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More information for readers.

More on PROJECT: Finnegans Wake

after the reading

We have put up a summary of the October 20, 2009 reading in the section of bend of bay devoted to PROJECT Finnegans Wake.

While this is an ongoing project, I am preparing a “readers group edition” based on some of the initial feedback. If you would like to take part, leave us a comment.  Visit PROJECT Finnegans Wake for more information.

- apc

If you have never read Finnegans Wake, the full text is available here.

More about Finnegans Wake on bend of bay.

Finnegans Wake in our bookstore. (bend of bay’s commissions benefit this program).

October 20, 2009. 12:15 PM NYC

There was a performance of Section II PROJECT Finnegans Wake on October 20, 2009. This version was confined to Book IV and began at 12:15 PM, New York DST.  The date was selected at random, and when it turned out to be a Tuesday a time was selected that seemed most convenient.

This version was set for nine readers, with parts assigned using the chart below. Since announcing the reading, I had more people join the group and a few of the parts were doubled.

I read the opening of Book IV in New York’s Central Park, on the path that runs by the pond by Central Park South. This is a fairly quiet spot, but I did have a steady stream of tourists, dog walkers and office workers out for lunch.  Others read from Speakers Corner in London’s Hyde Park, Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square,  Washington Square in New York and the grandstand atop the TKTS booth in New York’s Time Square.

October 20, 2009 12:30PM

Tim Ahern and the Thirsty Scholars read and discussed their passage at a pub in Allston, Massachusetts.  The illustration at the bottom of this page was also provided as part of the Thirsty Scholars Reading.

Thanks to all those who participated, and to those who expressed interest and support. Based on feedback I received, I will be preparing a “reading group edition” of the project.

- apc

Copyright 2009 Tim Ahern all rights reserved

Chart of Parts

Project Finnegans Wake, Section II

Book IV for Nine Readers

Reader  Pages

I       593-596, line 16 (596.16)

II      596.17-600

III     600-603.16

IV      603.17-607

V       607.16-611

VI      611-614.16

VII     617-620.16

VIII    620.17-624

IX     625- end

bend of bay is now setting up realizations of Projects Finnegans Wake. We are starting with Section II. This section calls for participants to read assigned sections of the text at a specific time. The reading is performed at a location of the participant’s choosing. Participation doesn’t require any particular knowledge of Joyce or previous experience with Finnegans Wake.  All that is required is interest in taking part in an event that attempts to bring Finnegans Wake to the world in as inclusive a manner as possible. Its premise is that Joyce meant the work to be read and enjoyed. Participants will also be asked to provide some form of documentation of their performance. This should be submitted along with an indication of the location at which the reading took place. Documentation will be made available here.

If you are interested in participating, please leave a comment on this page and we will add you to the project’s mailing list. Performance dates and time will also be announced on our home page. Comments will not be published without your permission so feel free to ask as many questions as you like. You can also use bend of bay’s contact form or write info@bendofbay.org.

If you have never read Finnegans Wake, the full text is available here.

More about Finnegans Wake on bend of bay.

Finnegans Wake in our bookstore. (bend of bay’s commissions benefit this program).

- apc

October 20, 2009. 12:15 PM NYC

I’d like to thank everyone who took part in today’s reading of Book IV of Finnegans Wake. Please be sure to contact me to confirm the location where you read, and share your thoughts regarding the experience. This information will be summarized and made available on the Project:  Finnegans Wake page.

I read the opening of Book IV in New York’s Central Park, on the path that runs by the pond by Central Park South. It was a beautiful day. This is a fairly quiet spot, but I did have a steady stream of tourists, dog walkers and office workers out for lunch.

October 20, 2009. 12:30 PM NYC

Depending on the feedback I receive from today’s reading, I hope to organize additional, more ambitious readings with an eye toward completing performances of the entire book. Please leave a comment on this page if you would like to receive updates by email. (Comments are read, but not published without your permission).

I look forward to hearing from you.

- apc

Update for October 12, 2009:

Since we announced the October 20 reading, we have had more people interested in participating.  The chart we are using is below. If you send an email or leave a comment on this page, we will send you a section. That, or just choose your own and let us know which section you have selected. You should practice to be sure you can complete your section in 10 minutes. We expect to have Book IV covered and doubling up should be fine.

