Two forms of chocolate and two kinds of tea sent our gathering off to an energetic start, commencing with the ongoing dialogue between two kinds of brothers.
Present company included myself (Mitzi), Hosty, The Borrowed Beckettian, Mr Google, and the Two Northwegians.
Section: 191.5 - 195.6
Shaun in the guise of JUSTIUS interrogates Shem in the form of MERCIUS, and the latter almost has the last word, but for creatures of his literary conjuring that he summons out of muteness. Out of cuteness too, given that "the dumb" are most likely fluffy ducklings or chicks swimming around a lacuna of the Liffey river, brought so eloquently to life in Shem's final self-defense.
A brief bookmark in our reading of this chunk of the Wake, the strength of European glue was considered, in the cases of many of our paperbacks losing pages to the climate-suffering adhesive. This is pertinent to my own copy of FW which splits at exactly this section, pages 194-5.
A further brief bookmark includes two reading recommendations from Hosty. Three Men on a Bummel and Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome and How to Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson.
At 191.5, Shaun/JUSTIUS continues his upbraiding of Shem while their father (or 'liege') is out drinking. A first (that I've noticed) disturbing reference to Hitler ("heal helper") and a few references to Fingal. Patrimony continues here as a prominent theme. In complimenting a figure he refers to as Immaculatus, it's not super clear whether Shaun is praising a Shem-that-could-have-been, or a Shaun-that-was (ie himself.) I tentatively read the likable youth as a Jesus type, as he is "a chum of the angelets"; it turns out that Koranic references abound, and Mohammed is present as the "bosom foe", the phrase in brackets evoking The (anti-Muslim) Crusades ("not one did you slay, no, but a continent!). The language is also childish, evoking petty fraternal discord from the days of Shem n Shaun's childhood. Shaun accuses Shem of envy towards his prettier and ironically more legible brother (for a penman, Shem is a messy writer.Having his "speller" mussed at this early age must not have helped.)That may be too literal a reading, especially for a paragraph that invokes the tradition of Muslim "reporters", angels who weigh the faithful's good and bad deeds. Shaun's vision of the Good Child is so highly esteemed that the "reporters" want to play with him.
Page 191 also contains an adorable possum reference. Confirming the possum (latin, incidentally for "I can") as Australian is the delightful portmanteau on "fumtreeumption"; and we congratulated ourselves on our continuing gumtreeumption in reading the Wake.
Blatantly cruel, calling him "blethering ape", Shaun refers to the main stories that occur in the Wake, asking wether Shem has taken lessons from them: HCE/Marcon and the two girls; Buckley and the Russian General; Aesop's fables". Mean as this is, Shaun's castigation reminds us of the layered narratives of FW and that is recycled stories are like history: tales to take lessons from.
A hilarious image appears in "hatfuls of stewed fruit" and a cute new verb - "kittycoaxed" are unable to sweeten the demeanour of Shaun's critical tirade, who accuses Shem of failing as a Jesus or martyr figure; and this occurs in a surprisingly bracketed phrase, the punniest of the page - "bound to the cross of your own cruelfiction".
Your devoted blogger now has to desist from further note-taking due to sauna-like conditions. Suffice to say our session ended on a fine note, relishing the contrast between the "deathbone" and the "lifewand". The former, from Australian Aboriginal custom, curses the pointee with muteness, whereas Shem's lifewand (his pen, and possibly his penis, ew!) elicits speech.
Shem seems to trump Shaun's nay-saying and condemnation by invoking their "turfbrown mummy" and turning the tide of the tale back to the wonderful ALP for a respite from all that masculine posturing, easing us readers into the babbling waters of ... well, I think we're all just thrilled to have actually arrived at I,8, the episode of the glorious, gosipaceous washerwomen. With some luck, we might even see them on January the 1st and start the hot summer's year with our toes cooling in the water.
Present company included myself (Mitzi), Hosty, The Borrowed Beckettian, Mr Google, and the Two Northwegians.
Section: 191.5 - 195.6
Shaun in the guise of JUSTIUS interrogates Shem in the form of MERCIUS, and the latter almost has the last word, but for creatures of his literary conjuring that he summons out of muteness. Out of cuteness too, given that "the dumb" are most likely fluffy ducklings or chicks swimming around a lacuna of the Liffey river, brought so eloquently to life in Shem's final self-defense.
A brief bookmark in our reading of this chunk of the Wake, the strength of European glue was considered, in the cases of many of our paperbacks losing pages to the climate-suffering adhesive. This is pertinent to my own copy of FW which splits at exactly this section, pages 194-5.
A further brief bookmark includes two reading recommendations from Hosty. Three Men on a Bummel and Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome and How to Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson.
At 191.5, Shaun/JUSTIUS continues his upbraiding of Shem while their father (or 'liege') is out drinking. A first (that I've noticed) disturbing reference to Hitler ("heal helper") and a few references to Fingal. Patrimony continues here as a prominent theme. In complimenting a figure he refers to as Immaculatus, it's not super clear whether Shaun is praising a Shem-that-could-have-been, or a Shaun-that-was (ie himself.) I tentatively read the likable youth as a Jesus type, as he is "a chum of the angelets"; it turns out that Koranic references abound, and Mohammed is present as the "bosom foe", the phrase in brackets evoking The (anti-Muslim) Crusades ("not one did you slay, no, but a continent!). The language is also childish, evoking petty fraternal discord from the days of Shem n Shaun's childhood. Shaun accuses Shem of envy towards his prettier and ironically more legible brother (for a penman, Shem is a messy writer.Having his "speller" mussed at this early age must not have helped.)That may be too literal a reading, especially for a paragraph that invokes the tradition of Muslim "reporters", angels who weigh the faithful's good and bad deeds. Shaun's vision of the Good Child is so highly esteemed that the "reporters" want to play with him.
Page 191 also contains an adorable possum reference. Confirming the possum (latin, incidentally for "I can") as Australian is the delightful portmanteau on "fumtreeumption"; and we congratulated ourselves on our continuing gumtreeumption in reading the Wake.
Blatantly cruel, calling him "blethering ape", Shaun refers to the main stories that occur in the Wake, asking wether Shem has taken lessons from them: HCE/Marcon and the two girls; Buckley and the Russian General; Aesop's fables". Mean as this is, Shaun's castigation reminds us of the layered narratives of FW and that is recycled stories are like history: tales to take lessons from.
A hilarious image appears in "hatfuls of stewed fruit" and a cute new verb - "kittycoaxed" are unable to sweeten the demeanour of Shaun's critical tirade, who accuses Shem of failing as a Jesus or martyr figure; and this occurs in a surprisingly bracketed phrase, the punniest of the page - "bound to the cross of your own cruelfiction".
Your devoted blogger now has to desist from further note-taking due to sauna-like conditions. Suffice to say our session ended on a fine note, relishing the contrast between the "deathbone" and the "lifewand". The former, from Australian Aboriginal custom, curses the pointee with muteness, whereas Shem's lifewand (his pen, and possibly his penis, ew!) elicits speech.
Shem seems to trump Shaun's nay-saying and condemnation by invoking their "turfbrown mummy" and turning the tide of the tale back to the wonderful ALP for a respite from all that masculine posturing, easing us readers into the babbling waters of ... well, I think we're all just thrilled to have actually arrived at I,8, the episode of the glorious, gosipaceous washerwomen. With some luck, we might even see them on January the 1st and start the hot summer's year with our toes cooling in the water.
