I keep coming back to this as I'm completely fascinated by Joyce. The Wake is on my reading list along with A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. Ive been completely in awe of JJ since reading Dubliners, Portrait & Ulysses. You could easily spend the rest of your days on earth studying his work

The internet justifiably gets a loit of bad press but for things like this it's almost worth it. This is one of the best things I've ever seen online.

James Joyce was an highly intelligent man, I think we all can agree. Had he wanted Finnegan’s Wake to be intelligible, certainly he could and would have written it so. All the parsing and all the glosses are interesting but ultimately they are irrelevant. This book is a metaphor for human existence. All of us spend our lives with a giant question mark over our heads, and we die with the question unanswered. Of course we can find beauty and joy in our mysterious existence, just as a reader of the Wake can appreciate the music and the spirited play of Joyce’s language. But what it all means is completely obscure. The key to this novel is contained in one totally intelligible sentence: “Patience is the main thing.” Obviously Joyce felt it was important for us to comprehend that. Whether reading the Wake or living your life, patience is the main thing. So keep trudging onward, enjoy what you can, accept the incomprehensibility of it all, and above all don’t fret, because, however difficult it may be, you will soon come to the end.

Love this, but that pint got more head than Joyce at a brothel.

for those of you who do not know, this man wrote a clockwork orange.

I have to confess that although I know of Anthony Burgess from “A Clockwork Orange” (having read it multiple times) and have heard of James Joyce, I never knew anything about Finnegan’s Wake. But this was absolutely fascinating - so much so I have watched this 4 times now!!

Still grateful for his 'A Shorter Finnegans Wake'...and this performance...

I need this version of Finnegan's wake at the intro

I like how he has half a glass of Guinness at the table and half a glass of Guinness at the bar.

This is… mindblowing. I am not even exaggerating.

Videos like this make me appreciate the internet.

Marvellous! However as an Irishman, my only criticism is the way Burgess horrendously poured that bottle of Guinness 😂

I watched this when it originally aired on the (very) early morning adult education show "Sunrise Semester" in 1973, and it started my life-lomng love of Joyce. I've been trying to find a copy ever since - THANK YOU for posting this!

Very good readings. He does have a good voice Burgess, but more than that he clearly gets it. Harold Bloom played Falstaff on a couple of occasions and I'm sure he enjoyed it. I think Burgess enjoyed this.

This is the kind of U Tube I live for,Thank You !

This is excellent, thank you very much.

Thanks for posting this! I love both Joyce’s & Burgess’s works & to see the late, great AB dissecting ‘The Wake’ in a mock 70’s pub is fantastic...nice one👍😁

This is a rare treat. Thanks for sharing!

to hear Anthony Burgess discuss FW - memorable ! Hear Comes Everybody by AB is one great introduction to JJ's Ulysses.

A great find, this. Many thanks!

Absolutely brilliant! Thank you for posting!

Oh, man! This video is a find. Thank you. Made my day.

Genius Burgess.

Wow!Amazing!💚

what a mind the flush at the end was genius

About to tackle FW and this appraisal by Burgess was just what I needed- superb, jaysus did it make me smile Thanks for posting -

This was such a good video.

Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street, a gentle Irishman mighty odd He had a brogue both rich and sweet, an' to rise in the world he carried a hod You see he'd a sort of a tipplers way but the love for the liquor poor Tim was born To help him on his way each day, he'd a drop of the craythur every morn Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake One morning Tim got rather full, his head felt heavy which made him shake Fell from a ladder and he broke his skull, and they carried him home his corpse to wake Rolled him up in a nice clean sheet, and laid him out upon the bed A bottle of whiskey at his feet and a barrel of porter at his head Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake His friends assembled at the wake, and Mrs Finnegan called for lunch First she brought in tay and cake, then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch Biddy O'Brien began to cry, "Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see, Tim avourneen, why did you die?", "Will ye hould your gob?" said Paddy McGee Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake Then Maggie O'Connor took up the job, "Biddy" says she "you're wrong, I'm sure" Biddy gave her a belt in the gob and left her sprawling on the floor Then the war did soon engage, t'was woman to woman and man to man Shillelagh law was all the rage and a row and a ruction soon began Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake Mickey Maloney ducked his head when a bucket of whiskey flew at him It missed, and falling on the bed, the liquor scattered over Tim Bedad he revives, see how he rises, Timothy rising from the bed Saying "Whittle your whiskey around like blazes, t'underin' Jaysus, do ye think I'm dead?" Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Spectacular

INCREDIBLE

Absolutely brilliant from Mr Burgess, "Finegans Wake" is my favourite book.

