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.”
What was your issue with TBK?
I have been trying to read Ulysses for 20 some-odd years.
I’ve gotten through Russian writers with more ease.
It’s a heavy slog to get through. I think I made it to around page 250 before I became completely exhausted each time.
The characters and their interactions are so vivid that I find it completely engaging.
I was reading about the song “I am the Walrus”. It seems that John would add in non-sensical stuff or private jokes for fun, to see what the critics might say of the “deep meaning” behind the lyrics.
....robots....
I’ve tried several times. Each time I spend an hour on maybe 1-2 pages. First looking up all the references, then again for the clever wordplay, yet again in admiration of the lyric poetry.
Yet it still manages to walk you through a plot of sorts, like a detailed dream narrated in the rhythm of thought.
Oh, and it’s where the word ‘quark’ comes from
One of my English teachers told me that the whole purpose of “Moby Dick” was to stop time. After that, it all made sense.
“Moby Dick” was still less of a slog than “Walden.” OH, How i hated that book.
I gave up 1/4 way through Gone With The Wind.
(Which isn’t as bad as sleeping through The Guns of Navarone) h/t Dick Van Dyke
Congratulations. You are the winner of the "Summarize Proust in 30 Seconds" contest.
“Shakespeare and Homer are a waste of time?”
Yes
If you speak English and live in an English speaking culture then Shakespeare is in your blood.
Not nearly worth that amount of time.
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