If I thought I understood one-tenth of the first twelve pages, then, after reading Tindall, realized it was more like 1/10, my ratios dropped significantly this week. Which is sort of funny because OM, who's the honors lit student here, told me that it got easier for him. Ugh.
This week's segment began for me with an encounter and an exchange between Mutt and Jute. Who are they? Apparently, HCE's twin sons, Shem and Shaun. Huh??
Mutt and Jeff (pictured above) was the first daily American comic strip, written by Bud Fisher for the San Francisco Chronicle beginning in 1907. (There's alot more info at the wiki link, and, tbh, I found it more all more interesting than this week's segment.) As you can see, they're a mismatch, and probably one of the first of such duos in pop culture history. Think of Laurel and Hardy, or Felix and Oscar, and you get the idea. The fact that JJ was aware of a stateside cartoon indicates that by the time he was into FW the world was getting smaller. Anyway, they're both kinda losers. How Jeff became Jute to JJ, I have no idea.
Anyway, "Mutt and Jeff" or "mutton" is also Cockney rhyming slang for deaf - it came up in my google searches, I'm not that smart or well-traveled. So both of HCE's sons are deaf, or represent deafness, got it. Nope. Only one does, per Tindall. It's Jeff, or Shaun, is deafness and sight (and other things). Mutt, or Shem, is blindness maybe and hearing (and other things). And they talk about...wow, some completely incomprehensible shit for two and a half pages of full-on dialog. I'm not gonna dwell on that too much, but the concept of a deaf person and a blind person having trouble communicating makes sense at some level. There's alot I need to unpack for myself about the twins. They're not the key, but they're a key, and their conflict recurs, from what I've read.
(Tindall talked a bit about numbers for this segment, and there is a numerology to FW. Shaun is 11, and Shem is 21 - yeah, idk why, either. Together, they add up to 32, which is HCE. H = 8, C = 3, E = 5. Think about that for a second. Pause. Ok. Now feel my pain, and doubt my sanity for what OM called this week a "wack literary pursuit." Oh, and remember, he thought this week's segment wasn't too bad. No wonder I liked the comics angle.)
Most of this segment is the story of the Prankquean, ALP. It's a fairy tale or something about how ALP and HCE met, and how their relationship, and their relationship with their three kids, evolved. I didn't understand any of that, until I read Tindall. I figured the Prankquean was ALP, but the way JJ presented her and her story was pretty veiled. There are three visits, and three repeats of a cryptic question, "why do I am alook alike a poss of porterpease?" The phrase "alook alike" is fun, but the rest is beyond me. Tindall says it's ALP saying she looks like the twins ("porterpease" or peas in a pod, and she was their porter/provided their womb), but HCE sells porter and pease is so close to please, so he's part of the answer, too? Whatever, moving on.
There's some stuff about a guy named Jaal von Hoother, who's supposed to be HCE. I missed that. Irish history that I can't be bothered to look up right now, but the Danes invaded and conquered Ireland? Why why why does it have to be so complicated? Why can't JJ just tell a damn story?! He's good at it - ahem, Dubliners. But that's not his goal here. Obviously. What is? Well, there's some stuff about Enlightenment Italian Philosophers that I need to cover. It has been alluded to in some of the preliminary material that I read, but I think Tindall discusses it more in his intro. I'll try to get to that this week, and might have more to say about it in my next post. But...
I have a sneaking suspicion that this book is about writing - that, post-Ulyssees, JJ went from modern to post-modern. (I have stuff cooking on those fuzzy terms, but, as usu, more later.) Post-modern, as in self-referential. META. My fave passage this week was about print. Like Gutenberg Press print. (He actually does mention Gutenberg and the Magna Carta, but it's "Gutenmorg and the cromagnom charter.") I wish that Tindall would have been more helpful, but he wasn't. Ok, so the passage is on pp. 19-20, the paragraph that starts at "True there..." (This is reference for OM, who's the only person reading this, ha.) Specifically: "For that (the rapt one warns) is what papyr is meed of, made of, hides and hints and misses in prints. Till ye finally (though not yet endlike) meet with the acquaintance of Mister Typus, Mistress Tope and the the little typtopies." I'm not sure what's going on there, but I really like it. It's so singsongy, and references type and typing. And typos, which are practically my bread and my butter, lately. Sucks to suck.
Ok. Enough for now. The Mutt and Jeff stuff reminded me of R. Crumb. O, let's keep on trucking...
Peace,
JF
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