Posted on 05/19/2025 8:51:43 AM PDT by Borges
In 1939, Irish author James Joyce published Finnegans Wake, a piece of literature that defies comprehension.
“riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s,” it begins, “from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.”
The book starts and ends with a sentence fragment, combines multiple languages and has no clear or linear plot.
It’s a work that’s so dense, one group that started in Austin has been working on it for more than a decade.
“We’re only reading one page at a time,” said Peter Quadrino, founder and organizer of the Finnegans Wake Reading Group of Austin, TX.
Every other week, Quadrino hosts a Zoom call where people from around the world gather and attempt to understand one of the most infamous books in English literature.
The group spends the first 15 minutes of each meeting socializing. Then they all go around in a circle, and each person reads two lines until they’re done with that week’s page.
After that, they spend about an hour and a half researching, annotating and trying to make sense of Joyce’s experimental prose.
“We used to read two pages per meeting,” said Quadrino. “Then at a certain point there was just so much going on in the pages and so much in the discussion that we had to lower it to one page per meeting.”
Finnegans Wake is confusing — and, to many, totally incomprehensible — but the book’s complexity has made it a point of fascination for literary enthusiasts in the eight decades since it was first published.
Houston, New York, Boston, Seattle, Dublin, Kyiv and many other cities around the world host groups dedicated to reading and analyzing Finnegans Wake.
“I’ve spoken at Joyce conferences in I think six different countries now,” said Quadrino, “and just being in this world, I’ve made so many friends.”
The Finnegans Wake Reading Group of Austin, TX is moving through its book at a glacial place — and that’s the point. Their focus is the journey, not the destination.
“I never really consider what it’s going to be like when we finish because I don’t want it to end,” explained Quadrino, “and if we do finish, we’ll just circle right back to the beginning and keep reading.”
Finnegans Wake - many of us got through it.
Got the grade.
And moved on with life.
Joyce and Proust were the Comparative Literature Duo one took on because somebody smarter told you said it was important.
Then you grew up and realized they were full of shiiite.
The ravings of a syphilitic drunk.
Lots of fun at Finnegans Wake ...
They aren’t going to get any “meaning” out of it though.
Is there a Ulysses In Real Time club? You have to read Joyce’s other big novel in 24 hours to match the story’s pace.
This sounds so much like the workings of Congress.
“ It’s a work that’s so dense, one group that started in Austin has been working on it for more than a decade.”
Get a job hippies.
And put down the dope
This thread points out the absolute waste of time that is/was spent on “literature/poetry” in a class room environment. Geez, I wish I could get that time back sitting in school or at home because soem English teacher made me read some sort of a “classic”. Fiction is a waste of time.
Is there a Cliff’s Notes version or a movie? Maybe start with that first.
Couldn’t be as incomprehensible as Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
Best start to a book ever, “A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.”
It’s all downhill from there.
Shakespeare and Homer are a waste of time?
He’s laughing right now, wherever he is, over this stellar practical joke. Along with Pollock. Two of the greatest con artists of all time.
I found GR a complete blast to read. It’s on my re-read list.
FW isn’t typical of Joyce. Dubliners is wonderful. Ulysses is also difficult but it really pays off.
I prefer reading Dickens or Rex Stout. They tidy everything up at the end.
Well Ulysses is perfectly well rounded off.
Great author, but this book is not worth the effort!
Well, I’ve read on some forums where the first 100 pages or so is where the slog is. After that it’s enjoyable. On your recommendation, I might try it again.
A much better book is Starcrash, the novelization of the 1978 movie starring David Hasselhoff.
I’ve attempted to get through both Moby Dick and The Brothers Karamazov about three times each over the last 20 years, and each time I have failed. I’ll have to add Finnegan’s Wake as the third on the list of books to finish before I die, maybe.
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