Episódios

  • It’s always a treat when your smartest friend can join you for a chat: especially when it's the kind of smartest friend who makes you feel smarter yourself. Yes, award-winning visionary Neil Wechsler is back with us again to read a part of 3.3, roll past the 500 page mark, and to get deep into the weeds on meaning, immersion, expectation, and whether or not it’s actually a bad thing to be pretentious. It’s likely a good thing that we gave ourselves a pass on pretentiousness, because then we immediately get right into name-checking Socrates, Freud, Borges, Albee, Camus, and Lorde as we consider what it looks like as denizens at ‘the middle’ of the Wake. Come listen to our exagmination of the facts “thus being reduced to nothing,” and then, when all is said and done, stop to consider what it all would sound like... underwater.

    This week's readers: Neil Wechsler, Toby Malone, TJ Young

    Progress: 516 pages complete, 112 pages to go; 82.17% read.

    Contextual Notes:

    Neil on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wechslerprojects/

    Zinzin, the business: https://www.zinzin.com/our-story/our-name/

    Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress (1929):

    Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Exagmination_Round_His_Factification_for_Incamination_of_Work_in_Progress Open Access full text! https://zehfilardo.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/our-exagmination-round-his-factification-for-incamination-of-work-in-progress-searcheable.pdf Add to your library: https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/our-exagmination-round-his-factification-incamination-work-progress/ Pretend you’ve read it: https://goodreads.com/book/show/59699.James_Joyce_Finnegans_Wake_Our_Exagmination_Round_His_Factification_for_Incamination_of_Work_in_Progress

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • Under a full moon and with a pint of Guinness in hand, WAKE welcomes our very first Dublin-based reader, as correctly-accented Sarah Kane joins Toby and TJ to kick off Chapter 3.3. Sarah tells us all about participating in Bloomsday as a neophyte Joycean (“a lifeguard that can’t swim”), slips into a Joyce fugue state regardless of best laid plans, and reminds us that a cold read is really just what the kids nowadays call Rawdogging. With the glorious Irishness of it all to bring us through, we discuss Joyce reading groups, Sweny’s Pharmacy, Anthony Burgess, and, in a bombshell twist none of you saw coming, TJ's authentic Irish heritage.

    This week's readers: Sarah Kane, Toby Malone, TJ Young

    Progress: 496 pages complete, 132 pages to go; 78.98% read.

    Contextual Notes

    Sarah Kane on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloodonyourshoe/

    Bloomsday in Dublin: https://www.bloomsdayfestival.ie/

    Sweny’s Pharmacy: https://www.sweny.ie/

    Sweny’s on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swenyspharmacydublin/

    Anthony Burgess’s A Shorter Finnegans Wake: https://www.anthonyburgess.org/blog-posts/a-shorter-finnegans-wake-editing-an-epic/

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

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  • Grab your torches and buffs, it's time for another episode of Survivor: Finnegans Wake edition... Experts say that the best way to manage unprocessed trauma is to talk it through, to normalise what you've experienced. Here at WAKE we are all about offering all angles and perspectives on Finnegans Wake: and it was only a matter of time until we interviewed someone who did not enjoy the experience! Fascinating polyglot Ana Dahlberg is a professed lover of Joyce, a participant in Bloomsday festivities, and is a certified member of an extremely exclusive club: she has survived finishing Finnigans Wake. Today, we talk to Ana about her experience, which ran the gamut of emotions, from frustration to exasperation to bewilderment to rage, and all the way back again, in such a fashion that the only way she could describe it was to suggest Morrissey write a song about her and the book that just doesn't care what she thinks. In this delightful, non-reading episode, join Toby and TJ with Ana, with the rarest of insights about how it feels to actually finish the Wake (spoiler: not as satisfying as you'd hope).

    This week's chatters: Ana Dahlberg, Toby Malone, TJ Young

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • No one ever likes to WAKE alone, but sometimes the occasion calls for it. On a dark day in WAKE-world, Toby takes the reins solo to deal with the apuckalips, or at least what feels like it. Along the way, Jaun's entirely inappropriate conversation with Issy provides a distraction, tempered by side discussions of chaos theory, John Cage, Idiocracy, and hope for the future.

    This week's readers: Toby Malone

    Progress: 473 pages complete, 155 pages to go; 75.32% read.

