Reading Group 171119

Attending were Ron, Marty, Gerry, Christine, and Sky (his first time), at the Kent Library, from 1:00 pm to 4:45 pm. Welcome, Sky!

We read pages 169.01-171.28 -- that is, the beginning of Chapter 7 (Shem the Penman). We first listened to Cyril Cusack's magnificent reading of the chapter. It was half an hour long, so a bit of a slog, but we followed along in the text and everyone was glad we did it.

We tried the ThreefoldReading technique again -- people kept getting confused as to whether we were in the "Overview" or the "Suck It Dry" phase. Eventually, we merged them, as usual.

Sky recommended checking out the Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms, a free, downloadable, and searchable PDF. I was not able to find the exact PDF he described, but I did find one that was free and downloadable, but not searchable.

Sky also asked the group whether we knew that Joyce had written exceptionally filthy love letters to his wife Nora. We said we knew that he did and many were available on YouTube. The one Marty and I watched was read by comedian Dave Foley, of whom we are fans.

Another thing the group learned while reading the Wake was that there really and truly happened to be a Copper Age between the Stone Age and Bronze Age, just as Joyce mentioned. This reminded me that there was also a video on the Holocene Age / Human Era calendar on YouTube? that Marty and I had enjoyed.

I couldn't find Vico's New Science (the source of the Wake's four ages) online, but I did find a book that discusses it: The Philosophy of Giambattista Vico by Benedetto Croce. It's Project Gutenberg, so you know it's fresh, mostly.

RonHaleEvans