Paper Fossils: Joyce's 'Origin of Spices' and the Imperfections of the Archival Record

Abstract

Paper Fossils:Joyce's 'Origin of Spices' and the Imperfections of the Archival Record Dirk Van Hulle (bio) In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin employed a powerful metaphor to indicate the imperfections of the fossil record, comparing it to a book: 'I look at the natural geological record as a history of the world imperfectly kept [...]; of this history we possess the last volume alone [...]. Of this volume, only here and there a short chapter has been preserved; and of each page, only here and there a few lines'.1 In his so-called 'pencil sketch' of 1842 he had put the matter even more crudely: 'geology presents us with mere pages in chapters, towards end of history, formed by tearing out bundles of leaves, and each page illustrating merely a small portion of the organisms of that time' (CUL DAR 6, p.35r).2 If we compare this situation of the fossil record with the archival record of modern works of literature, the problem of incompleteness seems to be almost non-existent. With regard to modern manuscripts in general, the problem for editors is usually not a lack of manuscripts, but rather an abundance. This essay attempts to draw attention, first of all to the important empirical component of genetic criticism (marginalia, notes, and drafts), but also to the Achilles heel of the empirical method, that is, to the imperfections of the archival record. Biodiversity In The Books at the Wake, James Atherton already drew attention to the presence of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in Finnegans Wake.3 'Charley, you're my darwing' (FW 252.28), the text exclaims, proceeding according to the mechanism of evolution, with variations such as 'natural selections' (FW 117.28), 'naturel rejection' (FW 252.28), 'unnatural refections' (FW 504.33), and the 'sowiveall of the prettiest' (FW 145.27). One of the most remarkable Darwinian passages is the confusion of Darwin's metaphor of the 'tree of life' with the Bible's 'tree of knowledge' in Book III. The cluster of references to [End Page 95] Eden alludes specifically to the Book of Genesis, the fruit of the forbidden tree and the serpent ('snakedst-tu-naughsy', FW 505.07), while the 'origin of spices' and 'charlotte darlings' are always in the vicinity (FW 504.28). 'Remounting aliftle towards the ouragan of spaces' (FW 504.14), Joyce thus prepares the beautiful question about the tree: 'Just how grand in cardinal rounders is this preeminent giant' (FW 504.14-15); the answer goes as follows: Your Ominence, Your Imminence and delicted fraternitrees! There's tuodore queensmaids and Idahore shopgirls and their woody babies growing upon her [...] and culprines of Erasmus Smith's burstall boys with their underhand leadpencils climbing to her crotch for the origin of spices and charlotte darlings [...] and cock robins muchmore hatching most out of his missado eggdrazzles [...] (FW 504.20-35). Where we now have the reference to the Iggdrasil - yet another tree of knowledge - there was originally just a couple of eggs.4 And the 'missado' was simply 'mistletoe'. The word 'mistletoe' survived in several versions of this section. It appears as an addition to a redraft of the third version,5 which the JJA states was probably written in November-December 1924,6 after which it remained unchanged for a while in the so-called 're-redraft',7 in the fair copy (December 1924-January 1925),8 in the top copy, and the carbon copy of the first typescript (January 1925).9 But then, in April 1926, Joyce made a new fair copy, in which the mistletoe has become 'missado'.10 The combination of the missado's origin and the omnipresence of allusions to On the Origin of Species seem to suggest a link with Darwin's introduction to his book: Naturalists continually refer to external conditions, such as climate, food, &c., as the only possible cause of variation. In one very limited sense, as we shall hereafter see, this may be true; but it is preposterous to attribute to mere external conditions, the structure, for instance, of the woodpecker, with its feet, tail, beak, and tongue, so admirably adapted to catch insects under...