"What is the code? What does this say in plain English? This ‘selfwrung, selfstrung, sheathe- and shelterless?’ – what is this shit?”

You should spend some time with english majors.

Finnegans Wake is sort of the literary equivalent of The Art Of Computer Programming, widely admired, seldom read, rarely understood.

I devoured AoCP in three months, Finnegans Wake took a year and a half. I have a compulsive need to finish reading what I start and it just sucked the life out of me. Ulysses is a masterpiece, but I wouldn't recommend Wake to anyone. There are still some gems but most of it is simply painful to read.

-- Lines from Wake that actually make sense:

It was folded by cunning, sealed by crime, uptied by a harlot, undone by a child. It was life but was it fair? It was free but was it art?

Sleep, where in the waste is the wisdom?

Shake eternity and lick creation.

Erning his breadth to the swelt of his proud.

Oh I know. I just thought it was hilarious to see Finnegans Wake being described as so impenetrable that even cryptologists at the NSA couldn't crack it.

<A HREF="http://www.gerardmanleyhopkins.org/lectures_2001/imagery.htm... sucks</A>, though you can have as much rope as you need.