Communication
Ok so I'm about ready to give up on Finnegan's Wake I bought it a while back because everyone one of the authors I was studying -- informally haven't been a dues paying member of a university in a couple years -- mentioned how they were deeply influenced by the writings of James Joyce especially Finnegan's Wake and Dubliners. So instead of looking it over in the store I just picked it up off the rack and went to browse some light reading material.
Then I went home set about reading the book. Let me rephrase that. Then I attempted to read the book. I failed. I got through the massive introduction after a bit and I was afraid. The I hit the meat of the story and I was lucky to make out one word in five let alone complete a sentence and understand what the heck dude was saying. So I set the book aside in my box of books to be considered later. (like when I'm totally out of things to read and someone has take the computers and the televisions aren't working.
Still I was determined to understand the book so I ordered a guide to reading Finnegans Wake. (It's the second book on that search results link.) I had high hopes. Then the book came in the mail. I took it and went to my room to decode and learn. An hour later I came out of my room no wiser.
Apparently Joyce thought this was his greatest work too. I just don't accept that. The purpose of writing a book is to convey meaning. If your audience cannot understand what you are trying to say, you aren't doing your job. If you want to make codes and puzzles there are better ways to employ that talent.
So what brings this up? Well I broke down and bought this years edition of "The Best American Poetry." I've been buying it steadily since I was first introduced to the series in a writing workshop back in '96. (I also found '94 and '94 on the cheap rack at a book shop so now I have 10 years of poetry). Now I haven't read enough of it yet to review it. One just can not blaze through a collection of poetry like that. After a few poems you find yourself just mouthing the words but and hearing them sounds but not understanding them in context.
So anyways when I read these books I always sit there with a pen in hand and start inking up the books. It's not like I plan to share em and I've often gone back to them for inspirational do's and don'ts (And if I were ever to try and publish a poem the little list in the back of which magazines were used that year can be quite helpful.) On the first two poems in the book I just put a question mark. That is my little notation to myself that I didn't understand it that reading. (perhaps it was me reading to many poems but usually its the author trying to be oblique). It wasn't until I hit the third poem in the book that I was able to comprehend what the author was trying to say. I was so relieved to have understanding that it probably raised my enjoyment of what upon reflection wasn't that great a work. It was good, just not that good in my opinion.
My professors used to deride my love of Robert Service. He wrote poems that were stories. They were adventures and fun to read (and they rhymed something no self respecting poet in this day and age would do. Many this is a fear thing. It's not that rhyme is bad it's that everyone is afraid that they will rhyme badly or in a cliched way that will earn them no end of derision). Now you have to break out you super decoder ring, the Oxford English dictionary and a Google just to get an idea of what an author is trying to say.
In Summary: I like Robert Service. I need a tutor for Finnegan's Wake. I still buy a school book every year. And now I'm going to try a picture link to it.
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Then I went home set about reading the book. Let me rephrase that. Then I attempted to read the book. I failed. I got through the massive introduction after a bit and I was afraid. The I hit the meat of the story and I was lucky to make out one word in five let alone complete a sentence and understand what the heck dude was saying. So I set the book aside in my box of books to be considered later. (like when I'm totally out of things to read and someone has take the computers and the televisions aren't working.
Still I was determined to understand the book so I ordered a guide to reading Finnegans Wake. (It's the second book on that search results link.) I had high hopes. Then the book came in the mail. I took it and went to my room to decode and learn. An hour later I came out of my room no wiser.
Apparently Joyce thought this was his greatest work too. I just don't accept that. The purpose of writing a book is to convey meaning. If your audience cannot understand what you are trying to say, you aren't doing your job. If you want to make codes and puzzles there are better ways to employ that talent.
So what brings this up? Well I broke down and bought this years edition of "The Best American Poetry." I've been buying it steadily since I was first introduced to the series in a writing workshop back in '96. (I also found '94 and '94 on the cheap rack at a book shop so now I have 10 years of poetry). Now I haven't read enough of it yet to review it. One just can not blaze through a collection of poetry like that. After a few poems you find yourself just mouthing the words but and hearing them sounds but not understanding them in context.
So anyways when I read these books I always sit there with a pen in hand and start inking up the books. It's not like I plan to share em and I've often gone back to them for inspirational do's and don'ts (And if I were ever to try and publish a poem the little list in the back of which magazines were used that year can be quite helpful.) On the first two poems in the book I just put a question mark. That is my little notation to myself that I didn't understand it that reading. (perhaps it was me reading to many poems but usually its the author trying to be oblique). It wasn't until I hit the third poem in the book that I was able to comprehend what the author was trying to say. I was so relieved to have understanding that it probably raised my enjoyment of what upon reflection wasn't that great a work. It was good, just not that good in my opinion.
My professors used to deride my love of Robert Service. He wrote poems that were stories. They were adventures and fun to read (and they rhymed something no self respecting poet in this day and age would do. Many this is a fear thing. It's not that rhyme is bad it's that everyone is afraid that they will rhyme badly or in a cliched way that will earn them no end of derision). Now you have to break out you super decoder ring, the Oxford English dictionary and a Google just to get an idea of what an author is trying to say.
In Summary: I like Robert Service. I need a tutor for Finnegan's Wake. I still buy a school book every year. And now I'm going to try a picture link to it.
More Laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 3:21 AM
8 Comments:
Do you happen to own Poems for the Millennium (1&2)?
I've heard a lot of Finnegan's wake but never have i attempted to read it. it sounds daunting. perhaps we should look into reading it together (at a later date, of course).
I thought I gave yas my copy of poems for the millenium. I had one of em for one of those workshops
i had to buy them for Baldwins class...i'm pretty sure i bought them because i didn't scribble inside them that "rich gave these to you". that and the only things written in them are in my hand, making them unspecial and highly biased.
Well I had em at one time. Don't anymore. Have yas googled the prof recently? number of literary magazine listings
Wow, I've heard Finnegan's Wake is one of the hardest books to read. Congratulations on making the effort, especially since after you couldn't quite get it you didn't stop trying.
It's still in the box of guilt. That an unfinished book by hemmingway. A william s burroughs book I found out was the second in a series. (and I so dislike to read out of order). Best amercian 2003 and a dylan thomas collected short stories.
That I can list off what is in the box without even looking at it attests to the fact that it is indeed the box of guilt.
I accidentally started one of my favorite series of books with the fourth one, out of a total of five. In the second set of books, might I add. So really I read book nine of a set of ten. Ever hear of David Eddings? Belgariad and Mallorean series. Good books, still okay when read slightly out of order.
Don't put them in the box of guilt. Mix them in the bookcase with other stuff like I do and then maybe that will distract you. Possibly. Give it a shot. It's not like it will get lost that way. That's where I put my copy of Emma, by Jane Austen that I started but didn't finish.
It's probably been 10 years since i read the belgariod or the malorian. I thought about picking up the riven codex. Have the polgara and belgarath books in a box somewhere. Then there are those other 2 series i forget their names but I've read em not as memorable but still a good read I'm sure.
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