue pencil
From: the recent past
Date: 2/3/00 4:05 PM
<In his "Translator's Preface," David Marsh states that Vico's
"larger view of history and society demands our attention,
and I have striven to make his work readable for the modern
reader" (xxxv). He writes, "On occasion I have corrected
minor lapses and supplied phrases required by the context,
taking care that these surface adjustments in no way distort
the substance of Vico's argument" (xxxiv). Grafton, in his
intro., comments on Vico's "pullulating erudition" and
"strange language . . .">
[the above from: Jack Stone ...
date: tuesday, february 01, 2000 5:28 am Subject: re: penguin edition of vico's new science...usefully readable?]
[RivS: sorry, I originally sent my response to the wrong list --
what follows is basically the same as what you may have read.]
There it is, the apple in the garden almost all editors will eat.
Several personal experiences (which do not have anything to
do with the larger body of corrections editors will make
which are justified) of the editors' gnawing awful need to
remove the finest examples of a writer's zeugma, by which
I intend a writer's purposeful and skilled and informed usage
of awkward construction for artistic and philosophic reasons
versus the editors' crusade to make all writing conform to
a sterile puerile template more suitable to a teacher
correcting homework:
1. A family member and myself conspired on an article
about our sighting of Halley's Comet which was published
in a small literary journal. The article began "We were not
interested in seeing the comet until we learned nobody else
could. Because of our crass attitude toward American
culture, we disdain anything popular." The editor simply
could not abide the word "crass," and seemed to take real
personal pride in deleting it, and seemed to expect us to
be grateful. "Crass" just did not fit. Yet that was the Uncle
Charles principle at work. We did not like things that "fit,"
and we said so in a way that did not "fit." We also poked
fun at ourselves, and thus deflated somewhat the silly
pompousness of our stance. No use. Although our piece
became the "cover story," we lost our "crass" in the
process. "Crass" in our opinion, and we did write the
damn thing, was the single most important word in the
entire article, and the only one that the editor would not
allow. Amazing.
2. After passionate argument, another editor of a small
literary journal (nothing I write "fits" in anything else) did
reallow the word "dingdang" in a sonnet. Again, in her
opinion it did not "fit" with the seriousness of the poem.
I am very proud of the fact that, in a world of four-letter
curses that are working their way into Disney movies,
I was censored for saying the "dingdang" word!
3. At my aunt's deathbed request, I wrote her obituary
and service eulogy, which were later (also based on her
wishes) spliced into a biographical introduction to a small
book of fiction which was already set to be published at
the time of her death. This time the word of contention
was in the phrase, "My aunt was that rarest of refreshment,
a refined Bohemian." I faxed the draft to my aunt's home,
and a woman who was "arranging things" sent back her
"corrected" version, in which "refreshment" was now
pluralized to "refreshments." I faxed back a return to the
original. No good. A person who typed the "final" version
took it upon herself to replace "refreshments." I phoned
and requested a rereturn to the singular, got an agreement,
and faxed up my suggested "final" version. The next day,
her eulogy was read by a very intelligent man, a professional
drama critic of good standing, indeed a lovely person, but
he just could not resist: the recorded version of the service,
mailed to me as a video-tape . . . that's right, "refreshments"
was back! I will spare the whole song and dance with the
publishers of my aunt's book, but you guessed it anyway.
In the published version they again insisted on pluralizing
my word, "refreshment."
Now I will grant that "My aunt was that rarest of refreshment . . ."
does not "fit" modern mainstream ears. It is hardly, however,
"incorrect." It is rather a bit 19th century, perhaps actually
quite 18th century . . . OK, it shouts of the Augustan Age,
and I had a hard time not capitalizing it to Refreshment.
It indicates after all a genus of various species, it says that
my aunt was the rarest of many forms of things which are
themselves not as common as we might like -- things which
replenish our spirit, and give us the strength to go on as a
result of the comfort which their pleasurable nature imparts.
There is also again a bit of the free indirect style, since my
aunt was somewhat Victorian, which is pretty much a
precondition to being somewhat Bohemian.
There is one thing which my aunt was not. She was not a
soft drink. To say that she was the rarest of "refreshments"
implies, however, that my aunt was a soft drink and one
not well marketed. That is where we hear "refreshments,"
in the context of beverages mostly, or more generically,
assortments of snacks and dishes and drinks served
casually and generally cold (a classic example, by the
way, of the zeugmatic construction). My aunt was never
served casually and cold, or if so, did not speak of it.
But without any real thought involved, this is what people
meant by "it doesn't fit." My usage of "refreshment" in
the singular conflicted with a more common usage in
thousands of dingdang crass commercials, and although
"refreshments" made no sense in the context of my
aunt's eulogy, it was inserted ad nauseum by fiat.
What did Proust write, someone will know, quoting another
writer, Sainte-Beuve -- it is not the well-trimmed hedge
which defines a writer's art, but that one branch which has
produced flowers beyond all reason until it thrusts itself
out from the trimmers' plane like a madman?
I think that is very appropriate for editors to keep in mind
as a balance only, mind you -- the trimmers' art is a noble
one. The trimmer must frequently, however, step back to
critique his work against that of nature to ensure that he
or she is working in harmony with the greater picture.
Chagall would hold his hand next to a painting, and if there
was a clash, the painting was not done.
I used to do a great deal of pruning, and I loved it, because
you worked hand in hand with plants and not people (nothing
personal). I learned how to bring light into the heart of a tree,
and to make a bush look as though it were praying. But most
importantly, I learned to work with and emphasize each
plant's deviations from the templates of some abstract and
idealized "perfection." If a plant is not hurting another plant,
then it "fits." Otherwise, if one simply continues to remove
every branch which does not conform to what the book of
standards allows, one winds up with a parking lot and must
try to call it a botanical paradise. It doesn't work. And Joyce
it surely ain't -- no, nor the work of the Holy Saint Brighid, who
taught the mighty how to remove their hats in the hovels of
the agrarian poor. And in what society do the people who
grow our food ever "fit?" Only those primal enough to admit
of Refreshment.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
-----original message to: <j-joyce@lists.utah.edu>
date: wednesday, february 02, 2000 12:41 AM
Subject: and may we have some
From: the recent past
Date: 2/3/00 8:19 PM
Just for the fun of it (I wonder why I never get invited to
parties), I ran searches through the four primary works
of Mr Joyce in terms of refreshment vs refreshments.
These things are not infallible, of course, but here are
my results.
There are eight instances of "refreshment" in D, P, U,
and FW combined. This includes instances starting
with a capital "R" or having an "s" at the end.
The word "refreshment" occurs seven times in the
singular, and only once in the plural. The single
occurrence of "refreshments" is attributable to
the mental shenanigans and hi-jinx of Miss Gerty
MacDowell, and not necessarily the opinion of
proper English by the author (assuming Mr Joyce
had such opinion -- and not to mention that Gerty
is herself citing one Reggie Wylie, an impetuous
fellow of dubious character).
The instance of "Refreshment" is found on a sign
above the window of the "poor-looking shop" in
the area of Rutland Square where Lenehan eats
in "Two Gallants." It is used adjacent to and
preceding "Bar." In "The Dead," the word occurs
four times, including two hyphenations with "room"
in the comings and goings of the four young men at
the party.
There is one "refreshment" apiece in Portrait and the
Wake.
In most cases, it seems that probably Mr Joyce considered
"refreshment" as quasi plural, in the sense of a subdividable
category: <he might offer him some refreshment> [P 5.3150]
could, to current ears anyway, be just as well "he might offer
him some refreshments." They are not quite saying identical
things, but when can one say safely "he might offer him a
refreshment"?
So . . . if I write, "My aunt was that rarest of refreshment," I
am saying that within that entire class of various acts causing
refreshment, my aunt was refreshing but uncommon. If
instead I am forced to have it that my aunt was the rarest of
"refreshments," then my aunt risks becoming a genus of
refreshing things within a larger family of refreshing things --
or worse, some specific soft drink, eg ginger beer <menu at
the Rutland Square Refreshment Bar <all things which restore
one's strength.
Of course, when absolute beatified clarity is desired, we must
turn to the Wake --
<Shall we follow each others a steplonger, drowner of daggers,
whiles our liege, tilyet a stranger in the frontyard of his happi-
ness, is taking, (heal helper! one gob, one gap, one gulp and
gorger of all!) his refreshment?>
FW 191.05-08
-- to which I say an enheartened Yes!
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
pee ess, you might say "why couldn't you just take the simple
and conventional route, and allow your phrase to be changed
to "my aunt was that rarest of refreshments" which sounds
better and makes perfect sense to anyone who hears it --
and I can only reply that that is exactly what I did, and am
in fact beginning to prefer it. And yet, damn it all . . . .
Subject: There it is: Old Semitic, as simple as ABC!
From: the recent past
Date: 2/9/00 8:25 PM
To the neat posts about the names of the Northwest
Semitic letters from Katonah, Arye Kendi, and the
LegendaryChrisTusRex, a few additions and nuances:
[given in order of ordination, transliteration, pronunciation,
meaning as noun, meaning as number] [continental vowels]
1. ALP -- alef and elef -- ox, cattle -- 1 and 1000
2. BYTh -- beth -- tent (bayith), house, temple, interior
-- 2 and 2000
3. GML or GYML -- (hard) gimel -- camel (gamal) -- 3, 3000
4. DLTh -- daleth -- door -- 4
5. HA -- heh -- airhole -- 5
6. VV -- (soft) vav (almost "wow") -- nail, hook -- 6
7. ZYN -- zayin -- weapon -- 7
8. ChYTh -- (scot/german guttural "ch") cheth -- fence -- 8
9. TYTh -- (hard, emphatic) teyth -- coiling, twisting -- 9
10. YVD -- yod -- hand (yad) -- 10
11. KP -- kaf -- hollow hand, palm -- 20 (500 as terminal)
12. LMD -- lamed -- oxgoad -- 30
13. MYM -- meym -- water -- 40 (600 as terminal)
14. NVN -- (long vowel) nun -- fish -- 50 (700 as terminal)
15. SMCh -- samech -- support -- 60
16. 'AYN -- (semitic guttural) ayin -- eye -- 70
17. PA, PY -- pey -- mouth -- 80 (800 as terminall)
18. tSDY -- tsadiy -- fishing-hook -- 90 (900 as terminal)
19. QYP -- koph -- back of the head -- 100
20. RYSh -- reysh -- head -- 200
21. ShYN, Shyn -- siyn, shiyn -- tooth -- 300
22. TV -- tav (tau) -- sign, mark, cross -- 400
These are from Langenscheidt's (Feyerabend), which uses
Sephardic pronunciations. As one goes into Qabalistic
overtones, certainly a Joycean consideration, many more
traditional and implied nuances come into play. Comparing
the lists of the various posts today will begin to demonstrate
that expansion. The works of Paul Foster Case are very
helpful, as is of course a book of basic Hebrew grammar.
The seminal work on the mystical significance of the original
Semitic alphabet is the Sefer Yetzirah, a work difficult to
date for various reasons. The second century is given a
lot of consideration as a place to hang a date of origin in
secular terms. Mystical tradition places Sefer Yetzirah much
earlier, and the first citations appear around 600-700 with
the earliest extant text being from around 900-1000, I think
(therefore I am probably wrong -- please corroborate on
your own time, or discorroborate me as the case may be).
Many references to Hebrew letters appear in Ulysses, and,
more especially, in Finnegans Wake.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Phoenician Park
From: the recent past
Date: 2/10/00 6:20 PM
Much grace to Arye and Eric for keeping alive the thread on
Semitic letters in Mr Joyce's work, a very essential area of
study with much excavating yet to tell its talings. One overt
and established site in the Wake is page 249.06-18:
<In the house of breathings lies that word, all fairness.>
Almost all phonetic utterance is of course organized obstructions
of breathings. For a good tour of the house of breathings:
http://www.unil.ch/ling/phonetique/api-eng.html#intro
Notice how <all fairness> can also be spelled as "ALPh airness,"
a phrase which cites the first letter of the Northwestern Semitic
alphabet (the origin of all alphabets which technically qualify to
be named such) <'alef>, and then names the engine of human
speech, <airness>.
<The walls are of rubinen and the glittergates of elfinbone.>
True. The walls of the house of breathings, to the extent we
accept that to be the oral cavity, are ruby-red flesh; the
gates are the teeth of bone.
<all the house is filled with the breathings of her fairness . . .
and the fairness of promise with consonantia and avowals>
Self-explanatory -- consonants and vowels.
<A window, a hedge, a prong, a hand, an eye, a sign, a head
and keep your other augur on her paypaypay. And you have
it, old Sem, pat as ah be seated!>
<Heh, Cheth, Vav, Yod(Kaf), 'Ayin, Tav, Resh and keep your
eye for the future on her Peh aspirated-Peh unaspirated-Peh final.
There it is: Old Semitic, as clear as ABC!>
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: if I prove you are right, do I win the debate?
From: the recent past
Date: 2/11/00 6:03 PM
RivS submitted:
<A window, a hedge, a prong, a hand, an eye, a sign, a head
and keep your other augur on her paypaypay. And you have
it, old Sem, pat as ah be seated!>
249.16-18
<Heh, Cheth, Vav, Yod(Kaf), 'Ayin, Tav, Resh and keep your
eye for the future on her Peh aspirated-Peh unaspirated-Peh final.
There it is: Old Semitic, as clear as ABC!>
----------End of Original Message----------
Arye corrected:
Actually: He/Chet , Lamed (prong), Yod, Ayin, Tav, Resh, Pe
Fritz Senn discovered that it combines into Heliotrop.
------------End of Arye's Message----------------
RivS responds:
I am grateful for Arye's response, as it opens up the avenue for
a longer look at this marvelous page, so deep in its enfoldment.
McHugh also gives the correspondences listed above by Fritz
and Arye. With affirmation by a trio bearing such credentials and
respect to the table, only a complete fool would question their
(and very probably Mr Joyce's) association of letter names. So
here goes:
The insight by Fritz that "heliotrop" can be extracted from <A window,
a hedge, a prong, a hand, an eye, a sign, a head> is a brilliant find,
and once someone as perceptive as he has found it, it also seems
very logical. Corroborration would seem found on page 533 where
<heliotrope ayelips> appears on line 02, followed at line 08 by the
recently cited <Lambeyth and Dolekey>, identified as "lamed" and
"beyth" and "daleth" references, three letter names (the first two
by sight, the third by association, "daleth" meaning door, and
<Dolekey> suggesting "doorkey" -- & eye lips = ayin pey)
<Heliotropolis> at 594.08 is followed by <Rubbinsen> at 594.11,
and that reminds us of <rubinen> at 249.07, the page which we
are analyzing.
<In the heliotropical noughttime> at 349.06 also has "alefbeth"
connotation wakewise. At the Qabalistic passage on page 261,
we read <Ainsoph, this upright one, with that noughty besighed
him zeroine>. Then there is the wonderful phone number near the
start of Proteus, chapter 03 of Ulysses: <Put me on to Edenville.
Aleph, alpha: nought, nought, one.>
"Ain soph" is "endless limitlessness," the mystical origin and context
of the 32 paths in the Sefer Yetzirah which emanate in sequence the
10 digits of the Sefiroth, and the 22 letters of the alphabet. The
Ulyssean reference joins the letter alef/alpha with zero/nought and
with one: the zero being assigned to the alef by the Golden Dawn,
and one being assigned to alef/alpha in Hebrew and Greek numerics.
