/lit/ - Literature

Finnegans Wake, duh.

>>7030654
Fuck.

Well, what do I read now?

>>7030660
That's it: you're finished. Either add to to the field or leave it in pursuit of something else.

>>7030660
Beckett's trilogy or Flann O'Brien or Italo Svevo.

This isn't that hard.

>>7030665
ive never read svevo man whats he like

>>7030660

Every one of Joyce's influences and successors, duh.

>>7030660
You obviously didn't get it, the cycle repeats. Return to Thales

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to the Greeks

>>7030669
I'm not going to walk you through this, but he was one of the people Joyce tutored. He found writing difficult and didn't produce a whole ton, but Zeno's Conscience is considered a big dog modernist work.

>>7030675
im gonan read it when i finish the man without qualities

>>7030671
Go on. . .

>>7030675

Your use of that phrase is indicative of a mind with no feel for language or logic.

>>7030707
You sound very intelligent. What languages do you speak?

>>7030680
Cool. Do it. All of Joyce's progeny are well documented and famous.

>>7030707

OH SHIT it's a hot new meme coming in

>>7030707

Oh shit bruh you're blowing my mind right now.

>>7030674
>the cycle repeats
So are you implying Ulysses and Finnegans Wake are adjacent to the Greeks in this circle?

the sticky. now fuck off

You've collected all 8 gym badges and can now read poetry at the Indigo Plateu

>>7030802

>>7030787
If Finnegans Wake is the pinnacle of western canon then it would only make sense to return to Homer.

>>7030822
I do consider Finnegans Wake to be the "last" novel. I think that makes some dramatic sense.

Something actually good.

>>7030822
>to return to Homer.
Hesiod was a kind of first, actually, I'd return to Works and Days first.

William Burroughs

>>7030838
Silly anglos

>>7030660
紅樓夢
源氏物語
ZETTEL’S TRAUM
learn Ithkuil, write first Ithkuil Literature

>>7030653
I'm about 300 pages in and not enjoying it much. Don't know what going on really, don't care about the characters, and haven't made any profound connections to the Odyssey, despite having read that a month ago. Give up, or will it get better later?

>>7031712
>and haven't made any profound connections to the Odyssey
There are none. They're very superficial and concern the structure more than anything else.
Almost every chapter or group of chapters is different from where you're at, so it might or might not "get better". Considering the nature of your criticism, however, I think you can just stop here. Maybe start Portrait instead if you feel bad about giving up.

>>7030838
Finnigans wake is in a sense the novel you should only read once you have read everything else, and i mean everything, even things that have come after it and will come in the future.

In this sense you are never "ready" for the wake, you mearly experience it in its completeness and are made aware of your incompleteness.

Once you are aware of this there is only one thing you can do. Start with the greeks all over again and try to do better this time.

>>7031662
>learn Ithkuil, write first Ithkuil Literature

This is the number 1 dream I'll never be able to realize.

People still haven't figured out if Finnegans Wake is a literary joke yet, the people who know it is will never come forward either considering the years of their life they wasted studying it. I think the first clue to it being a leg pull is the lack of apostrophe in the title.

>>7031712
Put it away and read it again from the beginning in 5 years or so. It's the kind of book that you relate to in different ways at different points in your life. You are probably just not in a place to really connect with it now.
Also, seconding other anon's suggestion to read Portrait instead for now if you really want to read Joyce. While it is not necessary to "get" Ulysses, it is connected and will broaden your appreciation of Ulysses when and if you come back to it. Also, it is shorter and has some very beautiful prose.
And, yeah, the Odyssey connections are pretty much there to just give structure to the book. I also think it's supposed to be an attempt to elevate the daily humdrum lives of common people to the status of epic heroism by presenting one day in Bloom's life as if it were analogous to the fantastic journeys of Odysseus.

>>7030653
>spoiling the ending on the front cover

what absolute shitheels

>>7030653
Zettels Traum

>>7032598
>spoiling the fact that it's the ending

and you're the shithead

>>7031921
There is no apostrophe in the title because it's a combination of French word "fin" (meaning "end") and Latin word "negans' (meaning "denies").

>>7031921
Finnegans Wake is not a literary joke, that's a pretty ignorant thing to say.

With Ulysses Joyce had encapsulated the western canon and the history of English prose in a single novel. There was nothing left to achieve. After Ulysses Joyce felt he could only develop his art and expand the possibilities of the novel by going beyond the English language.

>>7031712
I think everyone should read Portait first before tackling Ulysses. Makes it far, far easier to get a hold on the Telemachy and start enjoying the novel.

>>7031712
https://archive.org/details/Ulysses-Audiobook

Listen to it as you read it.

If you get 5 - 6 chapters in and you don't like it, put it away and pick it up again in 2 - 3 years. Make sure you learn about poetry in that time.

>>7032755
because it's a combination of "me" which is used to make oneself the object of a verb or preposition, and "me" which is used to make oneself the object of a verb or preposition. Hence "meme" is used to make oneself the object of a thread or discussion, and It is a purely selfish expression of absurdity and angst.

>>7032767
what the fuck are you saying lol

>>7032823
He thinks he understands the wake lol.

>>7032823
that the first step beyond the English language was an English dialect

>>7032820
>everyone posts Carlyle's cheesiest quote.
At least the praise of those who toil, gotdamn

>>7030797
Read the sticky.Was pretty short and even had pictures.Now what?

>>7030787
no u shitlord joyce is where it loops back to the greeks, he's 12 O'Clock and homer is 1

>>7031887
*tips sombrero*

>>7031921
If it's a joke it's a great joke. What's wrong with that?

>>7030671
Joyce-centric solar system of literature

>>7033772
It's sortof both. Finnegans Wake is an enormous maze of scripture, meaning, stories, all possible references and even pre-references, the ultimate melting pot of language.

But it's also a huge filthy joke, going beyond meaning to make all meaning at least a little ridiculous, leaving you with the pure presence of Joyce's voice. And beautifully arrogant. Like he was flouting how he literally wasn't afraid to go insane playing this brilliant joke of his.

>>7033894
Fuck, I just realized, Finnegans Wake is probably the only book I think of like it's a person, with desires and quirks and a certain measure of almost quantum unpredictability about it. It's also the only book I'm afraid of reading sometimes.

Why haven't you abandoned moral realism and embraced the truth of emotivism, /lit/? It's obviously the only tenable answer.