Top 10--FW

[argus.]

re: to reference or not to reference, reading Finnegans Wake.

RRomeo:
> Greg.  Skeleton Key is pretty lousy.  The intro article is informative 
> but the rest of the book pretends to "translate" FW, basically destroying 
> everything that's great about it.  

To second this, I think the great thing about FW is how much a
litmus test of one's own mind it is.   Joyce made a book almost
entirely of open-endedness, which is astonishing.  Then some people 
started "deciding" what FW was about, one text in particular, and so 
the rest followed suit.  I really regret that I learned FW through a 
class, because now I'm biased to whatever is there, seeing mainly the 
template I was taught.  Really, the way to do FW is to let it glide
past you--take it slow at first, and think of it as watching the
static on a tv screen ("tuned to a dead channel," heh)...i'll be jealous
of the integrity of the hallucinations that will eventually appear
for those who do it this way.

>  Let's face 
> it--get a copy of the Annotations (you'll learn the seven deadly words in 
> every language) and Joyce's Book of the Dark by John Bishop.  

I'd say try it first sans everything...your brain is just as rich,
in different ways, as Joyce's.  heck, people have seen TVs and all sorts
of other wonders in the text, things that weren't even invented when
Joyce was writing!

happy Fat Tuesday, all.
didactically yurs,  :>

susan 

> Richard Romeo
> Coordinator of Cooperating Collections
> The Foundation Center-NYC
> 212-807-2417
> rromeo at fdncenter.org