Several other instances of heliotropical words are found in the
Wake, so we know it was an important word to the author. The
above instances show that among other usages, heliotropical
words in the Wake have sympathetic resonances with Hebrew
letters, and their mystic study, the Qabala. How can one possibly
question that "heliotrop" is spelled out cryptically on page 249?
Their are several levels involved with what is "correct."
1) what did the author intend?;
2) what is correct Hebrew?
IF Mr Joyce's Hebrew is as sloppy in the Wake as it is in Ulysses,
then we may essentially throw out question two. First, we should
at least see what we are throwing out due to the baby factor.
Here is the heliotropic conceit:
window = heh = H [no contest]
hedge = cheth = E [contested -- hedge is well recognized as
synonymous with fence and cheth, but the E association is not
orthodox; there is a system for associating vowels with Hebrew
letters, which are designed to represent consonants, but cheth
is not such a letter -- the consonant associated with E is "heh"]
prong = ? = ? [here is the contention -- we need an L for
heliotrop - yes, a prong could be a prod, giving us lamed = L;
prong could also be a fastener, yielding vav = V/W; and cases
can even be made for prong = samech = tent peg; or
prong = fang = shin!]
hand (pointing/touching) = yod = Y [and by vowel assignment I;
OR: hand (open/taking) = kaf = K]
eye = ayin = Semitic guttural sound [and by vowel assignment O]
sign = tav = T
head = resh = R [yes, BUT, resh is also often specified as the
FRONT of the head, the face, in contrast to qof, Q, the BACK
of the head -- in other words we have the option of:
head = qof = Q]
other augur = repeat the O/ayin/eye, since "augur" is an eye which
sees into the future [OK . . . very like, could be]
[mouthmouthmouth] = paypaypay = PPP [the letter pey has three
forms, aspirated/non-aspirated/terminal, ie, "f," "p," and ending a
word, as in heliotrop -- in classical Hebrew, an aspirated pey is
not supposed to begin a word, incidentally, for those of you who
have wondered why there are no Freds in the Hebrew Canon]
So we actually spell HELIOTROPPP, by noticeable twisting and
a little tormenting of Hebrew transliteration. There is no point in
objecting to the failure to match "heliotrope." Mr Joyce makes
his own spelling rules in English, he will certainly do so in
Anglo-hebraic transliteration.
Heliotrope as a color is important to the Wake, because as a
variable color in the red-purple spectrum, it is that color which
gave the Phoenicians there name, or the other way around,
pick your take, and Phoenicians are central to the Wake due
to their role as alphabet "inventors" (along with their inland
cousins, the Canaanites) and a quasi cognancy with Phoenix,
the bird of resurrection which suggests "Wake" (party for dead,
awakening) and hence the Leinster Edenville, Phoenix Park,
derived from a mispronunciation of the same Irish word seen
in Finn (white/fionn)!
So what could possibly justify Mr Joyce's having intended "vav"
for "prong," and thus lose his HELIOTROPP? Probably none,
and basically I have to yield to the clearer perception of Mssr
McHugh, Senn, and Kendi.
BUT in the process of losing vav, we lose the name of G-D so
holy it is not to be pronounced, only spelled: yod-heh-vav-heh
[in this case, heh becomes the other augur, the clear window
by which the future might be seen] as an element within the
passage on page 249.
So there. Since obviously I have proven beyond little doubt
that Roland, Fritz, and Arye are far more likely to be
correct than I by their reading of "prong = prod = L" than my
"prong = tine/tooth/nail = vav," I feel we can all safely agree that
I have won the debate. Assuming there was one.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: Phoenician Park
From: the recent past
Date: 2/11/00 6:33 PM
Eric confided:
<I was remembering last night that it was the Greeks that
reassigned some of the Phoenician characters to vowel sounds >
RivS: A book which I don't have to hand, published within the
last several decades, goes into immense detail about the
precise, if vague (I am an oxymoron at heart), time, place,
and purpose of the original Greek vocalized alphabet. The
author's contention is that the Greek alphabet was specifically
invented to record the works of Homer. If so, we have
another instance of Mr Joyce's perceptive intuition, since he
followed his book on a partly Homeric theme (Ulysses) with a
book obsessed with (among other things) the alphabet (FW).
Here, I picked the book up on a 'net search:
<Powell, Barry B. Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet.
Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 1991. xxv, 280 p. (incl. maps
and a profusion of text figs.). The author concludes that the
development of alphabetic Greek writing was brought about for
the specific purpose of recording the works of Homer in
material form. He further suggests that this important invention
was the work of a single individual and even identifies the inventor
as possibly someone from Euboea (the predominant island to the
east of the Greek mainland).>
RivS: I did not find the author's hypothesis compelling, and I am
not sure Powell himself did. One has to satisfy a publisher's hype
addiction. What you do get is a good look at abecedarian
protohistorics, and some most excellent cataloguing of early
Greek obscene graffiti! Too bad Cambridge didn't want to sell
on the mass market. The title "Who Did What To Whom on
Aegean Beaches" also might have been used, or worse.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: commodus
From: the recent past
Date: 2/18/00 2:35 PM
Dear Eric,
A great connection:
<From _Architecture Mysticism and Myth_ by William Lethaby
(London, 1892, reprinted 1974 by Architectural Press and 1975 by
George Braziller).
"In the reign of Commodus, Q. Julius Miletus built a
labyrinth as an institution for the amusement of the people. (C.
O. Mueller)
"The _choros_, or dancing-place, built by Daedalus for
Ariadne--as it existed in story, of course, not in stone--was
probably such a labyrinth.>
I don't recall seeing a ref to the labyrinth of Commodus before in
Joycean recircles . . . excellent.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Fw: poppie's prefalling
From: the recent past
Date: 2/22/00 7:57 PM
-----Original Message-----
From: the recent past
To: jjoyce <j-joyce@lists.utah.edu>
Date: Tuesday, February 22, 2000 4:55 PM
Subject: poppie's prefalling
Much grace to Noel Purdon and to Charles Cave for making
accessible to us the web version of "James Joyce's Sister,"
which I find to be one of the most moving and incredible
pieces of Joycean biographic material I've yet to read. It
ranks with the several accounts of Joyces pere and fils
playing that last seaside piano duet. Here's the site again:
http://www.wordarchive.com/archive.php3?id=Purdo942832005
I did find it necessary to copy the article, and reformat it in
a word processor. The site, on my monitor at least, had
established a tedious horizontal scrollbar.
References to the Joyce sister called "Poppie" by her
brother, James, do seem to appear in Finnegans Wake.
The flower association is played on, of course:
<that will bring the poppy blush of shame> FW 445.15-16
being seemingly a reference to the nature of Poppie which
led her to exile herself in a convent, and supposedly never
read her brother's works. The flower tie also may give the
good sister an appearance among the seven Floras:
"Gillia . . . Poppea, Arancita, Clara, Marinuzza, Indra and Iodina"
FW 572.35-36;573.01
A more specific and developed reference to Poppie (Margaret
Alice Joyce, later Sister Gertrude of the Convent of Mercy) is
noteworthy in that it combines allusion to daughter and father
in the portmanteau "Poppypap," one of the many instances of
the author's fascination with juggling feminine and masculine
identities; and for alluding ("passport") to how Margaret Alice
Joyce came to flee the decaying realm of her father's fireside
for the sanctuary and vocation of a holy order in a foreign land:
<Poppypap's a passport out. And honey is the holiest thing ever
was> FW 025.05-06
One passage in Mr Purdon's interview stood out in my mind
beyond all others, a description by Poppie of a vivid incident
experienced by her and James on a walk:
<Another time I remember was when we were coming back
from one of our long walks, we were walking through a
cemetery. And there was this white thing flapping in the
moonlight. I don’t know whether it comes out in his writing,
but Jim was a terrible one for phobias. He was also completely
terrified of thunderstorms. Once he hid in the pantry shaking. It
was doubtful whether or not he’d finish his examinations. But
father was the fearless one. There was this white form flapping
away. And it was he went to investigate. And do you know what
it was? It was an old goat eating the ivy off the tombstones.’ >*
This is really stunning. We all have been wondering aloud for
decades about the role of HCE as a goat in Finnegans Wake.
The above passage seems to be the seminal key, combining
an intense preternatural vision of two children with the Joycean
sine qua non, the thunderstorm, and an old goat, and a tombstone.
We already know the goat to be a major icon in the Wake. The
tombstone is equally significant, because the Wake, as indicated
by the very word, is about death and resurrection, a wake being
1) a party for a dead person, and 2) an awakening. For some
time I have attempted, to waves of thundering silence, to engage
the attention of Joyceans to the fact that HCE is an abbreviation
used on the ancient Roman equivalent of tombstones. HCE is
the older equivalent of RIP. It stands for Hic Conditur Est,
meaning Here (the) Author Is. Thus all the HCE's in the wake
point both to the eternal interment and the eternally resurrecting
rebirth, but as well to Mr Joyce, the book's author (author in the
older sense, including maker, founder, constructor, initiator).
All this has been dug and redug. What Sister Gertrude has brought
to the table, thanks to Mr Purdon, are the roots in a moment of
the reality of two children, an intersection of time and space on
Vico Road, which literally lit up a mythscape. At last we have, for
one thing, the ivy. Ivy winds itself throughout the trellis of Finnegans
Wake, where it is often in a pagan/christian pairing with holly. Joyce
seems to associate the ivy with darkness, hoods, cloisters, death,
and holly with brightness, gaiety, and life:
<Hollymerry, ivysad> FW 588.17 We read, soon followed by an
allusion to the author's perhaps single most indelible image for
most, <truce of snow, moonmounded snow?> (FW 588.19), the
general snowfall ending "The Dead."
Here are more, but not all, Wakean clusters of death and ivy:
<circling the square, for the deathfête of Saint Ignaceous
Poisonivy> FW 186.12-13
<shows his death its grave mistake; brought us giant ivy>
FW 134.20-22
<how it is triste to death, all his dark ivytod! Where cold in
dearth.> FW 571.14-15
Yes, you say, there is the ivy in the graveyard, but where is
the GOAT when the ivy is present? One Wakean phrase
especially addresses that:
<Hag Chivychas Eve, in prefall paradise>
FW 030.14-15
in which we see a goat-root (Sp. chiv-), the ivy (ch-ivy-as),
HCE (by his initials), and a reference to the prefall paradise of
childhood. The all-mother in her triple role as crone (hag) and
temptress (Eve) and milky nurturer (goat) tie it all together, and
we end up again with the male-female duality of HCE, this time
with the female in particular emphasis (as distilled in the plays in
the Wake on "pap," a word meaning father, tit, and treacle -- yet
another trinity). The Spanish word "chivas" may even be a
particular invocation of the Joyce children's scary moonlit storm,
because "chivas" (chiv[ych]as) specifically means two little goat
children, or as we say in English, two kids.
"esquire earwugs . . . with his I've Ivy under his tangue"
485.21-22 is another example in the Wake of ivy and HCE
(earwugs=earwicks=Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker=
earworker, the blind author, here he is=Hic Conditur Est=
tombstone, and I could go on, which if nothing else, you
believe).
In the extension of the Wakean passage cited above as seeming
in particular to point to that sister described as Mr Joyce's favorite,
there is even the beatific doe herself, again in an ambience, an
ivylike clustering of imagery, which suggests that idyllic light in
which we often see moments in our childhood, that land which,
even at its most frightening (or especially), we see so clearly now
to have been a land of milk and honey:
<Poppypap's a passport out. And honey is the holiest thing ever
was, hive, comb and earwax, the food for glory, (mind you keep
the pot or your nectar cup may yield too light !) and some goat's
milk, sir> FW 025.05-08
*The passage in which Sister Gertrude describes the epiphany of
the goat in the graveyard is from "James Joyce's Sister,"
<wordarchive.com> by Noel Purdon (c) [1987?].
*[Note the stream of conciousness wherein the father, the son,
and the thunder appear in other times and contexts midstream
to the primary tale in the telling].
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: correction: Hic Conditor Est
From: the recent past
Date: 2/22/00 11:36 PM
Those plowers of my post on Poppies prefalling should
note and excuse the following:
HCE on ancient Roman equivalents of tombstones stands
for: Hic Conditor Est (NOT Conditur). Sorry, & thanks.
Hic Conditor Est still means "Here (the) Author Is," using
"author" as "founder, maker." Daedalus is also present,
as "conditor" also means "contriver" in the positive sense
of "builder, composer, artificer."
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: Joyce & popular culture
From: the recent past
Date: 2/26/00 2:49 AM
Jack Stone is right, the Winslow Boy is a movie likely
to appeal to Joyceans. The work of the lead actress
(Rebecca Pidgeon?) is especially keen, that nice
passionate understating that Americans have often
mistaken in the English for sang froid -- a good
drama of manners from the culture who sells books
with statements such as 'quite readable' -- and what
mainstream American media can't understand is that
the book is exactly that, and that is all it need be
for its consumers, not the American 'an epic saga of
secret forbidden lusts spanning generations,' which
may in fact be quite UNreadable.
If the question on the table then is movies which
reflect Joyce's influence or interests or game
pieces, I would like to recommend Cool Hand
Luke, with Paul Newman. The story is very
Wakean for a mainstream movie, with no
attempt to be so in a literary manner. As in
the Wake, Biblical elements surface here and
there with no attempt to actually retell the
Gospel of Luke in modern form -- but rather a
very Joycean usage of New Testament this
and that picked almost randomly from a compost
litter by a chicken -- which of course works much
better. As in the Wake, the people are sleazy
bottom feeders, and the Newman character, a
prisoner somewhere in Texas, is a rounder, not
an allegorical Jesus or Luke (and as in the Wake
and Ulysses, his character is subject to flashes
of more than one classic role model, that is,
Luke and Jesus are invoked to a certain degree
in one character, who in fact is neither). The best
hope for salvation Luke now offers are lies about
how happy he will be when he escapes to go
gambling and whoring in the big city, and the
crucifixion is become an eating contest wager
with Newman in the attitude of Jesus on the
Cross spread on his back on a mess table with
gambling prisoners stuffing hardboiled eggs
down his throat. But there is a visitation from
Mother Mary, and an existential argument with
The Old Man in a deserted church. Somebody
tried, and maybe even succeeded.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: gospel according to cool hand luke
From: the recent past
Date: 2/26/00 3:11 AM
PS and I forgot the movie's most famous line -- what
better statement to issue forth from a modern
Pontius Pilate, now the warden of a rural southern chain
gang, than "What we got here is a failure to
communicate."
And can't you recast it in your mind with say any one of
about 95% of the other literary image makers of this
recently past century standing before the crowd, with
the bleeding Joyce wearing the stephanos (wreath-crown)
of thorns, and suddenly the procurator of the 7 figure advance
exposes on high the black first American edition of Finnegans
Wake to the jeers of an angry mob, and he shouts with the
cords of his perspiring neck taut in the unforgiving sunlight --
"What we got here is a failure to communicate!"
Where is Miss Weaver then!
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Finding of a Formula: Fibyouare wins -- Year! Year!
From: the recent past
Date: 2/28/00 9:31 PM
<a slip of the time between a date and a ghostmark>
FW 473.08-09
Fans of Joyce, and of Issy, the lovely cloudy leapgirl
of his invention by which he embodied into the 29th of
February all the gauzy flighty shining precipitant and
obnoxious glory of youth, may be interested to know
that 2000 February 29 is an unusual leap day in the
modern (ie, Gregorian) calendar.
