Gemini.Finnegans.Wake.23
True there was in nillohs dieybos as yet no lumpend papeer in the waste and mightmountain Penn still groaned for the micies to let flee. All was of ancientry. You gave me a boot (signs on it!) and I ate the wind. I quizzed you a quid (with for what?) and you went to the quod. But the world, mind, is was and will be writing its own wrunes for ever, man, on all matters that fall under the ban of our infrarational senses fore the last milchcamel, the heartvein throbbing between his eyebrowns, has still to moor before the tomb of his cousin charmian where his date is tethered by the palm that’s hers. But the horn, the drinking, the day of dread are not now. A bone, a pebble, a ramskin; chip them, chap them, cut them up allways; leave them to terracook in the muttheringpot: and Gutenmorg with his cromagnom charter, tintingfast and great primer must once for omniboss step rubrickredd out of the wordpress else is there no virtue more in alcohoran. For that (the rapt one warns) is what papyr is meed of, made of, hides and hints and misses in prints. Till ye finally (though not yet endlike) meet with the acquaintance of Mister Typus, Mistress Tope and all the little typtopies. Fillstup. So you need hardly spell me how every word will be bound over to carry three score and ten toptypsical reading throughout the book of Doublends Jined (may his forhead be darkened with mud who would sunder!) till Daleth, mahomahouma, who oped it closeth thereof the. Dor.
On this Friday night, the book turns its attention to the very act of writing and printing, giving us a “user manual” for how to read the complex text we’re exploring.
Before the Written Word
The paragraph begins by describing a primitive, pre-literate time, the nillohs dieybos (the days of nothing), when there was no lumpend papeer. In this ancient world, interactions were direct, physical, and brutal: a gift was a boot (signs on it!), a request for money (quid) could land you in jail (quod).
The Dawn of Print
But this primitive world is destined to change. The book presents a magnificent image for the invention of the printing press:
…and Gutenmorg with his cromagnom charter… must once for omniboss step rubrickredd out of the wordpress…
Gutenmorg—a combination of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press, and Guten Morgen, German for “Good Morning”—represents the dawn of a new age. He steps rubrickredd (in the red ink of old manuscripts) out of the wordpress (the world of words) to reveal his world-changing invention.
The Nature of the Printed Word
This invention, however, is a mixed blessing. The printed page (papyr) is the stuff of poetry (meed), but it is also inherently slippery and unreliable. It hides and hints and misses in prints.
Print creates its own family: Mister Typus, Mistress Tope and all the little typtopies (Mr. and Mrs. Type, and all their little typos and stereotypes).
The Mandate for a New Reading
The ultimate consequence of printing is a world of infinite interpretation. This is Joyce’s direct instruction to the reader:
…every word will be bound over to carry three score and ten toptypsical readings throughout the book of Doublends Jined…
He tells us that in his book, which he calls the book of Doublends Jined (a pun on “Dublin’s Giant” and “Doublins Joined”), every single word is intended to have 70 different meanings. He even includes a curse—(may his forhead be darkened with mud who would sunder!)—against any critic who would try to separate these joined meanings or simplify the text.
The process of writing and reading will continue until the final Dor (Door) is closed at the end of time.
22/08/2025, P.20.18, to be continued.