innerspaceboy

Awesome! I appreciate the recommendation. Thank you!

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rostasi

I’ve been a fan of Hofstadter since the age of 20.
G, E, B: was the first book I recommended to my, now, wife as a deep intro to the way I think.
Saying that, I think there are better books by him than ...Strange Loop: Metamagical Themas... and The Mind’s I being two.

As for the ...Wake, have you tried joining a reading group that’s devoted to either it, in particular, or Joyce in general?
I’ve unfortunately gained a bit of a celebrity status at the monthly F. W. one that I attend here,
but surprisingly, we have about 2 dozen people show up each month to read and discuss.

innerspaceboy

I'll definitely look into those titles! Thanks! And it's so wonderful to hear you participate in readings of The Wake!

I'm very fortunate to live in Buffalo, NY. Our university is is home to the greatest Joyce collection in the country, including his spectacles, walking stick, first editions of his works, Sylvia Beach’s personally-bound edition of Ulysses, and an exhaustive collection of other manuscripts.

I shared to this thread earlier in March when I first beheld the collection and my researched produced an extremely rare university publication that I hope to one day claim and display in my home. Here are the specs:

Book oversize - The James Joyce Archive
General Editor Michael Groden
Finnegans Wake
A Facsimile of Buffalo Notebook VI.A (“Six A”)
Prefaced and arranged by Danis Rose
1978
Garland Publishing
(the roughest and earliest notes for The Wake)
ISBN: 0-8240-2827-9
pp256-257 offer color oversized facsimiles of Scribbledehobble

My Joyce collection thus far includes A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, A Gaelic Lexicon for Finnegans Wake, a handsome 1979 Franklin Library edition of Ulysses, the John Hopkins University Press' Annotations to Finnegans Wake, several museum exhibit manuscripts, Joyce himself reading from his works on vinyl, and most proudly, a mint framed copy of the 1939 issue of Time Magazine featuring Joyce on the cover and his final interview just before his passing.





I also had the pleasure of being filmed reading The Wake as part of an internationally-touring art exhibit called Finnegans Waves.

I've explored Wake reading groups but tragically most of the city's group has retired or passed away due to old age. Attempts to revitalize the group have been less than successful. But I did attend this year's Bloomsday celebration which is chiefly attended by members of The Irish Classical Theatre who faithfully reenact scenes from Ulysses beautifully.

It's a fine city.

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rostasi

Does that include this one:

Buffalo, New York
Every two weeks on Tuesday during the academic year
from 7:30 to 11:00 or so.

Contact
Alphonse Kolodziejczak
70 Rollingwood
Williamsville, NY 14221-1834
716-568-0808
akolo55@msn.com

The Poetry Collection
University of Buffalo
716-654-2917

The Batlord

Oh cool, this just came in the mail so I guess I'll be diving into Chomsky for the first time in a bit. About ****ing time I guess.

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innerspaceboy

So kind of you to dig that up! What a guy! THANKS!

Yes - my understanding is that that was the primary group in Buffalo. I originally found the contact listed at finneganswake.org and inquired about it at the Finnegans Waves art event. I had a cup of tea with a woman there who said she used to frequent the group but that it had since fizzled out. I don't believe the finneganswake.org resource list is actively maintained and current.

I'm also friends with a beautiful young woman who is a Joycean scholar who performed many of the archival scans of Joyce's crayon-stricken notebooks and earliest drafts of The Wake as part of her graduate work for the University Poetry Collection. I mentioned my interest in a reading group to her and she's encouraged me to try and start one anew with hopefully a younger audience.

The head of the University Poetry Collection explained to me that Stephen James Joyce, (Joyce's grandson and sole living descendant), is a miserly man who has repeatedly destroyed artifacts and threatened legal action against anyone who attempts to publish or publically perform James' work. For that reason, the facsimile notebook I seek commands a painfully high price and it is highly unlikely that anything else will be published in my lifetime. The text was produced in an incredibly limited run and those with copies are collectors and scholars who are unlikely to put them up for sale.

There is also a rare bookshop in town the proprietor of which is a Joyce scholar and a fellow of the Poetry Collection. He has a large framed art print in his bookshop of Nightmaze - a 2000/2001 stage adaptation of The Wake written by Vincent O'Neil of the city's Irish Classical Theatre. Sadly he isn't willing to part with it but I took down the name of the graphic design company that produced the original limited run of the print and am going to see if they would consider printing a single edition for my home.

I was also incredibly grateful to be contacted by a gentleman who created an independent project compiling all known audio recordings inspired by Joyce's writings. He read some of my journal entries and asked if he could bestow the complete collection as a gift to my archive. I was honored to accept.

As an introvert, (and admittedly not the most proficient at reading The Wake aloud), I've had anxiety about attempting to start a new group. Perhaps one day I'll work up the nerve, but for now, I'm just grateful to live in a city with so much love for the author.

(I'll stop rambling now!)

Thanks again for digging up the contact, though. I really appreciate it!

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rostasi

A good historical place to start (1967 and about the Vietnam War). It might move you toward more recent books by him.

rostasi

OK, so you seem to have that area covered.
Really, don't worry about being "the most proficient at reading the Wake aloud" -
nobody really is - even Patrick Healy's reading is way too fast (but, it is Irish).
I know you can get the word out to folks who have interest - especially in a place like Buffalo -
an American heart of Joyce love. First, you have the desire mixed with the connections.
Hey, I'm in Dallas, Texas (?!) and out of a couple dozen people meeting at an Irish pub
for the very first get-together, I was the "old guy" there. It's still that way.

Start out the same way: meet at a favorite Irish pub. Talk about your love of the book
and that all of you are not there to necessarily understand it or brood over it, but to reJoyce
in all of the magical elements and humor, etc. that you get from it - that there aren't any "right" ways
of reading or understanding it. If you feel that you've "got it," then you've missed it entirely (like Zen).

Recommend other related books - and bring them to the get-together so that others can explore other avenues.
It's not like you'll be pulling random people off the street. They will come because they are interested
and will happily read as long as there isn't a fear of being a "correct" way of doing so
(it really is meant to be read aloud to get some cRaZy meanings out of it).
Don't be afraid of the "laughtears" that will ensue.
It's not like you're looking to put together an Oulipo writing group (tho that would be great too).

rostasi

Chris Mc Gregor And The Brotherhood Of Breath:
My Life With A South African Jazz Pioneer
by Maxine Mc Gregor