History Main / FinnegansWake

Try not to go mad...

'''''Finnegan's Wake''''' is the name of an Irish folk ballad, as well as a novel by Creator/JamesJoyce.

Joyce's ''Finnegan's Wake'' has two pages on the wiki:

James Joyce's ''Finnegans Wake'' has two pages on the wiki:

''Finnegans Wake'' has two pages on the wiki.

* If you'd like the one in simple, plain English, please go to Literature.FinnegansWake.
* If you'd like the one written in the same style as the book itself, that's at SelfDemonstrating.FinnegansWake.

Try not to go mad...

* If you'd like the one written in the same style as the book itself, that's at SelfDemonstrating.FinnegansWake.

Finnegan's Wake has two pages on the wiki.

->''riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.''
->-- First sentence of ''FinnegansWake'' by James Joyce

->''Despite these obstacles, readers and commentators have reached a broad consensus about the book's central cast of characters and, to a lesser degree, its plot.''
-->-- TheOtherWiki on ''FinnegansWake''

Finnegan's Wake is a novel written by JamesJoyce. It took him 17 years to write, and may take nearly as long to read, as it is completely written in an idiosyncratic, made-up language that vaguely resembles English spoken with a thick Irish brogue.

Critics and scholars disagree about a lot about this book, but most agree that it's about a man's dream, and that it's full of complex, layered allusions and jokes. Arguments still rage as to whether it has a plot.

Some people have suggested that reading it out loud is the easiest way to understand it, but if you attempt this feat, [=TVTropes=] [[OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope disclaims all responsibility]] for any long-term effects on your throat, vocal chords, or sanity.

If you would like to read a description written in the same style as the book, see SelfDemonstrating.FinnegansWake.

----
!! Finnegan's Wake contains examples of these tropes:

* AllJustADream: A common EpilepticTree, possibly supported by WordOfGod. Not to mention the word "wake" can mean either a funeral ceremony or [[CaptainObvious waking up]].
** FW is the dream of a guy that fell asleep while trying to read Ulysees!
* ArcNumber: 1132 appears repeatedly.
* AuthorAvatar: To a certain degree, HCE does represent Joyce; but he also represents many other things as well.
* BilingualBonus
* BookEnds
* DifferentAsNightAndDay: Shaun and Shem, although to a far lesser degree this is true of most of the main characters.
* DoingItForTheArt: The man spent 17 years writing a novel that's borderline impossible to read. The man had gone ''partially blind'' by the time he finished it.
* FootnoteFever: Many scholarly editions of the book.
* GenreBusting
* GuideDangIt: [[RunningGag A rare non-video game usage of the trope,]] as the richness of references used in ''Finnegans Wake'' need to be listed and referenced in one book.
* HerCodenameWasMarySue: HCE, as noted above; plus a number of the minor characters are based on his acquaintances.
* HurricaneOfPuns: In ''many'' languages. No seriously, we're talking about almost every single word of the book forming a wordplay of some sort.
* IHaveManyNames: Most everyone, thanks to the shifting dream-like writing.
* MindScrew: ''Ya think?!''
** TheWalrusWasPaul
* {{Neologism}}
* NoEnding: Take a look at the first and last 'sentence'.
* {{Portmanteau}}
* ResetButton: If you notice the [[spoiler: ''first'' sentence of the novel and compare it to the ''last,'' you can see that the last one can continue the first sentence, this starting the cycle once again.]]
* RuleOfSymbolism: Extensive, if cryptic, references to CelticMythology, the Phoenix Park Murders of 1882, the Egyptian Book of the Dead and EgyptianMythology, among many many others.
* TropeNamer: "Quark" was borrowed from here to name the subatomic particle.
* ShadowArchetype: Twins Shaun and Shem are each other's shadows; it's also possible that alternate name pairs like "Jerry and Kevin" indicate a higher order of shadowing.
* WordOfDante: See the second quote on this page.
* WordOfGod: And thankfully quite a bit of it; although even this can be [[DeathOfTheAuthor debated among critics]]. One that stands out is Joyce saying he was "writing of the night".
* WrittenSoundEffect: The thunderclap:
-> Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!
----

(This ''Finnegans Wake'' pastiche was made possible by a grant from the Foundation for the Incomprehensible Arts, and by donations from viewers like Hugh. Thank Hugh.)