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • Before today's episode, Toby and TJ had never heard the word "stramash", but now we can't stop saying it! Scottish musician, editor, author, and all-rounder Tommy MacKay joins the WAKE fold, not only to teach us this ever-so useful Scottish term for chaos, but also to discuss his amazing Joyce-music 'stramashups', the pitfalls of adaptation, pioneering punk music, creepy death masks, and the things that may or may not be appropriate to say to a younger sister. Yes, Shaun is up to all sorts of trouble this time around, lecturing Issy and her classmates in a mansplainy way that has shades of Laertes and Ophelia, but way filthier. It's an accessible, rollicking chapter, and the only one so far that features Denti Alligator, so everyone wins.

    This week's readers: Tommy MacKay, TJ Young, Toby Malone

    Progress: 448 pages complete, 180 pages to go; 71.34% read.

    Contextual Notes:

    The Daily Reckless: https://www.dailyreckless.com/

    Finnegans Dreams: https://www.dailyreckless.com/2024/08/15/finnegans-dreams/

    Cunstuntonoplies (Patrick Horgan vs. They Might Be Giants) https://www.dailyreckless.com/2024/10/22/cunstuntonoplies/

    Thunderwords! https://www.dailyreckless.com/2024/09/16/thunderwords/

    James Joyce’s death mask: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/james-joyce-death-mask-1941/TQGMVB7smSO0JA?hl=en

    Tommy MacKay on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tommy.mackay/

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • The hundred-letter 'thunderwords' are arguably the most enduring, well-known, and mystifying feature of Finnegans Wake, jumbles of letters cobbling together words from far-flung languages to create a word salad of difficulty that seems to stand as emblematic of the overall challenges of the Wake. In this bonus episode, we spend a few minutes considering all ten thunderwords, their 1001 letters, and the insight of eminent Wake scholars including Marshall McLuhan, Eric McLuhan, and Bernard Benstock. Now that WAKE has spoken all ten thunderwords, we have mashed them all together, in case you've ever desperately wanted to hear what they all sound like, entirely butchered, in chronological order, with no breaks. What more could you want?

    This week's personnel: Toby Malone

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • Hooraymost! It’s the dirtiest chapter featuring insect erotica in all of literature, so grab your doodlers and bungholes, we’re going spizzing! Best of all, beloved Wakexpert Lucy Brazier finds room on her fagroaster to get down to some Clowntalkin about the savage rivalry between Shaun and his brother as we cover chapter 3.1! We wonder about narrative-minded donkeys, ponder what it would take to have the smell of an old woman come off you, name-check Monty Python, and plan a letter-based tourist trap, all ahead of the one thunderword that has 101 letters, just to prove a point. It’s a pervy, raucous episode of WAKE, and we couldn’t have enjoyed it more.

    (Apologies for the sound quality on Toby's mic, it's an ongoing problem that will be fixed)

    This week's readers: Lucy Brazier, TJ Young, Toby Malone

    Progress: 428 pages complete, 200 pages to go; 68.15% read.

    Contextual Notes:

    Lucy Brazier’s website https://portergirl.com/

    Finnegans What?: Finnegans Wake - A guide by an idiothttps://www.amazon.ca/Finnegans-What-Wake-guide-idiot/dp/1092156100/

    Ulysses! Sex, Soap & a Lucky Potato: (It’s Ulysses. But For Normal People)https://www.amazon.ca/Ulysses-Sex-Soap-Lucky-Potato/dp/B096LWKB43

    Lucy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/brazierlucy/

    Lucy on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/@lucybrazierauthor/

    Lucy on Twitter https://twitter.com/@portergirl100/

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • We find ourselves at the end of Book Two, and you know what that means: another ever-popular recap episode! Using the mind-bending brilliance of the László Moholy-Nagy Finnegans Wake Diagram as a jumping-off point, Toby and TJ try to rank the chapters of Book 2, nostalgically reconsider Night Lessons, and compare the text to a disparate collection of cultural touchstones. Topics may include, to varying levels of detail: JJ Abrams, Luigi Pirandello, Riverdale, The Master and Margarita, the Berliner Ensemble, Punchdrunk's Sleep No More, Passing Strange, ChatGPT, andThe Sound and the Fury. Join us in the temporary high that is generated when two readers assume that hubris isn't really a thing, and that surely they're well past the hardest part now...

