Print the page
Add to a Calendar using iCal
Share page on Facebook
This link opens in a new window
Add to Google Calendar
This link opens in a new window
Share page on Twitter
This link opens in a new window
Sunday Afternoon Talks: FINNEGAN'S WAKE In-Person
In preparation for St. Patrick's Day guest speaker John O'Connor will discuss James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake". He has been giving lectures on this book for about twenty-five years and finds it edifying, inspiring and profound and at times frustrating. John has a B.A. from Bucknell University in English literature. He explains, "Some say philosophy is discovering what isn't in the Wake. But as Joyce liked to say in risu veritas - in laughter there is truth. Basically the Wake is world history in the abstract written in puns and at least sixty-six different languages. I have deciphered some of it and I like to share what I've found with others."
The Wake is loosely based on the Irish-American song "Finnegans Wake" about a hod carrier who one day, drunk from liquor, falls off his ladder. His fellows, thinking he is dead, throw a wake for him. During the wake a fight breaks out in which some liquor pours out onto the displayed body of Finnegan. The alcohol wakes him and he cries - "Damn your souls did you think me dead?!" In this case Finnegan is the actual Irish hero Finn MacCool who passes about 200 years before the coming of St. Patrick. The fight at the Wake is actual world history as it ensues not only after the death of Finn but also includes ancient times as well. As Finn wakes this volupkabulary (Joyce, 419.12) is how he makes sense of the world. The Wake is based a little bit on typtology or the theory of spirit-tapping as well as on the Greek notion that if your name is spoken you shall never die. "Ho, talk save us!" (Joyce, 215.34)
John will be doing an exegesis on a part of Book II chapter II of the volume. It is called the Study hour in which the twins Shem and Sean the sons of Finn, who have inherited bits of their father but are neither quite the genuine article, learn of the great mysteries that have engaged man from the beginning: The Philosopher Stone, Woman, Virtue, Political Progress, The Stars, Reincarnation, Mathematics, etc.
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!