Help for interpretation is needed

[blacklilac]

Hi, everybody!!:yawnb:

I am new here, and I'd like to ask You to help me to interpret a certain passage from James Joyce's "Finnegan Wake." I am a student of literature and currently working over a project on Terence McKenna's literary heritage.
In his books McKenna is constantly alluding to James Joyce's works, and some of his quotations are literally incomprehensible for a foreigner such as I am. My mother' tongue is Russian. Besides, "Finnegan Wake" hasn't yet been translated into Russian. For all I know, the last attempt to translate some forty pages of that book took around five years or so. Alas, James Joyce isn't easy reading for retardant students.

So, closer to the point. The passage in question at the time being is:

"Here in Moicane we flop on the seamy side, but up n'ent, prospector, you sprout all your worth and you woof your wings, so if you want to be Phoenixed, come and be parked."

It is that simple, but I can only guess what it means.:idea: So, if somebody could go to the trouble to transliterate it into a bit easier understandable English, I would be deeply touched.

Besides, can anybody help me with pronunciation of the name Moicane, because I know that Gaelic names sound quite differently from what they look.

Thanking You in anticipation.
With the best regards. blacklilac:yawnb:

[PeterL]

Finnegans Wake has never been translated into English either. The name Moicane probably would be pronounced "moy, cane", but the pronunciation of the "a" would be variable. I can also guess a meaning for that passage, but I have no great confidence iin that.

[kelby_lake]

I don't think anyone understands Joyce.

[mayneverhave]

Finnegans Wake has never been translated into English either.

Brilliant.

[mono]

Rest assured, blacklilac (and welcome to the forum), I do not think I have encountered a native English speaker who has fully understood Finnegans Wake, including myself, who read this years ago. A reader can call the "novel" one of two things - a genius piece of literature or the greatest literary joke ever played. Many scholars have their own theories. Joyce, all his modesty set aside, felt convinced of his own intelligence, and that many of his Irish folk doubted him, this ended up as one reason why he eventually left his home in Ireland.
Firstly, Finnegans Wake contains many, many languages, Gaelic included; Joyce himself spoke many languages, but incorporated even more in this book, which took some 17 years for him to write. I feel quite sure that it takes about 17, if not more, years to understand, as well.
Secondly, setting all the varieties of languages aside, he intended readers to pronounce many passages aloud, and, with this, one would understand those passages, because, for example, two words would equal one, when cutting out frequently silent letters in English, it would sound like a word, rather than gibberish, and, in many of his other books, he would use onomatopoeia; for example, some may recall the first sentence of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:

Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo.
In my opinion, convinced of his own genius, James Joyce did not intend people to understand Finnegans Wake; he wrote it ingeniously, but also as a pun against writers and readers alike - the subjectivity of creating and understanding art. What an individual writes, only s/he fully understands it, its intentions, its metaphors and similes - everything! - and a reader only interprets it from his/her perspective. Thus Finnegans Wake operates much like a psychological exam - a reader's own mind operates by its own means to understand such nonsense.

So, closer to the point. The passage in question at the time being is:

"Here in Moicane we flop on the seamy side, but up n'ent, prospector, you sprout all your worth and you woof your wings, so if you want to be Phoenixed, come and be parked."
This passage, in my opinion, blows a bit of an insult on prospectors, perhaps one outlooking a land, mapping it, whatever. "Moicane"? I have no idea, but it could mean some sort of foreign or imaginary land, knowing that whimsical Joyce. That "we flop on the seamy side" could mean two things, but both of which give a difference, perhaps an insulting one, between the narrator and the prospector - on the "seamy" side, such as in addressing seams of fabric (borders, strong areas, where one place meets another); or on the "seemy" side - from a land that "seems" (thus the possibly fiction land of Moicane) rather than actually "is." "Up n'ent" - here I think Joyce refers to an actual location - the River Nent in northern England, close to the border of Scotland; upstream along the River Nent lies Scotland, a land in a seemingly infinite war with Ireland, Joyce's native land - whether or not the prospector could represent Scotland, I admittedly have no idea.
The last clause, "you sprout all your worth and you woof your wings, so if you want to be Phoenixed, come and be parked," seems a bit easier. When I think of "sprout" I think of plants and land - a prospector measures, identifies, and explores lands, and Joyce seems to take the prospector as an immodest one, flaunting his "worth." "[W]oof your wings" - simple onomatopoeia - the sound of immense Phoenix wings can make such a sound.
The Phoenix refers to an enormous and exceptionally beautiful mythical bird that burnt itself on a funeral pyre. Joyce especially insults the perceived boastful prospector, a traveler, a foreigner, possibly a Scot, in this respect, basically telling him to "come here and be parked" to get burned at a stake.