    (Apologies for the sound quality on Toby's mic, it's an ongoing problem that will be fixed)

    This week's chatters: Toby Malone, TJ Young

    Progress: 399 pages complete, 229 pages to go; 63.54% read.

    Contextual Notes:

    Toby on the New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/38306/toby-malone

    TJ on the New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/9739/tj-young

    László Moholy-Nagy's visual representation of Finnegans Wake

    https://signalvnoise.com/posts/633-lszl-moholy-nagys-visual-representation-of-finnegans-wake

    real_finnegans_wake on the chart https://www.instagram.com/p/CRkpUlXs5YT/

    real_finnegans_wake on the graph https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci4aO_8sh0f/

    S. by Doug Dorst and JJ Abrams https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/j-j-abrams/s/9780316201643/?lens=mulholland-books

    Sleep No More: https://mckittrickhotel.com/events/sleep-no-more/

    Passing Strange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V7jjjshvBE

    Shakespeare’s Sonnets, at the Berliner Ensemble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnCvotmFtYM

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • This week we break things down to the quark level to bring you mythical love stories (featuring a king named Mark), ghost-written historical romances, interminable sentences, and Joycean numerology. Jackie Mahoney joins the team and expertly weaves their way through questions of whether chapter 2.4 is about Tristan and Isolde, or if it's more about about the four perverts leering at them from the dock, and we finish up with a rousing consideration of Joyce as Beyoncé, the author as God, squelchy onomatopoeia, and, inevitably, the music of Evanescence.

    Trigger warning: descriptions of bodily noises.

    (Apologies for the sound quality on Toby's mic, it's an ongoing problem that will be fixed)

    This week's readers: Jackie Mahoney, TJ Young, Toby Malone

    Progress: 399 pages complete, 229 pages to go; 63.54% read.

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • Hray! This week TJ's fiancé Taylor Hoover joins us to close down the bar, avoid the insults, and drink up all the dregs left over! Find out just what disqualifies one from becoming a limousine lady, the logistics behind transcribing crowd noise, and the relationship between Joyce, Charles Marowitz, and Tron: Legacy. Don't hide, seek this week's episode of WAKE!

    (Apologies for the sound quality on Toby's mic, it's an ongoing problem that will be fixed)

    This week's readers: Taylor Hoover, Toby Malone, TJ Young

    Progress: 382 pages complete, 246 pages to go; 60.83% read.

    Contextual Notes

    Tron Legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron:_Legacy

    In the Buginning is the Woid: Bartholomew Ryan and the Loafing Heroes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlVcmM2DUJ0

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • Richard Harte is one of the world's preeminent interpreters of Joyce: a 25 year veteran of Bloomsday performances, and the undisputed star of One Little Goat Theatre Company's parallel (not competing) Finnegans Wake podcast, currently under development as a film and exhaustive live chronicle of the Earwicker clan. When Toby joined the audience to watch his old friend Richard perform 1.5 of the Wake at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library last week, he knew we had to get Richard on to talk about the Wake: and talk he did! In this joyful bonus episode, hear all about how many times Richard has read the Wake (the answer may surprise you!), the spiritual feeling of walking the Dublin locations of the book, the logistics of preparing the live readings, and plans for the future. It's a crossover episode, and we couldn't be happier to have Richard along with us.

    This week's personnel: Richard Harte, TJ Young, Toby Malone

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • WAKE buys you a third round and settles in for yet another Tale at the Inn, where we prominently feature multiple guns, KC Jowls and the little-known horror film Coach with the Six Insides. We bid welcome to another of Toby's former students, Ryan Benson Smith, for a lively discussion that includes a Wake-Ramones mashup, the Bluey theme song, and how media romanticises the Irish. Along the way, we enjoy a sparkling reading with the growing knowledge that everyone we're reading about is going to have a terrible headache tomorrow.

    This week's readers: Ryan Benson Smith, TJ Young, Toby Malone

    Progress: 370 pages complete, 258 pages to go; 58.92% read.

