WAKE: Cold Reading Finnegans Wake

Vince Gilligan called, and WAKE answered! Toby and TJ are back for this special episode of WAKE, in response to the casual name-dropping of Finnegans Wake in the new Apple+ series, Pluribus. We spend some spoiler-filled time (spoiling the ending of both Pluribus AND Finnegans Wake) discussing this definitely-too-deliberate-to-be-accidental reference to Joyce’s final masterpiece, and what it might mean for the show as a whole. We’re talking falls, and loops, and morals, and humanity: all the things you’ve come to love about WAKE.
SHOW NOTES:
WAKE on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WAKEpod   
GMWKS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gmwks/id1509334531 
Georgia Malone’s Here Goes Nothing: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/georgia-malones-here-goes-nothing/id1794562157 
Never Die Wondering: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/never-die-wondering-mick-malone-in-his-own-words/id1833715593 
Abraham’s Tetramorfeus:  https://www.facebook.com/abrahamhosebr/posts/tetramorfeus/658179911649980/
Abraham on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/uk/book/show/236604119-liber-t
Abraham's Joyce writings: https://abrahamhosebrlibrarium.wordpress.com/category/%d0%b4%d0%b6%d0%b5%d0%b9%d0%bc%d1%81-%d0%b4%d0%b6%d0%be%d0%b9%d1%81/
Pluribus: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22202452/
The Suspended Sentence: https://thesuspendedsentence.com/2026/01/25/its-plurbin-time-pluribus-and-finnegans-wake/ 
The Wake and Pluribus: https://www.soapcentral.com/shows/all-mankind-becomes-united-pluribus-fans-convinced-show-takes-inspiration-classic-novel-finnegans-wake
Reddit Thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/pluribustv/comments/1oxo1dv/finnegans_wake/ 
Reddit Thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/jamesjoyce/comments/1or08bk/anyone_watch_pluribus/ 
Katarzyna Bazarnik’s JOYCE, LIBERATURE AND WRITING OF THE BOOK (diagram toward the bottom): http://hjs.ff.cuni.cz/archives/v8_2/main/essays.php?essay=bazarnik 
Portergirl Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-portergirl-podcast/id1822951117

As we bask in the wake of completing the Wake, Toby and TJ welcome renowned author, librarian, academic, and bookfluencer George Koors to discuss how to get into the Wake, as well as what to do after it's done. We discuss the benefits and risks of BookTok, Bookstagram, and BookTube, the egalitarian nature of Joyce ensuring that through complexity all readers are rendered the same, and consider the dangers of placing beloved texts on syllabi. We discuss Taylor Swift, Ben Jonson, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, and George hits us with two monumental recommendations that will rattle your brain and strain at your wallet. To top it all, we get the world exclusive scoop on TJ's new play, learn the term "typoglycemia" and consider the weight we can place on art that survives time. We'd like to think WAKE is one of those survivors, as we enter our end-of-series hiatus...
This week's chatters: George Koors, Toby Malone, TJ Young
References
George's website: https://www.georgekoors.com/
George on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gbk7288/ 
Always the Wanderer: https://www.amazon.com/Always-Wanderer-George-Bernard-Koors/dp/1936135159 
George Koors - YouTube
Let's Talk About James Joyce's Finnegans Wake 
James Joyce's Finnegans Wake In Less Than 2 Minutes 
Arno Schmidt Zettels Traum (Bottom’s Dream) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6088384 
https://www.georgekoors.com/
George’s petition to make Zettels Traum accessible! https://www.georgekoors.com/post/help-me-fight-literary-gatekeeping-let-s-make-arno-schmidt-s-zettels-traum-more-accessible 
Carlos Fuentes Terra Nostra https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59415.Terra_Nostra?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=cbUx0TDs2A&rank=1
For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