Whew! *wipes sweat from forehead*
FYI, I would not call my interpretation of this passage entirely true, nor what James Joyce intended, but only my own basic analysis, thrown together in some 20 minutes. If you plan on studying Finnegans Wake, I would highly recommend looking into A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake by Joseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson; I purchased this while reading Finnegans Wake and it offered a lot of help.
Good luck!

[Emil Miller]

Hi, everybody!!:yawnb:

My mother' tongue is Russian. Besides, "Finnegan Wake" hasn't yet been translated into Russian. For all I know, the last attempt to translate some forty pages of that book took around five years or so. :


If it took five years to translate forty pages, the question that immediately comes to mind is......Why bother?

[mollie]

Blacklilac,

A caveat - I haven't read Finnegan's Wake, and I can't suggest a meaning for the passage, but as a native of Dublin, the words suggest the following things to me.

"Here in Moicane we flop on the seamy side, but up n'ent, prospector, you sprout all your worth and you woof your wings, so if you want to be Phoenixed, come and be parked."

I would imagine Moicane would be pronounced Moy-CAN, with the accent on the can part. The Moi part would, I think, be pronounced somewhere between my and moy.

Moicane is not a place I have ever heard of or can find reference to. The only reference to it on the web that I can find has been the suggestion that it's a made up name that Joyce intended to represent Dublin's red light district.

Flop - a flophouse is a very seedy hotel, where down and outs would seek cheap lodgings. We flop, I think, is to lodge in such a place, or to find a cheap bed for the night.

On the seamy side - seamy, meaning of questionable morality, would suggest that they lodge in a place of bad reputation, or perhaps in a brothel.

n'ent, sounds like a contraction of the Irish word fornent, or fornenst, which means beside or near to. Up n'ent, I think, means up beside there, or near that place.

Woof your wings - woof means nothing to me as a word in this context. I think it is intended to represent the sound of a bird flapping its wings and taking flight, as mono mentioned earlier. It also suggests the sound of a fire catching and blazing up.

The mythological bird the Phoenix rose from its own ashes, so it suggests resurrection, or rising up.

The use of the words Phoenix and park so close together would suggest to any Dubliner the Phoenix Park, which is a large and very famous park in Dublin. You can look this up on Wikipedia. It is very near to Chapelizod, where Humphrey has his pub. The River Liffey flows nearby. Humphrey is also associated with the politician Charles Stewart Parnell, who was the victim of attempts made to implicate him in political assassinations known as the "Phoenix Park Murders". Humphrey is likewise embroiled in a sexual scandal that took place in the Phoenix Park.

I speak very poor Irish, and have forgotten most of the Latin, French or German I ever knew, so I am missing out on the multi-lingual puns which I know are in there.

As I said, I'm not a Joycean scholar, nor have I ever read Finnegan's Wake, and I intend only to give you the meanings of the words to a Dublin person.

Joyce took great joy in the sound of words, and the music they made together - he used to ask his wife, Nora Barnacle, a native of Galway, to tell him things for the pleasure of listening to the way words sounded when she said them. If a particular passage makes little sense to you, enjoy the music of it, and don't worry about it too much.

Brian, you bother to translate it for the same reason you complete cryptic crosswords or jigsaws! ;)

[Emil Miller]

Brian, you bother to translate it for the same reason you complete cryptic crosswords or jigsaws! ;)

There is always the possibility of completing a jigsaw or cryptic crossword but I would suggest there is little, if any, concerning Finnegan's Wake.

The following quote will give you some idea of what I mean:

Daferring on red hair moots the ramdelgerag! Cays hast ner eyed the entire lash from the libre, does get sidlelassinlunahack? And for ery' scholar of jits and wallyfins, dare may cieved a consciousable readament of peering quenth Labrynth. Hark! Vain! Rack! Finnegans Wake dost injoyafun for the kathweolasopkookoo. One glance may planner read and ner open this Rhodical magnumus.