    Contextual Notes

    Tommy Mackay’s Finnegans Dreams: Ramones and Joyce project:

    https://variousartists11.bandcamp.com/track/dont-go-earwicker

    Thunderwords are Go! https://www.dailyreckless.com/2024/09/16/thunderwords/

    Space Pirates of Planet Penzance: https://dgarverick78.wixsite.com/spacepiratespenzance

    NYC Book Hoes Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/book-hoes-podcast/id1728444763

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • As the whiskey and Guinness flow, the Tales at the Inn get all the more outlandish, Taff and Butt get out of hand, and a Russian general cops it. This week in WAKE, we geek out about geeking out with Carly Derderian, consider whether Thornton Wilder cribbed The Skin of Our Teeth from Finnegans Wake, relax our mouths enough to speak like a Newfoundlander and unlock the meaning of the language of the Beatles. And TJ is back!

    This week's readers: Carly Derderian, TJ Young, Toby Malone

    Progress: 354 pages complete, 274 pages to go; 52.87% read.

    Contextual Notes

    Nowe the Lost, streaming on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/nowe_the_lost

    Carly on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlyann_dee/

    Gontarski, S.E. “Wilder’s Joyce: Inspiration, Borrowing, Appropriation, Plagiarism.” ABEI Journal – The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies, v. 25, n. 1, 2023, pp. 29-46.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373008972_Wilder's_Joyce_Inspiration_Borrowing_Appropriation_Plagiarism

    Gibbs, Walcott. Finnegans Teeth, The New Yorker. https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1942-12-26/flipbook/034/

    Campbell, Joseph, and Henry Morton Robinson. "The Skin of Whose Teeth? The Strange Case of Mr. Wilder's New Play and Finnegans Wake". The Saturday Review. December 19, 1942. No link.

    Come Together! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45cYwDMibGo

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • It's a milestone episode of WAKE, as we sail past the halfway point on an auspicious anniversary day for Toby. TJ is out sick this week, so we checked our list of dream interim co-hosts and came up with a winner: Toby's brilliant former dramaturgy student, K'hari Constantine! Toby and K'hari dive into the first part of Tales at the Inn, with the detailed story of the Norwegian Captain, and along the way consider how the Wake sounds in a sheriff's drawl, why it's important to let your tongue taste the words, how the text fits into the greater macrocosm, and, of course, why Joyce just isn't that into you.

    This week's readers: K'hari Constantine, Toby Malone

    Progress: 332 pages complete, 296 pages to go; 52.87% read.

    Contextual Notes

    K’hari on Voices.com: https://www.voices.com/profile/khariconstantine

    K’hari on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khari-constantine-370719238/

    The BookTok girl: https://x.com/ineffablestring/status/1825021537667178588

    TikToker sparks debate after asking why book ‘has so many words on the page’ (The Independent): https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/booktok-books-tiktok-debate-yannareads-b2598776.html

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at https://linktr.ee/wake.pod. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • Welcome to WAKE, where language is king! This week we reach the thrilling conclusion of the Night Lessons episode, and get into a little bit of analysis amidst the chaos that reigns when TJ's internet drops out mid-recording. We discuss Neil's ongoing beef against Cognitive Science and the laws of language, discover the benefits to earning knowledge, and establish all the reasons we should trust Joyce. After three weeks of column-based fun, this is the satisfying conclusion you were looking for, as we spit in the eye of all those purists who said that Night Lessons would be the chapter to break us.

    This week's readers: Neil Wechsler, Toby Malone, TJ Young

    Progress: 308 pages complete, 320 pages to go; 49.04% read.

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • Just like a well-ordered barndance, Toby, TJ, and Neil shuffle one step the right to find new dance partners, with all new takes on the mighty columns of Night Lessons! With footnotes that would make David Foster Wallace blush, Latin, French, and a parenthetical that spans five entire pages, Joyce is really making us work this week. Come sit in the back of the classroom, keep your spitballs to yourself, and try not to carve anything into the desks.

    This week's readers: Neil Wechsler, Toby Malone, TJ Young

    Progress: 292 pages complete, 336 pages to go; 46.5% read.

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • Grab your notebooks and start practicing your filthiest marginalia, it's Night Lessons time! When confronted with the most logistically challenging chapter of the Wake (columns! footnotes! diagrams! marginalia!), Toby and TJ sent out the Neil-Signal, and brought in our favourite purist-in-the-nicest sense, Neil Wechsler, to establish order. In this first part of three episodes reading this complex chapter, Toby, TJ and Neil inhabit the schooldesks of Shem, Shaun, and Issy, and have some fun navigating the minutiae.

