I’m Reading The Northern Caves!

sinesalvatorem:

Surprisingly, I’m able to read The Northern Caves. I didn’t expect this.

I have dyslexia that makes reading psychologically painful and exhausting. This has led to me having an aversive reaction to written fiction. Recently, I’ve been unable to finish reading anything long-form.

However, I have no problem reading Tumblr. A lot of Tumblr. Likewise, I can IM with people - and I do a lot of that too. I seem to lack the aversion to reading conversations, once the individual parts of the conversation are reasonably short.

(Though this generally doesn’t work for dialogue in a novel because, due to the formatting, my brain still lumps it in “novel” instead of “conversation”.)

A lot of TNC is in the form of screen-caps from forum threads. My brain reacts to these the same way it reacts to Tumblr threads -almost no aversion. Thus, no problem reading. I have trouble with the Notes, because those more resemble conventional writing but, since they’re interspersed with Materials, I can handle it.

(I’m not sure how I’ll handle the long stretch of Notes near the end, but I’ll (attempt to) cross that bridge when I get to it.)

So, in the event that someone wants to recommend (or even write) fiction for me, you now know that epistolary novels (where the individual messages are short) are ideal.

Glad to hear it’s working out.

I have a sort of similar (although milder) situation where I have an easier time reading text my brain thinks is “from the internet” than text it thinks is “from a book.”  But in my case a Kindle works really well because my brain kind of thinks everything on a Kindle is “from the internet.”

rusalkii:

I just read both Floornight and The Northern Caves in one sitting. That was not an experience mere mortals were meant to withstand.

~*~*~WeLcOmE tO mY tWiStEd MiNd~*~*~

The Finnegans Wake community is an interesting thing.  The book is, almost paradoxically, so difficult that the small, self-selected group of enthusiasts tends to be relatively unpretentious, and the nature of the book means that most interpretive writing takes the form of “pet theories about what the hell is going on” rather than grander, more theoretical readings.  As a result, the community feels more like a fan forum than a typical academic coterie.  (Of course this is one of the things that went into my thinking about TNC.)

From one of David Auerbach’s posts on the subject:

Most of these books, especially those in the first two sections, are extremely approachable and written in friendly, affable language, certainly moreso than the average monograph. Since Finnegans Wake doesn’t exactly pull in huge amounts of fans, there’s not much exclusionary rhetoric to keep out dilettantes.

And from another one:

Joyce scholars can be a somewhat hermetic and monomaniacal lot: many of the people below study Joyce exclusively and exhaustively. I can think of no better example than that of Adaline Glasheen, a New England teacher who put together The Census of Finnegans Wake, which attempts to list every personage named or alluded to in the Wake, alphabetically. She remarked:

I hold to my old opinion. Finnegans Wake is a model of a mysterious universe made mysterious by Joyce for the purpose of striking with polished irony at the hot vanity of divine and human wishes…Joyce himself told Arthur Power: what is clear and concise can’t deal with reality, for to be real is to be surrounded by mystery.

The unpretentious Glasheen liberally peppers the text with remarks such as, “I don’t know who this is.” From her husband’s biographical note:

Adaline was born in Evansville, Indiana, attended the public schools there. Adaline and her mother borrowed armloads of books weekly from the public library. They were both able to recall every detail of their reading. Good books, trash they read ’em all. This proved to be a great help in her Joyce work. After a year of two at the University of Indiana, she transferred to the University of Mississippi. Adaline was hired to coach football players in English lest they flunk out and thus do harm to the football team. She continued the reading habits of her childhood. Later she felt that Joyce, too, was a great reader of trash; hence her ability to spot references and allusions in Joyce. She received her B.A. at Ole Miss. She took her M.A. at George Washington University. While I was in the army she taught at Wheaton College in Massachusetts.

Upon the birth of our daughter in 1946, Adaline was eager for a task which she could do in the few minutes between the incessant trivia of rearing a child. The ‘Joyce game’ enabled her to survive.

Also this was amazing? I mean this is the kind of fiction I put into the “perfect fiction” category without having to really think about it. The fiction I wish I could read. You know what I mean? If I never read anything but perfect fiction I would be a lot happier. That’s the definition of perfect fiction. Another possible definition is that I wish every piece of fiction I like, every idea in those pieces of fiction, could be rendered as perfect fiction so I didn’t have to constantly think “this is good but it could be perfect”. Thanks for taking some things that could be good and making them perfect. I love you. In the non-personal sense. I am tired and I am sorry.

From a comment on TNC.  This made my day :)

This post is a response to @kitswulf‘s commentary on TNC.  I’d reblog it, but too many spoilers.

First, @kitswulf, thanks so much for this response – I mean, first because it’s flatteringly positive, but also because it’s really well-written and interesting.

(Spoilers under the cut.  This ended up turning into a long explanation of what I was trying to do with the last chapter of TNC)

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