His thoughts that wouldbe words, his livings that havebeen deeds (FW65, No. 35 - III.3, 531-545)

The reality conceit (a new phrase? could be helpful for analyzing FW) in III.3 is the interview (already discussed), but it amounts to Yawn being contacted through means partly radio, partly necromancy. Yawn is pure potential for the interviewer: his "thoughts" are "wouldbewords"; and his words are about deeds already in the past, the life he leads, "his livings," are "havebeen deeds" (532.31-32). Through Yawn, different familiar voices emerge, and he even speaks as Issy and HCE, at the end of the chapter, for quite some time. The topic, naturally, is what happened with HCE. In many ways, it reads like a who's who and what's what of the entire book, or at least the events spoken about in book I. The more I think about the narrative versus the events they are about, the more disoriented I feel. I started off trying to make sense of it all in a way that reduces it or transcodes it to an understanding which is, alas, foreign and not authentic.

Not only here, but all over FW, it is more about the telling than the tale. When there is a straightforward story, it usually is framed in some way, as a moral lesson or a radio play. Most (all?) of the book is assigned a speaker, with the most omniscient narrator-like figure probably meant to be the voice of a historian, specifically, Mamalujo. We (me, and commentators, and possibly all readers, and hopefully you as well) look for the reality conceit for each chapter or section, and in our reading, anchor the stream of words in a narrative putting a fundamental story (fabula) into words, the story that precedes the narrative. IF we are to talk about the fabula of FW as a whole, it would consist in large part of the impropriety of HCE in the park and the reaction to it. There is also the concrete event settings of the Nightlessons chapter (II.2) or the pub (II.3) or the farewell discourse of Jawn (III.2).

So, given all of this, with reference to III.3, is Yawn telling or retelling the story of FW? Is is another version?

It may be better not to think in terms of events (as we usually do when talking about stories, at least I do) but the characters. Each, in their full, ideal form, is yoked to, maybe not a series of events, but an event cluster that they contribute to. Any time one talks about these characters, the events come out, are told. If, for example, in in the world of the book which is overhung with the heavy branches and knotted vines of this world and its characters, some play is staged (i.e. II.1), or a tale told, these archetypical characters and their inherent event dynamic bleed through in appropriate ways. The same when one character talks about another. The bleedthrough is so intense that the speakers themselves, like a saint receiving the stigmata, become marked by them as if they are the character themselves. In this analysis, Yawn/Shem is not telling the story of FW again, but is becoming transparent in varying degrees to its characters and all that entails. Called Yawn (he is sleepy, he is on the verge of the other, non-waking state, sleep/death), Shaun is particularly prone to this bleeding through. The walls of his personality (which, as the previous chapters show, are well-kept like a hedge) are at their most vulnerable.