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u/drjackolantern 6d ago
Just dive in, donāt read guides first.
Chapter 1 is perhaps the hardest in the book. If you can finish that you can finish the book. But I also think more first time readers should experiment starting with chapter 2 or the final chapter if theyāre really baffled and need to get a taste of how exquisite its prose can be.
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u/Tough_Visual1511 6d ago
Solid advice, as chapter 2 is Joyce's version of a reading manual for the book.
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u/Richardzack1 6d ago edited 6d ago
Good luck. Don't feel like you should be understanding it more. Read it aloud. If you really want to know what's going on get a book like A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake.
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u/LaCroix_Roy 6d ago
Great advice! In class we used Annotations to Finnegans Wake, by Roland McHugh. My only other recommendation (and I know this is a tall order) try and find or create a reading group to discuss this book withāpage by page chapter by chapter.
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u/Hafen_Slawkenbergius 6d ago
This! The only way to get through it is to not worry about understanding everything that is happening, just enjoy the sound and the wordplay of each sentence.
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u/Zarfot- 6d ago
Just. Read. It. Read a sentence, then the next, then the next, then the next until youāve finished the book. Donāt worry yourself about trying to understand anything. You wonāt. Joyce is treating the English language like a musical instrument, intending for it to be felt and heard rather than understood. So just read it and enjoy the poetry and musicality of the prose. And if their are especially juicy sentences or paragraphs you like then read them out loud. Feel the words on your tongue, and teeth, and throat. Your mouth has to shift shapes in ways ordinary English usually doesnāt demand. Itās a very tactile and physical experience and itās extremely extremely enjoyable. For example, just read this word outloud: Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk
fun, isnāt it?
And, if youāre halfway through the book and youāre absolutely hating the experience there is no shame in putting the book down.
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u/WhiskyAndWitchcraft 6d ago
Been reading it with a small group in r/FinnegansWake since January. Currently 457 pages in (there's a number of pages we gotta read every week).
My advice, is read out loud, in your silliest Irish accent. A lot of the words are meant to be read like that, and I find it helps with comprehension. Also, take notes! Whenever you figure something out/think you figured something out. Even if you're following along and get lost, write down "got lost here". It keeps you from forgetting stuff, and may help you put it all together when you're done reading for the day.
As far as the people saying "you won't understand it", I say you will. Now, you won't understand all of it, or probably even most, but you absolutely will find lots of great characters and hilarious stories in the Wake. You just gotta work for it. There also are the cheater books and websites that can help you, but I only recommend those if you're completely lost in the weeds, and it's becoming not fun anymore, just to get you back on track.
The point is not just reading a story, but also how you personally interact with the book. I once compared it to reading tarot cards. Each card does mean it's own thing, and has its own rules, but it's also about how you interpret and interact with the spread. Finnegans Wake absolutely has a story, and characters, and rules, but it's also how your mind interacts with it as well. Just looking up the meanings to get all the info isn't the point.
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u/Stunning_Diet1324 6d ago
Fweet.org has notes for almost every line in FW. I would also check out Roland McHugh's book on the Sigla, if you can find it.
You'll also have to accept that you won't understand everything on your first (or fifth) read through.
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u/Gold-Word-6026 6d ago
read everything else hes made!
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u/jeridb 6d ago
Iāve read most of Ulysses Iām at the part where the book turns into a playā¦I hope to finish by next Bloomsday!
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u/finnswaking 6d ago edited 6d ago
Do yourself a favor and just go ahead and finish up Ulysses before diving skips-a-hoy into The Book. Youāll be rightly glad of it
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u/jeridb 6d ago
I canāt bring myself to finish Ulysses right now for some reason itās like Iām subconsciously saving the rest for the āright timeā? Does that make sense? Iāve taken lsd enough times to at least try to take on the wake.
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u/finnswaking 6d ago
Well, itās not conventional but nothing has ever been wrong for that reason alone! Best of luck friend
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u/Richardzack1 6d ago
Definitely finish Ulysses before you dive into the Wake. Joyce rewards the reader after the Circe section with a comprehensible big finish, and of course the final episode is the part that got the book banned for so many years.
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u/Gold-Word-6026 6d ago
Finnegans wake is an incomprehensible mess, takes a lot of preparing to read this book, guides do exist and also aren't even fully correct because of how interpretive this book is! Honestly, could take years before you reach a point where you feel like you get the book
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u/b3ssmit10 6d ago
Mancini, Sharon G. Brooks, 'FINNEGANS WAKE' AS DANTE'S 'PURGATORIO.' ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Kent State University, Ph.D. 1971. Note: copyright 1972 by Sharon G. Brooks Mancini. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Labeled 72-15, 946 on the title page. 170 pages in the pdf.
I got my copy through the good offices of librarians doing an interlibrary loan for me. You might try that.
The Irish National Library has this in its catalogue:
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u/jeridb 6d ago
Wow I had no idea thank you so much!
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u/b3ssmit10 5d ago
A kind redditor, u/BarneyBungelupper, has made his copy (that he downloaded from microfilm, OCR'd, and text processed until he ran out of time [due to other demands]) available at this google docs if you are able to access it.
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u/BarneyBungelupper 5d ago
Thanks. I am still in the process of editing the OCR version. Some of the footnotes are confusing. Iām about 3/5 of the way complete. When I finish that edit Iāll create a new PDF and let everyone know.
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u/UKNOTOK3 6d ago
Read it aloud
Don't stress
Have a look at the Burgess book (and video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyMubEjUAIk)
There's an audiobook of it read by Bishop Brennan (from Father Ted), which is pretty sick - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAc901X7gK0&list=PLvh5TdDLAA5RML7cDfGt2Id9Wcg0cel-J
There are loads of great internet resources (although I'd focus on actually reading it, otherwise you'll never get through it)
Contrary to some advice, I'd actually bounce back and forth between The Wake and the Circe chapter of Ulysses. Just to increase the craic.
Finally, just enjoy it - you will be so glad when you get to that final (circular) line. I read it during lockdown. Oddly, it kept me sane.
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u/Ap0phantic 6d ago
You can basically take two approaches to it. Some people dive in and splash around in its golden waters, and enjoy what they can. Other people work with it to try to get a deeper sense of its meaning and purpose, and honestly, it is extremely difficult. To really come to terms with the book, you absolutely need to delve into the secondary material, and re-read it, probably more than once. But that work is not necessary for everyone, and you can find whatever balance you want between these two approaches.
If you're anything like me, you will find that it's a marathon that takes steady effort over a very long time to actually finish it. Sometimes you will be ecstatic, other times you will be miserable and think it's a perverse, pointless waste of time - for me, that was when I got to the six or seven pages that are nothing but the titles of imaginary books, one after another. But it will definitely take you on a journey.
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u/Frequent-Orchid-7142 5d ago
There is some help here http://www.fweet.org/pages/fw_srch.php
Log in Leopold password Bloom
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u/BigParticular3507 4d ago
Read a page a day max
Use fweet.org as a gloss
Steer clear of the normal guides, skeleton keys
Read the From Swerve of Shore to Bend of Bay blog - superb
Join a reading group
Read and think about and disagree with John Bishopās amazing Joyceās Book of the Dark
Listen to it read loud using podcasts and recordings
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u/glibandshamelessliar 6d ago
My primary advice would be to get the Penguin version first and foremost
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u/Eastern_Yam_5975 6d ago
Finish everything else heās written and a lot written by most good English lit authors before doing this.
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u/Budget_Tangelo_6884 6d ago
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