Finnegans Wake page-a-day: Page 169 (I.7) #thereshair

Assigned reading (1½ pars [] plus 94 notes) [secondary] [McH] [*]

"Hairwire" is (likely) another allusion to a catchphrase whose significance for Joyce is uncertain. The simplest version is "There's hair" or "There's hair like wire" which was a musichall catchphrase, sometimes "There's hair like wire coming out of the Empire" which may have been a song about the belles of the Empire Theatre.

WS Sonnet 130: "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head." [vs complimentary 'golden wires'?]
'wiry hair' usually refers to black people or breeds of dog

There's an early, apparently-very-bawdy Scots lyric collected by Robert Burns "There's Hair On't" which seems to allude to pubic hair and conquest. (she's too young if there's no hair yet?)

It can be pronounced DURZ-UR, or There's 'air.

also There's a girl with a lot of hair (so what?)
"There's hair on baldy!" (derisive, of men)
There's hair like wire (long and stiff??? surely less attractive than long and soft!?)

"hair like wire frizz like fire" (said by mother brushing daughter's hair)

"...Misconduct of society belle. Norman W. Tupper, wealthy Chicago contractor, finds pretty but faithless wife in lap of officer Taylor. Belle in her bloomers misconducting herself, and her fancyman feeling for her tickles and Norman W. Tupper bouncing in with his peashooter just in time to be late after she doing the trick of the loop with officer Taylor.
-- O jakers, Jenny, says Joe, how short your shirt is!
-- There's hair, Joe, says I. Get a queer old tailend of corned beef off of that one, what?" [U-Cyclops] (I guessed 'hair of the dog')

I could see 'short shirt' as meaning 'how young you are' but Jenny's a married society belle, right?

004.10 "their's hayair"
069.08 "Dair's Hair"
149.28 "where's hairs"
169.04 "Hairwire" (haywire?)
289.09 "Derzherr, live wire, fired Benjermine Funkling outa th'Empyre"
514.09-.10 "hellfire club kicked out... Thereswhere" ?
516.14 "bear's hairs like fire bursting out of the Ump pyre"
628.12 "There's where." (5 lines from end, so very important: puberty?)

lark's eye

"a trio of barbels"

1 eye halfopen → 1 halfopen eye → an ⅛ of an eye → an eighth of a larkseye
1 arm → one numb arm up a sleeve
42 hairs on his head → 42 hairs on his crown → 42 hairs to his crown → fortytwo hairs off his uncrown
17 on upper lip → 18 on his upper lip → 18 from his upper lip → eighteen to his mock lip [why 18 not 17?]
5 on chin → 5 on his chin → 5 from his chin → a trio of barbels from his megageg chin
→ the wrong shoulder high → the wrong shoulder high than the right → the wrong shoulder higher than the right
3 teeth → 3 teeth, all ears → all ears
no feet → not a foot to stand on
10 thumbs → 5 thumbs → a handful of thumbs
½ a buttock → 2 fifths of a buttocks → 2 fifths of 2 buttocks → two fifths of two buttocks
½ & ½ a testicle → a testicle & a half → a stone & a half → one gleetsteen avoirdupoider for him [so does ''avoirdupoider" echo "1½"?]

Hayman's FDV goes into extra detail this time:

0DV: "Shem is short for Shemus as Jim is for Jacob. Originally of respectable connections his back life simply won't stand being written about. Cain - Ham (Shem) - Esau - Jim the Penman wellknown for violent abuse of self & others. lives in inkbottlehouse. boycotted, local publican refuse to supply books, papers, ink, foolscap, makes his own from dried dung sweetened with spittle (ink) writes universal history on his own body (parchment) hospitality, all drunk & rightly indignant. 1 eye halfopen, 1 arm, 42 hairs on his head, 17 on upper lip, 5 on chin, 3 teeth, no feet, 10 thumbs, ½ a buttock, ½ & ½ a testicle, - - when is a man not a man? A forger, can imitate all styles, some of his own. 1st copies of most original masterpieces slipped from his pen Sings hymn: lingua mea calamus scribae, veliciter scribentis."
[Latin Psalms: My tongue is the pen of a scribe writing swiftly]

1DV: "Shem is short for Shemus as Jim is jokey for Jacob. Afew are found still who say that Originally of respectable connections his back life simply won't stand being written about. Cain - Ham (Shem) - Esau - Jim the Penman wellknown for violent abuse of self & others. lives at expense of ratepayers in haunted inkbottlehouse infested with the raps the worst, it is believed, in the western word for pure filth. boycotted, local publican refuse to supply books, papers, synthetic ink, foolscap, makes his own from dried dung sweetened with spittle (indelible ink) writes universal history on his own body (parchment) hospitality, all drunk & rightly indignant. 1 eye halfopen, 1 arm, 42 hairs on his head, 17 on upper lip, 5 on chin, the wrong shoulder high than the right, 3 teeth, all ears, no feet, 5 thumbs, ½ a buttock, ½ & ½ a testicle, - - when is a man not a man? A forger, can imitate all styles, some of his own. 1st copies of most original masterpieces even the most venerated impostures were not spared slipped from his plagiarist pen Sings hymn: Lingua mea calamus scribae, veliciter scribentis."

FDV2: "Shem is as short for Shemus as Jim is joky for Jacob. A few are still found who say that originally he was of respectable connections ([...] was among his cousins) but every honest to goodness man in the land knows that his back life will not stand being written about. Putting truth and lies together some shot may be made at how this hybrid actually looked. His bodily makeup, it seems, included 1 halfopen eye, 1 arm, 42 hairs on his crown, 18 on his upper lip, 5 on his chin, all ears, no feet, 5 thumbs, 2 fifths of a buttocks, a testicle & a half, --so that even Shem himself, when playing with words in the nursery"

FDV3: "Shem is as short for Shemus as Jim is joky for Jacob. A few toughnecks are still found scattered who say that originally very originally he was of respectable connections ([...] was among his cousins) but every honest to goodness man in the land of today knows that his back life will not stand being written about. Putting truth and lies together some shot may be made at how this hybrid actually looked. His bodily getup, it seems, included an ⅛ of an eye, 1 arm, 42 hairs to his crown, 18 from his upper lip, 5 from his chin, the wrong shoulder higher than the right, all ears, no feet, a handful of thumbs, 2 fifths of 2 buttocks, a stone & a half, --so much so that in the very dawn of history even Shem himself seeing himself, when playing with words in his garden nursery"

mysteries:

[SL 00:00-02:04]