Reader  Pages

I       593-596, line 16 (596.16)

II      596.17-600

III     600-603.16

IV      603.17-607

V       607.16-611

VI      611-614.16

VII     617-620.16

VIII    620.17-624

IX     625- end

If you would like to take part in this or future readings, contact bend of bay.

bend of bay is now setting up realizations of Projects Finnegans Wake.  We are starting with Section II.  This section calls for participants to read assigned sections of the text at a specific time.  The reading is performed at a location of the participant’s choosing. Participation doesn’t require any particular knowledge of Joyce or previous experience with Finnegans Wake. All that is required is interest in taking part in an event that attempts to bring Finnegans Wake to the world in as inclusive a manner as possible. Its premise is that Joyce meant the work to be read and enjoyed. Participants will also be asked to  provide some form of documentation of their performance.  This should be submitted along with an indication of the location at which the reading took place.  Documentation will be made available here.

If you are interested in participating, please leave a comment on this page. Please note that comments will not be published without your permission so feel free to ask as many questions as you like.  You can also use bend of bay’s contact form or write info@bendofbay.org.

If you have never read Finnegans Wake, the full text is available here.

- apc

For reference, the full text of PROJECTS Finnegans Wake as it appears in bend of bay’s projects section is copied below.

PROJECTS Finnegans Wake

PROJECT Finnegans Wake to expand the book and condense it into a small space, scatter and compress its sounds, draw together and separate readers and listeners in space, time and sound, reread the book in its entirety.

Critical attention has been placed on the structure of Finnegans Wake and hundreds of hours devoted to structural exegesis. Criticism frequently emphasizes structure in a manner which is reductive and risks trivializing the book. Joyce used structure and method as a means to an end and not for their own sake. His book cannot be restrained by structure or the meanings in language: They are free.

PROJECT Finnegans Wake brings the book to the world in as inclusive a manner as possible. Its premise is that Joyce meant the work to be read and enjoyed.

ActiONs:

I Sequential Reading in Different Locations

You have chosen or have been assigned a number of pages and start time and select a location from which to read. At the appointed second, read this section then go home. Envision readers positioning themselves on street corners, in supermarkets, airplanes or anywhere else where they would be reasonably conspicuous. The only positions preselected are the first (riverrun) and the last (the), which take place before Rauschenberg’s Bed in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

II Simultaneous Reading in Different Locations

The difference between this version and version I is that in this case everyone reads their passage at the same time. The sounds are compressed in time but not in space.

III Sequential Reading in the Same Location

For this version a large hall is rented and the public is invited to enter and leave as desired. A carnival atmosphere develops in and around the hall. This is the microcosm, the counterpart to the carnival of the world surrounding each reader in version I.

IV Simultaneous Reading in the Same Location

For this version, the hall is filled with readers and at the appointed tunw everyone reads together. The public is invited to listen.

The four readings can be performed in any order. For example, IV can be performed as an overture to III, but this is not essential. All or some can be performed simultaneously. Each can be performed more than once.

Manifesto on Structure: Time

Time rigorously applied includes all aspects of the physical universe. The readers move the work through space and time.

The details of time are worked out in advance by the organizer. The organizer establishes the time it takes to read a representative page aloud without performing exegesis of each word and motif. The number of readers determines the length and duration of each passage. Each reader is assigned starting and ending page and line numbers, a start time, and duration. Each reader fills this duration exactly. Readers practice their sections to ensure each performance is in fact sequential or simultaneous. The personality of the reader is not essential. The blank of this page, and those appearing at the break between each chapter and book, is included in each duration. The duration applied is the time it would theoretically take to complete the page if words appeared. The silences are as important as the words.

Manifesto on Structure: Space

BegIN in this space or in any other space.

Manifesto on Structure: The Readers.

Here Comes Everybody

---

The scenario for these performances of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce were developed in 1980 and a slightly different version appeared in the Winter 1992-1993 issue of The Abiko Literary Rag.

