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Old 02-09-2008, 01:57 PM   #5
jmorton
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Joycean Prose

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roy White View Post
James Joyce....

Completely inacessible! Or.. to use one of his own convoluted sentences using invented words that no one knows the meaning of but him.. (And its doubtful that even he knows...)

"It vibroverberates upon the tegmen and prosplodes from pomoeria."

Thats a direct quote from Finnegans wake and I'll give anyone a million dollars who can interpret that sentence!!!
Not completely inaccessible, just difficult. The quote you chose is understandable in context. It's also sexual, so I won't get into it too deeply here, but here are the hard parts:

vibroverberates=quivering

tegmen=a superficial layer or covering usually of a plant or animal part (from MW, think Merkin)

prosplodes=typical Joycean portmanteau combining prolapse and explode (yeah, more sex)

pomoeria=this one is a little more abstruse. I'm guessing it's a variation on Pomerania--a land which no longer exists, meaning coming from someplace deep in the mythical and historical past (a lot of Finnegans Wake is concerned with myth and history) as well as deep within the mind and body.

Yeah, Joyce could have said all this in a much more straightforward way, but the book is working on many different levels (dreams, myth, history, the previous evening's events). Joyce was trying to find a way to convey pure thought (in Ulysses) and the dream state (in Finnegans Wake)with words. To what extent he succeeded depends on the reader.

The book posted here, is Ulysses, which is a walk in the park (sneaky FW reference intended), compared to Finnegans Wake.

Jim
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