to belave black on white (FW65, No. 29 - III.2, 429-445)

Well into his long sermon which admonishes Issy to live a chaste and pious life while he is away, Shaun urges her to "Be vacillant over those vigilant who would leave you to belave black on white." He then lists the kinds of books she should read. "Black on white" is the printed page, but Shaun thinks the printed word is able to assert the opposite of the truth of things: to teach you to believe that black is white and white is black. He also undermines his command by confusing "vigilant" with "vacillate." Not sure how "lave" ("wash") fits in; I don't think that mixing whites and darks when doing laundry was a thing in the 20's to 40's? 

The admonishment to be careful with what you read comes after a break in Shaun's long discourse, which ends with "Amene" (Italian for "pleasant"; 439.14). This is one of several "Amens" ending parts of his sermon. Shaun seems to be relieved that his formal speech is over, as well as impressed: "Poof! There's puff for ye, begor, and planxty of it, all abound me breath!" He goes on to praise his delivery, and even considers whether he is a spirit medium: "I feel spirits of itchery outching out from all over me and only for the sludgehummer's force in my hand to hold them the darkens alone knows what'll who'll be saying of next." His body is overcome with the spirit which seeks to talk through him, but he resists this inner voice and associates it with darkness. Shaun fears this voice because he cannot predict what it will say: he wants to be in control of his words. This is part of his connection to orality and speech, and his dislike for books and for writing in general, which is Shem's specialty. 

Shem fears the untethered-ness of writing, its separation from a living voice (its author can no longer defend or explain beyond the words written, and remains at the mercy of the reader/interpreter). Moreover, he does not want to read another's words, but to exert full rhetorical control (wield "the sludgehammer's force") over what he says. 

[FW 439]