[mollie]

Quoting Brian Bean - There is always the possibility of completing a jigsaw or cryptic crossword but I would suggest there is little, if any, concerning Finnegan's Wake.

Hey Brian,

Yeah, I know where you're coming from, but at the same time, I've been doing the Irish Times crossword for years and I've finished it a handful of times. Even so, I still love doing it, it's a mental exercise that appeals to me, whether I succeed or not.

Joyce isn't what you'd call my favourite writer, so I can certainly appreciate why you wouldn't be interested in what he has to say, or have a conviction that he has nothing to say, and you might well be right, but for anyone who made up their own language as a kid, or likes things like cryptic crosswords, puns, messing around with words, manky jokes, or just the musical nature of language, Joyce can provide a great deal of pleasure.

Absolutely take your point that he's not for everybody - he's frequently not for me! Sorry about the essay, Blacklilac I'm not helping you here...!

[Emil Miller]

Quoting Brian Bean - There is always the possibility of completing a jigsaw or cryptic crossword but I would suggest there is little, if any, concerning Finnegan's Wake.

Hey Brian,

Yeah, I know where you're coming from, but at the same time, I've been doing the Irish Times crossword for years and I've finished it a handful of times. Even so, I still love doing it, it's a mental exercise that appeals to me, whether I succeed or not.

Joyce isn't what you'd call my favourite writer, so I can certainly appreciate why you wouldn't be interested in what he has to say, or have a conviction that he has nothing to say, and you might well be right, but for anyone who made up their own language as a kid, or likes things like cryptic crosswords, puns, messing around with words, manky jokes, or just the musical nature of language, Joyce can provide a great deal of pleasure.

Absolutely take your point that he's not for everybody - he's frequently not for me! Sorry about the essay, Blacklilac I'm not helping you here...!

Well Mollie, as long as you enjoy unravelling Joyce's complexities there is nothing I can add, but at least you understand why many of us can't be bothered with them. If Joyce is not your favourite writer, I was wondering who is.

[Jeremiah Jazzz]

"Here in Moicane we flop on the seamy side, but up n'ent, prospector, you sprout all your worth and you woof your wings, so if you want to be Phoenixed, come and be parked.'

ALP is always water throughout most of the Wake. And yes, here I would say that it is in the context of HCE's sexual scandal in the Phoenix Park.

[mollie]

Well Mollie, as long as you enjoy unravelling Joyce's complexities there is nothing I can add, but at least you understand why many of us can't be bothered with them. If Joyce is not your favourite writer, I was wondering who is.

Changes with the hour. Orwell or Austen. Yourself?

[Emil Miller]

Changes with the hour. Orwell or Austen. Yourself?

William Somerset Maugham. If you go to the thread about great short story writers, you will see that I have made some comments about him.

[mono]

Hmmm, interesting interpretation, mollie, and yours sounds a lot more accurate than mine; even if you have not read Finnegans Wake, I suppose comprehending Joyce's language comes with its benefits. This sounded especially relieving to hear, because I felt like I searched every corner of the Internet for "Moicane":

I would imagine Moicane would be pronounced Moy-CAN, with the accent on the can part. The Moi part would, I think, be pronounced somewhere between my and moy.

Moicane is not a place I have ever heard of or can find reference to. The only reference to it on the web that I can find has been the suggestion that it's a made up name that Joyce intended to represent Dublin's red light district.
Much like poetry, I feel as though one can interpret Joyce in an infinite number of ways, even despite education, as you mentioned you have not read Finnegans Wake; I would love to hear some of your other interpretations, too. A reader must have a higher than average recognition for other literature, geography, perhaps philosophy and mythology, but much of it feels like pulling teeth! :eek:

[blacklilac]

Dear Sirs!!

I would like to thank everyone of those who answered to my plea for help so far, especially Mollie and Mono for Your thorough and interesting analysis, it was my pleasure to read your answers.

As to the question of Brian that is "why bother?" - for the fun of it.I was amazed by my inability to make up anything of the passage in question - seemingly rather ordinary, while being apart, words collapsed and brought forth no perceivable meaning as a sentence. It is fun, in my opinion, to try and decipher things, sort of a challenge contrived by an author and thrown from the time past and into the future.

