Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: Joseph Campbell on the Art of James Joyce (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)
Knowledge = Power
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The Purgatorio of Fennegan's Wake
Purgatori is a kind of graduate school, into which go souls who have learned the lessons of life well but are not well enough to graduate into heaven. Joyce has made a complete analogy between the motifs of Purgatori and reincarnation. What is being reincarnated is not only the individual but also the universe. That's the motif of the circle that the Buddha holds up when he assumes the teaching posture,. How do you get out? Fennegan's wake is written in a circle with a break. There is an out. It is exactly the Purgatori, exactly the reincarnation. But if one avoids the cycle of rebirth, one goes out into the void -
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