The Julian calendar, instituted during the administration
of Julius Caesar, terminated the lunisolar calendar, with
its intercalary epacts needed to allow the coincidence
of lunar months with solar years, (<And they leap so looply,
looply, as they link to light> FW 226.26-27) in favor of the
simply solar calendar now in worldwide use (although the
lunar calendar also remains in play, as in Semitic nations).
The Julian calendar used three years of 365 days and
an intercalary year of 366 days to form a four year period
which allowed for the actual solar years of roughly 365.25
days. As we know, the extra day in fourth years has been
made February 29, and placed in years divisible by four.
The solar year, however, is not quite that long. As centuries
rolled by, this imprecision made the Julian calendar fall
behind real time. By the 1500's, the easily recognized
reversal of the sun's apparent movement in relation to the
horizon (the traditional holiday of winter solstice) was ten days
off. Under the aegis of a Pope Gregory, the calendar was
defaulted deleting ten days from October in 1582, and a
new epact was ordered: leap days would no longer occur
in years ending with two zeroes unless the first two digits
formed a number also divisible by four evenly.
In application, it works so that, three times in sequence, years
ending in two zeroes will not be leap years, although all such
years are of course divisible by four, and would have been Julian
leap years. In Gregorian terms, only each fourth turn of the
century will be allowed a leap day.
1600 got a leap day, because 16 can be divided by four evenly.
1700 got no leap day, nor did 1800, nor did 1900. 17 is not
divisible by four, nor are 18 and 19. 20 is divisible by four, so
the year 2000 does get a leap day in February.
There is more to it. Not only is 2000 the first Gregorian turn of the
century leap year in 400 years, but it is the first universal one. 1600
had the anomalous leap day in Catholic countries only, since other
countries did not wish to be seen taking advice from the Pope.
(<And this, pardonsky! is the way Romeopullupalleaps> 303.01-02)
Since then, they have come around slowly but surely. The Prots
have been becoming Gregorian now for 200+ years, and those
countries traditionally Orthodox came around during the 20th century.
So --
2000 February 29 is the first global Gregorian turn-of-the-century
leap day in history! Everyone lift an appropriate glass an say
"Aminglement!"
And to all of you I wish <leap smiles on the twelvemonthsminding?>
FW 280.08
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: flooding fields and the equinarx
From: the recent past
Date: 2/29/00 10:47 PM
Eric posted (along with many other good calendrics):
<the equinox was occurring
on 21 March, and was fixed there>
and this opens the door to remind us of the nice
serendipity that James Joyce was born during the
traditional Celtic holiday heralding the entrance of
spring (Brighid's "Day": the eve of Jan 31 through the
eve of Feb 02), and Nora Joyce was born on the
day now most associated with the first day of spring,
March 21 (also, according to John Gordon, the day
of Finnegans Wake).
Shem's birthday is also Brighid's "Day": <the fraid born fraud>
[172.21], "Fraid" being the Welsh, or Cymric, form of Brighid
(often spelled "Ffraid"). The Joyces, incidentally, are purported
to be Welsh-Norman Irish, rather than Anglo-Norman.
In lines 03-04 of page 035, a quite calendric page throughout,
HCE's birthday is given as the Ides of April: <one happygogusty
Ides-of-April morning (the anniversary, as it fell out, of his first
assumption of his mirthday suit>, specifically April 13, but more
generally the period back from April 13 to April 06. Ides are a
fitting mirthday for HCE, as founding father of what seems the
only family in the Wake, as the Ides are dedicated to Jupiter, the
Roman father god (Ya pater=Iupiter).
[Eric:] <the Spring equinox (originally at 6 calends March?>
[RivS:] The placement of the vernal equinox into the Roman
calendar is indeed confusing, and is still a Vatican II bugaboo,
causing the quasi pagan shuffling of Easter each year to
align it with lunisolar calendrics. This seems to be in play in
the context of Eric's citation from 085.27 <the calends of Mars>:
<on the calends of Mars, under an incompatibly framed indictment
of both the counts (from each equinoxious points of view, the one
fellow's fetch being the other follow's person)> 085.27-29
Perhaps this difficulty is also reflected during the burst of calendrics
from Butt beginning at 346.31:
<roughnow along about the first equinarx in the cholonder> 347.02-03
What Butt divulges about this first equinox in the calendar is of
interest for its display of Mr Joyce's incroyable ability to shred
real-world data and remix it into Wakean word salad.
<Hittit was of another time> 346.35-347.01 points to the time of
the Hittittes, Indo-Europeans who appear early in the 2nd millennium
BC. Some case can be made for this falling into a time in which
the equinoctial observations, most especially the spring ones, were
rising in status. The earlier holidays formed around solstices and
heliarcal risings, because those can be recognized by direct
sighting if one knows what to look for. Equinoxes raise the ante
for priest-astronomers who set public festivals because
equinoxes have to be calculated, not seen. You have to count
the days between solstices and divide by two. You have to
keep track of each day inbetween. In short, you have to keep
accurate records in order to know when the equinoxes occur.
Stick notching doesn't really cut it. The equinoxes are holidays
for cultures who can write. You can try, of course, once you do
learn to calculate the spring equinox a few times, simply to
memorize or draw what the sky looks like at that time in terms
of stars which are rising or setting or culminating at early or
last darkness of the proper night. But if you try that, something
even more fascinating starts to show up. The equinoctial sky
picture is not static! It changes each year. What is more, if you
keep good records for a number of generations, you can gather
enough data to make calculations which will reveal that the
equinoctial sky picture not only changes, but changes by an
orderly progression of sequential increments. Now you can
predict what the stars of the equinoctial sky will be for any
future or past year, that is, which stars will be rising or setting
or culminating at first or last dark for the equinoctial night (the
night halfway between the solstices). At that point you literally
go full circle, and realize through your calculations that the
progressive changing of the equinoctial skies is cyclical. The
pattern will repeat itself every 26,000 years or so. (Conventional
wisdom credits Hipparchus with discovering precession much later
in Hellenic times. Mr Joyce, however, was not always wedded to
conventional wisdom, nor need we be. Hipparchus probably
discovered precession in roughly the same way that Europeans
discovered the Grand Canyon -- by following the trails).
<a white horsday where the midril met the bulg> 347.01
The equinoxes occur when the sun passes by the
intersection of the ecliptic (sun's pathway) and the
celestial equator (plane extended into the sky from the
earth's equator). This is the coincidental point of two arcs,
which is in the subsequent wordplay of equinox/equinarx.
And then of course, Joyce cannot resist wordplay upon
horse=equus and equinox (equal nights [to days]). He also
sneaks in the eternal plug for Brighid's day, the Irish
alternate to the equinox, in <bulg>, noted by McHugh as
the Irish "belly." This word appears in the Irish name for
Brighid's day: Im-bolg, or "cream-belly." Bolg is also bag,
and cream-bag is a better translation of Imbolg, since
creambag conjures the breast, the thee universal icon of
motherhood. This is also in play in <equinarx>, which
combines the mounts upon which stood Roman temples
of Juno, who personified the motherly life-giving principle:
the temple of Juno Lucina, the childbearer, on the
Equiline Hill; and the temple of Juno Moneta, the warning
teacher, on the Arx summit of the Capitoline Hill.
<moist moonful date> 347.07 One reason desert cultures in
particular watch for the equinox is that it heralds the snowmelt
in distant mountains, which bring the yearly flooding along
the river banks. The inundation not only irrigates, but amends
the soil with mud high in nutrients. <date> is thus not only
calendric in this phrase, but includes resonances with palm
dates, and perhaps inun-dates. "Hegheg . . . wraimy wetter
. . . samewhere in Ayerland." [McHugh: heghegh=flood in
eastern Armenian; ayer=water in Malay].
<old stile and new style and heave a lep onwards> 347.13-14.
Old Style and New Style are other designations for Julian and
Gregorian in calendrics. In Joycean calendrics, they may also
indicate the lunar and solar approaches to calendrics, lunar being
the old style. Half a leap refers certainly to the leap year, along
of course with the Light Brigade. The phrase also can be read:
Julian and Gregorian calendars both have a leapday. This is
more than CNN knows. Today they ran a "Factoid" informing us
that the leap year was started by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582,
a piece of gross misinformation. What Pope Gregory XIII did
in 1582 was actually to drop three leap years from each
subsequent four-century period. Our leap year was introduced
by Julius Caesar in 46 BC on the advice of the Alexandrian
astronomer, Sosigenes. After some false starts while everyone
took turns failing to understand how it worked, the basic leap year
system was in place by the second decade of the common era,
during the reign of Augustus. The usage of other forms of leap
days and years had been common for several thousand years
at least prior to the current Julian-Gregorian form.
<the great day and the druidful day come San Patrisky and the
grand day, the excellent fine splendorous long agreeable
toastworthy cylindrical day, go Sixt of the Ninth, the
heptahundread annam dammias that Hajizfijjiz ells me is and
will and was be till the timelag is in it that's told in the Bok of
Alam to columnkill all the prefacies of Erin gone brugk>
347.16-21
Well. The great day can be various things. The precession of
the equinoxes came to be called the Great Year, since as
with the solar year, it was a regular period of time which was
cyclical and repetitive. For a long time, ancient societies
considered the year as having 360 days, with various fine
tuning thrown in all over the place to account for the epact
five more days plus change. Forinstance:
"During the reign of Romulus ...they only kept to the one rule that
the whole course of the year contained three hundred and sixty
days." Plutarch. (A.D. 75) Lives, The Life of Numa. Translated by
John Dryden.
When the Great Year of approximately 26,000 solar years is divided
by the 360 days of the ancient year, it becomes analogous to the
division of any circle into degrees. Thus one degree of the precessional
circle which the earth's poles describe requires 72 years. One great
day of the Great Year is 72 years long. 72 or so years has long been
the average life span (don't believe cooked statistics compiled to
justify the industrial revolution . . . yes, people in huge cities live
longer
if their garbage and feces are hauled away regularly, and colonized
people die young after their cultures are eradicated . . . but the human
life span of 70-80 years was documented in the Bible thousands of
years ago). Thus, each average life is one degree of a grand celestial
circling of the ecliptic by first days of spring. This means each average
human life will last the duration of the progress of precession through
a given day of the year. About thirty of these Great Days will then
define a Great Month, by which time the first day of spring will have
advanced so far through the ecliptic that it is in an entirely new one of
the ecliptic's twelve sectors, or "houses." These are named as the
signs of the Zodiac, and this is what is meant by the Aquarian Age
hoopla. At root, it is mathematical. Whether we will enter an age
of better understanding as a result is a different matter. We are
absolutely entering the Aquarian Age, it just means that the first
day of spring will occur when the first second of Right Ascension
is within that area of the sky map. Astronomy simply says "We are
now traveling through Flagstaff." Astrology claims that as a result,
we will have a guaranteed good time, an <excellent fine
splendorous long agreeable toastworthy cylindrical day.> All we
really can know, of course, is that with luck, we will have a day.
Flagstaff, to me personally, is not necessarily a good sign, but I am
blowing in the wind of my metaphor.
<go Sixt of the Ninth> In the lunar Roman calendar, the Older Style,
so to speak, this could be the day after the first sighting of the
new lunar crescent (assuming <Sixt of the Ninth> is Wakean for the
sixth day before Nones, itself the ninth day before the full moon):
"Nones (Latin nonus or ninth) was originally the day when the moon
reached its first quarter phase. When the pontifex initially saw the
lunar crescent he noted its width and, using empirical knowledge,
calculated the number of days that were expected to elapse between
then and the first quarter moon. He then specified that number after he
announced the new crescent. If he called out the number six, the day
following Calends would be referred to as the sixth day before Nones."
http://www.greenheart.com/billh/calends.html
"The day of Calends itself began a new month. It was dedicated to Juno."
Ibid
A great holiday was dedicated to Juno on March 01, the Matronalia. This,
in early Rome, was the first day of the year, and occurred at the moon's
first increscence, the first sighting of the skinny silver sickle, which
fell
before the last full moon to precede the spring equinox. You see why
Romans separated their months from the lunar cycle in the fifth century B.C.
"the druidful day come San Patrisky and . . . the
heptahundread annam . . . that . . . will . . . be . . . the timelag
. . . to . . . Erin gone brugk" This sifting highlights the mystical
mythomatics alluded to in McHugh. What is given to our
consideration is a Viconian-like era of divinity in Irish History, the
fairly
precise era in which the island's political jurisdiction coincided with a
distinct ecclesiastical bailiwick we can identify as the Irish Catholic
Church,
and not the Roman which followed or the Druidic which preceded. The
wakean time zone of <heptahundread annam> is a seven hundred year
period from the second coming of Patrick in 432 to the politically-
motivated rape of the Abbess of Kildare, the earthly vicar of St Brighid, in
1132. The date of record for that rape is New Year's Day. For <the
prefacies of Erin gone brugk> I would read the era which follows the
destruction of the Irish Church, and its replacement by a tense marriage
of Roman and English interests. Facies are symbols of heavy-handedness
of Roman rule, and also the fascistic manner by the English Church's
members increasingly approached Irish affairs as centuries rolled. The
allusion to Erin go brath is a reminder that all this was brought on by
recurrent instances Irish duplicity embodied by Dermot MacMurrough,
believed to have ordered the rape of the Abbess of Kildare as an
opening move in his long career whose foliation was the handing over
of Leinster to the Normans some decades later.
<annam dammias> may recall the pro-Greek Egyptian king, the Saite,
Amasis (or Ahmose II; ruled 570-526 BC), associated with a talismanic
garment wonderously woven from the numeric days of the year:
"The breastplate was of linen and with many figures woven into it, and
decorated with gold and cotton embroidery. The greatest wonder of it is
that each single fine thread of the fabric has in itself three hundred and
sixty strands, and they all can be seen to be there. One exactly like it
was dedicated by Amasis, in Lindus, to Athena."
Herodotus. The History. [Trans by David Grene, 1987 (3.47)].
On the other hand, Butt could be full of shit. It happens.
St Kevin also is in on whatever it is on page 347. In the following:
<eastward genuflecting, in entire ubidience at sextnoon collected gregorian
water sevenfold> 605.29-30
there is reference to the varying calendrics of Easter again, separating the
western and eastern moities of Christianity, and the Sixth of Nones (the
beginning of a the moon's first quarter), and the Gregorian calendar,
and the seven-day week. Also we see the theme of water, prevalent in
Wakean calendrics, and Wakean everything else, in an especially personal
context for the February-born author -- as an Aquarius, Mr Joyce was
a Waterbearer, and thus <collected gregorian water>, that is , fell by
birthdate into the part of the calendar personified by Aquarius, the
Waterbearer (cf 035.28 <waterbury, ours by communionism>).
Somehow Joyce links not only Brighid but Patrick to the Aquarian month:
<4.32 M.P., old time, to be precise, according to all three doctors
waterburies> 290.05-06
but Mr Joyce is undoubtedly referring to himself as
<Waterman the Brayned> 104.13
There. So much for February 29 . . . at least until the Sixth of the Ninth,
that is, the sixth day of September, when we will discuss the defeat
of James the IV in 1513 at Flodden Fields.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: my nose you say is rather big -- kindly I provide the birds a perch
From: the recent past
Date: 3/1/00 2:37 PM
In response to my post on <equinarx>, and calendrics at
play in Finnegans Wake, Michael Mastrogiacomo was able
to contribute this, and nothing else:
<if you look deep enough into a river your sure to come
up with mud on the tip of your nose>
The implication seems to be that I have tried too hard to plumb
the springs and depths of the Wake, and have soiled myself?
