WAKE: Cold Reading Finnegans Wake

Welcome to WAKE, where language is king! This week we reach the thrilling conclusion of the Night Lessons episode, and get into a little bit of analysis amidst the chaos that reigns when TJ's internet drops out mid-recording. We discuss Neil's ongoing beef against Cognitive Science and the laws of language, discover the benefits to earning knowledge, and establish all the reasons we should trust Joyce. After three weeks of column-based fun, this is the satisfying conclusion you were looking for, as we spit in the eye of all those purists who said that Night Lessons would be the chapter to break us.

This week's readers: Neil Wechsler, Toby Malone, TJ Young

Progress: 308 pages complete, 320 pages to go; 49.04% read.

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

Just like a well-ordered barndance, Toby, TJ, and Neil shuffle one step the right to find new dance partners, with all new takes on the mighty columns of Night Lessons! With footnotes that would make David Foster Wallace blush, Latin, French, and a parenthetical that spans five entire pages, Joyce is really making us work this week. Come sit in the back of the classroom, keep your spitballs to yourself, and try not to carve anything into the desks.

This week's readers: Neil Wechsler, Toby Malone, TJ Young

Progress: 292 pages complete, 336 pages to go; 46.5% read.

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

Grab your notebooks and start practicing your filthiest marginalia, it's Night Lessons time! When confronted with the most logistically challenging chapter of the Wake (columns! footnotes! diagrams! marginalia!), Toby and TJ sent out the Neil-Signal, and brought in our favourite purist-in-the-nicest sense, Neil Wechsler, to establish order. In this first part of three episodes reading this complex chapter, Toby, TJ and Neil inhabit the schooldesks of Shem, Shaun, and Issy, and have some fun navigating the minutiae.

This week's readers: Neil Wechsler, Toby Malone, TJ Young

Progress: 277 pages complete, 351 pages to go; 44.11% read.

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

The games are afoot on WAKE, but we are fortified and ready to cast our disapproving glances over the debauchery! For the second half of Chapter 2.1, we welcome genuine teenager, Cormac Malone, to start us off, before we churn our way to the door-slammiest of thunderwords yet. We consider whether reading the Wake is just like a Tough Mudder race, and whether HCE is Neo from the Matrix. Toby reveals the Irish town in which he spent New Year's Eve 1999, and we consider what it would take to require demanding a theatre curtain to "drop by deep request."

As we prepare for Night Lessons, it's all fon and gheims until sumbuddy looses an ay.

This week's readers: Cormac Malone, Toby Malone, TJ Young

Progress: 259 pages complete, 369 pages to go; 41.24% read.

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

Book Two is underway at the Wake, and it's taking the voices spanning three different continents to take us there. This week Toby and TJ are joined by the delightful Brit Lucy Brazier, author of Finnegans What? Finnegans Wake - a Guide by an Idiot to discuss inappropriate sibling games, river poo, Oscar Wilde, underwear fetishes, and Francophobia. Despite her book's subtitle, Lucy is no idiot, but offers insight and humour that demonstrate the value of re-reading, even we are all left in a state of merry confusion.

This week's readers: Lucy Brazier, Toby Malone, TJ Young

Progress: 240 pages complete, 388 pages to go; 38.22% read.

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

We pause the reading of the Wake this week to look back on Book One: HCE, ALP, Shaun, Shem and Izzy have led us on a wild, rumour-filled ride, and we want to process that before we move on! In a free-wheeling conversation, we consider Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812, theatre riots, The Magus, Beowulf, the prophetic dream lucidity of Buffy Summers, Cain's Jawbone, I Think You Should Leave, and The Midnight Gospel's Dada roots. Come for the typical lack of analytical depth, stay for the soon-to-be-regretted promise that the podcast will culminate not only with tattoos, but with a stage adaptation about TJ's hero, Festy King.

This week's chatters: Toby Malone, TJ Young

Progress: 216 pages complete, 412 pages to go; 34.39% read.

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

It's the most watery episode of WAKE so far, as we cruise past the 1/3 complete mark and tackle the legendary 1.8: "Anna Livia." Toby takes hubris to a whole new level by attempting to read the entire chapter, cold, without breaks, or assistance, as TJ furiously circles all of the river-name puns. We discuss remarkably knowledgeable washerwomen, the fine line between gossip and mythology, how Joyce would react to ChatGPT, and get to hear the voice of the man himself.

Water you waiting for? Dive in!

This week's readers: Toby Malone

Progress: 216 pages complete, 412 pages to go; 34.39% read.

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

TJ is back, and WAKE, the podcast of the history of the future, rolls on its unstoppable way! This week, we consider just why siblings are generally awful to one another as Shaun reads Shem to filth to round out chapter 1.7. We discuss Toby's favourite bookstore (Lane Bookshop Claremont, represent!), Latin stories of bowel evacuation, the Mighty Ducks, Moby-Dick, and Alan Ayckbourn: so, in general, a normal day at the office.

This week's readers: Toby Malone, TJ Young

Progress: 195 pages complete, 433 pages to go; 31.05% read.

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

It's a WAKE of firsts: the first episode recorded in Australia, the first episode with two guests, and, most difficult of all, the first episode without TJ! When schedules don't mesh, there's nothing for it but to plough on, for the Wake waits for no man (or musical workshop). This week comes to us from the echoey comforts of Toby's parents' house in Perth, where Mick and Jo Malone unveil their roles as the people most responsible for getting Joyce into Toby's head. We talk sibling rivalry, Irish revolutionaries, and whether Shem has reason to be upset about his treatment. Inconvenient, David!

This week's readers: Toby Malone, Mick Malone, Jo Malone

Progress: 182 pages complete, 446 pages to go; 28.98% read.

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

We would never consider ourselves mooks, nor would we gripe about the task in front of us, but finishing 1.6's Quiz (along with the needlessly complicated tale of the Mookse and Gripes) made us wonder whether Joyce might learn a little from Sad Girl Lit. We get a call from the other side of the planet and welcome Toby's hugely accomplished arts administrator sister, Georgia Malone, to talk about the book that "everyone owns and no one reads", the use of Joyce as a medal of honour among moody young blokes, and lay out our credentials for the knowledge of useless facts. Georgia gives us a refreshing take on how best to enjoy WAKE (come for the preamble, skip the Joyce bit), calls Joyce a wanker, and considers the place of Australian accents, Aesop, and Magic Eye pictures in understanding the work.

This week's readers: Georgia Malone, Toby Malone, TJ Young

Progress: 168 pages complete, 460 pages to go; 26.75% read.

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!