Besides, it is a good reason to get in touch with other people, communication is also very much fun. And Moicane, yes, is an old red light district in Dublin, McKenna points it out.

Wish all the best and sincerely yours, blacklilac.

[mollie]

Hi again Blacklilac - just wanted to drop you a quick thank you - I am going into town today to buy Finnegan's Wake - thanks to your post! Hope you are enjoying your course!

Hi Mono - Yes, one of the nice things about the dense nature and breadth of reference of Joyce's prose is that it has something to offer everyone who likes to read it, and is open to all manner of interpretations, different for every reader, like poetry as you say. :)

Hiya Brian, read your comments on Somerset Maugham, and agree with you - I do like his beautiful and intelligent prose, though I have read only a couple of his short stories, and the Moon and Sixpence. Of Human Bondage is coming with me to France in a few weeks as one of my holiday reads!

[Emil Miller]

Hiya Brian, read your comments on Somerset Maugham, and agree with you - I do like his beautiful and intelligent prose, though I have read only a couple of his short stories, and the Moon and Sixpence. Of Human Bondage is coming with me to France in a few weeks as one of my holiday reads!

Hi Mollie,

I hope you enjoy France, I love it, but with Of Human Bondage at 1000 pp + you must be a fast reader or intending to stay over there for a long holiday.
I would be interested in what you think of The Moon and sixpence as a story.

[mono]

Hiya Brian, read your comments on Somerset Maugham, and agree with you - I do like his beautiful and intelligent prose, though I have read only a couple of his short stories, and the Moon and Sixpence. Of Human Bondage is coming with me to France in a few weeks as one of my holiday reads!
Ah, one of my favorite novels of all time, mollie! Many times while reading Of Human Bondage the main character, Philip Carey, quite literally brought me to tears from time to time in his trials and tribulations. As I mentioned in another thread, I consider it one of the best novels of the 20th century, saturated with emotion, raw with expression, full of wit, and classically written. I have no doubt you will enjoy it!

I am going into town today to buy Finnegan's Wake
Whew! Good luck, friend. It seems you already have shown a keen, instinctive understanding of the passage that started this thread, and I think you will have a sharper understanding of it than an average reader (like me). All of Joyce's works have a distinct challenge to them, unique in each work, but Exiles and The Dubliners read with a bit more ease. Let us know how it goes! :nod:

[mollie]

Hi Brian --

I enjoyed the book and I like Maugham's storytelling style - straightforward, humorous, simple and elegant, plenty of his lovely ironic asides, and interesting subject matter.

I know little of Gauguin's life and am not sure how much of the story was fictionalised, and how much was fact, but the part of the story that he placed in London and Paris flowed well, and his characterisation of Strickland was uncompromising and convincing. His characters are pleasingly flawed and human. However, I am not sure that the story was well served by the portion that takes place in Tahiti, and this part of the novel strikes me as somewhat contrived.

Though he as narrator is a good and likeable companion to the reader, a couple of his observations on women, love and sexuality make me distinctly uncomfortable, and not in a good way. For example, he comments to Strickland's wife that her rage on her husband's leaving her to paint stems from her realisation that she can compete with another woman, but not with an idea. In other matters, he emphasises his youth and inexperience, and notes that he has since changed his mind or revised his opinion, but not in this case, which suggests that he still considers his observation legitimate, but it struck me as so wide of the mark that my faith in the rest of his observations takes a serious wobble.

However, that is nitpicking. I did enjoy the book, and as I said, I like his writing style. Sorry, that turned into an essay!

I'd be really interested to know what you thought of it yourself, if you have time?

M

PS - The holiday is indeed long, and I am a fast reader :)

Hi Mono, looking forward all the more to Of Human Bondage after your and Brian's recommendation...I liked Dubliners and very much liked Ulysses, though not Portrait, so I am looking forward to Finnegan's Wake enormously. And I must say that you do not strike me as an "average" reader! Anyway, will let you know how I get on!

M

[Emil Miller]

[QUOTE=mollie;708906]Hi Brian --

I enjoyed the book and I like Maugham's storytelling style - straightforward, humorous, simple and elegant, plenty of his lovely ironic asides, and interesting subject matter.