If you would like to read a description written in the same style as the book, see SelfDemonstrating.FinnigansWake.

fore twith be fore thepayne settin. Like life, incomprehensible quadrupling abounding in nil tongues upon all multiples of meaning, looping, dream in written stylus, nary any point of plot to wink upon. Some situnamesar seen in great unorthodoxy, alike a common Earwicker the family, a Shem a man o' Pen, a most Post Shaun, an Issy too. Cycling words around the end, the line of 'riverrun' adjourning and the start of our "story."

Writerwrote from 1922 true 1939, [[{{JamesJoyce}} James Joyce]] -- olfarther o ''Ulysses,'' Leopold Bloom end Stephen Dedalus -- bringusus by manderwander'd wordcourse through a recon struction of noctournal lyfe. Finnegan begin again to dreep the reader to view with logic gone and shadows aforefront, in persons in voices mixmatchmeltashovling from person orlity sleeptime visions and a gran mal logic two match.

Plot? they spake, what [[{{PWP}} plot what plot]] what breaks in the truest formlessness of the night aimless wander wonder yonder comes the guide to lead the reader through the nightscenes dreams mutating 'vents, won after anauthor, clocked in froggy sleep and [[HiddenInPlainSight plane site buried down]] deunonitua languagements aboundfolt but mustly 'thin Joycean speach espeach't "Wakese" buy thoz who've sturdied Wake extansievely.

Like in dreams visions are musings no one two three things stay tonight the same in time anarrow; punword play, portman toes and crashcolliding words evoke invoke revoke refolk the unsure struck ansure of dreams, ill ollypopsical wit chains an whips an like the wind blows o'er the landscape hills of mine, mind, min'd forall is't Wirth.

Th'image o' Finnegan, brawly Finnegan, hod-carrier o' the Dublin foke ballad, laidout on happenstance O'Booq O'Storrie. HCE, explicated bellow, is Finn again, yet all o Eire Finnegan are and waking must per the titlewarning. iron he though that HCE immigrant wus and Irish naught -- there's mean in there, for he who seize and hearse what he rede. But is Finn again the dreamer, the HCE one in or hisson Shaun au Shem? Denatured dream in the certenvirnaty forsters conflick 'n' nawta schoolyards leaf the book ith opinterpretations shared 'tween them.

E'en mattress as base as the plotter so 'scured by chame's Choice 'n' the shiftteen naytcher o' dreams themselves. Diffiring elements appen upon diffiring laVelles, what moight be grades o' sleep an' wakefulness. The swirlingblendingconfusation o' one level in anarther as the dreamer rouses to drift arf unce agin cambeens to canfust th' rayder 'bout whut 'appens whir and whayn -- and to-by hoom.

From dis fog o' narrowtive figures imerge and emmerse, simultitaneous lee plain many diff'rent roles for diff'rent folks 'ithin th' differin layers of the hallucidream act shun. But pollymorphic eatch, one's Manny and many's won. Readveiwers say, prophessers professy, and nawn agri comp elite lee -- but some t'ing dynasties are major-generally greed 'pun:

* "HCE": Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, th'new Finn again, face a'face o' Joyce hisself tho suffern indignities ne'er upon the author's author visited upon. Naught Irish but o' the fare Norse, naturizedally. Publican of Dublican, bilt a' Chapelizod; Dublin itself is innim, a cymbal o' James' Choice threw the book.
* "ALP": Anna Livia Plurabelle, wyf to Earwicker, Irish girl. Where the Norse is Dublin, she bodies the river o' Liffey, sounding symbol pair'ed wi' 'er house band in 'ternal embracement and opposition; "A" and He are all cityanrivers, Eve and Adam, fodder and mudder two Eire and Man. I mBanba óir!
* Tween suns, two boya, ova names they have manny, tho buy Shem and Shaun th' two too to be seen by the reader most orphen. (Tho two Jerry + Kevin near most often they also answear and ardressed by the arthur's verse.) [[ShadowArchetype Mirrors and shadows and reflections and rivals]] thru the Wake, compare and contrast and contend 'gainst eachoither. Shaun, postman, confirmforms and waves no makes; Shem tha maaker o'art inninninnovates, pushpushes end velops and upsets carts. 'Pon compare a son, Shaun sinister seems, Shem steady and stolid. Time to time, tho, third one mistemerges o' the two, cold Tristram/Tristan, a sin these is o' theyr best.
* Issy, dottir of HCE and ALP, iss Isolde two hair brathairs' Tristan, prize o'er witch dey contend. Like Ess and Ess, she is oft of two minds, personably split in wais littoral and naught.

