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. 

Day 22.

Page 25. A new character is introduced, Doctor Faherty, the madison man. Possibly an ad man. There's a strange reference to the pope, Poppypa, that I don't quite get. Is Faherty a priest who is going to say a few words about Finnegan?

He mentions druids at the top of the page and then misspells menhirs as menhere's. I think it's a gender-based pun, but I don't get it. I also don't get what the Salmon House is halfway down the page. Is pinkhouse a thing?

Is Doctor Faherty carrying a supershillelagh? A cudgel or cane to show his station and wealth? Oh shit. Is Faherty the HCE character that keeps getting hinted at but never arrives?

Gog and magog get mention again, though gog is spelled G.O.G this time. God knows why. Another paring. More mythmaking. It's getting tiresome here to wade through language about events and place in Ireland I don't know about. It's like trying to understand someone with schizophrenia. Finnegan's brain is getting worse. Is that the point?

This passage stands out on the page:

"There was never a warlord in Great Erinnes and Brettland, no, nor in all Pike County like you, they say."

Whoever Faherty is, someone at the pub is kowtowing and blowing smoke up his ass with this flowery speech.

Followed by

"No, nor a king nor an ardking, bung king, sung king or hung king."

Ardking sounds familiar. Bung King means drunk. Sung king is sunking. And hung king is another dick joke.

The rest of the page is about people from legend that Faherty could defeat.

Page 26. The asskissing continues. Another dick joke, reference to Jerusalem (and I think taking a boat to go there).

The person talking and blowing smoke then offers a toast and a hip, hip, horray to Faherty.

Followed by some astrology references I don't get, because I am not into that shit.

Salvation boat? Boats that take poor Irish to America?

Okay. Abramanation. I get this reference. Abraham nation is the holy land, but in cockney an Abram is a beggar. Is there a poor Jewish man in the pub? Or is this more myth referencing for a pun?

Aunt Florenza? Is this a Spanish Flu pun?

I don't really understand what's happening now. It just meanders off into lists of things, without context.

All in all, two pages of a hype man kissing up to the Doctor, which is probably not an official title.

Day 21.

Page 24.

I should have just kept reading yesterday. The rhythm of this page continues from before. And it's easier to read than earlier days at this task.

It is unclear who HE is at the top of this page. But HE is digging his heels in to whatever argument is transpiring. He seems himself as a champion of some just cause though. His widower's house is mentioned. It's unclear. A man having a widower?

Another phoenix reference. Is Finnegan going to wake from his wake? JFC if that's the joke, I am so out.

Melange is the spice of life and all that.

Go pun yourself, Joyce.

"Anam muck an dhoul" seems like a misspelling of someone's name.

Someone is now talking to the HE at the top of the page, who we now learned is Mr. Finnimore.

Someone is trying to calm him down, by reciting some made up myth.

I think Finnemore isn't welcome there and Finnegan wouldn't want him at the wake. That's the impression I'm getting.

Someone named Clay is mentioned. I think that's a person. Joyce lists all the clothes Clay wears. This time in a list, rather than wasting out time with a paragraph description of clothes.

By the end of the page there's some mention of Nebuchadnezzar and Ghengis Khan, Joyce is pairing again, though both names are misspelled. And it's unclear why he brings them up. I suspect because they are haughty and so is Mr. Finnimore.

Day 20.

Page 23.

A continuation of 22. Lots of rhyminess on this page. Alliterations too. Red yellow green blue orangeman. a protestant? We've been down the orange road before. It is unclear which character this is. Van Hoother?

The prankqueen and chritophere (jiminy) are acting like hosts. Drinks are free. Maybe someone has paid for everyone. 

Krissy the tiler. A new character appears. But immediately leaves to go to sea? Unclear.

Phoenisx culprit? Is someone trying to reform, but going back to their ways?

People are playing some trick taking game. Trompes with their trompes.

Some woman has shown up with a bad hairpiece/wig.

A storm outside the pub is growing. Waves hitting the streets/boardwalk/dock/whatever.

Someone is so poor, they have to eat the butt of the fish. Scraps. Also, a butt pun in halibutt.

Lots of sing-song writing at the end of the page.

The word "Perkodhuskurunbarggruauyagokgorlayorgromgremmitghundhurthrumathunaradidillifaititillibumullunukkunun" appears at the top of the page, as the noise grows. Another thunder word like page 4, if I recall.

A cacophony of noise this time. It's clear the party is getting loud.

This page was a much easier read than 22. I'm back in the book.

Day 19.

Page 22.

Not knowing all the tristan references or what they mean is really hurting me now.

Two Mark Twain references on the page. No idea why. But his whimsy is breaking the momentum. Back to nonsense for Joyce.

The prankqueen is chatting with jiminiy/christopher. It looks like she came into the pub looking to argue with him, though we don't know why.

Jarl von Hoother is trying to call her down. But it doesn't look like it's working.

"Four larksical monitrix." How is anyone supposed to decipher this?

Hurrican hips?

Holdfour stomachs? That's a cow reference?

Jesus. This page sucks. I was really starting to enjoy the book. If the rhythm holds, page 24 should be fun again.

I don't know who khavepaltry and naivebride are, but he's doing that boy/girl pairing again. I assume just for laughs. "Are people really reading my bile still?" I hope he's having a good laugh in hell.

The page ends with a pain in the ass description of what Jarl is wearing.