I know little of Gauguin's life and am not sure how much of the story was fictionalised, and how much was fact, but the part of the story that he placed in London and Paris flowed well, and his characterisation of Strickland was uncompromising and convincing. His characters are pleasingly flawed and human. However, I am not sure that the story was well served by the portion that takes place in Tahiti, and this part of the novel strikes me as somewhat contrived.

Though he as narrator is a good and likeable companion to the reader, a couple of his observations on women, love and sexuality make me distinctly uncomfortable, and not in a good way. For example, he comments to Strickland's wife that her rage on her husband's leaving her to paint stems from her realisation that she can compete with another woman, but not with an idea. In other matters, he emphasises his youth and inexperience, and notes that he has since changed his mind or revised his opinion, but not in this case, which suggests that he still considers his observation legitimate, but it struck me as so wide of the mark that my faith in the rest of his observations takes a serious wobble.

However, that is nitpicking. I did enjoy the book, and as I said, I like his writing style. Sorry, that turned into an essay!

I'd be really interested to know what you thought of it yourself, if you have time?

M

PS - The holiday is indeed long, and I am a fast reader :)

Hi Mono, looking forward all the more to Of Human Bondage after your and Brian's recommendation...I liked Dubliners and very much liked Ulysses, though not Portrait, so I am looking forward to Finnegan's Wake enormously.
And I must say that you do not strike me as an "average" reader! Anyway, will let you know how I get on!


Thanks for your observations on The Moon and Sixpence Mollie. First I am glad you enjoyed Maugham's style of writing, it remained characteristic throughout his very long life. Although the stories cover a period dating from the turn of the 19th century to post WW11 his writing brilliantly portrayed the changing lifestyles occasioned by both world wars.
For my part, I found the novel completely convincing in all repects but I could say the same about virtually anything written by Maugham

As for Maugham himself, I have to say that he was not a nice person and as a homosexual his mariage to Syrie Barnardo was simply a mask required by the conventions of the day. He was cynical and although anybody who was anybody were invited to his villa in the south of France, it didn't pay to get on the wrong side of him. As the richest writer in the world during the 1930s, he was a force to be reckoned with in literary circles. I think that losing his mother as a child was the main factor responsible for his cynical attitude towards people in general and his homosexuality certainly coloured his attitude towards women. That is why the remark that you have mentioned is very much in line with his character.
It is interesting that you found the Tahiti sections of the novel contrived, because it was while on a visit to the south seas, where he visited the grave of Robert Louis Stevenson on Samoa, that Maugham also visited the hut on Tahiti where Gauguin had died and bought a glass-pannelled door for 200 francs, from the then owner, covered with a painting by Gauguin; which he subsequently hung in his villa in France along with the other paintings in his considerable collection.
.
Whatever his imperfections as a person, he did have a sharp insight into human psychology and his books have given great pleasure to millions of people the world over throughout the years and continue to do so.
I hope you enjoy Of Human Bondage which Mono aptly describes as a masterpiece.

[mollie]

Hi Brian

Thanks a mill for the info and insights into Maugham's character - it is always a pleasure when talking of books to listen to someone well informed and with a genuine passion for his subject.

I did know from the biographical blurb on my edition and some searches online that Maugham had actually visited Tahiti - it is not his representation of the place and the people that he meets there that strikes me as contrived (the woman-beating references p'd me off, but the past is another country), and I find that I can't articulate or even place exactly why I found that part of the novel jarring. Strange...

Yes, his acuteness of observation did strike me (which is why I found it so odd that his reaction Mrs S.'s rage was so off-key), along with his cynicism and occasional malice - they all feature strongly in his short story Louise, which has been a favourite of mine since I was at school, and as close to perfect as you can get. I clearly have terrible flaws in my character that I find him such good company as a narrator :).

Again, thanks for the information and insights - and for the Of Human Bondage recommendation - can't wait now! And once again, it was lovely to talk to you.

M.

[yeahthatsright]

I believe this is how he views success. "Here in moicane we flop on the seamy side...."-Here in moicane we do what we please. "...but up n'ent, prospector, you sprout all you're worth and you woof your wings..."-Up there you use material things to show your worth and you flant yourself and your things. "...if you want to be phoenixed, come and be parked."-He was advocating death as the solution to life's problems.

