Saturday 23 January 2016

Chairman's Wake for Lunch


Having heard the hoary of cliche that it's unreadable, I thought I'd buy a copy of James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake and take my chances. Total waste of £1.99 on Amazon - it is indeed unreadable, to me at least. Tried about three pages and gave up - totally unintelligible, the ravings of a lunatic, indecipherable. Anyone want to buy a pristine copy from me (they're all pristine)?


I can't for the life of me see how James Joyce managed to get anyone to publish it. I'm sure it's meant as a joke and he thought some faux intellectual would somehow wax lyrical and manage to call it a superlative, literary masterpiece, as indeed some did, while simultaneously being at a total loss to say exactly what it was about, rather like the pretentious bollocks you hear about conceptual art. Emperor's new clothes syndrome, if you ask me. A book that can be described as; "Anything you want it to be," is nothing at all, and hence vacuous.

A headmistress who sent out a letter to parents saying if their kids forgot their dinner money they'd only get a drink and some bread and butter has had to climb down and issue an apology after parents complained. Can't see why she had to apologise - do these parents who complained think that if they forget their purse or wallet when they leave for work they're going to be given sandwiches for free from Costa-Packet or wherever? Can't parents these days accept some responsibility for their kids? It's not as if the little darlings are going to starve. The attitude, sense of entitlement and self-righteousness of some parents these days makes my blood boil.


3 comments:

GeoffH said...

All a load of cobblers, I say (FW I mean).

A Heron's View said...

Before you send me that book please read page 627 and only then will you understand !

Chairman Bill said...

I'll have to start that task tomorrow - or never...