Episode 3: Read Finnegans Wake in 200 Sessions podcast
You can find the podcast called "Wellington, Waterloo, and the Museyroom" explaining Pages 8.09-10.23 (annotations on Chapter 1 above) of Finnegans Wake on Youtube
The provided texts offer a multifaceted examination of the "Museyroom" episode in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, specifically pages 8.09-10.23, which portrays a symbolic battle. Jonathan McCreedy's "The Constructive Campaign of the 'Museyroom' Battle Diagram" focuses on an unincluded battle diagram, arguing for its importance as an interpretive tool for understanding the fluid identities of characters and locations within the narrative. This diagram, created after Joyce's visit to Waterloo, served as a "working diagram" that dictated the plot's structure, even though it was ultimately omitted from the published work. John Pedro Schwartz's "Monument and Museum Discourse in Finnegans Wake" broadens the discussion by contextualising the "Museyroom" and the Wellington Monument within wider Irish nationalist and British imperialist discourses of history and memory. Schwartz highlights how these monuments and museums were used to construct and dispute historical narratives, often with political aims, and suggests that Joyce parodies these efforts to "ventriloquize" the past. Supporting these analyses, the annotated excerpts from Finnegans Wake, "Danis Rose Chapter 1," "Finnegans Wake Chapter 1," "Fweet Chapter 1," and "John Gordon Chapter 1" provide detailed textual references, definitions, and contextual notes, illuminating the complex allusions and linguistic play present in Joyce's writing. These annotations demonstrate the intricate layering of historical events, literary references, and linguistic puns that define the "Museyroom" episode, showing how characters like Willingdone (HCE) and the Lipoleums (Shem, Shaun, and Shem-Shaun) embody these broader themes.