If anything in my post were designed to hurt someone, I might
understand, but my post was written in a spirit of generosity and
good will. To paraphrase Carlyle, can't we learn to disagree in
our opinions only?
If Mr Mastrogiacomo could critique my post's actual content, I
probably would learn something. His intent seems more to hit
and run. I will attempt nevertheless to address the content of his
post, such as it is.
1) What is said of a river is not true. Lakes accumulate
deposits of mud on their bottoms. River currents tend to
carry away such silt as a suspended load until they can
deposit it somewhere that is cool -- still and static.
2) What one actually learns from peering deeply into
a river is that rivers contain many levels of beauty and
instruction.
3) All in all, one tends to have a cleaner face after looking
into the depths of a river. Moving water is cleansing.
4) If indeed I have sullied my nose, it was in the quest of
novelties, antiquities, and lost treasures which I thought
to share with my friends of a like interest. The proper
response is to hand me a tissue, and say, "Look what I
also found along the shore, my friend."
Ubiquitous blustering blathering thoughtlessness, the
whine of diesel engines, doors slamming, gears shifting,
children screaming like little fascists, the two-dimensional
phatic announcements of our commercial administrators on
the flickering set . . . should not the works of Mr Joyce
provide some island of refuge from this? Are not his beyond
all other works designed to promote profoundly passionate
discourse? If not, then my only choice is to pretend I am not
saddened, and to respond with a similar unkind one-liner.
You can all easily imagine some, but let's not and say we did.
No, let's not even do that. Let us rather join hands and invite
Mr Mastrogiacomo to lead us into shallower waters.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 391.01-02 1169-1768
From: the recent past
Date: 3/2/00 4:57 AM
<in or aring or around about the year of buy in
disgrace 1132 or 1169 or 1768>
391.01-02
For a year or two, I have been hoping to find
linkage between the above years. 1132 and
1169 are easy. 1132 is the beginning of
Dermot MacMurrough's nauseous career,
highlighted at the start by his ordering of the
rape of the Abbess of Kildare. 1169 is the
culminating inflorescence of MacMurrough's
self-aggrandizing wickedness, his awarding
to Robert Fitzstephen of the city of Wexford.
Both were acts of betrayal to Ireland by an
Irishman, so I have especially looked to see
that theme apparent with clarity in some
1768 event, but it took over a year to find it
in this simple, but superbly adequate, little
sentence:
"From 1768 onwards Catholics offered prayers
in their churches for the British king,"
[Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry. A History of
Ireland. 1993/98. Chapter 08, The Protestant
Ascendancy, p 183].
This would seem to be another thunderclap
signaling the changing of ages. The period
from 1132 through 1169 saw the ending of
the rule of the Irish Church instituted in 432,
a period of some 700 years. Mr Joyce seems
to use 1768 in similar fashion to mark the
ending of the Roman Church's key position
in the politics of the Irish. The 1798 Rebellion
would be, after all, Protestant led with Catholic
supporters on either side, it's most severe
setback perhaps being the resolution by the
Catholic clergy and students of Maynooth to
support the British against the Irish rebels.
As the entrance into the arena by MacMurrough
in 1132 set events in motion for the Norman
Invasion of 1169-71, so did the adoption of
Catholic prayer in Irish churches for the Protestant
king of England pave the way for the Catholic
clerical betrayal of the 1798 Rebellion. The
fear by the church of democracy led them to
buy into the Anglican establishment which had
attempted for years to eradicate them. Buy in
disgrace. At least, that is one way to look at it,
certainly an oversimplified one, but 1169 to 1768
makes a neat 600 year age for the Viconian in
the crowd.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: row and ruction
From: the recent past
Date: 3/2/00 3:43 PM
Following up on Eric's wakish song, re/Finnigan's Wake itself --
audio sample of the song:
http://www.seacoastmusic.com/Celtic/TownPants/liverdance.htm
version of the words:
http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aq938/tfw.htm
>From Liverdance by Town Pants, who mention Joyce in their notes.
Subject: 550.08-552.30
From: the recent past
Date: 3/8/00 3:18 AM
In sifting the sizeable pearlagraph within which falls
the phrases of inquiry from Florentius Campuquiensis,
I noticed several interesting themes and allusions.
1. Lots of stones are in the passage. Benstock (1965)
names pp 546-554 as "H.C.E. recounts the conquest
of A.L.P.," which strikes me as double entendre --
on the one hand, Anna is being mounted by Humphrey;
on the other, Anna is a mountain being ascended. Is
this why we come upon all the rocks?
a. 550.31 <Pieter Stuyvesant> ("Pieter" fr Lt Petra=rock)
b. 551.30 <was I not rosetted> Rosetta Stone
c. 551.30 <on two stellas> fr Lt stela>Grk stele: a usu.
carved or inscribed stone slab or pillar used for
commemorative purposes
d. 551.31 <rockcut readers>
e. 552.05 <stonefest>
f. 552.05 <freely masoned> masons=stoneworkers
g. 552.12 <Stoney>
h. 552.30 <altarstane> stane is Scot for stone
All these seem to tie in with even more numerous
references to architecture and other masonic
building materials. Just as stones are the bricks from
which the Alps are built?
2. Their are also passages of music, and musical
references appear in the paragraph.
a. 552.02 <vampared> Tampa Red was a prominent blues
artist who began recording in 1928. Born Hudson Whittaker,
he did vocals and slide guitar. Tampa Red formed a
partnership with pianist Georgia Tom Dorsey in 1928. That
same year the two musicians recorded "It's Tight Like That,"
for the Paramount label. The record sold thousands of copies.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that authentic blues music
by black musicians was in obscurity until discovered by white
students in 1964. Bigband blues with female vocalists were
on the groundfloor of the recording industry. Black singer
Mamie Smith was the first vocalist to record a blues song. Her
version of composer Perry Bradford's "Crazy Blues," recorded
on August 10, 1920, was a gigantic hit, sold some seventy-five
thousand copies in the first month of its release, and more than
one million in the first year. Bessie Smith's blues helped
establish the Capitol label in its infancy. D.H. Lawrence showed
the same petty jealousy he displayed by denigrating Joyce when
D.H. threw one of his wife's Bessie Smith records against a
wall because she listened to it so often. If a European was
going to have heard of Tampa Red in the late 1920's or early
1930's, the Joyces were in the proper city: Paris.
b. 552.18 <organisation> organ
c. 551.27 <open noise> organs sound by opening stops
d. 551.32 <sevendialled changing charties> the seven tones
of the diatonic scale
e. 551.33 <to pass through twelve Threadneedles> the twelve
tones of the chromatic scale
f. 552.09 <horns, hush!>
g. 552.25 <the oragel> fr orgel, German for organ
h. 552.26 <tellforth's glory> an allusion (see McHugh) to
Telford and Telford, maker's of St Patrick's organ
i. 552.28 <zackbutts> sackbut: medieval and Renaiss. trombone
j. 552.28 <ollguns> organs, all of the above leading, I believe, to:
k. 552.30 <all have mossyhonours!> a patent, and apparently until
now, overlooked commendation for the radical young French
organ composer, Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), glorified here by
Mr Joyce in a hail of hails which we assume HCE means as well
to apply toward his own organ by which he rose upon the Alp.
An interesting question arises, and for once, it is a question which
can be answered definitively -- what is needed is to compare the
version of our paragraph under consideration with the earlier
publication (1930 & 1931) by Mr Joyce, Haveth Childers
Everywhere, a booklet previewing pp 532-554. The watershed is
this: if the Joyce's were listening to Tampa Red and Olivier
Messiaen during the 1930's, they were hip; if they were aware of
these musicians within the 1928-1930 period, they were more
than hip, the Joyces would have been cutting edge avant-garde.
Can anyone here access and report as to whether Haveth
Childers Everywhere has the <vampared> and/or <all have
mossyhonours> allusion(s)? Both artists, Tampa Red and
Messiaen, made their first break-outs in 1928, so it is quite
possible they will appear in Joyce's 1930 booklet.
Messiaen was certainly a Wakean at heart, preparing for his
long career as a composer by studying with equal fervour
plain chant, hindu rhythms, birdsong, Greek music, holy
scripture, and surrealistic poetry. His public premier was an
organ piece he named The Celestial Banquet (1928), and it
brought him much attention, as did the mysteries of his
improvisations at the Church of the Trinity, where he was
organist. Messiaen was quickly believed to be evolving a
new and personal language of musical meditation, and he
became in turn the primary influence on Pierre Boulez.
Joyce seems to prepare an anticipation for the climax of
our paragraph by plays on the "olive" in "Olivier."
a. 550.18 <Uliv's oils>
b. 552.11-12 <Shepperd> whose first name was Oliver
There are of course other themes is the paragraph, and
an intriguing one is the appearance of many references
to the occult, the supernatural, things that go bump
in the night, the New Testament, and to food. Is this
the Celestial Banquet of Olivier Messiaen from 1928?
But enough for now.
I have not explained much in the koanic presentation
sent in by Florentius, but we do see within the calendrics
of <sevendialled changing charties> and <pass through
twelve Threadneedles>, that is weeks and months, also
reference to the standard scales, the diatonic(s) and the
chromatic, and in either one, the process of modulation
(changing and passing through) by which Western music
evolved first the seven major/minor keys, and then later,
the twelve well-tempered keys of Bach.
One more presence in the area highlighted by Florentius
is the apparent awareness by Mr Joyce that the saying
cited by Jesus about a camel passing through the eye of
a needle is believed to be an allusion to The Eye of the
Needle, a nickname for one of the twelve gates into
Jerusalem, a particularly narrow gate. So that gives the
rich man a somewhat better shot on heaven, but far
from a shoo-in. (". . . to pass through twelve Threadneedles
and Newgade and Vicus Veneris to cooinsight?: my camels'
walk, kolossa kolossa! no porte sublimer benared my
ghates: Oi polled ye many but my fews were chousen . . .")
Pardon my closing on a delicate note, but the Vicus Veneris
shading to the difficulty of threading one's colossal camel
through the sublime port of the nude gate forces me to guess
that HCE is both bragging about his organ's pipesize, and
perhaps admitting he encountered a bit of difficulty at first
entering the rocky road to the mount of Alp. [551.33-36].
[Also cf "It's Tight Like That" by Tampa Red, 1928].
No doubt the amazing efficiencies of handewers and
groinscrubbers were enough to teaze out her comely
tussy, and douist her more moister wards . . . but really,
I feel at the risk of indelicacy in private country matters.
[550.19-22]. Pelves ad hombres sumus? Dream on, Mr
Earwicker. I mean, really! That's terribly crude.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: 550.08-552.30
From: the recent past
Date: 3/9/00 3:43 AM
Dear Will,
Thanks for the insight about the London streetnames.
They were not at all obvious to me. Newgate rings
a bell now that you mention it, but Threadneedle is
news to me. I have noticed a financial institution
motif in the Wake (along with about everything else,
of course). "Bank of Ireland" is cited in my Brighid essay.
I just read yesterday that the Bank of Ireland bought
the old Irish Parliment Bldg back in the 1830's or
something, and that there are still murals there from
the Irish House of Lords.
Best wishes,
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: FW 183.16 "vestas which had served"
From: the recent past
Date: 3/12/00 5:06 PM
Liesbeth wondered:
"Vestas are Vestal virgins, and virgins that have
served are not virgins anymore?"
[RivS]: Hard to say exactly what Joyce had in
mind, but in Rome the Vestals retired after 30
years, at which time they were around 37 or
38 years old, and they were then given, for
the first time, the right to marry. Some did,
but apparently most chose to remain virgins.
What I don't know is whether they would
have still been subject to penalization if
discovered during retirement to be having
an unmarital fleshly encounter of the
horizontal kind with someone. Does anyone
know any 2000+ years gossip?
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: on umbrella street
From: the recent past
Date: 3/12/00 11:51 PM
As Annalisa and others are documenting so well, the
word "umbrella" was a favorite of Mr Joyce's. It appears
in easily recognizable forms over 50 times in his four
primary works, including instances in his first story of
Dubliners, "The Sisters":
<It was an unassuming shop, registered under the vague
name of Drapery. The drapery consisted mainly of
children's bootees and umbrellas; and on ordinary days a
notice used to hang in the window, saying: Umbrellas
Re-covered. No notice was visible now, for the shutters
were up.>
Dubliners also supplies one of Mr Joyce's very best
umbrella-isms, a fine example of his early classical period,
when he still desired to prove he could write straight
normal, but very fine, English:
<His magniloquent western name was the moral umbrella
upon which he balanced the fine problem of his finances.>
[Description of Mr O'Madden Burke from Dubliners --
"A Mother."]
In Ulysses, "umbrella" is already subjected to Wakean
distortion, where a delightful play is made upon umbrella
and its (fairly new at the time of Dubliners) lighthearted
popular neologism, "bumbershoot":
<Crosslegged under an umbrel umbershoot he thrones an
Aztec logos, functioning on astral levels>
U 9.280 (Gabler p 157)
which follows fast upon the unforgettable:
<A brother is as easily forgotten as an umbrella.>
U 9.975 (p 173)
an enigmatic aphorism -- an umbrella is not easily
forgotten when it is needed, only before and after.
Perhaps the all time Joycean crescendo for the lofty
umbrella-isms occurs late in the Wake at 513.01-02:
<-- Siriusly and selenely sure behind the shutter. Securius
indicat umbris tellurem.>
The presence of the Latin root for "umbrella," meaning
shade or shadow, given here in its dative inflection
<umbris> (from the nominative "umbra") is enough to tip
off a Wakean that Mr Joyce has opened his bumbershoot
in the house again -- for initial confirmation, he has added
most of the rest of the word "umbrella" in the word
<tellurem> (accusative from "tellus," meaning "earth"), that
is, the "ella" diminutive which forms "umber-ella," meaning
"little shadow."
You already may have noticed a secondary and rather
fascinating affirmation for reading "umbrella" into
<umbris tellurem> -- its preceding sentence ends with
a word found in the phrase from Dubliners by which
umbrellas took their first bow:
<Umbrellas Re-covered. No notice was visible now, for the
shutters were up.> ["The Sisters"].
This is a good example of just how nearly infinite the warp
and woof of the Joycean oeuvre be. There's more of course.
We start by asking, "What is the literal meaning and figurative
intent of <Securius indicat umbris tellurem>?" It is straight Latin
with no distortion of any kind, yet it manages to distort another
Latin sentence from Augustine, "Securus iudicat orbis terrarum,"
given rather freely as "The verdict of the world is secure."
The Joycean version can be translated in a number of ways
which are of interest, yet literal. By analyzing the context,
one can narrow down the field of justifiable ways, and still
remain with several variations which may indicate that Mr
Joyce began with a English sentence which is as sibilant as
the one which precedes, <-- Siriusly and selenely
sure behind the shutter.>
That translation basically is: "She serenely shows the shade
a soil." As I said, that is an absolutely straight read from
the Latin. "She," it is true, can be "he," as in McHugh, or even
"it," since the nominative pronoun is only implied in the Latin.