A timeless exposition

Such a masterpiece as Finnegans' can't be done these days. Despite the information we've got at our disposal, coming up with such a dense and pregnant of meaning novel (arguably. I like calling it "dream-vel") requires tones of wisdom rather than simply info.

In one of their concerts, the Clancy Brothers sang Finnegan's Wake, with an introduction explaining how Joyce saw in it "The entire cycle of life, birth, death and resurrection!" I had no idea they also contributed the music to Burgess analysis of the book! I wonder if they discussed this much with Burgess?

Hey I'm sorry to see you have some shit to deal with in the comments. I for one wanted to give my appreciation for the upload, and to not give in to bad faith trolls.

This is amazing. Also, nice lid dude - A Flock of Seagulls only wishes to pull off this look.

Brilliant.

I love how he ends it in ... in the WC!

thanks

A wonderful period piece. The only strange thing is the way Burgess’s outrageous barnet remains immovable and rigid right down to its finest tendrils, however fast he wags his head.

Does anyone know any other programs structured like this one? This was both entertaining and informative, I wish there were other shows just like this one.

Tony B, I just love what you've done with your hair - oh yeah. Burgess sans Mel Bragg in a proto South Bank Show? Wonderful, wonderful. ...this must have gone out on a Sunday evening. ... Ah, addendum. This was ne'er screened o'er Irish/ English shores.

...WHO MOVES THE PINT FROM PILLAR TO POST..FROM DARK WELL TO CELLAR..FROM SELLER TO SINGER TO TELLER AND WHO FOR SWEET JOURNEY’S SAKE WILL PAUSE IN BRIGHT SOLACE...RISE FROM THE SHALLOWS TO SINK IT...

Yes.

It also should be noted that the Lethe is a River in Hades which prepares the souls of the dead for their reincarnation in a physical form by erasing all the memories of their past life. It symbolizes the cycle of death and rebirth.

The more he drinks the Guinness the more Irish he sounds lol 😂

The song is absolutely the funniest thing ever

I was today years old when I realized this is the author of A Clockwork Orange.

Bloomsday was the day When James 'knew' Nora? "Bid Adieu to Girlish Days" celebrated the deflowering. In 1904 Joyce had tried unsuccessfully to publish this poem in the Dublin magazine Dana. He also submitted it to Harper’s in January 1905, but again it was rejected. With two other poems from Chamber Music (I and XII), “Bid adieu to girlish days” was anthologized in The Dublin Book of Irish Verse (1909), edited by John Cooke. (This is the first time a work by Joyce was anthologized.) Joyce’s partiality toward this poem can also be seen in his efforts to have it set to music. In 1909 he tried actively to interest G. Molyneux Palmer in setting the poem musically: “It seems to me a pity you did not do the song ‘Bid adieu’ which I tried to music myself and hope you may turn to it some day” (Letters, II.227). (For more information see Letters, II.73, 77, 80, 117, and 227. Palmer eventually did set the poem to music.) Here, in this video, it's sung by Giorgio in 1949 and put to images in Paris on or around 02022020 featuring Joyce, Sylvia Beach, Samuel Beckett and Ezra Pound, all three who played key roles in James Joyce's life. Share this little item of literary history. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fdaVpsR91sqadJ8.html

Super

The interpretation of ALP's final monologue I think is completely off base. She is disappearing, because she is only the dream-wife, not the real wife, and she only exists in the sleeping time, and now it's all woking up time, so she will die until the next cycle of night. Her father is the sea, and she rushes into the sea by daybreak, and asks only that he remember her. And we know he won't remember her any more than we remember an average dream. It's such a sad and beautiful monologue, I think the best Joyce ever wrote.

appropriate for current events too!

Over the years I've become really well-read, even tackling some "difficult" books. But Finnegan's Wake beat me up and tossed me aside. One day maybe I'll manage, but I had to stop after 30 pages. I hear listening to it is useful....