Projects

Mumbai, India
China, 1981

James Joyce

PROJECT Finnegans Wake
26 Songs From Finnegans Wake

]]> http://www.bendofbay.org/projects/feed/ 0 http://www.bendofbay.org/2007/05/01/the-abiko-annual-with-james-joyce-finnegans-wake-studies/ http://www.bendofbay.org/2007/05/01/the-abiko-annual-with-james-joyce-finnegans-wake-studies/#comments Tue, 01 May 2007 01:45:19 +0000 apc http://www.bendofbay.org/2007/05/01/the-abiko-annual-with-james-joyce-finnegans-wake-studies/ bend of bay magazine includes versions of two performance scenarios for Finnegans Wake that were originally published by The Abiko Quarterly in 1993. I was pleased to find a comment on this post from Tatsuo Hamada, the publisher, informing me that the Abiko is still going strong as an annual. The 2007 issue, pictured below, is now available.  If you would like a copy, send $20 cash or an international money order to:

Tatsuo Hamada
Hananoi 1787-28,
Kashiwa-shi 277-0812
Japan

All the books in the James Joyce Scholar’s Collection are out of print, but below are links to a few you might explore after getting through my original recommendations.

A Classical Lexicon for Finnegans Wake
The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis
A Finnegans Wake Gazetteer
Joyce-again’s Wake: An Analysis of Finnegans Wake
The Sigla of Finnegans Wake
Structure and Motif in Finnegans Wake
Third Census of Finnegans Wake
The “Wake” in Transit

All this assumes, of course, that you have actually read Finnegans Wake, the book.  If you haven’t bought a copy, the full text is available here, courtesy of Trent University. You can find an interesting, annotated version of Finnegans Wake at finwake.com.

26 Songs from Finnegans Wake
First Construction

The basic construction of 26 songs is based on aspects of Finnegans Wake. Songs are generated in the following order.

1 song for 1 voice
4 songs for 2 voices
4 songs for 3 voices
8 songs for 4 voices
4 songs for 3 voices
4 songs for 2 voices
1 song for 1 voice

You must generate a table of random numbers of four decimal places. When constructing songs, begin with the first random number on your list, then proceed down the list without skipping a number.
The basic procedure for constructing songs follows:

Select voice
Select book
Select starting page in that book
Select starting line on that page
Select number of lines to be sung

These steps are followed in order for each voice in each song, with each step requiring one random number. The exceptions are the songs for one voice. These frame the cycle with the opening and closing lines of Finnegans Wake. They are constructed in the following manner:

Song 1 always begins at 3.1, that is, the first line of the first page of Book 1. To construct Song 1, therefore, you only need to select the voice (Step 1) and the number of lines to be sung (Step 5).

Song 26 always ends at 628.17, that is, the last line of the last page of Book IV. To construct Song 26, you select the voice (step 1) and the number of lines to be sung (step 5). Since you need to end at 628.17, you back up from this line to arrive at the starting point.

For the remaining songs, Voices and Books (steps 1 and 2) are selected based on the following chart. Numbers of four decimal places are rounded to two places:

Number            Voice          Book

0.75-0.99      Soprano         IV
0.50-0.74         Alto              III
0.25-0.49        Tenor             II
0.00-0.24        Bass                 I

The starting page of the Book (Step 3) is determined by rounding the random number to three digits. These three digits will direct you to the page of the Book where the starting line of the part will be selected. Note, these are not the same as text pagination. Book I, for example, contains 213 pages, and begins on text page 3 of the Viking edition. If the number generated exceeds 0.213, then loop back. Thus, 0.223 gives you page 10 of Book I, which equates to text page 13.

The starting line of the page selected (Step 4) is determined by rounding the random number to two digits. Begin counting at the top of the page. If the number generated exceeds the number of lines on the page, then loop back to line one. Footnotes count as lines.

Steps 3 and 4 together have give you the starting point. The first two digits of the next number generated give the number of lines to be sung by this voice (Step 5).

Vocal Ranges: Voice indications are general. The singer determines the relevant range.

Tempo: Each voice proceeds through the text as quickly or as slowly as desired.

Role of the Conductor: The conductor indicates when each song begins. The singers begin at any time on or after the conductor’s cue. The performers are permitted to start and stop as often as they like, but they must sing the complete text without alteration.
A table of songs constructed with these procedures can be found here. (Requires Adobe Acrobat)

The following methods of performing Finnegans Wake by James Joyce were developed in 1980. A slightly different version appeared in the Winter 1992-1993 issue of The Abiko Literary Rag.  Click here to learn more about the project and how you or your organization can participate in an upcoming reading.