Conventional wisdom deems the pages in which the sentence
occurs to be an interrogation of Yawn. Shortly before p 513,
we read a statement in question form, the latest of many:
<The park is gracer than the hole, says she, but shekleton's
my fortune?> 512.28-29
Much goes there. Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, who has
several cameos in the Wake, was an Antarctic explorer. Like
Joyce, he was a Leinster Irishman (from County Kildare) and
February-born (the 15th). Shackelton died several weeks
prior to the publication of Ulysses. He was on expedition.
The most famous ordeal of Shackleton was surviving, with
most his men, the loss of an expedition ship, which involved
ten months of drifting in the ship before it was crushed in an
ice pack, then five more months of drifting on ice floes, and
a climactic, harrowing 1300 km voyage in a long boat! The
book South, published in 1919, tells the story in Shackleton's
own words.
So if Shackleton's fortune is also to be that of the "she"
who says, then we imagine "her" at sea, surviving much
duress.( A reference to Shackleton's support boat, the
Aurora, may be in the preceding question, at 512.27:
<Primus auriforasti me>).
Various other references to being at sea under distress are
nearby. Christopher Columbus appears on both sides:
<Crestofer Carambas!> 512.07
<Crashedafar Corumbas!> 513.16
as well as Vasco da Gama, Sebastian Cabot, the Ancient
Mariner, and Noah.
Sailors in general are referenced (in Latin):
<Nautaey, nautaey, we're nowhere without ye!> 512.21
and all the exclamation points add to the sense of maritime
urgence seen in:
<Wilt thou the lee?> 512.12, and:
<but the main the mightier the stricker the strait>
512.14-15.
Anyhoo, "she" is possibly to be struggling at sea like
Shackleton. Next are veiled references to Dublin in
terms of the Liffey, and evasive responses.
The final paragraph on p 512 begins with the long
hyphen Joyce uses to indicate dialougue in play. The
three line paragraph speaks of bridges and things
Egyptian, and seems to ask: 1) are you as perfectly
sure as is the solar calendar -- and beyond the <shatter>
(shadow [of doubt] = increment of discrepancy [epact])
that falls between the solar calendar and the canicular
one (an Egyptian calendar based on Sirius, and thus 12
minutes shorter than the solar one); and, 2) <Nascitur
ordo seculi numfit.> [512.36]. "Is it possible that the
succession of a generation shall be?"
We turn the page, and find the two sentence paragraph
originally in question:
<Siriusly and selenely sure behind the shutter. Securius
indicat umbris tellurem.>
Apparently this is Yawn's response for the previous two
questions, are you precise by the solar calendar, and will
the ages roll?
Yawn's answer is again evasive and saucy: he says he is as
sure as can be, by the shades of Sirius and the moon
("selene" is Greek for "moon, moonlight"). Yawn has the nerve
to name his source as the calendar which predates the solar
one. It is as though he were swearing by the devil to be good!
Then not to be outdone by the scholasticism of his
interrogator(s), Yawn gives his own Latin -- only instead of
saying that "the orbit of the earth (orbis terrarum) judges free
from care (the literal translation of Augustine)," Yawn says
literally "[He/she/it] serenely shows [to] [a/the] shade [a/the]
soil/earth/land/area/goddess [who is the earth]."
I choose "she" because "she" continues the sibilancy (in
English), and "she" continues the presence of the mysterious
"she" of the previous page, the one possibly in Shackleton's
boat, and "she" reflects the presence as well of the feminine
goddess named Tellus, a seminal pagan meaning for the
word we translate "earth," a sense of feminine deity
mamafesting as our planetary home which the Church has
spent much time and energy trying to expunge. Mr Joyce of
course does not yield the point, and even identifies Tellus
with Anna Livia herself, as in:
<Do tell us all about. As we want to hear allabout. So tellus
tellas allabouter> [101.01-02] which soon resurfaces in:
<O tell me all about Anna Livia! I want to hear all about Anna
Livia. Well, you know Anna Livia? Yes, of course, we all know
Anna Livia. Tell me all. Tell me now.> 196.01-05 [<Tell>
being the actual name of the Terra Mater, without the
nominative inflection of "-us"].
This also guides me into adapting "soil" to "shore" in the
sense of "Land ho!" It is reasonable to translate tellus/tellurem
to "shore" if it is "land" seen from sea, as seen by a
Shackelton, or a Columbus, Gama, Cabot, or Noah. It
enhances the sense of "land" as a protective feminine spirit, a
shelter (which is a sense of "shutter" Joyce uses elsewhere in
the Wake, in referring to the shutters on the windows of
Noah's Ark).
<Indicat> as "show" is patent. <Shade> for "umbris" is also a
direct translation, and clarifies the meaning more than
"shadow," because a shade in classical usage can be a
someone, a ghost. Since "shadow" has been established
on the previous page as meaning "epact," i.e., the 12 minute
discrepancy between the solar year and the Egyptian lunar
calendar based on the heliacal rising of the dog-star,
Sirius, we have the sense of Yawn speaking directly to the
epact which disturbs his interrogator(s) so much, and saying,
"Look, there is the land, the shore of shelter, the harbour of
the intercalation." Remember, the Easter epact defined the
Eastern and Western schism of Christianity, and also the
schism of the Irish and Roman Catholic churches prior to the
Synod of Whitby. These things may appear as nothing to
we moderns, but they are serious and real and we can
navigate the Wake by their lights.
"Serenely" is a straight read for "securius."
So -- for <Securius indicat umbris tellurem>, I read with
fair confidence: "She serenely shows the shade a shore,"
meaning "Mother Earth calmly shows the ghost-like epact
(a darkness between the Roman solar calendar and the
Egyptian lunar-sidereal calendar) where it may find the
shelter of its harbour by an intercalation."
The entire paragraph beginning page 513 answers a
previous two-layered inquiry: "Can you use the superior
solar calendar, rather than the shady lunar one, and tell
if a shift in the times will happen?" with what can be
paraphrased as, "Sure, with all the confidence that
stands behind the authority of the lunar-sidereal calendar!"
The implied "umbrella" (remember the umbrella) is an
affirmation that the sleepy Yawn is not all that impressed
by the sun. An umbrella protects one from the sun, and
enables one to walk around in his own little patch of lunar
shade. All the better to yawn.
The next two paragraphs are in harmony [513.03-06]:
< -- Date as? Your time of immersion? We are still in
drought of. . . ?
< -- Amnis Dominae, Marcus of Corrig. A laughin hunter
and Purty Sue.>
<Amnis Dominae> is "Flood [of Our] Lady" -- (Domina
in the Church is always Mary). "Mar-" is "sea." "Corrig"
suggests "corruighim," Irish for "stir, shake."
Read: "At what time where you in need of finding the
shore? There is a dry-spell currently . . ."
[Yawn answers]: "In the Flood of Our Lady, when the
sea shook -- 1132."
There are, of course and always, other readings -- but,
" -- Siriusly and selenely sure behind the shutter. She
serenely shows the shade a shore."
Works for me. That should be good enough for Mr Joyce.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: re/cigars
From: the recent past
Date: 3/13/00 2:42 PM
Michael Begnal reminded us: "In regard to Joycean umbrellas
--it rains a lot in Ireland, and sometimes an umbrella is just a
cigar. Just as, sometimes, a vesta is simply a wooden match."
Yes, I think we are all aware of this. That is the basic outlook
one needs for sanity, however, and it is good to be reminded.
Nevertheless, we are reading Finnegans Wake as an ongoing
group, and it is important that each listmember feel free to
make openly speculative suggestions, and not feel that they
will be hit back with vacuous generalities (unless they are as
witty as Michael's).
Are we saying that the moral umbrella upon which O'Madden
Burke rests is NOT his name, as Mr Joyce states, but an
actual bumbershoot?
Are we to believe that when we read that a brother is as
easily forgotten as an umbrella that we are to understand
that brother's are frequently left upside in the entrance
hallway?
Of course not. Clearly those be a metaphor and a simile, and
to think otherwise would be deranged. Yet those are
cited from Dubliners and Ulysses, books using language
which, compared to the Wake, is relatively straightforward.
To say that sometimes a vesta is just a match, when
reading the Wake where it is well known and stated clearly
by the author that most words will function within a matrix
of many overlapping grids and levels, is to be rather
metaphoric and far-fetched yourself. Actually, the match
was named Vesta to evoke the very thought of the
Vestal Virgins who kept the sacred Roman temple fire
lit. So you are not stating an accurate metaphor to say
a Vesta is only a match. That was not the intent of the
match company, and Mr Joyce knew that, and was
in appreciation, and simply moved the ball a little farther
down the field.
Tim Conley requested listmembers to consider making
suggestions as to the possible inferences of Mr Joyce
within "umbrella," and I found the information from
Annalisa quite germane and interesting. If Mr Joyce
in fact could be called in the astral and queried for a
verification, and should say, "Well no, that is not what
I had in mind," it would not surprise me if he added,
"That's good, though . . . thank you, I like it."
In other words, once he grew out of his earlier phase
of sophomoric sophistries, Mr Joyce was a polite person.
Before he grew into that maturity, unfortunately, he did
on occasion treat his brother rather like a condom. But
we can rest assured that not he, no, nor any on this list,
ever mistakenly unrolled a prophylactic device onto a
cigar. If we did, there is probably little accomplished in
advising us not to do so.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: shem was a low worm and he went tra-la-la
From: the recent past
Date: 3/13/00 6:09 PM
Maybe it is a good time to drop back ten yards and
kick. There are occasionally some very spirited and
productive conversations on jjoyce about the
difference between symbols and associations. The
choice of words is perhaps in part arbitrary. The
point is that there are two radically differing ways
to abstract another meaning from the obvious, be
it word or action.
The dichotomy kinda reached at jjoyce is kinda this:
To attach a symbolic meaning to a word is to contract
the word's potentiality -- to limit its meaning to less
than the obvious. There is then the fear than literary
usage of words by as careful an artificer as Mr
Joyce will be viewed the way elements of dreams
are in chapter seven of Freud's book, The Interpretation
of Dreams. In Dr Freud's model, one which undeniably
is valid at least sometimes, an area of the mind which
does not use words has to contact the verbal mind
through an intermediate mental staging area, "the
preconscious." Frequently when constructing dreams
or conversation, the preconsciousness decides that
the verbal mind will not accept an image from the
older mind of the womb, so a substitution is made
which attempts to convey the meaning in encoded
form. In a dream I was shown the living skeletons
of my ancestors in my grandmother's basement.
In order to persuade me to walk down the dark
staircase, I was told in my dream simply that we
were going to see Effie Skelton, an elderly lady I
knew of Irish/Cherokee descent. I was not told
that I would visit ghost-like skeletons, yet was
being subtly prepared for it. Effie Skelton was
never seen in the basement once I made the
descent. A very elderly woman whose last
name was Skelton was used as a symbol for
anatomical skeletons. That is what defines a
symbol -- the thing perceived is not its own
meaning. Effie was not Effie; instead, Effie
symbolized the living spirit of dead ancestors I
had never known.
When I told this dream to my sister, she reminded
me that my grandmother's basement (the house
had been torn down 25 years before the dream)
was accessed by a locked door at the top of its
stairway, and that the door was opened by what
we called a skeleton key. There was never any
reference in my dream to the skeleton key, and
the door was already open. There was, nevertheless,
an association present, running underneath the
application as it were, and enriching the whole
texture of the dream by making its colours more
subtle, its shadows more palpable.
So, too wit:
A symbol replaces the obvious, and tends to be
exclusive. It looks like a cigar, but it really
functions cognitively as a penis. Forget the cigar.
It never really was an cigar. It also is not a
banana, not a missile, not anything but a penis.
An association expands the groundfloor meaning
without replacing it. It looks like a cigar because
it is a cigar, but through association it can evoke
secondary thoughts of bananas, penises, missiles,
cigarettes, smoking chimneys, smokey the bear,
and white owls, and dragons, and the smell of
the mens' room at a bus station, and the single
red eye of paranoia glowing in the night, and
sigalerts, and people named Sigmund. By
reinforcing this a little here, a little there, a
writer can make a cigar more of a cigar to the
receptive reader. It is still a cigar.
Effie Skelton, by way of example, used to enjoy
telling me about dreams she had which she felt
to be prophetic or revelatory. She felt this was
a gift she had inherited from Irish and Indian
ancestory. This added special associations in
my dream, which itself focused on my own
ancestors who had died before I was born. The
reference to Effie in my dream also reminded
me by feeling, not by word, that I was about
to have a special dream of particular significance,
not merely a reaction to a draft from an open
window (although that would help create the
feeling of my grandmother's basement). So
these associations made Effie more Effie, and
not less -- in contradistinction to Effie's role as
a symbol for boney skeletons.
So to add to the general marvelosity of the thing,
Effie was able to function, by the coincidance
of opposites, as both a self-negating symbol
for something else AND a self-expanding bundle
of cognitive associations, and all in the same
dream by someone else! But then, Effie was
like that.
When Effie was six years old, growing up in
the sticks in Oklahoma, she told her mother
that she had met a singing worm in their yard.
My that child can imagine things, her mother
told everyone.
Sometimes a singing worm can be a rattlesnake.
That's what Effie told me.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 005.26 <dreamydeary>
From: the recent past
Date: 3/13/00 7:52 PM
Now that I have prodded someone as perceptive as
Florentius to see the footprints of Brighid in the Wake,
I must needs of course turn my coat and say that I
see Cropherb the Crunchbraken on page 005 as
primarily a goat, the same <hegoak, poursuivant, horrid,
horned> chap of line 07, instead of Brighid the friendly
cow(maid).
However, it is not stretching it too far to state that Brighid
is the patrona of the barnyard in general, and is shown
as frequently with a lamb as with a cow. And there are
Brigidine references on page 005, including calendrics
such as Florentius cites.
<a'buckets> 005.03 another Brigidine emblem -- she was
born in a bucket of milk from whence she appeared as her
ma, a milkmaid, carried it over a threshold
<Of the first was he to bare> 005.05 St Brighid's day is
February the first in most areas
<helio, of the second> 005.08 Brighid's day is February the
second in many other areas
<She has a gift of seek on site and she allcasually ansars
helpers, the dreamydeary.> 005.24-26
That is obviously not a reference to a he-goat. McHugh has
spotted a camel (dromedary) which I think is good, the whole
paragraph is replete with Middle Eastern, Levantine, and
Egyptian allusions. The actual description, however, is of
a Bona Dea and a dairy queen, and that is Brighid. If we
read <dreamydeary> as "creamy dairy," then we have to
think cow/Brighid, because goat's milk does not yield a
cream, the smaller globules of fat being already integrated
into the whole milk as though it had been homogenized.
At least where I hale, goat farm's are most always called
goat farms, and not dairys. "Dairy" just sounds too content
and cooperative for goats.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 005.23-.24 Cropherb (02)
From: the recent past
Date: 3/18/00 5:43 PM
Florentius shared and queried:
<There was a town in Vermont (USA) some years ago that
used sheep to keep the grass in the graveyard trimmed. (In
the news for the dispute over their droppings.) And I recently
read of a similar use of sheep (for herb cropping, not necessarily
for fertilizing) in another town. Is this--was this--at all common?>
RivS: I've used tethered goats and horses for weed abatement,
and it works really well. I was living in a remote mountain area,
and the Forest Service gave me one week to meet a 100-foot-
radius-of-mineral-soil requirement -- basically an eviction notice,
since that meant 31,400 square feet of thick brush and grasses
reduced to zero by one human. I put a dozen goats and three
horses onto the grasses, and I began pruning the scruboaks and
chaparral brush into pleasantly sculpted and well-spaced shapes
free of deadwood, since you could not be required to remove
legitimate and well-maintained ornamental landscaping. The
fire prevention officer came back to cite me into oblivion, and
amazedly applauded the progress. He gave me an extension,
and in several more weeks, the goats, horses, and human had
advanced the thing enough to where the ranger overlooked
what we hadn't finished, and wrote us a nice clear bill of health.
