WAKE: Cold Reading Finnegans Wake

Moon Street Media
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WAKE: Cold Reading Finnegans Wake

A cold reading of James Joyce’s "Finnegans Wake" just to hear it out loud.

  1. 3 DAYS AGO

    Episode 31: 3.3 (Part 1), pp474-496

    Under a full moon and with a pint of Guinness in hand, WAKE welcomes our very first Dublin-based reader, as correctly-accented Sarah Kane joins Toby and TJ to kick off Chapter 3.3. Sarah tells us all about participating in Bloomsday as a neophyte Joycean (“a lifeguard that can’t swim”), slips into a Joyce fugue state regardless of best laid plans, and reminds us that a cold read is really just what the kids nowadays call Rawdogging. With the glorious Irishness of it all to bring us through, we discuss Joyce reading groups, Sweny’s Pharmacy, Anthony Burgess, and, in a bombshell twist none of you saw coming, TJ's authentic Irish heritage. This week's readers: Sarah Kane, Toby Malone, TJ Young Progress: 496 pages complete, 132 pages to go; 78.98% read. For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

    1h 45m

  2. DEC 6 · BONUS

    Bonus Episode: Ana Dahlberg

    Grab your torches and buffs, it's time for another episode of Survivor: Finnegans Wake edition... Experts say that the best way to manage unprocessed trauma is to talk it through, to normalise what you've experienced. Here at WAKE we are all about offering all angles and perspectives on Finnegans Wake: and it was only a matter of time until we interviewed someone who did not enjoy the experience! Fascinating polyglot Ana Dahlberg is a professed lover of Joyce, a participant in Bloomsday festivities, and is a certified member of an extremely exclusive club: she has survived finishing Finnigans Wake. Today, we talk to Ana about her experience, which ran the gamut of emotions, from frustration to exasperation to bewilderment to rage, and all the way back again, in such a fashion that the only way she could describe it was to suggest Morrissey write a song about her and the book that just doesn't care what she thinks. In this delightful, non-reading episode, join Toby and TJ with Ana, with the rarest of insights about how it feels to actually finish the Wake (spoiler: not as satisfying as you'd hope). This week's chatters: Ana Dahlberg, Toby Malone, TJ Young For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

    1h 2m

  3. DEC 4

    Episode 30: 3.2 (Part 2), pp448-473

    No one ever likes to WAKE alone, but sometimes the occasion calls for it. On a dark day in WAKE-world, Toby takes the reins solo to deal with the apuckalips, or at least what feels like it. Along the way, Jaun's entirely inappropriate conversation with Issy provides a distraction, tempered by side discussions of chaos theory, John Cage, Idiocracy, and hope for the future. This week's readers: Toby Malone Progress: 473 pages complete, 155 pages to go; 75.32% read. For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

    1h 35m

  4. NOV 27

    Episode 29: 3.2 (Part 1), pp429-448

    Before today's episode, Toby and TJ had never heard the word "stramash", but now we can't stop saying it! Scottish musician, editor, author, and all-rounder Tommy MacKay joins the WAKE fold, not only to teach us this ever-so useful Scottish term for chaos, but also to discuss his amazing Joyce-music 'stramashups', the pitfalls of adaptation, pioneering punk music, creepy death masks, and the things that may or may not be appropriate to say to a younger sister. Yes, Shaun is up to all sorts of trouble this time around, lecturing Issy and her classmates in a mansplainy way that has shades of Laertes and Ophelia, but way filthier. It's an accessible, rollicking chapter, and the only one so far that features Denti Alligator, so everyone wins. This week's readers: Tommy MacKay, TJ Young, Toby Malone Progress: 448 pages complete, 180 pages to go; 71.34% read. For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

    1h 44m

  5. NOV 22 · BONUS

    Bonus Episode: Every Thunderword

    The hundred-letter 'thunderwords' are arguably the most enduring, well-known, and mystifying feature of Finnegans Wake, jumbles of letters cobbling together words from far-flung languages to create a word salad of difficulty that seems to stand as emblematic of the overall challenges of the Wake. In this bonus episode, we spend a few minutes considering all ten thunderwords, their 1001 letters, and the insight of eminent Wake scholars including Marshall McLuhan, Eric McLuhan, and Bernard Benstock. Now that WAKE has spoken all ten thunderwords, we have mashed them all together, in case you've ever desperately wanted to hear what they all sound like, entirely butchered, in chronological order, with no breaks. What more could you want? This week's personnel: Toby Malone For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

    18 min

  6. NOV 20

    Episode 28: 3.1, pp402-428

    Hooraymost! It’s the dirtiest chapter featuring insect erotica in all of literature, so grab your doodlers and bungholes, we’re going spizzing! Best of all, beloved Wakexpert Lucy Brazier finds room on her fagroaster to get down to some Clowntalkin about the savage rivalry between Shaun and his brother as we cover chapter 3.1! We wonder about narrative-minded donkeys, ponder what it would take to have the smell of an old woman come off you, name-check Monty Python, and plan a letter-based tourist trap, all ahead of the one thunderword that has 101 letters, just to prove a point. It’s a pervy, raucous episode of WAKE, and we couldn’t have enjoyed it more. (Apologies for the sound quality on Toby's mic, it's an ongoing problem that will be fixed) This week's readers: Lucy Brazier, TJ Young, Toby Malone Progress: 428 pages complete, 200 pages to go; 68.15% read. For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

    1h 52m

  7. NOV 13

    Episode 27: Book Two Recap

    We find ourselves at the end of Book Two, and you know what that means: another ever-popular recap episode! Using the mind-bending brilliance of the László Moholy-Nagy Finnegans Wake Diagram as a jumping-off point, Toby and TJ try to rank the chapters of Book 2, nostalgically reconsider Night Lessons, and compare the text to a disparate collection of cultural touchstones. Topics may include, to varying levels of detail: JJ Abrams, Luigi Pirandello, Riverdale, The Master and Margarita, the Berliner Ensemble, Punchdrunk's Sleep No More, Passing Strange, ChatGPT, andThe Sound and the Fury. Join us in the temporary high that is generated when two readers assume that hubris isn't really a thing, and that surely they're well past the hardest part now... (Apologies for the sound quality on Toby's mic, it's an ongoing problem that will be fixed) This week's chatters: Toby Malone, TJ Young Progress: 399 pages complete, 229 pages to go; 63.54% read. For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

    1h 11m

  8. NOV 6

    Episode 26: 2.4, pp383-399

    This week we break things down to the quark level to bring you mythical love stories (featuring a king named Mark), ghost-written historical romances, interminable sentences, and Joycean numerology. Jackie Mahoney joins the team and expertly weaves their way through questions of whether chapter 2.4 is about Tristan and Isolde, or if it's more about about the four perverts leering at them from the dock, and we finish up with a rousing consideration of Joyce as Beyoncé, the author as God, squelchy onomatopoeia, and, inevitably, the music of Evanescence. Trigger warning: descriptions of bodily noises. (Apologies for the sound quality on Toby's mic, it's an ongoing problem that will be fixed) This week's readers: Jackie Mahoney, TJ Young, Toby Malone Progress: 399 pages complete, 229 pages to go; 63.54% read. For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

    1h 27m
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A cold reading of James Joyce’s "Finnegans Wake" just to hear it out loud.

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