Post by randolphcarter841 on Jun 30, 2017 0:07:32 GMT
First, an observation: Lest we leap to the conclusion that "anything" can be found in Finnegans Wake (James Joyce's "Bug of the Deaf" [134.36], we might significantly -- for readers of this web page -- add), I must counsel humility; having worked through the text in its entirety four times to date, I can assure you that with devoted study, it can & does reveal "ultimate sparks of the intimate fire" (AL III.67). Manifestations of the individual magician's magical universe reveal karmic traces that may be experienced with clarity (though not necessarily nullified) via Joyce's "Western sadhana" (as Joseph Campbell referred to it in his lecture series, Wings of Art). Once we concede that a text may be "beyond" us, we are in a position to learn from it -- but not before. Consider AL III.63: "The fool readeth this Book of the Law, and its comment; & he understandeth it not." Now, here, the ordeals may begin.
At least two of Grant's novel titles -- and a possible third, although the connection is perhaps tenuous -- can be found directly within Finnegans Wake (hereinafter "FW"; all quotes -- in page.line(s) format -- derive from the standard 1939 edition, as the more recent "critically emended" edition [Houynhnhnm Press, 2010] has yet to receive my seal of approval/necessity). Grant's premier novel, Against the Light, has its possible genesis in "Wickedgapers, I appeal against the light! A nexistence of vividence!" (366.2-3)
The "nexistence" is a nexus (binding element) that functions by way of vacuum, negatively -- it "exists" nonetheless. This is the notion of "negative existence" we obtain from the Kabbalist's transplutonic "Ain"; evidence for it derives from its "vivid" radiance (this is the phenomena of the "black light," for those who are familiar with it). Synesthetic componentry is common in the Wake, and we have an example in the first half of the quote: to "appeal" is both to appear and to peal (make a loud sound, as a bell). The indication is one of twinship: lightning and thunder always occur together, and our limitation in temporality is all that separates them.
Against the Light makes explicit the subjectivity of spatiotemporality in exactly the way that Joyce intends it here. That it is a game (cricket -- this is too deep and complicated of a subject to enter into fully here; we will deal with it in another post) where the "ineluctable modality of the visible" (Ulysses, Part I, Section 2 [p. 37 of the standard edition]) given by "wicked-gapers" betrays a Demiurgic host whose "game rules" are only visible IN REFLECTION bears careful meditation. The "wicket-keeper" is a "batsman" (cf. the guardian of the Ninth Arch); the shape of the wicket itself resumes the 1132 motif that we might consider the very heart and soul of FW. (Beyond 11/Daath and 32 paths, this number will be dealt with fully in upcoming posts.)
The second likely "borrowing" has, itself, two references in Grant's fiction. As the title of Grant's final published novel, Grist to Whose Mill?, we have from the Wake: "Hillary rillary gibbous grist to our millery! A pushpull, qq: quiescence, pp: with extravent intervulve coupling." (314.19-20) The second reference to this phrase occurs in Snakewand (p. 68): "I thought of all these things and remained silent, marvelling. I was grist; but to whose mill? To none but mine own.... 'Who else is there left to sacrifice?' I answered my own question with a previously formulated idea: I was grist. But to whose mill? To none but mine own... I was the final sacrifice." (This post is continued in "Influence of FW -- 2.")
At least two of Grant's novel titles -- and a possible third, although the connection is perhaps tenuous -- can be found directly within Finnegans Wake (hereinafter "FW"; all quotes -- in page.line(s) format -- derive from the standard 1939 edition, as the more recent "critically emended" edition [Houynhnhnm Press, 2010] has yet to receive my seal of approval/necessity). Grant's premier novel, Against the Light, has its possible genesis in "Wickedgapers, I appeal against the light! A nexistence of vividence!" (366.2-3)
The "nexistence" is a nexus (binding element) that functions by way of vacuum, negatively -- it "exists" nonetheless. This is the notion of "negative existence" we obtain from the Kabbalist's transplutonic "Ain"; evidence for it derives from its "vivid" radiance (this is the phenomena of the "black light," for those who are familiar with it). Synesthetic componentry is common in the Wake, and we have an example in the first half of the quote: to "appeal" is both to appear and to peal (make a loud sound, as a bell). The indication is one of twinship: lightning and thunder always occur together, and our limitation in temporality is all that separates them.
Against the Light makes explicit the subjectivity of spatiotemporality in exactly the way that Joyce intends it here. That it is a game (cricket -- this is too deep and complicated of a subject to enter into fully here; we will deal with it in another post) where the "ineluctable modality of the visible" (Ulysses, Part I, Section 2 [p. 37 of the standard edition]) given by "wicked-gapers" betrays a Demiurgic host whose "game rules" are only visible IN REFLECTION bears careful meditation. The "wicket-keeper" is a "batsman" (cf. the guardian of the Ninth Arch); the shape of the wicket itself resumes the 1132 motif that we might consider the very heart and soul of FW. (Beyond 11/Daath and 32 paths, this number will be dealt with fully in upcoming posts.)
The second likely "borrowing" has, itself, two references in Grant's fiction. As the title of Grant's final published novel, Grist to Whose Mill?, we have from the Wake: "Hillary rillary gibbous grist to our millery! A pushpull, qq: quiescence, pp: with extravent intervulve coupling." (314.19-20) The second reference to this phrase occurs in Snakewand (p. 68): "I thought of all these things and remained silent, marvelling. I was grist; but to whose mill? To none but mine own.... 'Who else is there left to sacrifice?' I answered my own question with a previously formulated idea: I was grist. But to whose mill? To none but mine own... I was the final sacrifice." (This post is continued in "Influence of FW -- 2.")