It turns out that James Joyce had various bits and pieces of his writing tucked away and thus unpublished. That oversight has now been corrected, in a limited edition titled Finn's Hotel. If you know Finnegan's Wake forward and backward, you'll recognize many of the characters. Like an artist paints studies that will be incorporated in a large work, so too did Mr. Joyce write studies. Or is that not the correct way to view the pieces?
The debate now rages over whether or not the studies are studies that led to a novel or if the writings are suitable for free-standing inclusion in the Joyce catalogue.
Official Joyce scholar Terence Killeen is in a small huff over the publication because the pieces are not some "narrative tableau" as the publisher claims, but are early drafts that the author used to create the final product. There was never an intention to publish the bits, any more than an author would seek to publish all the parts of a novel that get edited out.
As you wander through the world of Leopold Bloom, feel free to support Mr. Killeen's position or counter with that of the publisher, who notes that the short pieces he likes to call "epiclets" (a la Joyce) wrote the things long before the author ever thought about Finnegan's Wake.
Keep in mind, however, that the publisher is offering ten deluxe copies of Finn's Hotel for 2500 euro, and only 140 at the more affordable 350 euro. The publisher contends that Mr. Joyce wasn't thinking of Finnegan's Wake when he penned what sound like character studies, hence the justification to publish. It would seem that the publisher is fashioning a rather lame excuse to turn a profit.You might have a difficult time of rebutting the fact that writers scribble notes and ponder a certain plot twist in their heads for years, and Mr. Joyce might very well have been conceptualizing a novel before he knew he had a novel in him.
What the collection of vignettes or epiclets or whatever will demonstrate to those who want to learn how to write creatively is the process that one very notable author used. Take Finn's Hotel and compare it to Finnegan's Wake, and then discuss among yourselves the parts that worked for Mr. Joyce and the parts that did not.
It will make the time pass more quickly, especially when you've done it before and seen it before. At last, something new to debate after you've downed your order of fried kidneys and need to focus on something besides the tang of urine in your mouth.
2 comments:
The same complaint was made regarding the publisher when Cats of Copenhagen was published. Of course the ignorant might ignore the costs of hiring a letterpress printer to hand-set and hand-print each page, a paper marbler to hand marble each page, a book-binder to hand sew each page into a volume. Not to mention the time editors took putting the book together and the costs of the illustrations. The ignorant might balk at paying this artisans for such a volume. Of course the ignorant also had not a peep to say when Cats of Copenhagen was released as a mass market edition by a publisher for $16. As one who collects and works with fine editions of books and prints, and supports artists who create such volumes, let's hope you do not fall into that ignorant category.
And the publisher is doing all this out of the kindness of its corporate heart. Might even be taking a loss on the project, intent on producing a work of art.
The naive don't understand that publishing is a business and businesses exist to turn a profit.
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