5 ms·

The article points out that the new versions of Finnegans Wake, the web annotations, graphic novel, twitter version, and so forth are all possible because the b

by kens 12y ago

The article points out that the new versions of Finnegans Wake, the web annotations, graphic novel, twitter version, and so forth are all possible because the book has gone out of EU copyright. This is a good example of why limited-duration copyrights are a good thing, and why arbitrary extensions of copyright harm society. Going back to the book, has anyone read it and found it worthwhile? I never managed to get through more than a few pages and suspect that it's not worth the time and effort to me. I found Ulysses was worth the effort, but I'm not so sure about Finnegans Wake - any dissenting views?

ansible 12y ago
I gave it a go back in college, but didn't get far, even with the help of a skeleton key. I tried it because it was reputed to be "hard". But making a bunch of references to things / people / places I never had a hope of knowing about makes it more "obscure" than "hard" in my book.
- bdr 12y ago
  Why is "hard" a good thing?
  - beeworker 12y ago
    People enjoy overcoming challenges. (People also like to brag.)
  - sanderjd 12y ago
    Sometimes (but not always), "hard" when applied to literature means thought-provoking and perspective-expanding. Those are good things. Never read this one though, so I'm not sure whether it's "hard" in that sense.
- e12e 12y ago
  I'd be curious to hear how either "Ulysses" or "Finnegan's Wake" compare to Samuel Delany's "Dhalgren". I've yet to read anything by Joyce, but thanks to the University of Adelaide[1] and European (and Australian) copyright terms, I now have both in epub-format, and in my reading queue. [1] https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/joyce/james/ https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/joyce/james/
  - fernly 12y ago
    "Dhalgren" -- what? Why? What do you think are the links between such vastly different works, produced in vastly different eras by authors who could hardly be more unlike each other? Seriously, I'd love to know how you'd relate them.
    - anigbrowl 12y ago
      There are structural similarities between Finnegan's Wake and Dhalgren because both are circular stories where the end joins up with the beginning.
    - e12e 12y ago
      Others have commented on a description of the literal style/structure of "Dhalgren" that "it sounds a bit like 'Ulysses'". I suppose I'll know once I finish the books by Joyce :-)
- chralieboy 12y ago
  I remember reading the first few chapters of Ulysses in a high school English class. Our teacher explained that there are entire Masters-level classes on just this book. When we dug into the text, though, the difficulty was, as you said, just a ton of things we hadn't heard of. Compared to philosophy courses or some CS algorithms — or even wrapping my head around pointers for the first time — the concepts were pretty straight-forward.
anigbrowl 12y ago
I don't think it's possible to understand FW unless you're Irish, to the point of knowing different regional accents and so on. For me it's almost unmanageable on the page, i have to read it out loud and then I can make phonetic inferences, but even with that I feel like I'm missing a good deal because of how times have changed since it was written.
oska 12y ago
I've held off commenting because I didn't want to look like I was boasting but since you expressly ask, yes, I have read it. I did it when I was going through a bit of a difficult time and I read the whole thing out loud to myself over about two to three months. The key is to reading it out loud; that's when the magic happens. I didn't try to understand the text and I didn't read any keys to the text; I read it simply for the language experience. There are many (multi-lingual) puns in the text and in this book Joyce elevated punning to a high art. I found it a very rewarding thing to do and I still return to some of my favourite sections. Many times during my first reading I felt shivers down my spine from the beauty of the language. And that peculiar 'front-lobe' excitement you get when perceiving just plain cleverness. So yes, I would recommend it, but not as something to master or to 'conquer'. Try reading a few pages out loud and see how that feels. If you like it, read on. If you don't, don't. I've never persevered with books I didn't like; I don't see the point.

by kens 12y ago

ansible 12y ago

I gave it a go back in college, but didn't get far, even with the help of a skeleton key. I tried it because it was reputed to be "hard". But making a bunch of references to things / people / places I never had a hope of knowing about makes it more "obscure" than "hard" in my book.

bdr 12y ago
Why is "hard" a good thing?
- beeworker 12y ago
  People enjoy overcoming challenges. (People also like to brag.)
- sanderjd 12y ago
  Sometimes (but not always), "hard" when applied to literature means thought-provoking and perspective-expanding. Those are good things. Never read this one though, so I'm not sure whether it's "hard" in that sense.
e12e 12y ago
I'd be curious to hear how either "Ulysses" or "Finnegan's Wake" compare to Samuel Delany's "Dhalgren". I've yet to read anything by Joyce, but thanks to the University of Adelaide[1] and European (and Australian) copyright terms, I now have both in epub-format, and in my reading queue. [1] https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/joyce/james/ https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/joyce/james/
- fernly 12y ago
  "Dhalgren" -- what? Why? What do you think are the links between such vastly different works, produced in vastly different eras by authors who could hardly be more unlike each other? Seriously, I'd love to know how you'd relate them.
  - anigbrowl 12y ago
    There are structural similarities between Finnegan's Wake and Dhalgren because both are circular stories where the end joins up with the beginning.
  - e12e 12y ago
    Others have commented on a description of the literal style/structure of "Dhalgren" that "it sounds a bit like 'Ulysses'". I suppose I'll know once I finish the books by Joyce :-)
chralieboy 12y ago
I remember reading the first few chapters of Ulysses in a high school English class. Our teacher explained that there are entire Masters-level classes on just this book. When we dug into the text, though, the difficulty was, as you said, just a ton of things we hadn't heard of. Compared to philosophy courses or some CS algorithms — or even wrapping my head around pointers for the first time — the concepts were pretty straight-forward.

anigbrowl 12y ago

I don't think it's possible to understand FW unless you're Irish, to the point of knowing different regional accents and so on. For me it's almost unmanageable on the page, i have to read it out loud and then I can make phonetic inferences, but even with that I feel like I'm missing a good deal because of how times have changed since it was written.

oska 12y ago

I've held off commenting because I didn't want to look like I was boasting but since you expressly ask, yes, I have read it. I did it when I was going through a bit of a difficult time and I read the whole thing out loud to myself over about two to three months. The key is to reading it out loud; that's when the magic happens. I didn't try to understand the text and I didn't read any keys to the text; I read it simply for the language experience. There are many (multi-lingual) puns in the text and in this book Joyce elevated punning to a high art. I found it a very rewarding thing to do and I still return to some of my favourite sections. Many times during my first reading I felt shivers down my spine from the beauty of the language. And that peculiar 'front-lobe' excitement you get when perceiving just plain cleverness. So yes, I would recommend it, but not as something to master or to 'conquer'. Try reading a few pages out loud and see how that feels. If you like it, read on. If you don't, don't. I've never persevered with books I didn't like; I don't see the point.