Finnegan's Wake

[Huntert99]

I'm reading finnegan's wake and I don't really get the point of the book.

 

Any opinions?

[davidivad]

you sure pick a book...

 

remember that this book was written in a time that opium and the likes were a major contributor to life in general. in a nutshell, the book makes no sense.

[imatfaal]

you sure pick a book...

 

remember that this book was written in a time that opium and the likes were a major contributor to life in general. in a nutshell, the book makes no sense.

 

I have never read that Joyce was in any way a user or addicted to opium - but perhaps I have just missed that commentary. He was however an alcoholic. And the "golden age" of opium use amongst literati was about 100 years before Finnegan's Wake was written in 1939

 

 

Finnegan's wake should not be so readily dismissed. Frankly Ulysses is such a great book that it is worth reading that a few time before even attempting Finnegan's Wake. One should start Joyce with Dubliners, then Portrait of the Artist, then Ulysses

[davidivad]

you make a good point.

i may have dismissed the book early, but i would argue the point of it's creation as unfortunate.

[Dekan]

I tried to read "Finnegan" decades ago, but never got much past the first page. The book doesn't seem to have any worthwhile scientific content. The only thing I remember about it is the word "riverrun", That occurs I think in the first line, which goes something like "From riverrun to bend (or curve?) of bay..."

 

The overall impression the book gave me, was of being a poor attempt to reprise "Tristram Shandy", which is IMO a much better read, if you like what might be called "cryptobooks".

 

And at least "Tristram" provides one scientific insight in its opening lines, viz - the unreliabity of 18th-century contraceptive techniques.