PROJECT Finnegans Wake to expand the book and condense it into a small space, scatter and compress its sounds, draw together and separate readers and listeners in space, time and sound, reread the book in its entirety.

Critical attention has been placed on the structure of Finnegans Wake and hundreds of hours devoted to structural exegesis. Criticism frequently emphasizes structure in a manner which is reductive and risks trivializing the book. Joyce used structure and method as a means to an end and not for their own sake. His book cannot be restrained by structure or the meanings in language: They are free.

PROJECT Finnegans Wake brings the book to the world in as inclusive a manner as possible. Its premise is that Joyce meant the work to be read and enjoyed.

ActiONs:

I Sequential Reading in Different Locations

You have chosen or have been assigned a number of pages and start time and select a location from which to read. At the appointed second, read this section then go home. Envision readers positioning themselves on street corners, in supermarkets, airplanes or anywhere else where they would be reasonably conspicuous. The only positions preselected are the first (riverrun) and the last (the), which take place before Rauschenberg’s Bed in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

II Simultaneous Reading in Different Locations

The difference between this version and version I is that in this case everyone reads their passage at the same time. The sounds are compressed in time but not in space.

III Sequential Reading in the Same Location

For this version a large hall is rented and the public is invited to enter and leave as desired. A carnival atmosphere develops in and around the hall. This is the microcosm, the counterpart to the carnival of the world surrounding each reader in version I.

IV Simultaneous Reading in the Same Location

For this version, the hall is filled with readers and at the appointed tunw everyone reads together. The public is invited to listen.

The four readings can be performed in any order. For example, IV can be performed as an overture to III, but this is not essential. All or some can be performed simultaneously. Each can be performed more than once.

Manifesto on Structure: Time

Time rigorously applied includes all aspects of the physical universe. The readers move the work through space and time.

The details of time are worked out in advance by the organizer. The organizer establishes the time it takes to read a representative page aloud without performing exegesis of each word and motif. The number of readers determines the length and duration of each passage. Each reader is assigned starting and ending page and line numbers, a start time, and duration. Each reader fills this duration exactly. Readers practice their sections to ensure each performance is in fact sequential or simultaneous. The personality of the reader is not essential. The blank of this page, and those appearing at the break between each chapter and book, is included in each duration. The duration applied is the time it would theoretically take to complete the page if words appeared. The silences are as important as the words.

Manifesto on Structure: Space

BegIN in this space or in any other space.

Manifesto on Structure: The Readers.

Here Comes Everybody

Dubliners

Finnegans Wake

Finnegans Wake, unfortunately, comes with a lot of academic baggage. Even before it appeared in final form, way too much emphasis was placed on deciphering the portmanteau words and attempting to translate what Joyce wrote into something resembling conventional English. This is unfortunate, really misses the point, and subverts Joyce’s project. The best way to approach Finnegans Wake is, quite simply, to read it straight through without worrying too much if you understand every word. Face it, you will not. But if you read it with the same attention that you devote to other books, you will notice patterns and develop snippets of understanding. Meaning will bubble up. Trust me. It helps, too, to read it aloud or, barring that, to mentally vocalize the words.

Once you have read the book, then it is OK to start checking out the secondary literature. I have included a couple of links below. However, if you don’t believe me and want to start with a guide, then by all means choose The Finnegans Wake Experience, a short book by Roland McHugh. While McHugh is also known for his collection of annotations, The Finnegans Wake Experience. The Finnegans Wake Experience discusses his personal history with the book. Importantly, McHugh came to the book cold, so his retelling of his experience will provide you with confidence and reassurance should you get bogged down in Finnegans Wakes’  compexities.

Do not make the same mistake I did. Never read the hopelessly reductive, superficial “Skeleton Key”. Here are some of the more useful books I have found. Clive Hart’s book is out of print, but your library may have it and you can probably buy it used.

Structure and Motif in Finnegans Wake, by Clive Hart

Joyces Book of the Dark, by John Bishop.

Hart’s book is particularly good on structure, while Bishop’s will give you a good feel for the language.