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Wallstrait Oldparr. The authors base their interpretations of this nightmare on their certainty that "There are no non sense syllables in Joyce . . . any intelligent reader can shave off some rewarding layers of meaning." They also believe that "Joyce provides an answer to every riddle he expounds," and that "in every passage there is a key word which sounds the essential theme." Example (from page 1 of Finnegans Wake}: "The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohooordenenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all Christian minstrelsy." Old Parr, Campbell and Robinson explain, was the grand old man of Shropshire who finally trembled into his grave at the age of 152 (1483-1635). Parr and wallstrait are puns ("par" and "Wall Street") on the rise & fall of stockmarket values. The immense polysyllable that fol lows the word "fall" is the voice of God's wrath over the fall of man, the crash of Finnegan from the ladder, and the thunder clap that inaugurates a new period of history.
A Skeleton Key is likely to be of help to readers of Joyce. It is also likely to stir up plenty of controversy. James Joyce's theme and dreams are usually so elaborately interwoven that even the most prominent incidents and characters invite multiple interpretations. "Indeed," conclude the authors, "the baffling obscurity of Finnegans Wake may be due to [Joyce's] determination to muddy the track of his narrative with a thousand collateral imprints, lest we trace him to the scene of his own life secret, which he yet describes in compulsive half-revelation." Campbell and Robinson offer no key to Joyce's life.
* When Russia invaded Finland, Author Joyce wrote: "The most curious comment I have received on the book is a symbolical one from Helsinki, where, as foretold by the prophet, the Finn again wakes. . . ."
† In 1942 Authors Campbell and Robinson agitated literary teacups by asserting that Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth was only "an Americanized recreation, thinly disguised" of Finnegans Wake (TIME, Dec. 28, 1942). Retorted Playwright Wilder: "All I can say is to urge those who are interested to read Finnegans Wake and make up their minds for themselves."