As to "common," I can't say, because where we were, there
were not enough of anyone to create that genre. Breathing
wasn't common. But I have talked with other people who use
Cropherbs and Crunchbrakens to meet fire prevention rules.
While several years of living with goats did not, on the whole,
endear me to the species, I must say I owe the mischievous
maniacs much in this regard: <weedy broeks and the tits of
buddy> [199.07-08], that is, turning weed brakes into nice
friendly milk -- certainly makes up for some of their dyspeptic
personality problems. And so I <drank milksoep from a spoen,
weedhearted boy>, happy to taste the rich, healthful and even
heatheful conversion of my formerly messy, tick-infested, and
overgrown yard (now especially good with chocolate powder).
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: OP = Order of Preachers
From: the recent past
Date: 3/18/00 8:07 PM
Charles Cave queried:
<What does O.P. stand for?>
The Order of Preachers, that is, the Dominicans, a mendicant
order founded in the early thirteenth century in the wave of
interest in the monastic reformations instituted by Saint Francis.
THE BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS AND ORDINATIONS
OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS.
1. THE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTION
I. The purpose of the Order was expressed by Pope Honorius III
writing to St. Dominic and his brothers in these words: ". . . to
propagate the Catholic faith . . . having embraced poverty and . . .
given yourselves to . . . preaching . . . throughout the world."
II. For the Order of Friars . . .
The Dominicans (Order of Preachers) were founded in 1215, in
Toulouse, France, by Saint Dominic to preach the truth of the
Gospel. Saints Francis and Dominic were contemporaries and
friends. Today, there are over 50,000 Dominican friars, sisters,
and lay people active in many countries throughout the world.
Historically, Dominicans have also been involved in promoting
human rights. In the 16th century, friar Francisco de Vitoria and
the Salamanca School established the theoretical foundations
of the modern problematic of human rights. In the same century,
Fray Bartolome de las Casas and Fray Montesinos championed
the rights of indigenous peoples in Latin America.
from Ambrose Coleman OP:
Three years after the Dominican friars had made their way into
England, sent there by St Dominic, they were brought over to
Ireland by a certain Maurice Fitzgerald, who is also credited with
introducing a little later on the first members of the Franciscan and
Trinitarian orders. All the old annalists agree in fixing the advent of
the Dominicans to Ireland in 1224. The land they acquired for the
purpose of erecting their convent is now one of the most central
positions in Dublin, the Four Courts; but in the 13th century the city
proper did not extend to the northern side of the river Liffey. That
portion was merely a suburb outside the City walls, and the only
notable buildings it contained were those forming the Church and
monastery of the Cistercians, commonly known as St Mary's
Abbey, from which Abbey Street at present takes its name.
Outside the enclosure wall of the monastery grounds, a few
miserable bye-ways and lanes went by the name of a Oxmantown,
or Eastman's town, owing, perhaps, to the fact that the inhabitants
of that locality were the remnants of those Danish families who
before had been the proud possessors of the whole city.
-- The above stolen, I mean down-loaded, by
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: on umbrella street
From: the recent past
Date: 3/18/00 8:44 PM
Dear Elaine,
As always, you are most welcome. Thanks
for your recent kind support.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 185.24 don't good offices have restrooms?
From: the recent past
Date: 3/22/00 5:36 AM
<cum divi Orionis iucunditate mixto>
185.24
-- "mixed by the good offices of the divine Orion"
is the intent of this phrase; in a fuller context, it
may be intended to leave the reader with freedom
to distort that to an entendre of "mixed with urine"
or "mixed by urination," but it is absolutely straight
Latin, and it's literal meaning is as above.
There is some mild discrepancy in the ways this phrase
gets translated, and a disagreement as to what is
actually meant may be at the root.
McHugh: <with the "sweetness of Orion">
Sister Grace: <with the pleasantness of the divine Orion>
O Hehir: <mixed with the good offices of divine Orion>
Of the above three versions, it seems to me that O
Hehir comes closest to the mark. McHugh for some
reason omits an English equivalent for "divi," meaning
"divine" [from "divus," the "divi" form being inflected to
agree with the genitive form "Orionis"]. Sister Grace
has "divine" in place, and uses the more standard
"pleasantness" instead of "sweetness" for "iucunditas."
"Iucunditas" [or "jucunditas" -- same thing] is, however,
in an inflection which is absent from the Romance
languages, and thus prey to "soft" translating, and that
is the ablative form: "iucunditate." "From," in the sense of
"separation or source" is the primary level of implication by
the ablative. But just as "from" can also indicate agency
and cause in English, so it can in Latin. ("He died from
being poisoned" is a causative usage of "from.") It is tricky,
because the "from" need not actually appear in Latin,
nor any preposition at all, in cases of cause with the
ablative. It appears magically when English arises.
That O Hehir has decided to read agency and cause
into "iucunditate" is shown by his choice of a secondary
translation, "[with the] good offices." The sense still is
not clear in his English, however, and perhaps O Hehir
felt some hesitation which I think he did not need, and
left a certain intentional vagueness.
Neither the preposition or definite article is in the Latin
text, and must be inserted by inferrence of a perceived
inplication by Mr Joyce. Once one accepts that "good
offices" is correct for "iucunditate," as it must be, then
a clearer preposition would be "by," so that the reader
is less likely to miss that it is Orion, or his good offices,
doing the mixing. This is not actually in opposition to any
of the above renderings, but they do not make it clear.
Thus:
<cum divi Orionis iucunditate mixto>
185.24
-- "mixed by the good offices of the divine Orion."
Some say Orion was produced thus: Hyrieus, the king
of Hyria in Boeotia, sacrificed a bull when he received
Zeus, Hermes and Poseidon. Hyrieus was childless and
asked the gods for children. Zeus, Hermes and Poseidon,
resourceful and fun-loving deities that they are, urinated
on the hide of the sacrificed bull, and buried it in the earth.
>From it, Orion was born nine months later, his Terra
Mater apparently having a human period of gestation.
There is possibly some trace of this legend residual in:
<Rurie, Thoath and Cleaver, those three stout
sweynhearts, Orion of the Orgiasts, Meereschal
MacMuhun, the Ipse dadden> 254.02-04
If <Rurie, Thoath and Cleaver> are resonant with the
three <Ipse dadden> ["self" daddies, fathers without
mothers] of Orion, there would be an added echo in
that Thoth is the Egyptian name for the Greek Hermes,
one of the male trio who spontaneously generated Orion.
Orion seems to appear under distorted spelling here
and there is the Wake as a remnant of the ricorso
period where we all go back to being hairy bestial sorts.
He was a giant given to the chase of pretty much
whatever moved for whatever he felt like doing to it,
various forms of penetration, and in one of various versions
of his death, he was terminated after he rashly claimed he
was going to prove what he considered prowess by wiping
every animal off the face of the earth. So we have an early
cautionary tale by some proto-environmentalists which we
can place with Hesiod's early, basic, and right-on:
"Never urinate in the mouths of rivers which flow to the sea,
nor yet in springs; but be careful to avoid this. And do not
defecate in them: it is not well to do this."
Hesiod's Work & Days 755-760
Shem may have other ideas.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: carlyle recarled regurgitatus
From: the recent past
Date: 3/29/00 5:55 PM
[The following is just the wakean part excerpted
from a post to a weblist. If you read "carlyle
recarled" there (and much grace for it), then
you are dismissed (or may stay to work on other
projects)].
A thread of Joyce's view of Carlyle appears to be
woven through FW Book III;3 [chptr 15], during
the section of this so-called Interrogation of Yawn
which Benstock calls "Regarding the Wake." The
gist seems to be that Joyce identifies Carlyle with
Cromwell, and the violent suppression of the Irish
by bigots in general. Cromwell, who was a savage
monster to Irish Catholics, was celebrated as an
ideal hero by Carlyle, who also despised Catholicism.
<We are still in drought of. . . ?> 513.03-04
Here the questioner asks, Are we not still at Drogheda?,
invoking the massacre by Cromwell's forces of a
town to the north of Dublin, an outrage both retaliatory
and cautionary. The retaliation, alas, was for alleged
Catholic outrages reported to Cromwell, but since then
recognized as wildly exaggerated at best. Drogheda
served as a bloodthirsty and inhumane notice to the
Irish that Cromwell's version of Christianity was not that
of Jesus. The holy war of "to hell or Connacht" began.
<A laughin hunter and Purty Sue> 513.05-06
Quickly on the heels of the reference to Drogheda,
a reference to the event Joyce uses so often as
the beginning of the loss of Ireland to the British
Normans is cited, the rape of the Abbess of Kildare
by which Ireland's grand betrayer, Dermot
MacMurrough began his career in 1132. Joyce is
making his standard Viconian association of an
event in 1132 producing a resonant replication in
1649.
<Schottenly there was a hellfire club> 514.09
<Schottenly> = "by a scot" in Wakean anglo-german.
Carlyle was a Scot who believed ardently that Europe
should be ruled by Germany.
<Carlisle, guardian of the birdsmaids and deputiliser
for groom. Pontifical mess. Or (soddenly) Schott,
furtivfired by the riots> 514.26-28
Joyce despised that oxymoronic plague, the "holy war."
In the passage above, Carlyle is satired as a
self-appointed messiah, a deputy of Jesus (the groom)
who will guard the bridesmaids (the flock). Carlyle's
anti-papism is cited, and reference is made to how
the Scot's hellfire rhetoric was refortified in his 70th
year when he took it upon himself to defend the
actions of E. J. Eyre, who had been removed from his
station as Governor of Jamaica due to the brutality he
used in suppressing an uprising by black rebels.
Carlyle commended Eyre for "saving the West Indies."
<The eirest race, the ourest nation, the airest placethat
erestationed. He was culping for penance while you
were ringing his belle> 514.36; 515.01-02
Here Joyce seems to be using the person of Eyre to
draw an analogy between the ancient and ongoing
suppression of the Irish by the British, and the more
recent British suppression of blacks. A direct blow at
Carlyle follows: "While Eyre was paying the price of
his sins, you were praising him."
<massacreedoed as the holiname rally round took place>
515.25
>From Carlyle's ringing of the bloodstained Eyre's belle,
Eyre a saviour by Carlyle's lights, Joyce begins working
back to Cromwell and others who use creeds and holy
names to rally their troops to commit massacres.
<Ah, go on now, Masta Bones, a gig for a gag>
515.32
This and several other references to "minstrel shows"
on these several pages keep in mind the self-serving
mental shenanigans of white bigots, who loved and
replicated black music, but did so in a demeaning way.
<angelic warfare> 516.35
Again, the oxymoronic killing for Jesus.
<Miles, and so on and so fort, and to take the coocoomb
to his grizzlies and who done that foxy freak on his
bear's hairs like fire bursting out of the Ump pyre and,
half hang me, sirr>
516.12-15
Now the Viconian wheel rolls to 1798. Myles Byrne, a
member of the United Irishmen, was one of the leaders
(and chroniclers) of the rebel forces during the Wexford
Rebellion of 1798 (cf "Battles Recalled" in the "Aeolus"
chapter of Ulysses). Reference is made to two forms of
torture used around that time by British officers against
perceived Irish rebels: pitchcapping, by which a man's
scalp was set on fire; and half-hanging, by which a man
was garroted by a hemp-rope until nearly dead, and then
(possibly) resuscitated (sometimes to be half-hanged again).
<That forte carlysle> 517.22
We are reminded of Thomas Carlyle's "hemp hemp hurray"
approach to social ills.
<near the Ruins, Drogheda Street, and kicking up the
devil's own dust>
518.05-06
About where Irish-British relations remain to this day.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: felix culpa medley (by adam leftus and the painapples)
From: the recent past
Date: 3/29/00 9:52 PM
Here follow some permutations in FW of
the phrase "O felix culpa," followed by
associated textual flotsam.
<O'Phelim's Cutprice>
072.04
<Ophelia's Culpreints>
105.18
<O'Faynix Coalprince>
139.35
<O happy fault!>
202.34
<O felicitous culpability>
263.29
<felixed is who culpas does> 246.31
<phaymix cupplerts?>
331.02-03
<O foolish cuppled!>
433.30
<-- Oh Finlay's coldpalled!>
-- Ahday's begatem!>
506.09-10 (cf Easter Eve liturgy below)
<Poor Felix Culapert!> 536.08-09
<O ferax cupla!>
606.23
<O, felicious coolpose!> 618.01
Those were obvious, but what about:
<the fairest sin>? 011.26
If this be a "felix culpa," it should precede, at least
in pagination (perhaps not in circular viconian road
time), the <O foenix culprit! Ex nickylow malo comes
mickelmassed bonum> of page 023. We would like
to take the highroad, and skip speculating on the
grounds that there are far to many verifiable hits
in the Wake, and it is silly to make attenuated
guesses -- but that involves ignoring the quasi
affirmation on page 011, where:
<nickelly nacks and foder allmicheal>
011.23 (three lines ahead of "the fairest sin")
are obviously anticipating "nicky" and "mickel"
(who appear on page 023 adjacent to "foenix
culprit"). So let's get out of here while we can!
Below are some extra-joycean references.
------------------------------------------------------------
"O felix culpa! O necessarium peccutum Ade!":
"O happy guilt, O necessary sin of adam!"
(From the Easter Eve liturgy [cf "peccutum
Ade!" with "Ahday's begatem!" 506.10>]) )
------------------------------------------------------------
--Medieval Hymn:
Ne hadde the appil take ben,
The appil taken ben,
Ne hadde never our lady
A bene hevene quene.
Blessed be the time
That appil take was
Therefore we moun singen
Deo gracias.
(Nicolson 318)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Arthur O. Lovejoy presents the problem succinctly:
Adam's eating of the forbidden fruit, many theologians
had observed, contained in itself all other sins; as the
violation by a rational creature of a command imposed
by infinite wisdom, and as the frustration of the divine
purpose in the creation of the earth, its sinfulness was
infinite; and by it the entire race became corrupted and
estranged from God. Yet if it had never occurred, the
Incarnation and Redemption could never have occurred. (162)
He concludes:
These considerations, taken together, tended to suggest
two larger, and awkward, questions. Was it true in general
that the existence of moral evils is, from another and more
comprehensive point of view, a good? And if, from such a
point of view, the Fall was preponderatingly a good, was it
not necessary to assume that its occurrence must after all
have been in accordance with God's will? These question,
implicit in the notion of the felix culpa, were fairly explicitly
raised and considered by Augustine; and his answers to
both were, at least sometimes, in the affirmative . . . . (173)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Lovejoy, Arthur O. "Milton and the Paradox of the Fortunate Fall."
ELH4 (Sept. 1937): 161-79. Rpt. In Arthur O. Lovejoy. Essays in
the History of Ideas. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins P, 1948. 277-95.
Nicolson, Marjorie Hope. John Milton: A Reader's Guide to His Poetry.
New York: Farrar, 1963.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
There are primitive and classical mysteries whose traces are hidden
in the "thanks, snake -- nice felix culpa" train of thought.