Always Irish ☘️of Gods and Fighting Men ☘️

This video is completely incomprehensible but I keep watching it

The BBC broadcast a coded warning every single day for 40 years. It's explained in a video called Hidden Meaning of Test Card F

After his maid gives a tour at the Wellington Museum (shrug), HCE was caught in this vague sin (as Burgess mentions) and is caught by the pipe-smoking "CAD," who after a promise not to tell anyone else, tells his wife, who tells everyone else until the story becomes so popular this Ballad is written to dramatize it, but the story has gotten the can and the string treatment for so long that no one knows what is true or made up. The story keeps getting morphed which is why we do not know exactly what happened. Then it gets a little weird. His wife defends him through a note as scratched out by a hen, with the clarity of a note scratched out by a hen.

Será que podés activar los subtítulos en español?

Maybe James was just like the leading character in "Being There".

anyone know what is first song version of FW?

Why did nobody think to teach poor Mr Burgess how to pour a Guinness?

WOW SUCH A FINE EXEGESIS

He was a Joyce scholar before Clockwork, wasn't he?

there's a bloke who recites FW by heart, so far he's only got a FB page it seems : facebook.com/groups/1520972724852770

The one important take away from this video was that he didn't wash his hands after using the bathroom❤

Actually cut the following comment 50/50. This is good stuff. However, follow my instructions below on how to read FW for fun. This is why he wrote it.

Fillmet feather onna moonlight night, nokt thrice and three more there and then beween sliv and sliver water watches Walter whistling. “In in I say” no in the inn in enniskillen, out and about abode abroad. Nokt but once more an prehips a slips would run more, let feather waltz past passes Walter on water, what are eyes good for if not a look aye?

Kitty O’ Shea ...brilliant though ..

Took me 15 minutes to figure out that this was not a comedy sketch

Would you like a Flake with that pint Anthony?

He’s fucking pissed

Kitty MC Shea ?

Robert Anton Wilson: Finnegan's Wake "is what I call “The Good Book”, and I’m only half joking. To me it’s not only the greatest novel ever written, it’s the greatest poem ever written, the greatest detective story ever written, and the most entertaining work in all literature, and as William York Tindall of Columbia says, it’s the funniest and dirtiest book in the world. People are intimidated by it. If the publishers just had the sense to put on the cover, “the funniest and dirtiest book in the world - Tindall, Columbia”, it would sell a lot better, and people would make the effort to decipher it." The critical question is, then, when are the Repukelicons going to get around to banning it?

Blame my ignorance.. But what?

Donald Trump must have really liked this guy, tried so hard to capture his image.

What did Tim Finnegan say? Sounds like "source the devil".

I’m afraid I’m just to dumb to use this

Terrible pour

Nice video but state of that fucking pint.

This is a poor reading, rather superficial. I am not clear that Earwicker is actually Scandinavian, or if he just fancies himself that way in his dreams. The real person doesn't resemble the dream person. He obviously isn't guilty of anything, Issy isn't even conceived yet, any incest just a dream event, which bothers him. The only incestuous part is in book 3 ch 1, and the violence is sublimated into manic commands which he gives with a threat of a beating. There is no reference to incest elsewhere, not in book 1, not in book 2, despite commentators inventing it with their sex-obsessed minds.

Nope. Still makes no sense

Do you mean "Repetition compulsion" is the uneducated neo-Marxist ? Every attempt to explain FW falls far short. Every fragmented summing up is an exercise at futility. How do you get past the triviality of it all ? Can the whole of the book exist only in memory ? Perhaps the book should only be read when drunk.

Thanks for posting this, Rc. I find burgess's smug personation somewhat repugnant; even so, being privy to this cavorting is for me an inoculation against ever reading Re: Joyce.

I'm sorry that someone with such a profound command of language believes that there is anything behind Joyce's gibberish. Only someone who spent too many years in the academy could delude themselves into thinking there's meaning there.

Sorry but FW is just one of those tools the egotists use to signal their intellectual supremacy. Dubliners was great, but after that Joyce just got further and further up his own rectum. Love DH Lawrence myself, he left a great record of his experiences through which we can sense the Eternal in everything. Joyce just left self-referencial cryptic puzzles that go nowhere.