We can't believe it. Can you believe it? We actually finished reading Finnegans Wake. What started out as a podcast to read an "unreadable book" has turned into a journey that has endeared us to a magical community, connected with our family and friends, and reawakened our sense of what art can be. While sometimes it felt like climbing a sheer cliff-face, the toeholds we gained along the way made this a delightfully fulfilling project. For this final episode, Toby and TJ look back on WAKE and consider how you know when a project is over, embracing confusion, and how much we appreciate the spectators at the end of a marathon. We talk Joyce on film, Pinter, the Beatles, Lord of the Rings, and hypertexts, and pinpoint the exact moment the Harry Potter franchise lost TJ. We take on translation, and gimmicks, and mountaineering, and the question of how-fast-is-too-fast-to-read-the-Wake. Then, as we consider the stadium-sized Rubik's Cube that is the Wake, we are visited by the Patron Saint of WAKE for words of congratulations. It's an unmissable end to what has indeed proven to be a surprisingly listenable podcast.
This week's chatters: Toby Malone, TJ Young
Progress: 628 pages complete, 0 pages to go; 100% read.
Contextual Notes
The Patron Saint of WAKE
Michael Ian Black congratulates WAKE!
Michael Ian Black Substack
Referenced Texts
Fadiman, Clifton. “Don’t Shoot the Book-Reviewer; He’s Doing the Best He Can.” The New Yorker. April 28, 1939.
Norris, David, and Carl Flint.  Introducing Joyce: A Graphic Guide. London: Icon Books, 2013.
McCreedy, Jonathan. (2022). Joyceradamus: Foretelling the Age of Trump in Finnegans Wake. Joyce Studies in Italy: Joyspace: James Joyce and Space, 23 (2021): 159-74.
Rose, David. Cryptogrammic Cryptograms: Fungi in Finnegans Wake.
Collard, David. Multiple Joyce. London: Sagging Meniscus P, 2022.
Glasheen, Adaline. Third census of Finnegans wake : an index of the characters and their roles.
Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1977.
Benstock, Bernard. Joyce-Again’s Wake.
Turnbull, Caldwell. No Gods, No Monsters.
Wake in the World
Finnegan Wake!
Mirko Buffini’s HCE Collection
Hoyne Brewing: Finnegans Irish Stout
Translating the Wake
Reading James Joyce's Finnegans Wake in Korean by Sang Hyun Lee 187
Dai, Congrong. "A Chinese Translation of Finnegans Wake: The Work in Progress." James Joyce Quarterly, vol. 47 no. 4, 2010, p. 579-588. Project MUSE
Nothing’s Impossible: Finnegans Wake Translated into Chinese.
Eishiro, Ito. Two Japanese Translations of Finnegans Wake Compared: Yanase (1991-1993) and Miyata (2004)
Kenji Hayakawa.
Francois-Victor Hugo’s Shakespeare:
Joyce on Film
Roger Ebert on Bute’s Wake film
Bute’s Film
Strick’s Ulysses
The Film
Resources
FinWake.com
FWEET
Peter Quadrino’s Blog
Chicken’s Guide
Buffalo James Joyce Collection
Richard Harte
Peter O’Brien
Reading Groups:
https://finneganswake.org/ReadingGroups.shtml 
Podcasts
Frank Delaney’s Re-Joyce:
Joseph Strick’s Ulysses on Three Castles Burning
1954: The Birth of Bloomsday on Three Castles Burning: https://threecastlesburning.libsyn.com/1954-the-birth-of-bloomsday
Exploring Lucia Joyce (with Joe Chester) on Three Castles Burning: https://threecastlesburning.libsyn.com/exploring-lucia-joyce-with-joe-chester
WAKE
To find TJ: https://www.tj-young.com/ 
To find Toby: https://linktr.ee/turglife 
WAKE on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wake.pod/ 
WAKE on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/WAKEPOD 
WAKE on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WAKEpod 
WAKE on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/wakepod.bsky.social 
WAKE on X: lol, fuck you Elon

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

There's nothing quite like ticking off a bucket list item, and today is the day, where Toby and TJ come to the end of the long reading road to finally finish Finnegans Wake. Before we get there, though, we have superstar guest Neil Wechsler to guide us through his favourite section of the book, along with passionate opinions on Hollywood hypocrisy, problematic shortcuts, and how the unique structure of the Wake is not a joke, nor a gimmick, but in fact proof that the human race is not entirely doomed. Joyce gives us an ending that's worth the wait, and feels well earned, as the pain of the cycle ends in a note of hope. We may have finished with the Wake, but we have a feeling it's not quite finished with us yet.
This week's readers: Neil Wechsler, Toby Malone, TJ Young
Progress: 628 pages complete, 0 pages to go; 100% read.
Contextual Notes
James Joyce Collection at the University at Buffalo: https://library.buffalo.edu/jamesjoyce/
The Wake at the UB collection: https://library.buffalo.edu/jamesjoyce/catalog/vi-finnegans-wake/
A proposed JJ museum through the Buffalo collection: https://library.buffalo.edu/jamesjoyce/pdf/james-joyce-museum.pdf 
Joyce-again's wake: An analysis of Finnegans wake, Bernard Benstock: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/331509.Joyce_again_s_wake 
A Reader's Guide to Finnegans Wake, William York Tindall: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59480.A_Reader_s_Guide_to_Finnegans_Wake 
Jeffrey Jarome Cohen: Monster Culture: Seven Theses: https://ptfaculty.gordonstate.edu/rscoggins/Cohen,%20Monster%20Culture%20(Seven%20Theses),%203-20.pdf 
Sorry Finn https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/persons/finn-fordham 
Benstock, Bernard. Joyce Again’s Wake. https://www.loc.gov/item/65023908/
Neil Wechsler’s website: https://wechslerprojects.com/
Neil on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wechslerprojects/
Our favourite play, Grenadine: https://www.amazon.ca/Grenadine-Neil-Wechsler/dp/0300149921
Neil on New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/37010/neil-wechsler