    This week's readers: Neil Wechsler, Toby Malone, TJ Young

    Progress: 277 pages complete, 351 pages to go; 44.11% read.

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • The games are afoot on WAKE, but we are fortified and ready to cast our disapproving glances over the debauchery! For the second half of Chapter 2.1, we welcome genuine teenager, Cormac Malone, to start us off, before we churn our way to the door-slammiest of thunderwords yet. We consider whether reading the Wake is just like a Tough Mudder race, and whether HCE is Neo from the Matrix. Toby reveals the Irish town in which he spent New Year's Eve 1999, and we consider what it would take to require demanding a theatre curtain to "drop by deep request."

    As we prepare for Night Lessons, it's all fon and gheims until sumbuddy looses an ay.

    This week's readers: Cormac Malone, Toby Malone, TJ Young

    Progress: 259 pages complete, 369 pages to go; 41.24% read.

    Contextual Notes

    Neo seeing the Matrix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-0RHqDWcJE&t=27s

    Tough Mudder: the same as the Wake: https://toughmudder.com/

    So Long, Farewell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy9_lfjQopU

    Paddy Blue’s, the pub in Gorey Toby went to on New Year’s Eve 1999: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH66Wu1ZGHU

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • Book Two is underway at the Wake, and it's taking the voices spanning three different continents to take us there. This week Toby and TJ are joined by the delightful Brit Lucy Brazier, author of Finnegans What? Finnegans Wake - a Guide by an Idiot to discuss inappropriate sibling games, river poo, Oscar Wilde, underwear fetishes, and Francophobia. Despite her book's subtitle, Lucy is no idiot, but offers insight and humour that demonstrate the value of re-reading, even we are all left in a state of merry confusion.

    This week's readers: Lucy Brazier, Toby Malone, TJ Young

    Progress: 240 pages complete, 388 pages to go; 38.22% read.

    Contextual Notes

    Lucy Brazier’s website https://portergirl.com/

    Finnegans What?: Finnegans Wake - A guide by an idiot https://www.amazon.ca/Finnegans-What-Wake-guide-idiot/dp/1092156100/

    Ulysses! Sex, Soap & a Lucky Potato: (It’s Ulysses. But For Normal People)https://www.amazon.ca/Ulysses-Sex-Soap-Lucky-Potato/dp/B096LWKB43

    Lucy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/brazierlucy/

    Lucy on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/@lucybrazierauthor/

    Lucy on Twitter https://twitter.com/@portergirl100/

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

  • We pause the reading of the Wake this week to look back on Book One: HCE, ALP, Shaun, Shem and Izzy have led us on a wild, rumour-filled ride, and we want to process that before we move on! In a free-wheeling conversation, we consider Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812, theatre riots, The Magus, Beowulf, the prophetic dream lucidity of Buffy Summers, Cain's Jawbone, I Think You Should Leave, and The Midnight Gospel's Dada roots. Come for the typical lack of analytical depth, stay for the soon-to-be-regretted promise that the podcast will culminate not only with tattoos, but with a stage adaptation about TJ's hero, Festy King.

    This week's chatters: Toby Malone, TJ Young

    Progress: 216 pages complete, 412 pages to go; 34.39% read.

    Contextual Notes

    Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hvCd41o7Bs

    The Magus and its variations https://www.goodreads.com/questions/464864-has-anyone-here-read-the-original-version

    Cain’s Jawbone https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/12/26/solving-cains-jawbone-murder-mystery/

    I’m Thinking of Ending Things https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/80211559

    I Think You Should Leave https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/80986854

    The Midnight Gospel https://www.netflix.com/title/80987903

    Playboy Riots https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/sep/23/playboy-western-world-old-vic

    Rite Riots https://www.classicfm.com/composers/stravinsky/news/rite-and-the-riot/

    Ubu Riots https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/09/08/an-inglorious-slop-pail-of-a-play/

    The Lady of Shalott https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_Shalott_(painting)

    Let James Joyce Jazz up your Vocabulary! https://www.amazon.ca/Finnegans-Wake-Lextionary-James-bulary/dp/146358945X

    For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!