Subject
Re: TT, Homer, Baseball&Finnegans Wake
From
Date
Body
Jansy,
A belated Happy New Year. I have to get out the door to work but was so
intrigued by your athletic and energetic baseball query re: FinnWake that I
wanted to drop you and the List a note.
A baseball theme at the start of FW has never occurred to me although
"homer" is a thoughtful catch for Ulysses, in the senses you describe. Not
that Joyce considered it, but it has a nice analytical linkage of metaphors
for discussion at our distance from J's days.
None of the rest of the opening passage of Wake has any baseball
significance to me, and I've played a lot of baseball and have read Wake.
For the swerve, bend and recirculation, I believe Beckett had it down (and
with the Maestro's approval) in his essay in the "Reexagmination of his
Calcification" or whatever Joyce's posse called their early collection of
essays on Work In Progress, as FW was then known.
See Beckett's "Dante .. Vico ... Bruno" Beckett separates the names with
significant variations on ellipses, and in a particular order, which I
probably have wrong here. Dante, of course, for the descending circles of
Hell. Bruno, for his cyclical-spiral theory of history, and Vico ...
Actually, I don't know anything about Vico.
But I would turn to these fellows before baseball. In the time when J. was
writing WIP, I'm not sure the slang "homer" was used yet for a homerun. It
seems to me a broadcasters' term from later radio. But I could be wrong.
Cheers,
AB
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 1:38 PM
Subject: Re: TT, Homer, Baseball
> Dear Don and List,
>
> While re-reading old postings stimulated by Alain Andreu, I came across a
> discussion about VN´s "Chapman´s Homer " and instead of linking baseball
to
> Keats and a famous translation, I went from Ulysses back to baseball (
> towards a "homerun" and the return of Homer´s "Ulysses") . From there I
> travelled on to J.Joyce, but then to Finnegan´s Wake first line:
> " riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend 1
> of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to 2
> Howth Castle and Environs".
>
> To find an excuse for dropping in a Joycean question ( actually,
about
> the moves in a baseball game ), I´ll try to link Ulysses return home to
> "Transparent Things", by the re-appearance of a very old dog soon after
> Hugh returned to Witt.
> The narrator seems to have established a special contrast bt. that
dog
> and Ulysses´s ( which had been the first to recognize his wizened
master ) -
> since it was Hugh who suffered from a "blind memory".
>
> Hugh Person also didn´t live in Villa Nastia to be able to achieve a
> "homerun" ( despite the aid of a "shuttle" ). Armande did!
>
> Actually Armande, as the living narrator at this point ( but it is
> impossible ) would then be responsible for a peculiar wording: isn´t the
use
> of "here" instead of "there" a little curious as it appears in the
sentence
> below?
> End of ch.22: " Hugh hesitated at a street corner (...)... a large,
> white, shivering dog crawled from behind a crate and whith a shock of
futile
> recognition Hugh remembered that eight years ago he had stopped right here
> and had noticed that dog, which was pretty old even then and had now
braved
> fabulous age only to serve his blind memory".
>
> My "Joycean" question requires a knowledge of baseball, which I
> completely lack: could the "riverrun" which also suggests Homer, homer
and
> a "homerrun", get an additional reinforcement of any kind by a description
> of baseball moves along the rest of the paragraph in which it appears?
( "s
> werve of shore to bend of bay", "brings us back to...",
"recirculation"... )
>
>
> Thank you.
> Jansy
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 3:29 PM
> Subject: Fwd: Re: Theater group namede NABOKOV
>
>
> > Dear Don and List,
> >
> > As a keen Nabokovian, I am always surprised by these odd uses of a
known
> > name. I am puzzled as to how can one be a Nabokov afficionado, and use
the
> > same name for a theater group, or -why not- a football team or a cat
> > (without connection with the celebrity).
> > That reminds me some art galleries or stores in my city using
extensively
> > the name Gauguin. Obviously, the aim is commercial and the way an utter
> > absurdity.