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

In the grand tradition of Finnegans Wake, WAKE has looped back around on itself to become a self-generating machine, as we welcome back musical innovator and the most reckless of stramashers, Tommy Mackay, to talk about WAKE: the Album! Yes, this very podcast is honoured to be the inspiration for at least half the tracks on Tommy's new (stra)mash-up album of music, smashing WAKE readings into the music of Taylor Swift, Wham!, Devo, and more, with more groan-worthy dad-joke pun titles than you could possibly handle.
There's a sailor on a horse! There's an invitation to suck a sugarstick! There's Gráinne O'Malley's girl power!
Join us for a track-by-track odyssey through WAKE: the Album, in the hope that no takedown notices emerge to ruin anyone's fun.
This week's chatters: Tommy Mackay, Toby Malone, TJ Young
References
WAKE: the Album on Bandcamp
WAKE: the Album on the Daily Reckless
Album details:
A collection of stramash-ups by Tommy Mackay drawn from readings of James Joyce's 'Finnegans Wake'
Main sources:
WAKE podcast - www.youtube.com/@WAKEpod 
One Little Goat Theatre Company - www.onelittlegoat.org/finneganswake 

Released April 4, 2025
Clips used by permission from the WAKE podcast by Toby Malone and TJ Young and also the audio-visual book by One Little Goat Theatre Company read by Richard Harte, directed by Adam Seelig.
Individual credits in song info.
all rights reserved
Finnegan's Wake 03:38. trad. Played and sung by Kevin Kennedy from the One Little Goat theatre company production, directed by Adam Seelig. www.onelittlegoat.org/finneganswake
Wake Me Up Before You Goan 03:13. performed by Richard Harte from the One Little Goat theatre company production. Music - Maucoli the pianoman's version of Wham's 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go.''
The Ballad Of Persse O'Reilly 06:31. performed by Meg Logue from the Wake podcast.
Thunderwords 01:58. read by Adam Harvey, Joyce Geek - joycegeek.com/thundervideos/ Music - Thunderbirds theme tune
Tip It! 04:37. performed by Richard Harte from the One Little Goat theatre company production. Backing track - 'Whip It!' by Devo.
Denti Alligator 02:43. From the Wake podcast, read by Toby Malone, TJ Young, Tommy Mackay.  Music - 'See You Later Alligator' Bill Haley and The Comets
Thunderslog 04:06. from the Wake podcast -Toby Malone, TJ Young. Music Steve 'n' Seagulls live cover of AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck.' Lady Macbeth - Kate Fleetwood from the 2010 Rupert Goold production.
Cunstuntonoplies 02:48. read by Patrick Horgan, 1985.  Music - 'Istanbul Not Constantinople' by They Might Be Giants.
Wake It Off 03:45. performed by Richard Harte from the One Little Goat theatre company production.  Backing track 'Shake It Off ' by Taylor Swift.
Respectable 03:20. Seth Austin from the Wake podcast.  Music - 'Respectable' by Mel and Kim.
Suck It Yourself, Sugarstick! 03:48. Toby Malone, Sarah Kane from the Wake podcast. Music - 'Suck It And See' by Arctic Monkeys.
Wake That 06:20. performed by Richard Harte from the One Little Goat theatre company production. Music - 'Never Forget instrumental' by Take That.

Bonus Tracks:
Hi Ho Silver Sailor https://www.dailyreckless.com/2025/04/06/hi-ho-silver-sailor/
Fanfare for ALP
Olwen Fouéré’s riverrun: ⁠https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/feb/14/riverrun-joyce-finnegans-wake-olwen-fouere-national-theatre⁠

Other references:
Allaster Mckallester: https://www.instagram.com/mckallaster/ 
ReWiggled: https://open.spotify.com/album/7pMmcRjBt41hvqnFQHqYb2 
Finnegans Dreams: https://www.dailyreckless.com/2024/08/15/finnegans-dreams/ 
McCourt, John. ‘Denti Alligator' or ‘Airtight Alligator': Reading Dante with Joyce and Beckett.

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!