March 6th, 2010 / 10:25 pm
Snippets
Snippets
Ken Baumann—
‘Thirty years’ editorial labours produce ‘more comprehensible’ Finnegans Wake’
a) What the hell.
b) Doing it wrong.
finnegan’s wank
finnegan’s wank
The original reads: “riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.” Rose and O’Hanlon’s version fiddles slightly with spelling and punctuation, to open the novel with: “riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodious vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle & Environs.”
…&?
is the next sentence: “LOLWUT. ;)”?
The original reads: “riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.” Rose and O’Hanlon’s version fiddles slightly with spelling and punctuation, to open the novel with: “riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodious vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle & Environs.”
…&?
is the next sentence: “LOLWUT. ;)”?
This is along the lines of re-cutting Kubrick’s 2001 because you wanted to make a name for yourself and sell a really expensive version.
ONLY WORSE.
I’ll wait until the library stocks it and then sit around with it.
250 English Pounds! Holy shit Did Joyce make enough money off that book to buy it now?
This is along the lines of re-cutting Kubrick’s 2001 because you wanted to make a name for yourself and sell a really expensive version.
ONLY WORSE.
I’ll wait until the library stocks it and then sit around with it.
250 English Pounds! Holy shit Did Joyce make enough money off that book to buy it now?
The article is a bit unclear but I think you guys are missing the point.
This is a scholarly edition aimed at bringing the printed text closer to Joyce’s intentions on the basis of manuscript evidence. They’re not changing things around just to make it easier to read. They do say they’ve made it easier to read, but that’s because they’ve gotten rid of a lot of old typos.
The article is a bit unclear but I think you guys are missing the point.
This is a scholarly edition aimed at bringing the printed text closer to Joyce’s intentions on the basis of manuscript evidence. They’re not changing things around just to make it easier to read. They do say they’ve made it easier to read, but that’s because they’ve gotten rid of a lot of old typos.
waste of time
waste of time
oh no, ampersands, his vision is ruined
oh no, ampersands, his vision is ruined
to be fair, when he was writing the thing, it was.
to be fair, when he was writing the thing, it was.
Maybe they’ll rewrite Infinite Jest so there aren’t any of those pesky footnotes.
Maybe they’ll rewrite Infinite Jest so there aren’t any of those pesky footnotes.
[…] HTMLGIANT / riverrun what's the difference […]
i think this may be a hoax. look at the publisher’s website: http://www.houyhnhnmpress.com/
i think this may be a hoax. look at the publisher’s website: http://www.houyhnhnmpress.com/
MISSING THE POINT
MISSING THE POINT
I don’t think it’s a hoax, Ben, just a strippedbare website. Check out co-editor Danis Rose in the NYRB throwing down about variant edits of Ulysses- http://www.nybooks.com/articles/965
Ken, I’m kind of with Alan on this one. Curious to hear what your concerns are, though.
Also- my Marvin K Mooney arrived yesterday. Looks like fun on wheels.
I don’t think it’s a hoax, Ben, just a strippedbare website. Check out co-editor Danis Rose in the NYRB throwing down about variant edits of Ulysses- http://www.nybooks.com/articles/965
Ken, I’m kind of with Alan on this one. Curious to hear what your concerns are, though.
Also- my Marvin K Mooney arrived yesterday. Looks like fun on wheels.
JOKING
JOKING
IJ could seriously benefit from a juste-milleu edit like these guys set out to do with FW.
hell, that thing would even work better with a new title: Post-America.
IJ could seriously benefit from a juste-milleu edit like these guys set out to do with FW.
hell, that thing would even work better with a new title: Post-America.
Hey Alan/Justin: Oops. Sort of misread the article myself. I blame some other.
Still: odd. Joyce worked on it for 17 (?) years; did he really turn in his ideal version? Very curious now.
Hey Alan/Justin: Oops. Sort of misread the article myself. I blame some other.
Still: odd. Joyce worked on it for 17 (?) years; did he really turn in his ideal version? Very curious now.
Thanks. Hope you enjoy Mooney. He’s way back in the room, behind the smoke.
Thanks. Hope you enjoy Mooney. He’s way back in the room, behind the smoke.
Hey Ken
You could look into it further but I’ll point out that before authors cd just turn in an electronic file, printing involved a mechanical process of typesetting where a third party had to try to reproduce the text based on a typed or handwritten manuscript. So errors could occur, and given the fact that the text in question is written in like thirty-seven different languages, most of them made-up, it’s a little surprising there weren’t a lot more than the 9000 typos they say they’ve discovered. There’s also the aspect of Joyce’s sight failing during the work’s composition and how that enhanced the messiness of the manuscript (some of it dictated to other hands, including Beckett’s) and precluded authorial proofreading. This is just sort of off the top of my head but I’m sure the textual history of FW is very gory and interesting. We should be mad that it’s taken so long to produce a (hopefully) definitive edition, and that even now it’s priced beyond the means of most individual readers.
Btw, I received MKM last week and am looking forward to checking it out. Thanks for the unexpectedly speedy shipping!
Hey Ken
You could look into it further but I’ll point out that before authors cd just turn in an electronic file, printing involved a mechanical process of typesetting where a third party had to try to reproduce the text based on a typed or handwritten manuscript. So errors could occur, and given the fact that the text in question is written in like thirty-seven different languages, most of them made-up, it’s a little surprising there weren’t a lot more than the 9000 typos they say they’ve discovered. There’s also the aspect of Joyce’s sight failing during the work’s composition and how that enhanced the messiness of the manuscript (some of it dictated to other hands, including Beckett’s) and precluded authorial proofreading. This is just sort of off the top of my head but I’m sure the textual history of FW is very gory and interesting. We should be mad that it’s taken so long to produce a (hopefully) definitive edition, and that even now it’s priced beyond the means of most individual readers.
Btw, I received MKM last week and am looking forward to checking it out. Thanks for the unexpectedly speedy shipping!
Finnegans Wake. A great book. But just imagine how much better it would have been if spell-check had been invented back then.
Finnegans Wake. A great book. But just imagine how much better it would have been if spell-check had been invented back then.