Was the snake the messiah? Was the snake Jesus? Be careful
whom you ask, some fundamentalist types are not ready for
this type of speculative qabalist dialectic. The snake was identified
by our early ancestors as possessing the powers of rebirth and
resurrection, due in part to the gift snakes have for shedding old
skin. "You do not have to die," the snake tells Eve (if it was a
snake -- it's not that clear). In one theory, the Christian resurrection
mythos was influenced by the Orphic mysteries, which had also
influenced the Pythagorean school of thought. Orphics were, as
are Christians, concerned with sin, guilt, and afterlife, and believed
that individuals consisted of a soul which was fallen from grace.
The soul was not identical with the body, but left a dead body
for heaven or hell. Orphism differed from Christian doctrine in
a belief more akin to Buddhism that birth, death, and judgement
occurred in cycles for a soul until that soul was purged fully
from its sins, and restored to its pristine before-the-fall state.
The primal roots of the Orphic legend were derived from the
serpentine cultus of Zagreus, the son of a snake-god. Zagreus
was killed and reborn in the evolved Greek version of the myth,
and became Dionysus, the god of cyclic vegetative regrowth,
which also incorporated the cultus of Orpheus, who, like Jesus,
was said to have gone to hell and returned. If you do get into
trouble discussing this with your local "I love God so much that
I have assumed his powers" type,
You may happily blame:
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: tripping the light fantastic with a peculiar sort of a gal
From: the recent past
Date: 3/31/00 3:48 PM
Tim Szeliga queried:
'Where does "She's the Daughter of Rosie O'Grady,
a regular old-fashioned gal" fit in to this schema?
'Bugs Bunny sings this while skipping
past the brownstones of New York . . . .'
RivS: Somewhere between Frivolous Sal and
sweet Mamie O'Rourke?
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
(cf "From the sallies to . . . Mamie, My Mo Mum!"
491.23-29?)
Subject: 549.08 <trembling sod>
From: the recent past
Date: 4/2/00 6:36 PM
<what was trembling sod quaked no more>
549.08
cf. <Fearfully true is the Four Masters’ word that
MacMurrough’s treacherous act "made of Ireland
a trembling sod".
http://www.ireland.org/irl_hist/hist19.htm
A History of the Irish Race
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 11.29 thru 12.25; 316.16 thru 318.18; 372.19 thru 373.11
From: the recent past
Date: 4/5/00 6:08 PM
11.29 thru 12.25; 316.16 thru 318.18; 372.19 thru 373.11
Here lies an interesting thread, mayhap?
<How bootifull and how truetowife of her>
011.29
[Refers to Mina Loy, who continued for half a century
to mourn the enigmatic loss at sea of her husband,
Fabian Avenarius Lloyd].
<she'll loan a vesta and hire some peat
and sarch the shores her cockles to heat>
012.09-10
[The second couplet of a quatrain -- Lloyd sailed out
of sight from Mina in Mexico in 1918 -- He was taking
a small barque he had rebuilt on its maiden test run,
and apparently it sank and took Lloyd to the bottom
-- Mina, who had remained ashore, literally and
littorally searched the shore for days.]
<even if Humpty shell fall>
012.12
[The theme of Lloyd's loss is linked to the Wakean
megatheme of the fall, and its oval emblem.]
<there'll be iggs for the brekkers come to mournhim>
012.14-15
[Breakers = waves hitting the shore; while in Mexico,
the near-destitute couple lived largely on eggs,
especially Mina].
<when you think you ketch sight>
012.16
[ketch = small sail boat].
<Make strake for minnas!>
012.25
[Two Minas are heralded in this paragraph: Mina Loy
and Mina Bergson (Moina Mathers)].
<he had gone dump in the doomering this tide where the
peixies would pickle him down to the button of his seat>
316.16-18
["Lloyd had gone down in the tide to the bottom of the
sea" -- combined with Wagneria and Joyceanish].
<with the help of Divy and Jorum's locquor>
316.19
[Davy Jone's locker -- deep freezer for the big chill].
<for the Big Water. He made the sign of the hammer>
316.25-26
[Lloyd was an advocate of the politics of Trotsky].
<you can sink me>
317.03
[Continues the theme of loss at sea].
<Ekspedient, sayd he, sonnur mine, Shackleton>
317.15
[Cf the story of Ernest Shakleton, the polar navigator
and explorer, who lost his ship in the Antarctic, and
was at sea for many weeks with his men is a long
boat].
<Humpsea dumpsea>
317.24
[Combines the fall of the nursery rhyme henfruit, the
ovarian cycle, the theme of loss at sea, and the
breaking of the amniotic sac, etc, a la wake].
<do you kend yon peak with its coast so green?>
317.35-36
[An allusion through a distorted quotation to the ballad
of "The Demon Lover" -- a young wife is seduced to
sea by a devil disguised as a lover from her girlhood
-- once at sea, they spy a beautiful island which the
demon says they never shall reach, for it is heaven,
and they are bound for hell -- at the end of the song,
they are spun about and drug to the bottom of the sea].
<Take thee live will save thee wive?>
318.03-04
[Lloyd was testing his boat with the intent of then sailing
from Mexico to Chile -- It was a plan of desperation to
escape being drafted as the US entered The Great War
-- Mina Loy, just recently become Mina Lloyd, and now
carrying their child, was to travel on a much safer liner to
Chile, where they would reunite].
<till deltas twoport>
318.13
[The fatal attempt to remeet after traveling separately
between two ports, one in Mexico and one in Chile, is
artistically and poignantly blended by Mr Joyce with
the marriage vow, "till death do us part"].
<Listeneath to me, veils of Mina!>
318.17-18
[An affirmative reference to the widowhood of Mina
Loy Lloyd].
<(chalkem up, hemptyempty!) till they caught the wind
abroad (alley loafers passinggeering!)>
372.19-20
[The eggman reintroduces the ill winds of the Mexican
Pacific Coast for the star-crossed couple -- the name
of the port from which Lloyd sailed to his oblivion is
named Bahia Ventosa, meaning "Windy Bay" -- the
colony of foreign draft evaders were called "slackers"
by the locals, who associated their stance with
malingering rather that political resistance].
<all the boots in the stretes>
372.21
["boats in the straights" suggests boats in troubled
waters, and also recalls by resonance the <Make
strake for minnas!> on page twelve].
<Ah hoy!>
372.22
[The classic English seacall means "Oh, today" in
Spanish].
<Last ye, lundsmin, hasty>
372.23
[Lloyd's boat renovation was done in haste --
he was not strictly a landsman, but his
professional sea experience was not as a
sailor, strictly speaking, but as a stoker].
<And roll in clover on his clay
By wather parted from the say>
372.26-27
[The second couplet of a quatrain, recalls the
quatrain of page 12 -- Lloyd's clay, that is,
his grave, is parted from the sea by the water,
as were the graves of Pharaoh's army].
<Are now met by Brownaboy>
372.29
[Mina and Fabian had fled to Mexico on the advice
of their friend, Bob Brown -- it was Brown and his
wife, Rose, who escorted them from Mexico City
to Veracruz and thence to Salina Cruz on the
Pacific, all in the attempt to escape military
induction -- Brown devised the plan for all of
them to proceed to Chile (and from there to
Argentina, by separate means to avoid attention
-- it was the Browns who convinced Mina of
the need to continue her voyage south in spite
of her husband's disappearance and apparent
loss at sea, something never fully accepted
by Mina -- the Browns went to Chile from
Mexico by train, an epic accomplishment, and
met Mina in Valparaiso -- See Bob Brown. You
Gotta Live. London: 1932].
<at their wetsend in the mailing waters,
trying to. Hide! Seek! Hide! Seek!>
372.34-35
[The configuration of <trying to. Hide! Seek! Hide!
Seek!> appears four times in the passage under
consideration, enhancing the singsong affect --
the game of Hide and Seek aptly describes the
southern journey into the night of Lloyd, for not only
was he attempting to hide from conscription, but he
also stated that he was going to reveal a new side
to himself in his poetry -- Lloyd was already an
established poet of the Dada movement under the
name Arthur Cravan].
<And the last with the sailalloyd donggie>
373.04
[Mina preferred the usage of her husband's real name,
Lloyd -- his last boat was somewhat bigger than a
dinghy, but little good it did].
<baffling with the walters of, hoompsydoompsy
walters of. High! Sink! High! Sink! Highohigh! Sinkasink!
Waves.>
373.06-08
[A well-evoked and poetic approach to a doomed
sailor's final moments, and the dull scene of
emptiness which follows the final gulp -- "What did the
deep sea say? . . . It rolled on its weary way." -- as
presaged at 372.34-35, the final passage of the Anna
Livia Plurabelle section is evoked, with its misty images
of death, water, metamorphosis, and the endless eve:
<the rivering waters of, hitherandthithering waters
of. Night!> (216.04-05)].
<To speed the bogre's barque away O'er wather parted
from the say.>
373.10-11
[Fabian Lloyd was not only a poet, nightclub entertainer,
and seaman, but he was as well a professional boxer of
some accomplishment, so <bogre's barque> may have
the intent of "boxer's boat" -- "say" is the Irish pronunciation
of "sea," as "wather" is for "water" -- Lloyd had an Irish
connection, to sweeten the strong draw of this romantic
and truly tragic story for Joyce (drawn from the life of his
friend and fellow Parisian expatriate writer, Mina Loy), for
Fabian Lloyd, aka Arthur Cravan, was the nephew of
Oscar Wild].
For more on this terrible and magnificent story, I highly
recommend "Becoming Modern: the Life of Mina Loy,"
by Carolyn Burke, 1996. Burke ends her biography with
several great quotes from Mina Loy, including:
"Being alive is a queer coincidence," which of course will
remind Wakeans of the centrality to life of the coincidence
of contrarieties which Joyce derived from the "coincidentia
oppositorum" of Nicholas of Cusa ("as Micholas de Cusack
calls them . . . the coincidance of their contraries"
049.34-36");
and Mina's almost too perfectly summed statement on the
nature of intellectual understanding as "an eternal stairway
on which each step as you ascend from it ceases to be"
which has to remind us of "she made up all her myriads of
drifting minds in one . . . She climbed over the bannistars"
(159.07-08).
Mina lived into her eighties, and on several occasions I
accompanied my parents when they visited her at her
upper storey dwelling in the Colorado Rockies. Her front
door was accessed by a steep wooden stairway hung on
the outside of an old Victorian-style Silver Rush building,
and if you were lucky, and waited below as a restless
growing boy might, you could see Mina "looking down on
them, leaning over the bannistars and listening all she
childishly could. How she was brightened . . ."
(157.09-10).
My mother listened last night on the telephone as I told
her the story of Fabian Lloyd's death form "Becoming
Modern." She replied, "So that is how he died . . . she
never would say, but she loved to talk about the way
they spent their last days peeling oranges for each
other in Mexico." Mina Loy's final step evaporated from
our view on September the 25th of 1966.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: 11.29 thru 12.25; 316.16 thru 318.18; 372.19 thru 373.11
From: the recent past
Date: 4/7/00 6:21 PM
Thanks, Florentius, for the Fabian Lloyd hyperlink,
and the right-on extensions of Lloyd's persona into
the Wake at large, a la Kenner etc.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: still harping on my dada?
From: the recent past
Date: 4/8/00 5:16 PM
<you're too dada for me to dance> 265.17
Tim Szeliga mentioned:
". . . never knew that Marcel Duchamp, Beatrice Wood
and Henri-Pierre Roche' were the trio immortalized in the
film Jules and Jim."
[RivS]:
I am not sure if this has become a given, or not -- for
awhile it was unresolved when feet were put to the fire.
One day when I had some business to do with Miss Wood,
I phrased the question to her somewhat more delicately
than "feet to fire," and she answered in kind, plus . . . .
something to the effect that it seemed unlikely and rather
inconsequential, but she phrased it better . . . she definitely
left it open, but with a slight and quasi twist toward the
denial side of the equation -- the precisely vaguely proper
response from an artistic lady who had the relaxed aura
of "she don't look back," but in reality had spent the
morning hammering away on another volume of her memoirs.
It seems to be in the process of becoming more and more
accepted as the standard mythopoetic reality, at any rate,
that Beatrice Wood was Melina's role's model for the
story told in that film ('Jules et Jim').
A cataloguing of Marcel Duchamp's bedmates was recorded
by Mina Loy for the wee hours of the night of 1917 May 25/26.
This menage a beaucoup transpired at the master iconoclast's
New York apartment, following a night of madcap hijinx at the
Blindman's Ball (the Walpurgisnacht of New York Dadaism).
Simultaneously sleeping (we assume and hope) in one pull-out
bed were:
1) Marcel Duchamp;
2) Mina Loy;
3) Beatrice Wood;
4) Aileen Dresser (actress); and,
5) Charles Demuth (artist).
<Up, girls, and at him!> 561.33
A tempting thread suggestive of this morning melding occurs
late in the Wake:
<Promiscuous Omebound> 560.01
[We do not know if any indoor body surfing actually took
place at Duchamp's after the Blindman's Ball, but that is
hardly the point.]
<What scenic artist! It is ideal residence for realtar>
561.13
[Marcel Duchamp was indeed at that moment in an
absurd role as the High Priest of Anarchistic Art. On
the next page is seemingly a fairly overt reference to
Dada].
<She is dadad's lottiest daughterpearl and brooder's
cissiest auntybride.> 561.15-16
["She is Dada's loftiest pearl-daughter, and a
brother's sisterest anti-bride" does not seem too
questionable of a subtext. If there is a specific who
(or two) in the author's mind, is there a clue? A
line several back gives reason at least to place
Beatrice Wood on the table for discussion].
<Whom in the wood are they for?> 561.02-03
[To this we may add that during her 105 years on
earth, Beatrice Wood never married, and was to
some extent then an "anti-bride." The intent here,
however, may be primarily another of the countless
Wakean invocations of Bride, the ancient Irish goddess
who became St Brighid in Patrician times, and in
Wakean time, Biddy the Hen. On the next page is a
usage of Brighid, her art school, and her abbey's
fire attendant nun's in the Wakean mode of those
colorful calendar girls, The Floras].
<She will blow ever so much more promisefuller, blee me,
than all the other common marygales that romp round
brigidschool> 562.11-13
[This seems to include an extension of a shallow riffle of
lesbian wordplay flowing here and there on p 561, in
its own turn merged with freespirited feminists as
tomboys, whatever their sexual preferences might be]:
<The coeds, boytom thwackers and timbuy teaser.>
561.04
[with little needed to push that parochial school humor
in Catholic populations -- nuns and schoolgirls are both
subject both to the tasteless jokes and the thing itself
(cf Edna O'brien's memoirs of growing up in a Catholic
girls' school). If there are references to Beatrice Wood
and the giant bed and guest-towel opportunities of New
York Dada in 1917],
<They are numerable. Guest them. Major bed>
561.07
then the author has mixed it into a broader stream of
promiscrewity in which Lesbianism is an element among
others, including autoeroticism:
<does she do fleurty winkies with herself> 561.34-35
but several specific literary lesbians are alluded to:
<Silvoo plush> 561.30
[the lady who always said "yes" to Joyce's "please,"
Sylvia Beach];
<Pussy is never alone > [561.35] & <Has your pussy a
pessname?> [561.10]
[seeming to cite the drooly-wooly gossipy account by
Hemingway of his allegedly catching Toklas and Stein
in flagrante vocali; and],
<O Charis! O Charissima!> 561.22
[is similar to a specific one of the fragments of Sappho's
poetry which are found preserved in other contexts by
other antique authors as samples of a meter, etc].