[maxphisher]

Okay, I'm working off the top of my head with that quote, but I can give you a little bit of insight into one deciphering/translation of the line. If I'm not mistaken, Moicane is the same as the "Nighttown" district of Dublin that Joyce depicts in the "Circe" episode of Ulysses. Think of the redlight district of any large metropolitan city. This explains the fact that its citizens "flop on the seamy" or disreputable "side." "Prospector" might point towards the act of seeking meaning, one of the main themes of Joyce's books, and wings are presumably symbolic of good or virtuousness. By seeing the flaws of those that live in the redlight district, one encounters both the symbolic fall of man and the possibility of virtuous rebirth and discovery. However, keep in mind that Phoenix is capitalized, so not only does it denote a rebirth image, rising from the ashes, but it also points to Phoenix Park on the west end of Dublin. This is the location where, in 1882, an Irish nationalist group murdered British dignitaries and escaped into the city in a getaway vehicle driven by James "Skin the Goat" Fitzharris. He parked the getaway car outside the park gates, if I am not mistaken, and waited for the murderers to finish their deed so he could drive them to safety.

Now, how one might make sense of all that information is a bit more to chew. As I said, my simple reading off the top of my head leads me to believe that perhaps the lessons that can be learned in the seedy part of town are likely to enlighten you, but they come with the risk of either spiritual or physical death . . . Nonetheless, these are, again, the types of transformations that allow one to be reborn and to grow. Like I said, however, that's a 5-minute attempt at reading that line; there is definitely much more meaning buried in it. I can't even imagine that I've scraped the surface, but it will give you a decent starting place regarding how Joyce uses words to convey several meanings at once.

[Nick Capozzoli]

"Here in Moicane we flop on the seamy side, but up n'ent, prospector, you sprout all your worth and you woof your wings, so if you want to be Phoenixed, come and be parked."

Sounds like jibberish, but let me take a stab at it. A lot of the expressions in Finnegan's wake (and even Ulysses) resemble the "nonsense speech" of psychotics or drunks who say whatever come into their minds. It may be possible to make sense of this jibberish, but to do so you need to decipher what's going on in the speaker's mind.

This is not an easy task. I've had a chance, through my work as a neurologist, to listen to the speech of plenty of psychotic and neurologically impaired patients. These folks often use language that makes little sense, though you can "see through" what they are saying to get at "what they mean." Often they use things like "rhyme" or "clanging" sounds, rather than "logical" associations, or what could probably be described as "subconscious" associations (e.g "stream of consciousness").

I've no idea what this quoted statement means...let's look at it:

"Here in Moicane we flop on the seamy side, but up n'ent, prospector, you sprout all your worth and you woof your wings, so if you want to be Phoenixed, come and be parked."

In Moicane [wherever that is] we [and I mean regular down-to-earth folks like me, not highfalutin arrogant a-holes like you, Mr. Prospector] "flop on the seamy side" [which means we regular blokes get down and hang loose, doing what comes naturally in Moicane...wherever that is]...But you [because you are the highfalutin fellow you are] just fluff up your wings [to display your superiority]. You somehow want to rise out of this Moicane environment as a transcendent Phoenix, but you can't do that without getting low down and dirty.

[maxphisher]

Sounds like jibberish, but let me take a stab at it. A lot of the expressions in Finnegan's wake (and even Ulysses) resemble the "nonsense speech" of psychotics or drunks who say whatever come into their minds. It may be possible to make sense of this jibberish, but to do so you need to decipher what's going on in the speaker's mind.

No offense, but this isn't necessarily true. While some of the language may seem to be gibberish and indicative of psychotic uninhibited speech, I assure you that Joyce's text is anything but. Almost every word stems from a highly structured and extremely conscious system of symbols and references. A surface level deciphering of the line can be attained through such an approach, but it doesn't really get to the fulls multi-level meanings that Joyce plants in the language.

This is not an easy task. I've had a chance, through my work as a neurologist, to listen to the speech of plenty of psychotic and neurologically impaired patients. These folks often use language that makes little sense, though you can "see through" what they are saying to get at "what they mean." Often they use things like "rhyme" or "clanging" sounds, rather than "logical" associations, or what could probably be described as "subconscious" associations (e.g "stream of consciousness").

