Hush! Caution! Echoland!

March 29 – April 5; Week 1: pages 3 - 15

Why are there so many great Irish writers? By that, I mean so many great Irish writers of English. Ireland, of course, has its own native tongue: Gaelic.  But (and this is the short-short version, obviously) centuries of English colonization brought a language shift. Gaelic is still spoken and taught in Irish schools, but the dominant language is English, and has been for a couple hundred years.

As you can imagine, the rise to prominence of the English language isn’t always seen as a good thing by the Irish. One form of resistance is to insist on using Gaelic, in academic and public life . But what about taking the language of the colonizer and mastering it? What about breaking it down and making it your own? If the pen is really such a bad-ass, dominating the language of the master is its own form of resistance.

I thought about this as I continued through our first section of Finnegans Wake, which is, after all, the work of an Irish writer pounding the English language in his palms like a blob of dough. Continuing from page 12, here is the passage on page 13:

Behove this sound of Irish sense. Really? Here English might be seen. Royally? One sovereign punned to petery pence. Regally? The silence speaks the scene. Fake!

So This Is Dyoublong?

Hush! Caution! Echoland!

How charmingly exquisite!

First thing to notice is the appearance of our old friend, HCE.  “Hush! Caution! Echoland!” is immediately followed by “How charmingly exquisite!” If you’re being generous, “Here English might be seen” gets you close to HEC, especially if you approach it phonetically.  HCE is our main character, but he also doubles as Dublin (remember Howth Castle and Environs).

OK, so what else?

Behove this sound of Irish sense.

“Behove” means “to be necessary,” although in this sentence it also suggests “behold,” or, “look at.” And “the sound of Irish sense,” may be the Irish language itself. Look at the Gaelic language.

Really?

This begins a repetition of one-word sentences following a longer sentence for the rest of the paragraph. Really? Royally? Regally? Fake! Which is the real language and which is the fake one? Is it the royal/regal language of the English crown? Or is it the sound of Irish sense?

Here English might be seen.

Here in Dublin we speak English. Also, here in the pages of Finnegans Wake you might see some things that you recognize as English.

One sovereign punned to petery pence.

What was the relationship of a “sovereign pound” to an Irish “pence”?  I looked it up: 240 Irish pennies = one English pound. Joyce certainly does seem to be punning the English language to pieces, breaking it down so that the strong English pound becomes nothing more than 240 scattered pence.

The silence speaks the scene.

The silence of the Irish language?

So This Is Dyoublong?

Do you belong in doubling Dublin? Who belongs? Do the English? Does English as a language?

Hush! Caution! Echoland!

There is a long history of England suppressing the use of Gaelic, so it had to continue in careful, hushed tones. At the same time, we are in Dublin, where English “echoes” through the speech of the Irish people, making Ireland its own kind of Echoland.

How charmingly exquisite!

Imagine the Dowager Countess of Grantham saying this line.  As in, look at the Irish writer being so clever. How charmingly exquisite!

According to my guide, I didn’t pick up on the references to Jonathan Swift, nor to the full range of references to types of money. That’s OK, because Joyce is certainly riffing on the Irish use of the English language, all while he consciously unrolls that language.

We also have an early indication that Finnegans Wake may be more than a little self-aware. Here English might be seen. It’s a little nod to those of us who’ve persevered all the way to page 13.  I suspect it won’t be the last time the Wake laughs at itself. We’re immersed in a book that is delighted in the sound of words echoing across its pages.