A Joycean Sighting

So waiting for class to begin on Friday last week Bizz and I were discussing Finnegans Wake before an exam. We were wondering how people in class were finding themselves within the maze of Joyce’s masterpiece. I have been reading Finnegans Wake but it has not been a speedy process and thought I would never find myself before the end if the semester.

In turn while sitting in Reid I just began to open to random pages and looking for references to myself or anything that related to me. Within the first ten minutes I found myself on page 221, and it even wasn’t just a reference but even my full first name. Joyce even spelled it right, but then again he would because the reference for him would most likely be Rachel in the Bible.

The section goes as follows:

“KATE (Miss Rachel Lea Varian, she tells forkings for baschfellors, under purdah of card palmer teaput tosspot Madam d’Elta, during the pawses), kook-and-dishdrudge, whitch believes wanthingthats, whouse be the churchyard or whorts up the aasgaars, the show must go on.”

I have not read this far into Finnegans Wake and do not understand the context completely, but I will make it there at some point! I did understand, perhaps, from the section though that Miss Rachel is a fortuneteller. She tells fortunes (“tells forkings“), using tarot cards, reading palms and tea leaves (“purdah of card palmer teaput“). Besides the fact that my name is explicitly used, it is strange because when I was in middle school I was interested in such things. I used to make my friends at sleepovers do séances, I kind of freaked them out most times with the Ouija board though so we didn't accomplish much!

Once again as stated in class we are all in Finnegans Wake as long as we are paying attention!