Circulocutating in ambulance surround these five (by five) are the doublin' folk, sporting cast ooh argh notnotnoteworthy inn there mysterenigmanature.

Amast hairpiece an spite o' (or 'cause o') th' difficulty won has in the readin', tho' naught wi'out cantroversey. Foist published cereally as twas ridden, wake discusst 'n' dis missile evoked 'mongst the literally seen; not till arfter Walledwear Too were rheaviews mor fav'rible t'appeer. I' the messure oa wirk o' litrasure is th'enegy wi' which it's meenin is debayted, the Wake must be one o' the greetest novels in Ainglish. Hat the Annie rate, herebe a softer formof wat youl reede.

(If you are looking for an explanation that is intelligible and not a SelfDemonstratingArticle, go to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_Wake The Other Wiki]].)

Th' raydair hoo sayks anexplicanation en Ainglish playninsample to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_Wake tha' oder Wiki]] shou' taike 'isself

!!of tropes of trends of things that go bump in the plot this book the book this book makes known:

* BrokeTheRatingScale: TheOtherWiki's, faced with putting this book in a genre, classified it as "''sui generis''".

* EpilepticTrees: ''From literary critics''

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: Quite possibly the purest form of true art, made by the distillation of multiple layers of mutual metaincomprehensibility.
** Incidentally, Joyce said it would take about three centuries for anyone to figure out what was really going on in the book. One suspects he'd be disappointed if {{Wikipedia}} really has the explanation of what he was saying.

* VindicatedByHistory: Most of Joyce's contemporaries and even his own family thought the book was stupid or a joke. It initially had negative reviewers, although one reviewer held off on judging the work, predicting that in the future, "with sufficient study and with the aid of the commentary that will doubtless arise, one might be ready for an attempt to appraise it." [[IKnewIt He was right]].

writerwrote from 1922 true 1939, [[{{JamesJoyce}} James Joyce]] -- once farther of ''Ulysses,'' Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus -- brings us by meandering wander of wordcourse through "a reconstruction of nocturnal life". in short, Finnegan Finnegan begin again to sleep perchance to dream the reader to view with logic gone and shadows aforefront, persons in voices mixmatchmeltmoving changing from persona to persona to personality in a logic of sleeptime visions and a grandma too match.

plot what [[{{PWP}} plot what plot]] what breaks in the truest formlessness of the night aimless wander wonder yonder comes the guide to lead the reader through the nightscenes dreams mutating 'vents, won after anauthor, cloacked in the frlog of sleep and [[HiddenInPlainSight encryptencodehidden in plainsite]] de uno ni trois many languages but mustly 'thin Joycean speach dubbed "Wakese" buy thoz who've sturdied The Wake extansievely

Like in dreams dreams visions musings no one two three things stay with me tonight the same time in arrow; punwordplay, portman toes and wordcrashcollision evoke invoke revoke refolk the unsure struck sure of dreams, illollypopsicalgical chains whips like the wind blows o'er the landscape hills of the mine, mind, min'd for all it's Wirth.

Th'image o' Finnegan, brawly Finnegan, hod-carrier o' the Dublin foke ballad, laid out under all happenstance O'Booq O'Storrie. HCE, explicated bellow, is Finn again, yet all o Eire Finnegan are and waking must per the titlewarning. iron he though that HCE immigrant wus and Irish naught -- there's mean in there, for he who seize and hearse what he rede. But is Finn again the dreamer? Is Finn Finnegan? Is Finnegan HCE? Dose HCE dream, or hisson Shaun/Shem? denature of d-d-dream and th'environs uncertainty forsters conflick 'n' naw twa schoolyards leaf the book with opinterpretations shared 'tween them

Amast hairpiece an spite o' (or 'cause o') th' difficulty won has in the readin', tho' naught wi'out cantroversey. Foist published cereally as twas ridden, wake discusst 'n' dis missile evoked 'mongst the literally seen; not till arfter Walledwear Too were rheaviews mor fav'rible t'appeer. I' the messure oa wirk o' litrasure is th'enegy wi' which it's meenin is debayted, the Wake must be one o' the greetest novels in Ainglish. (If you are looking for an explanation that is intelligible and not a SelfDemonstratingArticle, go to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_Wake The Other Wiki]].)