I am clearly inside the pub listening to drunk people talk about nothing. How long before I quit listening?

Day 17 and 18.

Easter weekend got away from me. I don't celebrate or anything. But it's day 18, I just realized I didn't read a page or post. Tomorrow page 22. Sorry.

Day 16.

Page 21. Nearly all one paragraph. The top is the finish of the last page.

Lots of word compilations with the initials HCE. I know HCE is a character who is coming in the story, but he hasn't arrived yet. And I don't know his/her relevance yet.

Jarl van Hoother is a new character being introduced on the page. He works in a lighthouse and has two cousin Tristopher and Hilary. And someone nicknamed the prankqueen. That's a lot to take in, in a couple of sentences. They are all coming into the pub, probably to say goodbye to Finnegan.

Mark and Wans are also present. No idea who they are, though they look like "two a poss of porterpeas." Two peas in a pod.

If I could master Joyce's sing-song misspellings, I would now start writing my review in this folderol.

If I'm reading this right, the prankqueen once kidnapped Tristopher, a misspelling of Christopher if that wasn't obvious.

Trying to decode the language here, it sounds like the prankqueen took him in for forty years (the bibical 40 years, meaning a long time) and went from mothering him to being his lover. More of Joyce's coded language about women being nurturers and whores throughout myth, and how they destabilize men.

Four owler masters. I don't know what this means.

The word luderman is used, which is lutheran and luder at the same time. Luder is the german word for minx, refering to the prankqueen, and lutheran is another religion being tacked into the story. Finnegan being at an Irish wake is probably Catholic. Therefore Tristopher's presence is probably questionable.

Also. LuderMAN as a misspelling of Lutheran toys with gender. We're talking about a male and female character at the same time and how they are joined together in the context of the story. Mark and Wans, Mutt and Jeff, are examples of these pairings.

But the prankqueen is getting a lot of screen time now. She's going to be important.

Tristopher's name has changed to jiminiy mid-paragraphy.

Finally, the paragraph ends, hinting that the prankqueen would slip out at night to sleep with other men. Though I'm not sure yet why. Peaking ahead to page 22, I can see a wall of text that I'm not going to deicpher today. So this analysis will resolve then.

Day 15.

Page 20. Feels like a milestone. Who would have thought I would make it this far into this labyrinthine book.

Page 20 introduce's another woman, charmain, possible Finnegan's sister. But it's all unclear. Even the spelliong. Maybe it will emerge later. My guess is that charmain is jewish. Mentions of a horn, ramskin, she says hello in German, by the way. She's cooking something and Joyce makes an unfriendly remark about the melting pot.

He then compares the Magna Carta to newspapers and cro-mags. Not sure what's going on there. A quiet rebellion against information and a return to simpler ways? Or information isn't trustworthy.

Papyrus and mead are mentioned. The cornerstones of Egypt. More Myth and the lie that jews were used as slaves to build the pyramid. Is Joyce among the Victorians who got this wrong and he believes it? Or is he revealing the lie?

And if he's just mixing (melting pot) all these Myths together, this is a little too hipster, in my opinion. He could have pulled any myth for this section and he pulled Egypt, after a jewish character is introduced.

Not so much a melting pot, as a fertile crescent.

One origin system (Jewish/Biblical) flows into another (Egyptian/civilizational) and all of these metaphysical sources flatten into one tower of babel type origin story. We all came from cromags, and no one's myth is any more true that anyone else's.

This might be my crowning observation.

That no one reading of this book can stablize the "story." All myths tell the same lie of where we came from.

I can probably stop now. I get  it. I won't. But I can.

He mentions the number 70. I've learned that if he doesn't mention it again, it might not be important.

This first paragraph was a fun and good read. Easy to understand. It's getting easier.

But the last paragraph on 20 goes back to the sing-song rhythm. Nothing is being said and it's being said a lot. My gut tells me he's making reductive comments about women in heels.

At the end of the page, he calls someone a whore. Charmain? It's unclear.

So he goes from the maternal image of a good woman making food at the wake, to reducing women to roles. All within one page. I don't think he's being sexist. I think he's revealing sexism across all societies.

Day 14.

Pages 18 and 19 today.

After the dialogue between Mutt and Jeff ends, Joyce starts with more poetic myth. Some good stuff this time. Implications of inbreeding and mixing of the races, stupidity and another dick joke. Foreskin. Foresin. More cycles. Dogs death. Bitches death. Some implications of living on the surface of the earth. Is Finnegan just another animal dying unknown? Is he unimportant? Are we learning this early that his death doesn't matter? Mention of oxen and bellicose billygoats, plowing fields.

Much to process.

There are so many jokes and references to cartoons. I wonder if Joyce watched movies a lot and enjoyed the cartoon intermissions. Or were some of these phrases just part of the zeitgeist?

Orangutan and Ragnarok mentioned in the same breath? Of course both are misspelled. Not the first time I've read humans being compared to apes or that we will bring about our own end. But in the 1930s?

Once again, another animal reference.

Page 18 mentions Futhoric, the Norse alphabet. Page 19 misspells runes. He's just mentioning myth to mention it, I think. More Virgil loving Aeneas kind of writing.

Time is flat. Cycles are cycle. Myths are just stories. Death is inevitable. Finnegan is just another animal.

Feels like this could have been 50 pages. Not 600. That feeling is never gonna go away.