Here comes the mindmap of our last meeting in 2025. It took us 4 sessions to get through Question 1 of the Quiz. Now we have a new question to ponder: is there a 4 on every page of FW? There are quizzes within, there are quizzes without, try to catch the deluge in a paper cup... Art by Linda Lotiel

It's been quite a year for the Ukrainian FW group! This year we held 22 sessions and read 73 pages. We've become international and gave interviews. Many Russian generals shot, rivers of whiskey set on intellectual fire. The rest is poetry. Text by @augustinealoysius.bsky.social, art by Linda Lotiel

Last meeting this year - the Question 1 of the Quiz is done! Perhaps no new heads have grown on old shoulders, but definitely new light bulbs have lit up in old heads. Thanks @kenjihayakawa.com for joining us again and kudos to our Matrix Builder @augustinealoysius.bsky.social for the crossword.

One more mindmap. Does it have a Christmas vibe? It must, since it contains a bubbling place of alcohol. And a bit of fairy-tale logic. Once upon a time... there was a Viconian cycle. Once, twice, thrice upon a time, and counting. Happy Christmas, everyone! (HCE, you again?) Art by Linda Lotiel

HAPPY MAYBE NIGHT! Our Winter Solstice celebration of Finnegans Wake has begun :))) www.maybeday.net/night/

During this session, we discovered that once you mention about The Magic Mountain, you keep seeing it everywhere, like a pertinacious mirage. It seems to feel rather cosy in the Wakean landscape, that mountain. Art by Linda Lotiel

Opposites, binaries, dichotomies, syntagms, lists within lists, fractals within fractals, rhythms upon rhythms and occasional demons in tartans - we are still reading the first question of the Quiz. The matrices of our recent meetings by our own Matrix Builder, @augustinealoysius.bsky.social

And now the mindmap of our Sisyphean meeting with Bobby Campbell that kicked off Chapter 6. The salmon that keeps swimming upstream has been very keen lately. We wonder when we are to expect baby salmons in the streams of time. Art by Linda Lotiel

Mindmaps have been slow in coming, but now the process is accelerating. This one is from our October meeting with brilliant Sam Slote - you should have heard him reading the perforated part of the letter! Yes, lots of pecked punctuation in this one: it was one busy hen. Art by Linda Lotiel

In November, we started I.6, aka The Quiz. We'll spend the rest of the year going through its first question. It might feel a bit quizzical or even Sisyphean, but we expect nothing less of the Hero's journey. We were joined in our labors by @bobbycampbell.net and here is the matrix of the fragment.

After two intoxicating years of reading Finnegans Wake, we are still quite agrog. This diary belongs to Linda Lotiel, at least its material manifestation. Otherwise, it's all in Akasic records or possibly L-Space.

Those monks that illuminated the Book of Kells knew where magic Celtic mushrooms grew, didn't they? So did Joyce (didn't he just!). In the darkness and the cold of wartime Kyiv and other places, near and far, we, quasi-ideal-readers, are still looking for these secret groves. Art by Linda Lotiel

We finished I.5: the letter is now examined from all possible angles. Well, we haven't tasted it, but it might have a porter flavour. So we discussed the TV series House of Guinness: it's quite a show, when viewed through the lens of FW. We had a very special guest: Sam Slote. What a delight it was!

We had a very alphabetical session last Sunday, looking for secrets of Kells in a letter found by a hen in a dump. Can't say we found the truth, but we definitely spotted the otter. The matrix was all zed and done by @augustinealoysius.bsky.social

We're having a bad day over here, in Kyiv. Thousands of people have been left without electricity and water after the night attack. We've been having bad days like this for years now. Russian messages to us are literally missiles. But we're still here. Still reading. We won't forget these messages.

The matrix for our latest session was based on the art by the Dutch painter Gerard ter Borch. It inspired wild interpretations of its own: somehow even Freud got involved! He had to leave his cozy study and grab a time machine to travel to the 17 century Holland. Ah, the chaosmos of Finnegans Wake.

