James Joyce-Finnegans Wake: A Symposium

Don't judge a book by it's cover, as this text: "James Joyce - Finnegans Wake: A Symposium" is no other than the famous collection of critical essays about 'Work in Progress' with the eccentric title of 'Our Exagmination round his Factification for Incamination of 'Work in Progress,' written two years before James Joyce's last novel 'Finnegans Wake' was published in 1939. Excerpts had been published and some people had seen parts of it in MS, but Joyce was still withholding the final title for 'Work in Progress.' The lead essay, by Samuel Beckett, bore the equally eccentric, if quieter, title of 'Dante ... Bruno. Vico .. Joyce.' Each dot in the Beckett essay's title represents a century of real time: Dante in the 14th century, Bruno in the 17th, Vico in the 18th, and Joyce in the 20th. Of course, Beckett didn't explain all this: he left it up to us to figure out (much like Joyce himself): what Joyce called 'the ideal reader with ideal insomnia.' The period after 'Bruno' is really just a single dot, but the publisher couldn't be expect to know that. Joyce himself contributed an essay (at least we think so) under the name of Vladimir Dixon, entitled 'A Litter to Mr. James Joyce' where he refers to him(self) as 'my dear Mr. Germ's Choice' and 'Shame's Voice.' He was assuming the role of his own first hostile critic. This text should be a required read for all Wake Readers.