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present in Tales Told of Shem and Shaun, August 1929. My case has a flaw that is worse, if anything, than the ones in Mrs. von Phul'sor even Mr. Graham's. "Berial" is not a reference to Beria. Query: Can anyone tell me why Joyce did use this particular spelling? . . . There is a theory that FW is prophetic. Thus, although "berial" appeared ten years earlier, it does refer to Beria. I think that this is nonsense. If we are going to go in for these prophecies, it becomes impossible to find a "last historical event." |
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In the issue of December 1965, von Phul struck again, but this time to support Halper's prudence: |
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About the spelling "berial" (415.31). The Fable of the Ondt and the Gracehoper in part does refer to regimented and authoritarian societies and, as Mr. Halper notes, it is preceded by "So vi et!" This is not only a reference to Russian Marxism; it is also the Amen given by members of authoritarian religious bodies. In close context to berial is another political reference: The Ondt (which means "evil" in Danish-Norwegian) says he will "not come to a party at that lopp's"a lop is a flea''for he is not on our social list. Nor to Ba's berial nether. . . . "The various political allusions are allegories for religious significances; the main meaning of the fable concerns the Gracehoper's often terrified rejection of the eschatology of an authoritarian religion and its prescribed rituals for salvation, the conflict between forms and rites (i.e. works) and grace (i.e. faith)it is the latter on which the Gracehopcr relies. |
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The Ba to be buried is the soul of the dead; in Egyptian mythology a bird-headed human figure. At 415.3536, after praying in the manner of the Book of the Dead (and so anticipating the unmistakable Egyptian allusions at the end of the fable: 418.5 ff), the Ondt says: "As broad as Beppy's realm shall flourish my reign shall flourish!" Beppy is the Italian diminutive for Joseph. Here the Ondt sets himself up as a rival to Joseph, for berial is a suppressed allusion to that Joseph who was twice figuratively buried, in the pit and in prison, but rose to rule Egypt. In Egypt he begot Ephraim (Gen. 46.20) who begot Beriah (Douay, Beria) which means "in evil" a name chosen because "it went evil with his house" (I Chr. 7.23). Joseph's brother Asher also had a son Beriah (Gen. 45.30). The two "in evils" relate the "berial nether" both to the Ondt (evil) and to funerary practices in "Amongded" (418.6), Egypt. Possibly a reference to Ammon, but also to Amen, of which Amon is a variant. In a later generation of Joseph's family one Zophah had a son, Beri (I Chr. 7.36); this means "man of the well," an apparent allusion to Joseph and the pit, a dry well. (This characteristic confusion of identities and of generations is the theme of Thomas Mann's essay on the Well of the Past, the introductory chapter of the Joseph tetralogy. In 1933 Mann began the work by showing us a vision of the immemorial identification and atonement of sons with fathers that is the essential theme of the Wake.) |
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Beria is thus liquidatedonce more after his death. The context privileges the biblical allusion. I love that discussion. All the partici- |
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