Why people recommend it
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce is a famously complex, experimental novel known for its dreamlike language, multilingual puns, and circular structure. Tom Junod on The Daily Stoic discussed how he arranged books chronologically in his writing shed, noting that the sequence started and ended with James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, framing the collection with two copies. On The Tucker Carlson Show, Bishop Robert Barron touched upon the intelligibility and beauty of literature, referencing a well-known scene from James Joyce to illustrate how art appeals to an inquiring mind. Neil deGrasse Tyson on StarTalk Radio explained that the scientific word 'quark' actually originates from this very book, noting that physicist Murray Gell-Mann drew inspiration from the phrase 'three quarks for Muster Mark.' Additionally, Lex Fridman mentioned on his podcast that he attempted to read Finnegans Wake and found the experience notably difficult, a sentiment echoed by Sheldon Solomon, who recalled reading only isolated parts of the notoriously challenging text.
Who recommended it
- Tom Junod Discussed
- Bishop Robert Barron Discussed
Tom Junod — 1 mention
“It begins it begins with Finnegan's Wake and then the Bible and it ends with so there's two copies of Finnegan's Wake.”
Bishop Robert Barron — 1 mention
“You know, it's true because it corresponds in its intelligibility to an inquiring mind. The mind wants to understand that thing. What is that thing? It's beautiful because it's radiant. You know, it uh go back to like James Joyce, the famous scene, you know, in the in the portrait of the artist when he sees the woman he eventually”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 3
“The word quark comes from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake!”
“and then finnegan's wake the moment i started finning his wake i said this this is stupid”
“i i even uh i i guess read parts of finnegan's wake no way”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
- Moby Dick
- The Dead
- Ulysses
- A Book Review of Carl Becker's Book on the Declaration of Independence
- Absalom, Absalom!
- An Arabic Zoological Dictionary
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“the non-linearity of it akin to "Ulysses" or "Finnegans Wake" by James Joyce.”