Collected Works Joyce, James: Complete Works | v.12.0 | Update 8 Apr 2018

[doubleshuffle]

Penelope has just taken the lead. Come on, Ithaca fans, we've gotta strike back! Go Ithaca!!!

[Prestidigitweeze]

If I were allowed to pick two chapters, then my inner Ovid could choose Proteus while other parts of me remained loyal to the Sirens. Besides which, flipping between the two induces the joy of synesthesia:

Steelyringing, imperthnthn, thought through my eyes.

[pynch]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

If I were allowed to pick two chapters, ...

Sorry, you can’t: the modality of the poll is ineluctable.

To those who can’t name a favourite episode because they haven’t yet read the book: please follow William Faulkner’s advice [in his really fantastic interview for the Paris Review]:

“You should approach Joyce’s Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.”

And don’t miss his explanation for the gestation of The Sound and the Fury!

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by pynch

To those who can’t name a favourite episode because they haven’t yet read the book: please follow William Faulkner’s advice (in his really fantastic interview for the Paris Review).

I happened to read that interview as a little kid, before I'd actually read The Sound and the Fury. I don't even know which came first for me, the experiences that shaped my credo or this comment by Faulkner which codifies it (though in the expansive style of conversation, of course, not the compressed or aphoristic ideal):

In my opinion, if I could write all my work again, I am convinced that I would do it better, which is the healthiest condition for an artist. That's why he keeps on working, trying again; he believes each time that this time he will do it, bring it off. Of course he won't, which is why this condition is healthy. Once he did it, once he matched the work to the image, the dream, nothing would remain but to cut his throat, jump off the other side of that pinnacle of perfection into suicide.

It's also a necessary defense of what some regard as Joyce's unnecessary refinements in FW. In certain ways, Joyce was an epic miniaturist. How could he not continue to weight and perfect each detail?

[pynch]

Yeah, that will the be the next poll once the overwhelming enthusiasm for the Ulysses poll wanes: which one is the most perfect phrase in Finnegans Wake? The nomination period alone will take a year.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Perhaps we should converse more on that thread than this one to attract a Brad more interest.

[pynch]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

Perhaps we should converse more on that thread than this one to attract a Brad more interest.

You’re right, we should; I did.

[pynch]

On the occasion of the one-year anniversary of this edition (and my presence on MobileRead; and, yup, I’m late—again) I’ve added early versions of the first three chapters from Finnegans Wake that were published in transition N° 1, 2, and 3 in 1927, transcribed from scans of the original magazines.

[doubleshuffle]

Thanks a ton again!

[pynch]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Thanks a ton again!

Pray go! [Italian, FW 585.12]

Biddy’s hair. [German, FW 305.19]

or simply

You’re welcome [English, FW 71.22]

[doubleshuffle]

Hey, it took me just two hours to get the jokes...

[pynch]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Hey, it took me just two hours to get the jokes...

Yeah, they were pretty clamn dever. [Ulysses, p. 132]

[medard]

Well it took me a day or so..

[democrite]

Thanks pynch for all the updates. Am now preferring your work over all my other retail ePubs.

Was wondering about display when using other fonts. Perhaps the classes for small caps could add 'font-variant: small-caps;'? The character you use at the end to link back to the TOC, there's also a unicode variant: ❦. Minor things but I'm sure others would appreciate them.

btw, I'm reading Dubliners and found in the Modern Library edition a note about 228 corrections from Joyce. Know anything about that?

[pynch]

Originally Posted by democrite

Thanks pynch for all the updates. Am now preferring your work over all my other retail ePubs.

Was wondering about display when using other fonts. Perhaps the classes for small caps could add 'font-variant: small-caps;'? The character you use at the end to link back to the TOC, there's also a unicode variant: ❦. Minor things but I'm sure others would appreciate them.

btw, I'm reading Dubliners and found in the Modern Library edition a note about 228 corrections from Joyce. Know anything about that?

When I prepared this epub, it was not my top priority to make it easily changeable. And why should I? It works fine as it is.

Most reading devices can’t display the small-caps subset, so it only works with a special small-cap font, for which the font-variant specification isn’t necessary. The ❦ is in an additional file that also has all the extra characters needed for Finnegans Wake, therefore changing the fonts isn’t advisable.

Dubliners is sourced from the robotwisdom site. This seems to be temporarily offline, so I can’t check it, but from what I think to know about Jorn Barger, I strongly assume he has incorporated those corrections.