/lit/ - Literature

>>13229979

Ok anon I'm on page 11 and this is actually good. Let us talk practical stuff, because I would be really happy if it was published: what have you tried, up to this point? Did you send it to any publishing house? Did you try a literary agency?

I have a little bit of experience in my country with these things (no anglophone country sadly), maybe I can help - I'll sure try if you tell me a bit more of your situation. One advice I would give is to not present it as a full, 2.300 pages novel immediately, but send forth 200/300 pages, maybe cutting it in a part where it makes sense to cut it, and try selling it as a series. Have you tried this? Is it possible to split the novel into parts? Also, another good strategy could be to not present it directly as a sci-fi. I mean, from the first pages it does not immediately come out as that - maybe that can help?

Also, have you tried searching for some awards for unpublished authors? Those can also be a good start to give some visibility to your work. I honestly think you may have something, here.

Ok, here are some more thoughts. As Gordon puts it, there is a sequence ending with this chapter. What has been happening is not really what is described (of course, given that what is described is barely understandable) but it is part of a stream of psychic life going on during HCE everyday’s actions - or, again, the stories narrated overlap this sequence of actions.

1 (3-10) waking up, recall of fall, trips outdoors to privy, voyage outward fused with returned voyage
2 (10-18) return to house, encounter of male with male: birth of son, brother battle, brother son battle
3 (18-29) re-established in bed hearing Issy’s voice: birth of daughter, first occurrence of blandness and flood.
4 (30-47) Noise from without and breaking of windows: vengeful mob, often identified with children, attacks the rear riving intruder.
5 (48-74) cowering in room, hearing banging sound and wind alternative with daughter seductive voice from upstairs: imagined male-fight over woman, intensified attack, cries of indignation from without; the fog is the worsening of glaucoma with “overclouded” Joyce’s sight.
6 (75-101) Shattered in, turns inward: defeated, ruined, starting to brew up Finnegans Wake
7 (101-) Sinking deep into self, at the end of the tether, turns to woman, remembers youth with her, starts cycle over again: final blindness, flood, rainbow, the letter, the book, ricorso

This helped me think about the complexities of the stories and words read to this point as part of a single psychic process - and a single scene - being mostly about HCE reaction to what he has done and its consequences. I was also thinking that the process may mostly be an image of guilt or an inner monologue about his guilt.

>>12487142
>>12487209
>>12487292
>>12487368

This is so great! I do not know how many we are, I think there were another couple of anons who said they would join in last week. I am beyond next week mark so that maybe, if I have time, I can put some extra research into this. I tried to read around 10 pages a day, maybe a bit more if I can, but I want to progress slowly so that I can make it through. All of you can still jump in fairly easy at this point, and if other people are interested I can slow the pace a little bit more next week.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of links to things I found useful.

>An Adventurer's Guide to Finnegans Wake
http://www.fractiousfiction.com/finnegans_wake.html
This is a series of advices on how to approach the book. Some of them are good, others are not.
>read aloud
This was definitely useful! It's not the key to understand everything, but let's say that if when you read you get 20% of what is written, by reading aloud you can bring it up to 35% (at least this is my experience).

>The Finnegans Wake Toolkit
http://www.fractiousfiction.com/fwtoolkit.html
This is a list of books from which I have taken the suggestions I put in the post. There are other books, but I am planning to keeping it light and stick solely to Tindall (maybe Campbell later) when I can't understand anything of the text. I want to try to engage with the book by myself as much as possible. Again, reading aloud has really helped!

I am by no means an expert in Joyce, but I only miss FW and I want to read it. If we are lucky enough, maybe we'll get some scholarly level anon to help us out!