Culturally diverse names for 'pikelets', chicken-snatching foxes and uncomfortable sexual violence statistics. Nothing is off the agenda when it comes to warming up for Finnegans Wake.
Our gathering this Sunday returned us to the Hosty's 'Haunted Inkbottle', arising in lemon yellow hues from the Fields of Ash, an oasis of poetry Brought On up the stairs to our thirsty hearts on a humpy tea tray, with teapot suitably scalded.
Starting Page: 249, from "Luck".
Endpoint: 251, "But listening to the Mockinbird.
Foodie inspiration from today's reading: Sally Lunn's bun, a kind of brioche originally baked in Bath by a French woman.
Here is a history of the Sally Lunn bun.
We sensed at times more than understood, but that is our usual method of reading.
The "house breathings" is (among other things) Issy's mouth.Using McHugh via Fweet, we understood another embedding of the word Heliotrope based on the shape-names of the Hebrew letters.
The children's "singing games" that Joyce studied are studded through the following paragraphs as Shem-as-Glugg continues to flirt with the 29 Girls and defend himself against Shaun-as-Chuff.
The three questions at the top of p250 appear to be collectively asked of Shem. Each question (about his preparedness for sexual encounters) draws some play-acting from Shem who "simules", "makes semblant" and "finges" (feigns", but also makes scissoring motions with his fingers).
Humorous animal imagery comes through in the remainder of the 'magic' aspects of p250. The faun is symbolic of the magic, and Issy and her Florals are sensed by them as a flock of sheep - the invocation of Mary Had a Little Lamb is strongly audible. It could be a further contribution to the sheep/goats motif, but for now seems to contrast the purity of the "verveine virgins" (white) compared with the goaty pan-like male figures (fauns).
The continuing magical symbols of manifestations ("visitation") and demonic babbling ("tubble dabble" and all the Lucifer words) indicate Shem's 'black arts' and the very saucy paragraph at 251.4 indicates the good old male gaze - where has it been? haven't seen it for at least a few pages - in action, using the "imogenation" to conjure up mastubatory fantasy fodder, because that is what the pre- or actually pubescent Shem is busying himself with. Although an extra level of lechery is sensed as the teacher-pupil relationship is invoked.
Mrs Gamp of the Northern Fairlights made a striking proposition, as it were, to consider the very sexual implications of the phrase "hers in the word". The momentum and climax of the 251.4-20 paragraph can be read as a fantasy (or invitation, or experience) of oral intercourse, for the said verveine 29 Girls led by Issy to maintain their genital chastity.
The theme for our reading seemed to be 'temptation' as some great white wine was poured in subconscious honour of Jim's favourite tipple.
So the sun set on another encounter with the tapestry of tales and ascending scales on which we weigh our monthly intelligence quota. All of us know it takes far more than intelligence, which is merely the bread on which the marmalade eventually spreads, for those who are predisposed to Waking. Patience, curiosity, joyfulness and a willingness to sink one's self into someone else's dazzling and dangerously addictive art, to wonder that such a concentric book was the product of one mind.
Our group is about 7 pages away from the next chapter. We read, we talk, we drink tea, and so the pages turn.
Our gathering this Sunday returned us to the Hosty's 'Haunted Inkbottle', arising in lemon yellow hues from the Fields of Ash, an oasis of poetry Brought On up the stairs to our thirsty hearts on a humpy tea tray, with teapot suitably scalded.
Starting Page: 249, from "Luck".
Endpoint: 251, "But listening to the Mockinbird.
 |
| Sally Lunn bun |
Here is a history of the Sally Lunn bun.
We sensed at times more than understood, but that is our usual method of reading.
The "house breathings" is (among other things) Issy's mouth.Using McHugh via Fweet, we understood another embedding of the word Heliotrope based on the shape-names of the Hebrew letters.
The children's "singing games" that Joyce studied are studded through the following paragraphs as Shem-as-Glugg continues to flirt with the 29 Girls and defend himself against Shaun-as-Chuff.
The three questions at the top of p250 appear to be collectively asked of Shem. Each question (about his preparedness for sexual encounters) draws some play-acting from Shem who "simules", "makes semblant" and "finges" (feigns", but also makes scissoring motions with his fingers).
Humorous animal imagery comes through in the remainder of the 'magic' aspects of p250. The faun is symbolic of the magic, and Issy and her Florals are sensed by them as a flock of sheep - the invocation of Mary Had a Little Lamb is strongly audible. It could be a further contribution to the sheep/goats motif, but for now seems to contrast the purity of the "verveine virgins" (white) compared with the goaty pan-like male figures (fauns).
The continuing magical symbols of manifestations ("visitation") and demonic babbling ("tubble dabble" and all the Lucifer words) indicate Shem's 'black arts' and the very saucy paragraph at 251.4 indicates the good old male gaze - where has it been? haven't seen it for at least a few pages - in action, using the "imogenation" to conjure up mastubatory fantasy fodder, because that is what the pre- or actually pubescent Shem is busying himself with. Although an extra level of lechery is sensed as the teacher-pupil relationship is invoked.
Mrs Gamp of the Northern Fairlights made a striking proposition, as it were, to consider the very sexual implications of the phrase "hers in the word". The momentum and climax of the 251.4-20 paragraph can be read as a fantasy (or invitation, or experience) of oral intercourse, for the said verveine 29 Girls led by Issy to maintain their genital chastity.
The theme for our reading seemed to be 'temptation' as some great white wine was poured in subconscious honour of Jim's favourite tipple.
So the sun set on another encounter with the tapestry of tales and ascending scales on which we weigh our monthly intelligence quota. All of us know it takes far more than intelligence, which is merely the bread on which the marmalade eventually spreads, for those who are predisposed to Waking. Patience, curiosity, joyfulness and a willingness to sink one's self into someone else's dazzling and dangerously addictive art, to wonder that such a concentric book was the product of one mind.
Our group is about 7 pages away from the next chapter. We read, we talk, we drink tea, and so the pages turn.
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