I think that you're referring to onomatopoeia here. Much of the earliest languages, it is believed, consisted of words that sounded like actions or sound associations with actions. Since language, essentially, is arbitrary and unreliable, sound recognition served as a logical means of assigning word associations. Given Joyce's vast knowledge of languages, he could speak roughly 9 nine languages and was familiar with several dialects of some of them. Much of his text consists of plays on these languages, partial transcriptions between languages, and sound associations to words and ideas. On top of that, many of the words operate on several levels. In this case, for example, "Phoenix" serves at least two purposes: 1. the mythical bird that is a symbol of regeneration and rebirth 2. the public park in Dublin where nationalists murdered a British dignitary. While seemingly separate ideas, these two concepts can actually begin to overlap and mingle in regard to meaning. The murder in Phoenix Park brought about a public scandal that ruined, in the simplest terms, the career of Irish politician, Charles Stewart Parnell. Parnell symbolized, for many, the possible rebirth of the Irish state, and many, including Joyce's father and, subsequently, Stephen Dedalus's father, a real possibility for an Irish free state. When Parnell was disgraced, through an alleged association with the Phoenix Park murders and an adultry scandal, many believed that hope for the Irish state had been lost. However, the events that occurred as a result of the 1882 event, also the same year Joyce was born, spurred a resurgence of nationalist sentiment, which ultimately led to the 1916 Easter Rising and the consequent Irish Civil War.

Also, in regard to "stream of consciousness" writing, it is not really tied to subconscious reaction. Stream of consciousness allows the reader insight into the formative mental responses and inspirations for the action and speech of the novel. A character can respond to or inspire narrative or action by mentally working through his/her mental responses to what is occurring or being said around him/her. These responses seem to be "gibberish" because we don't think as a linear narrative; we mentally respond to stimuli and, in turn, these response spur similar and sometimes seemingly arbitrary mental responses. Thus, we, as readers, only get a loose framework of rapid responses to what we see as a single stimulus. The rest of the responses are chained together by the extremely conscious reactions that the narrator has to the initial stimulus and his/her response=stimulus>response=stimulus>response=stumulus>response, etc. "Stream of consciousness" cannot be subconscious thought, or it would be impossible to convey in text/narrative. The character has to be aware of the thoughts and connections that he/she is having/making, or they would not exist in the text that the reader is reading. And definitely don't make the assumption that Joyce was not "hyper-aware" of the connections he was putting into his text. ;)

I've no idea what this quoted statement means...let's look at it:

"Here in Moicane we flop on the seamy side, but up n'ent, prospector, you sprout all your worth and you woof your wings, so if you want to be Phoenixed, come and be parked."

In Moicane [wherever that is] we [and I mean regular down-to-earth folks like me, not highfalutin arrogant a-holes like you, Mr. Prospector] "flop on the seamy side" [which means we regular blokes get down and hang loose, doing what comes naturally in Moicane...wherever that is]...But you [because you are the highfalutin fellow you are] just fluff up your wings [to display your superiority]. You somehow want to rise out of this Moicane environment as a transcendent Phoenix, but you can't do that without getting low down and dirty.

I've added some notes inside your deciphering. There were some spots where I worry that you might be skipping over keys to Joyce's meaning by taking the text at face value. That being said, I believe you've essentially hit on the basic meaning of the line. P.s. I'm definitely not trying to come across as judgmental or condescending; I just wanted to point out some holes in your approach that might help to uncover the deeper meanings of the line of text. Hope this helped.

[ennison]

Short of beingJoyce one can but guess: "seamy" means grubby or dirty, usually sexually so. Phoenix is definitely a reference to Phoenix park as others have said and Moicane has been identified but n'ent seems to me to be a colloquialism that I can't quite fetch from my memory right now. Feel pretty sure he is punning "sprout" and " spout"”. There's a lot of love of the playful for the sake of the sound over the exact meaning or perhaps JJ would reckon the meaning was the sound. Joyce was no nationalist. He buggered off to Europe's greener and more pleasant lands.

[Basil]

Secondly, setting all the varieties of languages aside, he intended readers to pronounce many passages aloud, and, with this, one would understand those passages, because, for example, two words would equal one, when cutting out frequently silent letters in English, it would sound like a word, rather than gibberish, and, in many of his other books, he would use onomatopoeia, for example, some may recall the first sentence of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man...
I miss Mono.