The Finnegans Wake Reading Group of Austin, TX

What:
The Finnegans Wake Reading Group of Austin meets twice every month to read aloud from, dissect, and discuss one of the richest, funniest, most baffling, bewildering and beautiful books ever written, Finnegans Wake by James Joyce.

When/Where:

1st Tuesday of each month at the Wheatsville Co-op in South Austin (location changes occasionally, contact me for details)

3rd Thursday of each month at Malvern Books on 29th Street

***UPDATE: We are no longer doing in-person meetings. Since the Covid era, we now meet twice a month on Zoom. Contact me for more info here: peterquadrino[@]gmail.com 

Who:
This gathering is completely FREE and open to the public. No prior knowledge of Joyce or Finnegans Wake is required. All you need to bring is a sense of humor, curiosity, and an openness to reading aloud in front of strangers.

How:
We read two pages per meeting, the process consisting of each participant reading two lines at a time going in a circle until we've gotten through the two pages. Then we dig into the text trying to decipher the many meanings and layers involved (usually with some help from annotations and guides), often branching off into discussing a variety of subjects like history, philosophy, pop culture, mythology, biology, etc until we've covered most of the content in those two pages. We usually close by having a couple participants do a final reading of the two pages in full. As regular attendee Terry perfectly put it, we take it apart and put it back together again. Much like Humpty Dumpty whose story is a key theme in the book.

While the Wake is notoriously difficult to read because of its multi-layered and multi-lingual dream language, its unique poetics come alive when read out loud, allowing its aural puns and wordplay to be experienced. It also rewards the group setting as multiple minds dredge up their own interpretations thus giving a better glimpse into the sleeping mind of main character HCE or Here Comes Everybody, consisting of "myriads of drifting minds in one." (FW p. 159)

For further info, feel free to contact me at this e-mail address:

peterquadrino [at] gmail.com

(substitute @ for [at], you know the drill)