Day 29.

I launched a new kickstarter. So my days have been packed with work.

Day 28.

Well. People stopped reading the page. Should I keep going?

Day 27.

Page 31. A lot of contrast between Humphreys and the working class. Someone jangling keys, like a nightwatchman or someone with a day job. The symbols are clear.

The keys matter here. Social function. Role in society. Role in the story. Role in the pub. Jangling the keys is a signal to everyone present. "I am important." An activity only a weak person would display when discovering power for the first time.

Someone is drinking water. I suspect because they have to go back to work.

William the Conk is introduced. The Conquerer? Another pun? He has a big bushy mustache, and short fingers, inherited from his great Aunt Sophy.

Gallowglasses. Now there's a word I know. Finally some Irish rhyme that I get. Apparently, two important men are present and their bodyguard are packing scatterguns at the wake.

Joyce loves his earwuggers.

A lot of names getting bandied around now. There's an Italian present, and some church symbolism. Not sure if it's mythmaking of Finnegan knew an Italian catholic priest? Or just background noise?

A lot of Latin in the last 10% of the page. So the character isn't real, just a manifestation of religious pomp. Some latin for right and wrong, law and no law appears at the end, keeping the authority theme going.

I don't worship at the altar of Joyce, so I push back a lot on how he tries to convince me that his interpretation is the only one. Because he's the author, he controls the reigns of the words and "story," but I get to decide what it means to me. And this page fails by the end. It started so well, too.

Page 32.

This page seem important and i can't rush it. Lots of mythmaking, but references to the people in town and what they've done. I'll need to sketch a relationship map.

Day 26.

Page 29. Lots of made up words. Sort of a myth-making style to the sing-song page. Edinburgh is compared to Eden. That's about all I could surmise from this page.

Someone turns sugar into cellulose, like Jesus turning water to wine. Really the easiest page to read, but not parse. The language goes quickly when you don't care if it makes sense.

Page 30. This page is shorter than most, for some reason. More of the same, though. Humphrey Chimpden is introduced on the page.

Hag Chivychas Eve is mentioned as well. Which is the initials HCE again.

The page is otherwise littered with garden of eden symbolism and tone.

The page ends by describing Humphrey's clothing. Ugh. This is why I stopped reading game of thrones.

Day 25.

Page 28. More pub chatter left over from the previous page. Someone comparing someone's wife to Guinevere, though it's spelled queenoveire, which has a double meaning of Guinevere who cheated on Arthur (more myth), and theprankqueen who represents all of the stereotypes of women: mother, gossip, whore. And we're only seven words into the page.

The page starts to introduce more myth-chatter, perhaps to distract us from the name-calling.

Midway down the page he uses the made up word Guldenselver, which I suspect is Gulliver and gold and silver in one portmanteau.

The myth turns sexual, implying that out lady "Guinevere" gets around and that he husband doesn't get any sex from her.

The phrase "Forty winks for supper" brings back 40, which Joyce uses for "a lot," but the winks part indicates sleep, which is sleeping around, before he get home for supper. In Ireland supper is around 7pm, I think. Though there is a tasty meal and dessert waiting for the husband to get home.

She reads the world news, which is filled with events she can gossip about.

It sounds like Joyce is meandering, but we know better by know that he's building to something.

Anna Stacey has just arrived to the wake and someone asks how she is. Someone in the crowd. She just had her hair done.

Someone has told her, "Finn is no more."

I almost read page 29 and saw it was filled with made up words. Too late for that, tonight.

Day 24

I wrote all day today on my own book. 35 pages.

Forgive me for not reading Joyce.

Day 23.

Page 27.

The page opens with this line:

"You were the doublejoynted janitor the morning they were delivered and you'll be a grandfer yet entirely when the ritehand seizes what the lovearm knows."

I think someone is shouting at Faherty that he came from nothing and since he's always jerking off, he'll never be a grandfather. My guess. Just slander. No evidence.

Someone in the crowd doesn't like him.

Ah. The book has named him. The guy who was kissing Faherty's ass was named Kevin. 

There's an implication of the milkman paying someone a visit. Is this new speaker claiming that someone is fucking his wife when he's gone? Is her name Herry Jane?

What is Felix day? Phoenix? Birthday suit? Everyone reborn on their birthday kind of reference?

Joyce brings up something called redminers riots? It might be a real event, but it looks like Reminder riots. Birthday. Phoenix. Reminder. More cycle wordplay? Ya nonce.

The rest of the paragraph implys that Herry Jane gets around. Whoever it is that's talking stopped mentioning Faherty. And he's now attacking the moral character of Kevin and his girl.

There's also an ogre reference in there about Faherty.

A number of characters are called out in the next paragraph. I think the speaker wants them to lift a drink (mead) with him, or to go to fetch him a drink. The characters are Ezekiel Irons (a tough guy, and a Jew), Dimitrius O'Flagonan (a play on flagon, which is a stein for drinking), Pat Koy, and Pam Yates. I think he's toasting to the Catholics, but it's unclear. He mentions limbo (as lumbos), and makes a Jewish reference again. I can never tell if these are antisemetic.

There's a final mention of queer Behan, old Kate, and a butler. One of them does card tricks, I think, but he's saying she won't at the wake. The page ends with one more Mark Twain reference. I count three in less than 30 pages.

Essentially, page 26 inflates Faherty's ego and this page tears him down, while implying he might be fucking Kevin's wife, along with everyone in town. But that could be good ol' Irish pub ribbing and not real evidence. The crowd get involve, lashing back at Kevin. And then a bunch of Joyce's puns get thrown in.