> That said, it is not intended for the absolute beginner, who has just opened page 3 of Finnegans Wake and wants to know what it's all about.
Does anyone know of any good resources for someone who is an absolute beginner? I'm exceedingly curious about FW but I've really only gotten as far as "having access to a copy" in my journey and I'm not sure where to begin.
His "little" essay in Coincidance really opened my eyes to the depth of this book
Still haven't personally dug through Joyce's notes (as RAW clearly did) but just getting to see the book through eyes that have was mind blowing in my 20's
One revelation I had was when hearing Joyce reading it out loud [1] and realizing how much of the weirdness is just phonetic spelling.
I had a similar a-ha moment listening to Fiona Shaw perform T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland [2] — now I can't stand anyone reading it without doing the "characters" (e.g. Gielgud's awful version).
Just dive in. Finnegans Wake is not meant to be understood in totality, you get what you can and let what you do get suggest meaning of the parts you do not get. Reread it every couple of years, you will get a bit more each time and also lose a bit of what you thought you had gotten previously; every read will be surprisingly different, you get glimpses of what you saw previous times but they are never as you remembered them.
Loving it, an absolute gem, and so useful for many dedicated Joyceans around the world. Been using it on and off for years.
Perhaps the only big improvement I'm still hoping for would be a mobile-friendly version (for whenever you're reading the Wake on the go, as you do).
With a few Hackernewsers looking at this, perhaps one illustrious web wizard will lend a hand, that would be beautiful.
(Not affiliated with this site btw.)
Not quite what you're asking for, but if your device's browser doesn't have a "reader mode" there are sites like this one which can help:
https://clearthis.page/?u=http://fweet.org/
(Not affiliated with either site, and haven't done due diligence on clearthis - was just first site I found which appeared to behave as expected)
> That said, it is not intended for the absolute beginner, who has just opened page 3 of Finnegans Wake and wants to know what it's all about.
Does anyone know of any good resources for someone who is an absolute beginner? I'm exceedingly curious about FW but I've really only gotten as far as "having access to a copy" in my journey and I'm not sure where to begin.
It's not "just" about Finnegans Wake, but Robert Anton Wilson's Coincidance is a great companion to FW, honoring its spirit as much as its content.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62584.Coincidance
His "little" essay in Coincidance really opened my eyes to the depth of this book
Still haven't personally dug through Joyce's notes (as RAW clearly did) but just getting to see the book through eyes that have was mind blowing in my 20's
One revelation I had was when hearing Joyce reading it out loud [1] and realizing how much of the weirdness is just phonetic spelling.
I had a similar a-ha moment listening to Fiona Shaw perform T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland [2] — now I can't stand anyone reading it without doing the "characters" (e.g. Gielgud's awful version).
[1] https://youtu.be/M8kFqiv8Vww?si=FjTwYqBvBCjZnlJl
[2] https://youtu.be/lPB_17rbNXk?si=MvEZRGx8PlRO6zvN
Just dive in. Finnegans Wake is not meant to be understood in totality, you get what you can and let what you do get suggest meaning of the parts you do not get. Reread it every couple of years, you will get a bit more each time and also lose a bit of what you thought you had gotten previously; every read will be surprisingly different, you get glimpses of what you saw previous times but they are never as you remembered them.
Maybe try reading along with an LLM? Page by page, ask for context, history, simple-english-ification.
I have no interest in the subject matter, but there's really nothing like the aesthetic of a 20 year passion project. Awesome
Excellent! No idea how this hasn't shown up on my radar before
Many thanks, kind stranger