(This ''Finnegans Wake'' pastiche was made possible by a grant from the Foundation for the Incomprehensible Arts, and by donations from viewers like Hugh. Thank Hugh.)

writerwrote from 1922 true 1939, James Joyce -- once farther of ''Ulysses,'' Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus -- brings us by meandering wander of wordcourse through "a reconstruction of nocturnal life". in short, Finnegan Finnegan begin again to sleep perchance to dream the reader to view with logic gone and shadows aforefront, persons in voices mixmatchmeltmoving changing from persona to persona to personality in a logic of sleeptime visions and a grandma too match.

* WrittenSoundEffect: The thunderclap: [[hottip:*:"[+Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk+]"]]

Amast hairpiece an spite o' (or 'cause o') th' difficulty won has in the readin', tho' naught wi'out cantroversey. Foist published cereally as twas ridden, wake discusst 'n' dis missile evoked 'mongst the literally seen; not till arfter Walledwear Too were rheaviews mor fav'rible t'appeer. I' the messure oa wirk o' litrasure is th'enegy wi' which it's meenin is debayted, the Wake must be one o' the greetest novels in Ainglish.

Th' raydair hoo sayks anexplicanation en Ainglish playninsample to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_Wake tha' oder Wiki]] shou' taike 'isself. (If you are looking for an explanation that is intelligible and not a SelfDemonstratingArticle, go to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_Wake The Other Wiki]].)

* HurricaneOfPuns: In ''many'' languages.

plot what plot what plot what breaks in the truest formlessness of the night aimless wander wonder yonder comes the guide to lead the reader through the nightscenes dreams mutating 'vents, won after anauthor, cloacked in the frlog of sleep and [[HiddenInPlainSight encryptencodehidden in plainsite]] de uno ni trois many languages but mustly 'thin Joycean speach dubbed "Wakese" buy thoz who've sturdied The Wake extansievely

* Neologism

* ArcNumber (1132 appears repeatedly.)
* AuthorAvatar (To a certain degree, HCE does represent Joyce; but he also represents many other things as well.)

* DifferentAsNightAndDay (Shaun and Shem, although to a far lesser degree this is true of most of the main characters)
* GuideDangIt ([[RunningGag A rare non-video game usage of the trope,]] as the richness of references used in ''Finnegans Wake'' need to be listed and referenced in one book.)
* HerCodenameWasMarySue (HCE, as noted above; plus a number of the minor characters are based on his acquaintances)
* HurricaneOfPuns (In ''many'' languages)
* IHaveManyNames (Most everyone, thanks to the shifting dream-like writing.)
* NoEnding (Take a look at the first and last 'sentence')

* ResetButton ([[spoiler: If you notice the ''first'' sentence of the novel and compare it to the ''last,'' you can see that the last one can continue the first sentence, this starting the cycle once again.]])
* RuleOfSymbolism (Extensive, if cryptic, references to CelticMythology, the Phoenix Park Murders of 1882, the Egyptian Book of the Dead and EgyptianMythology, among many many others.)
* TropeNamer ("Quark" was borrowed from here to name the subatomic particle.)
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible (Quite possibly the purest form of true art, made by the distillation of multiple layers of mutual metaincomprehensibility.)

* ShadowArchetype (Twins Shaun and Shem are each other's shadows; it's also possible that alternate name pairs like "Jerry and Kevin" indicate a higher order of shadowing.)
* WrittenSoundEffect (The thunderclap: [[hottip:*:"[+Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk+]"]])

* ArcNumber: 1132 appears repeatedly

* IHaveManyNames (Shem and Shaun)

<<|{{Literature}}|>>
<<|SelfDemonstratingArticle|>>

*** Probably, considering the answer may very well be WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic. But his predicting it would take that long sounds like a case of SmallNameBigEgo assuming ViewersAreMorons.