Life as a Parabola

While reading the introduction to Finnegans Wake I was struck by the idea of the structure of the story on page xix. Bishop writes, "The book follows the course of a downward-plunging parabola, in this view, descending from the fall into sleep at its beginning into a darkest center and then reascending toward dawn, light, and reawakening as it nears its end...."

I was intrigued by this because of last semesters biblical lit. class with Dr. Sexson. In that class we read a work by Northrope Frye on the Bible as literature, and Frye describes much of the bible, and even life, as following a u-shaped curve, or parabola.

Perhaps Bishop has read Frye's work even as a literary critic, but there is no footnote suggesting such a possibility. If he had read Frye he would see that this is the path many tales take, especially the religious. There is a period of success and happiness that is then lost and we are in the bottom of the curve and then God redeems us and we return to our original place, perhaps even better off. Frye believed that right now in human history we are in the bottom of the curve, waiting to be redeemed.

I was intrigued that Bishop thought of Joyce's work as following this path as well, not just because he mentioned it, but because Joyce often refers to the religious and biblical as well. The parabola that his story follows is one of a descending and rebirth, whether through death or sleeping, the wake itself.

While Finnegans Wake the story itself is cyclical in form, ending where it began, following the theme in class of the myth of the eternal return. Joyce's writing follows the parabola perfectly. This is not just seen in his character that we are witnessing this dreamworld through, but through the very act of sleeping itself that we all experience. According to Joyce's form we all follow this path at least once a day. We descend into that darkness and unknown that is sleep and enter another world, and then we are awaken again to another day. Most often we do not experience the same day over and over again, as in Groundhog's day, but we awaken to a strangely familiar world.

Joyce's writing style is unusual in that he creates and draws from many languages making it strange to the human eye and ear, but then the language of sleep is strange and yet familiar all at once. It is the structure that is recognizable in this dreamland though, something that we all can identify with. That all to familiar descent into sleep and another world, and the awaking to one we are more familiar with. The story itself many be cyclical, but the path it follows is u-shaped.