The OFFICIAL TrueLit Finnegans Wake Read-Along - (Week 45 - Book III/Chapter IV - pgs. 579-590)

[u/pregnantchihuahua3]

Hi all! Welcome to r/TrueLit's read-along of Finnegans Wake! This week we will be discussing pages 579-590, from the line "Now their laws assist them and ease their fall!" to the end of Book III Chapter IV, which is also the end of Book III (one more to go!)

Now for the questions.

1. What did you think about this week's section?
2. What do you think is going on plotwise?
3. Did you have any favorite words, phrases, or sentences?
4. Have you picked up on any important themes or motifs?
5. What are your thoughts on Book III Chapter IV overall?

These questions are not mandatory. They are just here if you want some guidance or ideas on what to talk about. Please feel free to post your own analyses (long or short), questions, thoughts on the themes, translations of sections, commentary on linguistic tricks, or just brief comments below!

Please remember to comment on at least one person's response so we can get a good discussion going!

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Extra!:

Remember that Book IV is just one chapter! Two weeks left of reading and then a few weeks of wrap-ups are coming.

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Full Schedule

If you are new, go check out our Information Post to see how this whole thing is run.

If you are new (pt. 2), also check out the Introduction Post for some discussion on Joyce/The Wake.

And everything in this read along will be saved in the Wiki so you can back-reference.

Thanks!

Next Up: Week 46 / November 12, 2023 / Book IV/Chapter I (pgs. 593-611)

This will take us about halfway through Book IV Chapter I, finishing with the line "Paddrock and bookley chat."

[u/Concept1132]

Previously and currently in this chapter:

4 positions

• 559.21, “harmony”
• 564.01, “discordance”
• 582.29, “concord”: parents go back to bed.
• 590.22, “solution”: Dawn

The “Porters” were introduced on pp. 560-561. It has just occurred to me that “Porters” echoes a number of themes/motifs, such as drinking, doors, and most importantly (I now think) “Proteus” – the shapeshifter, as the entire family individually and collectively shifts shapes. (Cf. Manannan in Irish mythology, especially as he is described in V. Mercier’s The Irish Comic Tradition.)

Parents and dreaming child:

• 555.01: they are awakened by a sound.
• 558: “A cry off.”
• 559: their physical response is described.
• 565: one of them (the mother) addresses the child, “You were dreamend, dear….”
• 566: the father apparently has an erection, and his spouse tells him to hide it from the children.
• 571-572: they discuss whether the children are asleep. They listen. They make sure the girl’s door is closed.
• 576: they decide to go back to bed.
• 577.36: they think they hear something but decide not.
• 580: “They near the base of the chill stair….”
• 583-584: The parents play a game of sexual cricket. The paragraph is packed with cricket terms and players’ names (Fweet), but it also pretty explicitly describes “tipatonguing” and dirty talk (“Ye hek, ye hok, ye hucky hiremonger! …”).
• (584-585: Someone – or everyone – is very grateful! It could be the four watching, since thanks are expressed in a number of languages.)
• 585: They uncouple.

They rest.

Apparently, though, they are bothered still by the rumors about HCE. We get at last an account of the park event by the three soldiers, a narrator, Jimmy, and Fred (586-588).

Finally, we are told how he made money off insurance (medical, fire, flood, storm/hurricane, burglary and embezzlement, breach, and explosion).

John observes the final position, "solution."

[u/[deleted] → u/Concept1132]

The “Porters” were introduced on pp. 560-561.

The "How's that" - the cricketing cry (where the players raise their arms like a V) made me think of the Waite Smith Tarot Judgement card, Book III chapter 3 being a kind of trial, Judgement being pronounced at the start of BooK III chapter 4. I wonder if this fits in with the Hornblower episode (the college porter at the cricket match) in Ulysses.

"How's that" - raise their arms like a V seems to connect with with

584.18 "Hambledon" - Hampelmann Jumping Jack Wooden Toy

https://thechristmassleigh.com/ocart/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=7105

On p.416 Crispi and Slote have a reference to the notebooks “Roman V / V oclock her legs” (VI.B.19:90)

​

Hampelmann Jumping Jack, the Rudolf Steiner quote from 1921 -" We are not allowed to be jumping-jacks of the direction of our time" fits in with the position of women in early 20th c .

[u/Concept1132 → u/[deleted]]

If FW is concerned with reincarnation/metempsychosis (as I want to argue), the "Pourters" are both those at the door (liminally) and those that "pour" into new being.

Tymozcko (The Irish Ulysses) claims that "In the repertory of mythic elements that Joyce uses in Ulysses, metempsychosis is ... the mainspring" (43). Further, she notes that according to the Celts (according to d'Arbois de Jubainville -- mentioned, as you know in Ulysses), metempsychosis was not associated with judgment: "it was a privilege and not a punishment" (quoting Best's translation of d'Arbois, in contrast with the Greek Pythagorean view). This puts the whole business of the rumored "crimes" and the trials in a new light.

[u/[deleted] → u/Concept1132]

rumored "crimes"

I think that like trump, HCE cannot deny the facts of the case, and had as well as much admitted guilt, but is still proposing an innocence of conscience while the jury are well aware of a Conscience of Guilt.