This riffling has carried us somewhat past the issue of
whether p 561's <Whom in the wood> could be meant
as an evocation of Beatrice Wood. Several lines away
at 561.12 is an encouraging word, however:
<Her bare name will tellt it, a monitress.>
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 561.12 fragment of sappho?
From: the recent past
Date: 4/9/00 1:45 AM
The fragment ascribed to Sappho which I had in mind
is [see Harvard 1982, ed D A Campbell #108]:
<O Kale! O Chariessa!>
cf:
<O Charis! O Charissima!> 561.12
The meaning of the fragment is something to the
effect "Oh beauty! Oh grace!" I think maybe it is
in the vocative?
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: 561.02-03 <Whom in the wood are they for?>
From: the recent past
Date: 4/9/00 5:43 PM
<Whom in the wood are they for?>
561.02-03
On the table yesterday was whether the answer could
be Beatrice Wood, the Dada Mama, with the drift
seeming to be "possibly." After continued webfooting,
I have come to think that Thelma Wood is more likely
to be a primary resonance (which thanks to Wakean,
does not necessarily rule out Beatrice's presence).
Elements under consideration included a variety of
references clustered on or near p 561 which seemed
to evoke dada, eroticism, and lesbian literati. Thelma
Wood was an important figure among the so-called
lost generation, see Paris, see 1920's, and specifically
among its prominent and influential group of lesbians.
At this point, it is handy to drop back ten yards and
kick. Here are two online lists -- the first is a list of
Dadaists; next, the lost generation. It is worth noting
that Mina Loy and Arthur Cravan are almost the only
figures to cross over from the Dada list into the lost
generators:
http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/dadaists.html
http://www.onecity.com/paris/intro.htm
Having established Thelma as in with the out-crowd, we
next need to link her name, as it inextricably became,
with that of Djuna Barnes.
Here be an image, a photograph of Thelma Wood, the
source for the central character in Djuna Barne's
_Nightwood_, taken in Paris in the 1920's:
http://www.studiocleo.com/librarie/barnes/introbytslft.html
Djuna Barnes was the one American woman writer whom
Joyce, T.S. Eliot, and other male Modernists on the Left
Bank held in high literary regard. Her scandalous Ladies
Almanac, published privately in Paris in 1928, was a clever
satire of Natalie Barney's literary salon, in which virtually all
of the women of the left bank community appear in coded
form. Legendary for her beauty and caustic wit, Barnes was
in some ways a victim of the artistic and sexual freedom
supposedly offered by Paris in this era. She retreated into
drugs, alcoholism, and a tortured ten-year romance with
sculptor Thelma Wood.
"I was never a lesbian--I only loved Thelma Wood."
Djuna Barnes.
OK. Paris. Literature. Erotic scandal. Djuna interviewed
Joyce for Vanity Fair in January 1922. We have some
rights of expectation in regard to these left-bank ladies
appearing somewhere through the mist in the Wake.
<never lay bare your breast secret (dickette's place!) to
joy a Jonas in the Dolphin's Barncar>
434.26-27
This is one possibility, attenuated yes, but the Wake's
allusions throughout grade from overt to fairy dustian.
Dolphin's Barncar does not sound as Djuna Barnes,
but it yields a little more resonance that merely the
sharing of initials. <joy a Jonas> actually is closer to
replicating the "Dj" sound in "Djuna." As for <never lay
bare your breast secret (dickette's place!)> . . . well,
hmnnn . . there is a case, drunken yes, that there are
rather tasteless allusions to lesbianism, a "breast
secret" and "dickette" evoking the cliched prejudice,
more prevalent perhaps then than now, that lesbians
attempt to reject their womanhood and try to ape men.
The thought that Joyce would call a clitoris a "dickette"
is, however, absurd -- shame on you!
<I simply never talk about athel darling; she's but nice
for enticing my friends and she loves your style
considering she breaksin me shoes for me when I've
arch trouble and she would kiss my white arms for me
so gratefully but apart from that she's terribly nice really,
my sister>
459.13-18
Is "athel" intending "a Thelma?" Iffy, but the passage is
definitely about erotic sisterly love.
Circus. Corridor.
Shifting scene.
560.03-04
The good old <commodius vicus of recirculation> strikes
once more, and we are back at the page-cluster where
we started our quest among the Woods. Notable this
time, with Thelma in the forefront rather than Beatrice,
is that a circus provides the dark and shifting scenic
imagery for Djuna Barnes's novel about Thelma Wood,
the eponymous _Nightwood_.
<knightlamp with her, billy's largelimbs prodgering after
to queen's lead> 559.36-560.01 <His move.> 560.02
<Room to sink: stairs to sink behind room. Two pieces.
Haying after queue. Replay.> 560.05-06
<The castle arkwright put in a chequered staircase
certainly. It has only one square step, to be steady,
yet notwith stumbling are they stalemating>
560.09-11
Harping on my Dada again, perhaps we should note that
Following his maxim never to repeat himself, Duchamp
"stopped" painting (1923), and devoted himself largely to
the game of chess. His most famous work, of course, is
Nude Descending A Staircase No. 2.
<Shop! Please shop! Shop ado please! O ado please
shop!> 560.16-17
The above is in my opinion part of a reappearing Wakean
motif which derives from the closing dialogue of "Hills
Like White Elephants" by lost gen megastar Hemingway.
<her dearest friendeen> 561.17
The German-Jewish photographer Gisele Freund? A
student activist in Nazi Germany, she escaped Frankfurt
just before the police came to arrest her. In Paris, she
resumed her Ph.D. studies at the Sorbonne and, browsing
in La Maison des Amis des Livre, met Adrienne Monnier
who was to become her mentor and life-long friend. For
a photo by Freund of Mr Joyce at home, booming some
crashing chords on the Joyce's home piano:
http://rpg.net/quail/libyrinth/joyce/JJ_piano.html
<Allaliefest, she who pities very pebbles> 562.07
In 1930, [Djuna Barnes] interviewed Alla Nazimova, the
great Russian stage actress most famous for her
performances of Ibsen's A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler.
Later, she became a film actress in such popular films as
Camille and Salomé and performed as a conventional
stage vampire.
[Thank Alla-Leafiest! We certainly would not wish to have
the name of Ibsen mixed with performances of
UNconventional vampires].
<as two maggots> 562.21
The name of the quintessential lost generation cafe. The
French, actually, is "Les Deux Magots" -- this is the
site where Joyce was interviewed by Djuna Barnes (with
Mina Loy drawing his portrait at the same time) in
anticipation of the publication of Ulysses in 1922 -- "Les
Deux Magots" is a Hemingway shrine as well -- photo:
http://www.paris.org/Cafes/magots.html
<he will find it yet. What Gipsy Devereux vowed>
563.20
"The Gypsy" was the bar where Joyce, Budgen,
and McAlmon went to get tanked with Djuna Barnes
and Mina Loy after Ulysses came out (Feb/Mar '22).
<Any pretty dears are to be caught inside but it is a
bad pities of the plain.>
564.27-28
The Cities of the Plain were destroyed in the Old
Testament because they featured too many bars
which welcomed people with alternate life styles.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: query: 18's
From: the recent past
Date: 4/11/00 3:35 PM
<May the 18 be perhaps the number of letters in the
Irish alphabet?
Bob>
Bob has hit the nail on its shiny head, IMHO.
The Odyssey and the Iliad were each divided
into 24 chapters by post-Homeric scribes, a
tribute perhaps to their newly developed
24-character alphabet. One scholar has it
that, in fact, the Greek alphabet was designed,
probably by a Euboeian scholar, specifically for
the purpose of recording Homer's epic in
written form. Joyce, in following an ancient
Irish tradition of adapting Homeric themes to
an Irish setting and mythos, reduced the 24
Homeric chapter divisions to fit the 18 letter
Irish alphabet. He used, as far as can be told,
the version of the Irish alphabet given by
Father Patrick Dineen, who also gets a cameo
appearance offstage in Ulysses (Scylla and
Charybdis). Every so often I send a list the
alphabet entry from the version of Dineen's
dictionary which Joyce was known to own.
This is useful, because many Irish alphabets
are given with only seventeen letters, but
the Dineen version has eighteen since it
features the "rough breathing" as a full-fledged
character.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: Re: query: 18's
From: the recent past
Date: 4/11/00 4:59 PM
Tim -- nice work!
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: eighteen year olds rule!
From: the recent past
Date: 4/11/00 5:11 PM
Eric,
In terms of Issy, eighteen may intend lunar connotations.
Issy, as the 29th Flora at St Bride's Finishing
Establishment, is already identified with cycles of the
moon. The Floras, in fact, are called "a month's bunch
of pretty maidens" in reference to the lunar months.
The Floras also frequently appear in a group of
seven, representing the Roy G Biv spectrum of
colors, but also the seven day subdivision of the
28 day lunar month into quarters of one week each.
There are three major lunar cycles of roughly
eighteen years. As they roll by, they increase
in the precision of their replication. In other words,
thirty-six years brings certain alignments back
even better, and seventy-two years is mo' bettah
yet. Seventy-two, being four times eighteen, was
especially valued by the ancients.
The three lunar cycles of approximately eighteen
years are:
1) the rotation of the lunar nodes marking moments
of orbit where the moon, sun, and earth may be on
the same plane during oppositions, and thus create
lunar and/or solar eclipses;
2) the cycle by which the solstices find the moon
and/or sun at their farthest possible points north
in terms of local horizons;
3) the other one -- I can't focus my brain on it
right now (sometimes I can, honest) -- maybe
it is the cycles of apses by which the moon
makes its closest and furthest approaches to
the earth; but that is pretty esoteric in terms of
naked-eye astronomy -- maybe it is the
approach to a lunisolar cyclical alignment, eg,
the same lunar phase will seem to manifest
at the same time of the solar year (if it was
full moon at winter solstice 1999, it will be
full moon at the winter solstice in 2017 -- but
it is more apparent than precise, no real
lunisolar cycle of realignment has ever been
found).
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: lunar cycles
From: the recent past
Date: 4/12/00 3:33 AM
Everyone will be greatly relieved to know that Eric and I
were both correct (ie, I was partly wrong) -- the Saros
lunar cycle is roughly 18 years; the Metonic is roughly
19 years. Here is some webfooting:
SAROS Cycle Eclipse Cycle 18 Year + 10.32 or 11.32 days.
SAROS Cycle of Eclipses is perhaps the most familiar periodic
cycle in astronomy. Simply stated, the SAROS Cycle is the
result of a nearly perfect common integral number of synodic,
nodical and anomalistic months. Eclipses (either Lunar or
Solar) occur when the line of nodes points towards Earth.
This periodicity is called the Saros cycle.
This cycle was almost certainly known to the ancient
Babylonians and was possibly used by Thales around 585 BC.
Eclipses of the Sun and Moon can only occur at New or Full
Moon respectively and these have to occur close to the
nodes of the Moon's orbit. The nodes are the places in the
orbit where the plane of the Moon's orbit and the ecliptic cross.
The time between successive passages by the Moon through
one of its nodes is called the Draconic month and equals
27.212220 days. The time between successive New or Full
Moons is called the Synodic month and equals 29.530589 days.
If we take 223 synodic months (6,585.321 days) and compare
them with 242 draconic months (6,585.357 days) we can see
that they are almost the same. This period is the Saros and it
amounts to 18 years, 10 and a third days.
This means that eclipses can be expected in families whose
members are separated by the length of the Saros. Thus
knowing the date of one eclipse allows the prediction of others.
It also happens that the Saros is also nearly equal to 239
anomalistic months (the time between successive closest
approaches of the Moon to the Earth) and so the length of the
eclipses in each cycle will be approximately the same.
Moon's Nutation Cycle 18.61 Years
Time it takes the moon's nodes to complete one revolution
(retrograde) along the ecliptic plane (opposite to the
movement of the perigee).
Moon's Metonic Cycle 19 Years + 0 to 2 days
The Metonic Cycle is a period of about 6939.6 days, the
approximate length of both 235 lunations and 19 solar years.
Moon phases repeat on about the same ordinal day of each
19-year period. The Greek astronomer Meton, in the fifth
century BC, discovered that the dates of the phases of the
Moon repeated exactly after a period of 19 years.
Mathematically, it uses the fact that 19 tropical years
contain 6,939.60 days while 235 synodic months contain
6,939.69 days.
Synodic month: The interval between two successive
New Moons.
Draconic month: The interval between two successive
passages of the Moon through the same node of its orbit.
Anomalistic month: The time between successive perigee
passages of the Moon.
Eclipse year: The period between two successive passages
of the Sun through the same node of the Moon's orbit:
346.620 days. There are very close to 19 eclipse years in
one Saros.
Stolen, er, down-loaded from the 'Net by
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: correction re: still harping on my dada?
From: the recent past
Date: 4/14/00 8:20 PM
correction re: <still harping on my dada?>, a
post of this April 08 --
In discussing Beatrice Wood as part of the
Mina Loy thread, I wrote:
< Melina's role's model for the
story told in that film ('Jules et Jim')>
intending Melina Mercouri. I noted in the video store
last night what most of you already know: The female
lead in Truffaut's "Jules et Jim" is really Jeanne
Moreau. Melina could have handled it, but Jeanne
Moreau is of course tres bonnie and accurate.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling
Subject: dada mamas
From: the recent past
Date: 4/17/00 9:51 PM
Steve Diedrich posted:
Riverend, your ability to connect Wood as Kathe (or Catherine)
in the movie Jules and Jim to FW is ingenious, but . . . Nothing
that I have seen connects Jules and Jim with either Wood or
Duchamp . . . .
[RivS]: For some reason which I do not know, this legend,
for such I suppose it to be, has taken root, and appears
here and there as breathless fact. It rarely seems to appear
as possible conjecture, when it does arise, but I was trying
to indicate that it probably is folkloric, but has a certain
interesting life of its own anyway. Looking at my post
carefully with that in mind, it said (in excerpts):
<I am not sure if this has become a given, or not -->
(ie, it definitely has not become a given that Beatrice
Wood inspired the female lead in Jules et Jim] . . .
<One day when I had some business to do with Miss Wood,
I phrased the question to her somewhat more delicately
than "feet to fire," and she answered in kind, plus . . . .
something to the effect that it seemed unlikely and rather
inconsequential> [and, charming as her approach was, I
would be inclined to take it at face value] . . .
<It seems to be in the process of becoming more and more
accepted as the standard mythopoetic reality> . . . .
[ie, "mythopoetic" = having to do with creation of a myth]
But, as with Beatrice herself, I suppose I like to leave it
a bit open so as to be among the mythopoeic myself.
Added to the confusion is that the Beatrice Wood thread
became entwined with the Thelma Wood thread, both of
which were subthreads of a Mina Loy thread; and the
whole thing was carried on two different lists, with neither
list having all the posts -- and some posts were done
offlist! If anyone asks, I can forward all my Mina Loy
posts (but I am not always here, so be patient).
Anyhoo, thanks for the more complete cinema dada data,
Steve, it helps fill out what has been a rewarding sideline
to things Joycean re/the twenties expatriate crowd in
Paris.
Yours, in her grace's watch, the
Riverend Sterling