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Jeff L · 08-12-2012, 08:56 PM

Wow...this thread has legs.

Seeing as how Joyce keeps getting pummeled ...

riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

Overview -

The river Liffey runs its course, passing Adam and Eve's Chapel, swerving down to Dublin Bay, and returns by this circuitous path to Howth Castle (conceived as a return for the waters of the sea rise up as clouds that rain down upon the mountain where the Liffey began).

riverrun

Note the lowercase spelling. The River Liffey (name meaning "life") is conceived as female because the anglicized version of its name is taken as Anna Liffey. Joyce uses this name for one of the principal characters, Anna Livia. The book is heavy in mythology and water is used in myth as a death and resurrection motif to indicate a transformative change, a rebirth.

past Eve and Adam's

There is a chapel called Adam and Eve's which recalls Genesis and Eden. Joyce transposes the names, giving the female (the generative power) precedence.

from swerve of shore

We find later that the sibilant "sw" and "sh" are the serpent sound. So Adam, Eve, and the serpent give us the Fall from Grace and the Fall of Man. Also, snakes shuffle off their mortal coil and are renewed, so they're also used as death and resurrection motifs. They die to the past, to all they were, and are reborn.

to bend of bay

The river reaches its end in Dublin Bay and mixes with the waters of the larger sea.

brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

At this point, people's eyes usually widen.

"Vicus" means path or street.

Another tense of "vicus" is "vico" and "vicus of recirculation" refers to Vico's Ricorso.

Giambattista Vico proposed a Philosophy of History wherein the history of a people advances through stages or corsi. These stages result from how people think about the world. It begins with a theological and then a heroic age created by a poetic, imaginative worldview, people explaining in metaphor what they can't otherwise comprehend. Then an age of men replacing gods and heroes arrives when reflective thought and reason predominate. All this comes to a crashing halt in the next stage, the ricorso, wherein conflict rises to the level of chaos and society collapses back to an earlier stage of development.

But from this ricorso, there is a rebirth as humanity rises up again. So Vico is describing a cyclical pattern to history, a perpetual rise and fall and rise again of peoples. Compare 3 paragraphs later, "Phall if you but will, rise you must." This is the theme of Finnegans Wake.

Getting back to the beginning, remember that "riverrun" was lowercase. Since Joyce isn't e.e. cummings, the reason is that this isn't the start of the sentence. For that we have to go to the end of the book. On the last page we find this:

End here. Us then. Finn, again! Take. Bussoftlhee, mememormee! Till thousendsthee. Lps. The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the

That is,

A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, etc...

So the book is read in a circle, giving us the eternal Fall of Man and his rebirth through the ages.

There are other points being made in this opening sentence but I'll leave those aside. Just one more thing. That last page, which is Anna Livia's soliloquy, where she says "The keys to. Given!"

That refers to this earlier line:

How you said how you’d give me the keys of me heart.

08-12-2012, 08:56 PM	#52
Jeff L Zealot Posts: 117 Karma: 584308 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: San Francisco Device: Kindle	Wow...this thread has legs. Seeing as how Joyce keeps getting pummeled ... riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. Overview - The river Liffey runs its course, passing Adam and Eve's Chapel, swerving down to Dublin Bay, and returns by this circuitous path to Howth Castle (conceived as a return for the waters of the sea rise up as clouds that rain down upon the mountain where the Liffey began). riverrun Note the lowercase spelling. The River Liffey (name meaning "life") is conceived as female because the anglicized version of its name is taken as Anna Liffey. Joyce uses this name for one of the principal characters, Anna Livia. The book is heavy in mythology and water is used in myth as a death and resurrection motif to indicate a transformative change, a rebirth. past Eve and Adam's There is a chapel called Adam and Eve's which recalls Genesis and Eden. Joyce transposes the names, giving the female (the generative power) precedence. from swerve of shore We find later that the sibilant "sw" and "sh" are the serpent sound. So Adam, Eve, and the serpent give us the Fall from Grace and the Fall of Man. Also, snakes shuffle off their mortal coil and are renewed, so they're also used as death and resurrection motifs. They die to the past, to all they were, and are reborn. to bend of bay The river reaches its end in Dublin Bay and mixes with the waters of the larger sea. brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. At this point, people's eyes usually widen. "Vicus" means path or street. Another tense of "vicus" is "vico" and "vicus of recirculation" refers to Vico's Ricorso. Giambattista Vico proposed a Philosophy of History wherein the history of a people advances through stages or corsi. These stages result from how people think about the world. It begins with a theological and then a heroic age created by a poetic, imaginative worldview, people explaining in metaphor what they can't otherwise comprehend. Then an age of men replacing gods and heroes arrives when reflective thought and reason predominate. All this comes to a crashing halt in the next stage, the ricorso, wherein conflict rises to the level of chaos and society collapses back to an earlier stage of development. But from this ricorso, there is a rebirth as humanity rises up again. So Vico is describing a cyclical pattern to history, a perpetual rise and fall and rise again of peoples. Compare 3 paragraphs later, "Phall if you but will, rise you must." This is the theme of Finnegans Wake. Getting back to the beginning, remember that "riverrun" was lowercase. Since Joyce isn't e.e. cummings, the reason is that this isn't the start of the sentence. For that we have to go to the end of the book. On the last page we find this: End here. Us then. Finn, again! Take. Bussoftlhee, mememormee! Till thousendsthee. Lps. The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the That is, A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, etc... So the book is read in a circle, giving us the eternal Fall of Man and his rebirth through the ages. There are other points being made in this opening sentence but I'll leave those aside. Just one more thing. That last page, which is Anna Livia's soliloquy, where she says "The keys to. Given!" That refers to this earlier line: How you said how you’d give me the keys of me heart.