> >
> > Seasons greetings,
> >
> > Alain ANDREU
> > Institut Louis MALARDE
> > Papeete
> > TAHITI
----- End forwarded message -----
A belated Happy New Year. I have to get out the door to work but was so
intrigued by your athletic and energetic baseball query re: FinnWake that I
wanted to drop you and the List a note.
A baseball theme at the start of FW has never occurred to me although
"homer" is a thoughtful catch for Ulysses, in the senses you describe. Not
that Joyce considered it, but it has a nice analytical linkage of metaphors
for discussion at our distance from J's days.
None of the rest of the opening passage of Wake has any baseball
significance to me, and I've played a lot of baseball and have read Wake.
For the swerve, bend and recirculation, I believe Beckett had it down (and
with the Maestro's approval) in his essay in the "Reexagmination of his
Calcification" or whatever Joyce's posse called their early collection of
essays on Work In Progress, as FW was then known.
See Beckett's "Dante .. Vico ... Bruno" Beckett separates the names with
significant variations on ellipses, and in a particular order, which I
probably have wrong here. Dante, of course, for the descending circles of
Hell. Bruno, for his cyclical-spiral theory of history, and Vico ...
Actually, I don't know anything about Vico.
But I would turn to these fellows before baseball. In the time when J. was
writing WIP, I'm not sure the slang "homer" was used yet for a homerun. It
seems to me a broadcasters' term from later radio. But I could be wrong.
Cheers,
AB
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 1:38 PM
Subject: Re: TT, Homer, Baseball
> Dear Don and List,
>
> While re-reading old postings stimulated by Alain Andreu, I came across a
> discussion about VN´s "Chapman´s Homer " and instead of linking baseball
to
> Keats and a famous translation, I went from Ulysses back to baseball (
> towards a "homerun" and the return of Homer´s "Ulysses") . From there I
> travelled on to J.Joyce, but then to Finnegan´s Wake first line:
> " riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend 1
> of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to 2
> Howth Castle and Environs".
>
> To find an excuse for dropping in a Joycean question ( actually,
about
> the moves in a baseball game ), I´ll try to link Ulysses return home to
> "Transparent Things", by the re-appearance of a very old dog soon after
> Hugh returned to Witt.
> The narrator seems to have established a special contrast bt. that
dog
> and Ulysses´s ( which had been the first to recognize his wizened
master ) -
> since it was Hugh who suffered from a "blind memory".
>
> Hugh Person also didn´t live in Villa Nastia to be able to achieve a
> "homerun" ( despite the aid of a "shuttle" ). Armande did!
>
> Actually Armande, as the living narrator at this point ( but it is
> impossible ) would then be responsible for a peculiar wording: isn´t the
use
> of "here" instead of "there" a little curious as it appears in the
sentence
> below?
> End of ch.22: " Hugh hesitated at a street corner (...)... a large,
> white, shivering dog crawled from behind a crate and whith a shock of
futile
> recognition Hugh remembered that eight years ago he had stopped right here
> and had noticed that dog, which was pretty old even then and had now
braved
> fabulous age only to serve his blind memory".
>
> My "Joycean" question requires a knowledge of baseball, which I
> completely lack: could the "riverrun" which also suggests Homer, homer
and
> a "homerrun", get an additional reinforcement of any kind by a description
> of baseball moves along the rest of the paragraph in which it appears?
( "s
> werve of shore to bend of bay", "brings us back to...",
"recirculation"... )
>
>
> Thank you.
> Jansy
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 3:29 PM
> Subject: Fwd: Re: Theater group namede NABOKOV
>
>
> > Dear Don and List,
> >
> > As a keen Nabokovian, I am always surprised by these odd uses of a
known
> > name. I am puzzled as to how can one be a Nabokov afficionado, and use
the
> > same name for a theater group, or -why not- a football team or a cat
> > (without connection with the celebrity).
> > That reminds me some art galleries or stores in my city using
extensively
> > the name Gauguin. Obviously, the aim is commercial and the way an utter
> > absurdity.
> >
> > Seasons greetings,
> >
> > Alain ANDREU
> > Institut Louis MALARDE
> > Papeete
> > TAHITI
----- End forwarded message -----