WAKE: Cold Reading Finnegans Wake

Vince Gilligan called, and WAKE answered! Toby and TJ are back for this special episode of WAKE, in response to the casual name-dropping of Finnegans Wake in the new Apple+ series, Pluribus. We spend some spoiler-filled time (spoiling the ending of both Pluribus AND Finnegans Wake) discussing this definitely-too-deliberate-to-be-accidental reference to Joyce’s final masterpiece, and what it might mean for the show as a whole....

As we bask in the wake of completing the Wake, Toby and TJ welcome renowned author, librarian, academic, and bookfluencer George Koors to discuss how to get into the Wake, as well as what to do after it's done. We discuss the benefits and risks of BookTok, Bookstagram, and BookTube, the egalitarian nature of Joyce ensuring that through complexity all readers are rendered the same, and consider the dangers of placing beloved texts o...

We can't believe it. Can you believe it? We actually finished reading Finnegans Wake. What started out as a podcast to read an "unreadable book" has turned into a journey that has endeared us to a magical community, connected with our family and friends, and reawakened our sense of what art can be. While sometimes it felt like climbing a sheer cliff-face, the toeholds we gained along the way made this a delightfully fulfilling proj...

There's nothing quite like ticking off a bucket list item, and today is the day, where Toby and TJ come to the end of the long reading road to finally finish Finnegans Wake. Before we get there, though, we have superstar guest Neil Wechsler to guide us through his favourite section of the book, along with passionate opinions on Hollywood hypocrisy, problematic shortcuts, and how the unique structure of the Wake is not a joke, nor a...

In the grand tradition of Finnegans Wake, WAKE has looped back around on itself to become a self-generating machine, as we welcome back musical innovator and the most reckless of stramashers, Tommy Mackay, to talk about WAKE: the Album! Yes, this very podcast is honoured to be the inspiration for at least half the tracks on Tommy's new (stra)mash-up album of music, smashing WAKE readings into the music of Taylor Swift, Wham!, Devo,...

Book Four is upon us, and it is with mixed feelings, both excited and sad, that we launch into the final segments of Finnegans Wake. Helping us along the way is fan-favourite WAKE veteran, internationally-acclaimed author, Lucy "old rubberskin" Brazier, who helps us get into a typically ribald discussion of Simlish, Instagram thots, tortoise dreams, terrible superhero names, fan fiction, and a plan for a Biddy the Hen statue in Pho...

If sleep is the panacea of all ills, WAKE has found the very experts who can tell you exactly why that’s the case! On this week’s special bonus episode, Toby and TJ welcome internationally renowned neuroscientists, Professors Adrian Peyrache and Arjun Krishnaswamy, to talk about what’s going on inside our brains while we sleep. In an episode that’s part TED Talk and part HCE Talk, we break down insights into...

Flushed with their firestuffostered friendship, WAKE celebrates St. Patrick’s Day by exploring all of the many ways that Finnegans Wake refers to whiskey: Ireland’s beloved, potent créatúr. Joined by world whiskey historian and former Sweny’s volunteer Fionnán O’Connor, we explode some myths regarding monks, St Patrick, and potatoes, brush off our pub stool wisdom, prepare the worm on our darling little stil...

With stubbornness and defiance, WAKE welcomes the wonderful Igor Belokrinitsky, representative of the Ukrainian Wake in Progress Finnegans Wake reading group! Igor joins Toby and TJ for a wide-ranging conversation about the true meaning of indomitability, where Joyce stands in to tell prescient lessons about colonialism, independence, identity, language and exile, which speak directly to the plight of the brave, besieged Ukrainians...

Ever have trouble remembering things? Phone numbers? Grocery lists? Names of casual acquaintances? If so, get ready to feel very self-conscious, because on this week's WAKE, we meet the indomitable Neal Kosaly-Meyer, a musician who decided, entirely of his own volition, to spend seventeen years memorising and performing the entirety of Finnegans Wake. Seriously. Toby and TJ caught Neal as he prepared to take on the punishing 'Tales...

Peter O’Brien is an artist, a visionary, and a life-long Joycean, with the energy to not only dream up one major Finnegans Wake-centric artistic offshoot, but is busy scheming about how to top it. We first became aware of Peter as a brilliant artist, using “letterism” to artistically annotate the pages of Finnegans Wake. Exhibited around the world and widely published, most would be satisfied with that: but not Pe...

It's an episode to savour, as Toby and TJ look back on the always entertaining Book 3 of the Wake, and all the fun we had along the way. With great guests, amazing community, purist support, and laughs aplenty, Book 3 has been all the fun you'd expect from the segment of the Wake set just before the dawn. With discussions that include global simulacra, along with legendary Wakeists like Bernard Benstock, Simon Loekle, Ben Watson, a...

It's an episode of WAKE to make Grim Grandma Grunt, as Toby and TJ return from a long reading break to finish up Book 3! With three special readers providing their dulcet tones, we discuss whether there is any actual use to academic summaries of the text, see Joyce's perspective on parenting, puzzle over more cricket innuendo than you could ever possibly need, and agree that without the Wake, there's no Star Wars. Join us for the t...

Often, when you show the Wake to an uninitiated reader, the first reaction will be “that’s weird.” Today we embrace the weird and lean into the unconventional, with a delightful, insightful chat with the overseer of the Weirdoverse, Bobby Campbell. For this bonus non-reading episode, we discuss the major role of Robert Anton Wilson in Joyce culture, psychedelics, language creation as class warfare, and ponder the ...

I hope you have your alarm set, because the dreamer is stirring! Toby and TJ welcome old friend Jason Rothery--acclaimed playwright, novelist, and fellow theatre survivor--to to help us read 3.4: 'Dawn.' In typical incisive form, Jason unleashes insight and enthusiasm as James Joyce acquires himself a brand new fan. From considerations of Finnegans Wake comprehension akin to the Suzuki method of music instruction, to the Jabberwock...

What happens when you put an erudite Canadian-Australian in a room with a verbose Australian-Canadian? This week, as TJ suffers through a department meeting at work, Seth Austin of the "hold my beer" W.A.S.T.E Mailing List joins Toby to take on the maelstrom that is HCE's defensiveness masking desperation. With perspectives on Giambattista Vico, father-son power struggles, and Oedipus Rex, we allow ourselves to be surprised by the ...

After months of pondering the motivations of those who choose to take up the mantle of the Wake, and particularly those who get together with like-minded individuals to drink and read and discuss, we finally decided to get to the bottom of the phenomenon. Zoe Patterson is a PhD Candidate at Trinity College Dublin, whose doctoral studies centre on James Joyce reading groups. We talk about the varying usefulness of reading guides (wh...

Numerologists rejoice: WAKE has hit the master number, and to celebrate, our old pal JJ has chosen to drop the subtlety and let his freak flag fly! Leonard Cohen may have said there was a crack in everything, but we don't want to know what people would accuse HCE of doing with it. Join us to discuss the Smashing Pumpkins, one man shows, adaptation theory, Yinzers and their Jawns, hundred year old pornography, and whether or not Tob...

There are few things more synonymous with Ireland as a creamy, rich pint of Guinness. Plenty of time has been spent on James Joyce’s relationship with the black stuff, yet few have really considered just how much of a role Guinness plays in Finnegans Wake. Through dozens of allusions, references, and cunning puns, the pride of St. James’s Gate bears out an outsized presence through the dream-life of HC Earwicker, and fo...