Return to Moocow

Unpacking everything in that first passage of Finnegans Wake is interesting but truth be told, rather trying. What purpose is there in writing in such an obscure way? Things became a little clearer after reading the following quotations in Re Joyce, which show the evolution of a short passage from the Anna Livia Plurabelle section, in which Anna has been transformed into the eastflowing River Liffey.

From the first version in 1925:

Tell me, tell me, how could she cam through all her fellows, the daredevil? Linking one and knocking the next and polling in and petering out and clyding by in the eastway. Who was the first that ever burst? Someone it was, whoever you are. Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, Paul Pry or polishman. That’s the thing I want to know.

From 1927:

Tell me, tell me, how could she cam through all her fellows, the neckar she was the diveline? Linking one and knocking the next, tapping a flank and tipping a jutty and palling in and petering out and clyding by on her eastway. Wai-whou was the first that ever burst? Someone he was, whoever they were, in a tactic attack or in single combat. Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, Paul Pry or polishman. That’s the thing I always want to know.

From 1928:

Tell me, tell me, how cam she camlin through all her fellows, the neckar she was the diveline? Linking one and knocking the next, tapting a flank and tipting a jutty and palling in and pietaring out and clyding by on her eastway. Waiwhou was the first thurever burst? Someone he was, whuebra they were, in a tactic attack or in single combat. Tinker, tilar, souldrer, salor, Pieman Peace or Polistaman. That’s the thing I always want to know.

And in the final version:

Tell me, tell me, who cam she camlin through all her fellows, the neckar she was, the diveline? Casting her perils before our swains from Fonte-in-Monte in Tidingtown and from Tidingtown tilhavet. Linking and knocking the next, tapting a flank and tipting a jutty and palling in and pietaring out and clyding by on her eastway. Waiwhou was the first thurever burst? Someone he was whuebra they were, in a tactic attack or in single combat. Tinker, tilar, souldrer, salor, Pieman Peace or Polistaman. That’s the thing I’m elwys on edge to esk.

With each reading it becomes less comprehensible but somehow better. Musical sense replaces verbal sense, the rhythm becomes more interesting, the riverlike qualities heightened, giving us a sense of the Liffey both "clyding/colliding" with obstacles and "clyding/gliding" smoothly by. More musical qualities emerge when I read it aloud, such as the bouncing alliterations of “tactic attack.” (tack-ticka-tack!) The first version is fine, but by the last I am under its spell. Reading this reminds me of the excitement I felt reading my first Joyce ever, the first sentence of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:

Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was moo-cow coming down the road and this moo-cow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo.

And my disappointment with the explanation that follows:

His father told him that story.

Och, no James, let me be lost! Actually Portrait's opening is another insight into the language games of the Wake. For all its erudition, the playing with sounds is childlike fun. I actually tested this theory by reading one of the long words representing thunder (and the Fall) to a seven-year-old piano student of mine. The word for the record was:

Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-
nuk!

She loved it! In spite of the Wake’s intimidating erudition, the language itself is so musical, playful, and as ready to reference Humpty Dumpty as Giordano Bruno that I can’t help but play along with it. The temptation to go on with this post is great, but is resisted. So next: Prizefight!

I'm curious, what do y'all make of the evolution of the Plurabelle passage? Do you think it gets better? Worse? Is it beautiful? Is it pointless?