[ExI] Joyce

[Lee Corbin]

ben writes

> > > How do you feel about Bach's Cantata 140, "Sleepers wake"?
>
> > > Or, to take a big-selling example of fiction (shudder), L. Ron
> > > Hubbard's "The Invaders Plan"? (In that case, granted, it's
> > > anyone's guess.)
>
>
> What the hell???
>
> Either i'm really missing something here, or somebody else is.

Nah, I think everyone is on board now.

> Bach's : Belonging to, or 'of' Bach.
> Sleepers : more than one sleeper.
> ...
> Simple enough, surely?

Quite right.

> So i can only conclude that "Finnegans wake" must be about an attempt to
> rouse a number of people all called Finnegan from their slumber. And he
> missed the pling off.

Er, "pling off"?

> (or, just maybe, it should have an apostrophe!)
> So, am i wrong?

No, quite right.  Obviously to first think of "Finnegans Wake" as meaning
Finnegan's Wake is tempting, because the latter much more likely is
meant in vocal use. (And I believe JC pointed out that there was,
historically, such a use.)  So the unapostrophed version was at least
partly just more word-play.

And as for the list being quiet, I will rouse myself shortly, I hope, to
discuss extropian poetry.

Lee

> Is the classic illiterate greengrocer's sign "Plum's £1 a pound" really
> making a bold and heroic statement about the nature of man?