Gemini.Finnegans.Wake.22
Axe on thwacks on thracks, axenwise. One by one place one be three dittoh and one before. Two nursus one make a plausible free and idim behind. Starting off with a big boaboa and three legged calvers and ivargraine jadesses with a message in their mouths. And a hundreadfilled unleavenweight of liberorumqueue to con an we can till all horrors eve. What a meanderthalltale to unfurl and with what an end in view of seuattor and anntisquattor and postproneauntisquattor! To say too us to be every tim, nick and larry of us, sons of the sod, sons, littlesons, yea and lealittlesons, when usses not to bem every sue, siss and sally of us, dugters of Nan! Accusative ahnsire! Damadam to infinities!
This paragraph describes the monumental task of piecing together history, which is presented as a confusing, primitive, and cyclical story. It’s like trying to solve a riddle.
A Story from Fragments
The process of constructing this story is like building something from scraps. It happens step-by-step (Axe on thwacks on thracks) and the pieces don’t seem to add up logically, like a confusing arithmetic problem: One by one place one be three dittoh and one before.
The story itself is a meanderthalltale—a wandering, primitive, Neanderthal tale. It’s not a polished narrative but an ancient story that has to be dug up and reassembled. Its characters are primal: a big boaboa (a great ancestor) and three legged calvers (the three unstable children).
The Cycle of Conflict
The plot of this ancient story is an endless cycle of conflict and replacement. Joyce describes it with a comical, academic flair as a sequence of:
- a
seuattor(squatter) - an
anntisquattor(anti-squatter) - and a
postproneauntisquattor(a “after-before-n-anti-squatter”)
This is the endless, absurd cycle of settlement, invasion, and re-conquest that defines human history.
The Accused Ancestor
The paragraph concludes by stating that this long, male-dominated story (sons of the sod) has a central focus: an accusation against the original ancestor.
Accusative ahnsire! Damadam to infinities!
The ancestor (ahnsire) is in the accusative case—he is the one being acted upon, the one being accused. The paragraph ends with a powerful curse on this fallen father figure, a version of the biblical Adam. He is damned (Damadam) to an infinite cycle of sin and consequence. The entire messy story of history spirals out from this single, endlessly recurring event.
21/08/2025, P.19.30, to be continued.