Finnegans Wake or “You really owe me for reading this whole book so you don’t have to!”

The worst kind of joke is an inside joke.  You know, where only the joke teller and a few select people are in on it and it seems so much funnier to them when you don’t even know what they are talking about.  It’s insulting.  Well, Finnegans Wake is an inside joke.   And, as with many jokes, there are those people who don’t get it but they’ll laugh along just so they don’t look stupid.  In this case, those people are the ones who put it on any list of recommended reading.

Finnegans Wake is ridiculously difficult to read.  It’s like driving on a long road that has a speed bump every seven feet and with each mile that goes by, you’re more certain the road leads nowhere.  At some point, I found it helped me to read it out loud.  The words did start to form a rhythm …but they still make no sense.

Part of the problem is Joyce’s love of made-up words such as bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk.  That’s from just the third paragraph and the book is full of this kind of crap.  Then there’s his use of made-up words in place of real words to make some kind of “inside joke” version of a pun such as “cruelfiction’ for crucifixion.   

Sentence structure is a vague concept to Joyce and he switches from straight narrative (I guess?) to poetry, snippets of songs, pages from plays and more.  Often there seems to be a send-up of “The Lord’s Prayer” imbedded in a paragraph but really, who can tell?

At some point, Joyce gives up on words altogether and starts lacing his writing with symbols, letters on their sides or upside down and mathematic equations. 

My copy of the book was divided into four parts and I never could figure out why.  There was no clear break in the storyline (due in part to there being no storyline) and the sections could be read in any order and still make as much sense.  The sentence fragment that starts the book connects to the sentence fragment that ends the book thus making it a never-ending story.  Right.

Finnegans Wake has been compared to Jabberwocky which is another ghastly piece of writing which seems to have some literary following that I could never understand.  At least it doesn’t run in excess of 600 pages.  Look, if you really need to read something with made-up words then at least try the collections of Dr. Seuss.  One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish has more of a plot, more drama and far more social relevance than Finnegans Wake.

I’ve always heard that if you put enough monkeys at typewriters that, in time, they could duplicate the works of Shakespeare.  Take half the monkeys, just give them the afternoon and they could crank out Finnegans Wake with time to spare.  And yet it took Joyce seventeen years to write this claptrap.

Many accounts say that the book, even when first published in serial form for a magazine, was not well received.  Critics objected to the nonsensical words, lack of plot, lack of characters and the bizarre pacing or ‘structure’ of the novel.  Even back then, there were people trying to keep you from wasting your time.  Still, you’ll find articles claiming that this literary masterpiece is full of rich characters and their stories.  Do this…the next time you are at the library, find a copy of Finnegans Wake and read ten pages.  That’s all, just ten pages.  I don’t care if the ten pages are at the front, back or middle of the book.  They don’t even need to be ten pages in a row or in order.  Let me know what you think.

Yes, I read the whole book.  Mainly so I could badmouth it with a clear conscience.  It also helped that I was sitting in New Jersey during a blizzard and this was the only book I packed.  The whole time I was reading, I kept hearing Mr.T whisper to me, “Enough of this jibber-jabber!”  I pity the fool who decides to try to read Finnegans Wake.

Next Week:  Sandra reads Of Human Bondage