Gemini.Finnegans.Wake.49

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‘Tisraely the truth! No isn’t it, roman pathoricks? You were the doubtlejoynted janitor the morning they were delivered and you’ll be a grandfer yet entirely when the ritehand seizes what the lovearm knows. Kevin’s just a doat with his cherub cheek, chalking oghres on walls, and his little lamp and school belt and bag of knicks, playing postman’s knock round the diggings and if the seep were milk you could lieve his olds by his ide but, laus sake, the devil does be in that knirps of a Jerry sometimes, the tarandtan plaidboy, making encostive inkum out of the last of his lavings and writing a blue streak over his bourseday shirt. Helly Jane’s a child of Mary.

This paragraph is a mother’s (ALP’s) report on her children, addressed to the sleeping father (HCE). She contrasts the angelic nature of one son (Shaun) with the devilish creativity of the other (Shem), and prophesies the family’s continuation through their eventual union.

## A Mother’s Report 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

The speaker begins by swearing to the truth of her words (“‘Tisraely the truth!”) and addressing the father figure.

  • She reminds him of his role: “You were the doubtlejoynted janitor the morning they were delivered.” He was the “double-jointed” (flexible) and “doubting” guardian or doorkeeper (janitor) at their birth, like the two-faced Roman god Janus who looks to the past and future.
  • She prophesies his future: “you’ll be a grandfer yet entirely when the ritehand seizes what the lovearm knows.” She foresees that he’ll be a grandfather, and the family cycle will continue, when the “right hand” (the son of action and authority, Shaun) finally grasps what the “left arm/love arm” (the son of intuition and art, Shem) already knows. It’s a prophecy of the union of these two opposites.

## The Good Son: Kevin (Shaun) 😇

First, she describes the “good” son, here named Kevin, the archetype of Shaun the Postman.

  • He’s an angelic darling: He’s “a doat with his cherub cheek,” and so transparently good that “you could lieve his olds by his ide” (believe his stories by his appearance). What you see is what you get.
  • He’s already in character: He plays “postman’s knock,” acting out his future role as the carrier of official messages. Even his doodles (“oghres”) are linked to authority (the ancient Irish alphabet, Ogham).

## The Devilish Son: Jerry (Shem) 😈

She then turns, with exasperation (“laus sake, the devil does be in that knirps of a Jerry”), to the “bad” son, Jerry, the archetype of Shem the Penman.

  • He’s a creator from waste: This is one of the most famous descriptions of the artist in the Wake. Jerry is “making encostive inkum out of the last of his lavings.” He makes his caustic (“encostive”) ink (“inkum”) from leftovers (“lavings”). In the book, this is taken to the extreme: Shem makes ink from his own excrement, creating art from the most rejected and reviled materials.
  • His body is his canvas: He is “writing a blue streak over his bourseday shirt” (his birthday suit, i.e., his own skin). His art is not separate from him; his own life and body are the raw materials and the surface on which he furiously writes.

## The Daughter 👧

The report ends with a brief, almost dismissive mention of the daughter, Issy: “Helly Jane’s a child of Mary.“ This identifies her with a Catholic girls’ society, painting a surface picture of piety that masks her own complex, often divided, personality.

17/09/2025, P27.12 , to be continued.