It's the most watery episode of WAKE so far, as we cruise past the 1/3 complete mark and tackle the legendary 1.8: "Anna Livia." Toby takes hubris to a whole new level by attempting to read the entire chapter, cold, without breaks, or assistance, as TJ furiously circles all of the river-name puns. We discuss remarkably knowledgeable washerwomen, the fine line between gossip and mythology, how Joyce would react to ChatGPT, and get to hear the voice of the man himself.
Water you waiting for? Dive in!
This week's readers: Toby Malone
Progress: 216 pages complete, 412 pages to go; 34.39% read.
Contextual Notes:
Chapter 1 Draft of 1.8: https://www.reddit.com/r/jamesjoyce/comments/14qzjvy/the_first_draft_of_the_anna_livia_plurabelle/
Edna O'Brien: how James Joyce’s Anna Livia Plurabelle shook the literary world: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/27/edna-obrien-how-james-joyces-anna-livia-plurabelle-shook-the-literary-world
Anna Livia on Peter Chrisp’s Joyce blog From Swerve of Shore to Bend of Bay: https://peterchrisp.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-rivers-of-anna-livia-plurabelle.html
The 1117 rivers listed in Raphael Slepon's Finnegans Wake Extensible Elucidation Treasury: http://www.fweet.org/cgi-bin/fw_grep.cgi?i=1&o=1&c=1&a=1&b=1&s=_C,Rivers_
FinWake.com’s illuminated 1.8 with river images: https://www.finwake.com/ch08/ch08.htm
Joyce reading the chapter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCFzBRMMBCw&t=79s
More on the recording: https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/online/ulysses/recording-anna-livia-plurabelle
Not mentioned in the episode but still interesting…
Fionn O Marcaigh’s All About Anna Livia: https://storiesfromthewaterside.ie/stories/all-about-anna-livia/
Anna Livia Plurabelle-inspired tattoo: https://www.facebook.com/fantinitattoo/posts/is-there-any-fans-of-james-joyce-herethis-tattoo-is-my-interpretation-of-anna-li/2668790800036198/
Anna Livia Plurabella (sic) was an actress in porn films in the 1970s… https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2193280/?ref_=tt_cl_t_2
“We need an ALP statue. Make it a lady, but also make it a river.” The sculpture Anna Livia by Éamonn O'Doherty, in Croppies Memorial Park, Dublin, Ireland, known as the ‘Floozie in the Jacuzzi’ and the ‘Hoor in the Sewer’: originally it was a water feature with waterfalls in the main street of Dublin, but people vandalized it and dumped washing liquid into the water feature, flooding the streets with soap: http://www.olddublintown.com/anna-livia-sculpture.html
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