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A "Finnegans Wake" Lextionary: Let James Joyce Jazz Up Your Voca(l)bulary by Bill Cole Cliett

2017; University of Tulsa; Volume: 55; Issue: 1-2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/jjq.2017.0040

1938-6036

Tim Conley,

Modernist Literature and Criticism

Reviewed by: A "Finnegans Wake" Lextionary: Let James Joyce Jazz Up Your Voca(l)bulary by Bill Cole Cliett Tim Conley (bio) A "FINNEGANS WAKE" LEXTIONARY: LET JAMES JOYCE JAZZ UP YOUR VOCA(L)BULARY, by Bill Cole Cliett. Charleston, South Carolina: Bill Cole Cliett, 2011. 326 pp. $14.99. In a wonderful story by Tommaso Landolfi, a poet intent on composing in a language not his own, and one that he knows only imperfectly, is taught Persian by a much-traveled sea captain.1 After his teacher has left him and he turns to attempt to read a Persian poet in the original, however, he discovers that the language that he has so carefully lear ned is not only not Persian, but it appears to be no recognizable language at all. "'The saddest thing,' he continued in a broken voice, 'is that this damned language I cannot name is beautiful, beautiful … and I love it very much'" (252). The Finnegans Wake enthusiast can readily sympathize. But if that enthusiast could miraculously receive legitimation and an explanation of that language, which made it comprehensible and even functional (enough so as to order a pizza, say), would it then, I wonder, because no longer damned and nameless, still be so sadly beautiful? "Finnegans Wake has scarcely a sentence without one or more words that defy a dictionary to define them," writes Bill Cole Cliett, who adds: "Until now, that is" (27). For now, Cliett has compiled A "Finnegans Wake" Lextionary, a makeshift and highly selective kind of dictionary whose modus operandi is to underscore words by dissecting Joyce's puns, supplemented by vaguely related puns that Cliett very clearly enjoys collecting. The "definitions" given for individual words might be called whimsical or cute, though a little goes quite a long way.2 The word "annuysed" (FW 342.28) is defined as "[e]ntertained or amused in a way that also makes one troubled or annoyed" [End Page 221] (44), but it might be telling that the French ennui and ennuyer are overlooked. As that example might suggest, Cliett's entry choices appear to be based on a preference for portmanteaux made of English-language root words, and his infrequent notice of other languages is almost entirely limited to reiterations of those suggestions noted by Roland McHugh's Annotations (the second rather than the third edition).3 The unambiguous entries dare to identify parts of speech, not by any means an ambiguous task ("annuysed" is listed as a verb, though the usage in the phrase "he is proformly annuysed" would seem to suggest an adjective), but do not presume to give pronunciation standards or suggestions (FW 342.28). A number of Cliett's "definitions" produce some confusion of their own: the definition of "respunchable" (FW 29.35), for example, might benefit from judiciously added commas: "Deserving credit or blame or responsible for a blow with the fist or a punch" (243). While some of Cliett's definitions include examples of possible usage, many revert to admiration of the Wake (so complex, so fun), with the potential cumulative effect of turning any reader right off Joyce's book altogether. Many more indulge in contemporary, popular, and American cultural references, including recent United States presidents, Rush Limbaugh, Marilyn Monroe, Warren Beatty, Hulk Hogan, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Jonas Brothers, and Rocky IV. In the entry for "amoosed" (FW 158.03), Cliett's definition includes references to Bullwinkle, "[a] recent YouTube video" of "two baby moose playing in a lawn sprinkler," Queen Victoria, Monty Python, and finally Sarah Palin (41). For the truly weird, there is this observation inspired by the Wake sentence beginning "I need not anthrapologise for any obintentional" (FW 151.07-08): "If Himmler had been able to write in Wakese, one could almost imagine him dictating this sentence to Joyce as he wrote Finnegans Wake" (46). O-o-o-kay, perhaps the stress in that sentence ought to fall (heavily) on "almost"—but there is more: [The sentence] seems to be saying that [Himmler] need not apologize beforehand (Latin ob for "before") for intentionally misusing anthropological studies to trod down (read Holocaust or "the haul it...