So much depends on a yellow tea stain spilled on a letter beside the original hen. (This is the mindmap of our previous meeting. In our meeting today, the stain has grown even larger) Art by Linda Lotiel

Yesterday we met our fifth Thunderword, the improbable met the inevitable, and Joyce met Proust. Many other meetings besides, as well as discoveries - treasures in the trash, an archeological quest conducted by the Biddy the hen. The matrix and the limerick are by @augustinealoysius.bsky.social

In this mindmap, drawn today, blue and yellow unite as Ukraine celebrates it Independence. Just as with Ireland, Ukraine's way to freedom was long and hard, and, unbelievably, we still have to fight for it. Stand with Ukraine... and find a secret message in this picture. Art by Linda Lotiel

Yesterday we had a very special guest: Raphael Slepon, the Man Behind Fweet! With the Man Behind Fweet in front of us, we examined the envelope, which was the star of the fragment, and ended up bewilderblissfully enveloping our examination in spectrality and fractality, adding some local colour!

Do you have a moment to talk about singularity, Oh Bringer of Plurabilities? That was our previous meeting, and now we are getting ready for more plurabilities to morra! Art by Linda Lotiel

We've embarked on chapter 5, greeting massive and festive mamafesta with palpable and drinkable excitement.

Look back in wonder at what we have read and turn the page to find… even more wonderworks. Ukrainian readers of Finnegans Wake are making their contribution to the destruction of russogenerals - with the help of their friends, co-readers and of course, James Buckley Joyce. Art by Linda Lotiel

Somewhere between the signal and the noise, the truth and the lie, the devil and the deep blue sea, there is the message you have been waiting waiting for. Or perhaps the massage. Art by Linda Lotiel

Ch. 4 of Finnegans Wake, done. Trees and keys, observed. The Basque cluster, admired. A Russian General, shot. (Thanks, Buckley!) ALP, worshipped. We have hanged our hearts on her trees and dropped our songs into her waters. More wonders to come. An ALP matrix by @augustinealoysius.bsky.social

The end of chapter 4 is nigh, ALP is coming and is it a limerick in your pocket or are you just happy to see her?

We feel for that fox. Here comes everybody to hunt you and then to drink about it. But at least, if Reynard is slow, Reynard is still alive, louping the loup and defying the hunt. Those magnificent words contradrinking themselves. Art by Linda Lotiel

An interview with our mind-mapper, Linda Lotiel, conducted by Gerry Fialka. Dark secrets about Ukrainian Finnegans Wake readers revealed, Joyce's ability to get Joyce ruthlessly assessed, the ultimate difference between men and women pinned down. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpIM...

Bloomsday in Kyiv is for the brave. This year, it was hosted by Peter, a fan of Ulysses, and Mikael, a Danish architect who designs unique urban spaces in Kyiv. In one of those, we read and drank and laughed and talked. During Molly’s yeses, an air raid siren started wailing. For the brave, yes.

We’ve had a great relaxing session today – yes, even Finnegans Wake can be relaxing with the right mindset. This mindset was achieved with the help of breathing and relying on the matrix (also limericked and rhymed with "dominatrix"). Go on, break the Morse code message, we know you want to.

We had a wonderful guest today @nadiadobrianska.bsky.social, a Ukrainian who has been learning Irish for years. And in our fragment, there were fourbottle men, the languish of flowers and a fox hunt. This matrix was ever so helpful to get us through the dense languish of Joyce, heyheyheyhey!

You never know where Joyce will take you. Last time, he took us to a picture gallery with lots of Caravaggio. There was also a shared dream to learn Irish. Not to mention Star Wars and a puppy. Art by Linda Lotiel

Our next session is approaching with the inevitability of dawn. Every new page of Finnegans Wake can give you a cardiac arrest - or a poetic impulse. A poem and a matrix by @augustinealoysius.bsky.social and an updated list of drinking cues.

That was a memorable meeting – with @richardharte.bsky.social virtuoso reading and everyone’s joyous crossexanimation, tumbling down that bottomless goat hole. And then the coda of the 4th thunderword in Japanese, thanks to @kenjihayakawa.com! We had it alright! Art by Linda Lotiel

We’ve been fortunate to have amazing guests tonight: @richardharte.bsky.social and Adam Seelig from One Little Goat Theatre Company and @kenjihayakawa.com! Thank you so much for sharing the fourth Thunderword with us, as well as other joycean delights. We hope to see you again soon!

While we are getting ready to proceed with Festy King, the memories of our first meeting with him transmute into a mindmap. Responsible for this act of messy (pro)creation is, as always, our resident word-painter, Linda Lotiel.

As we know from Ellmann's biography, Joyce composed limericks as often as Italians have aperitivo. Apparently, it's infectious and you can catch it from reading Finnegans Wake. Another limerick by @augustinealoysius.bsky.social and a love poem, too. They did warn us this book affects you brain.

Next on Finnegans Wake: a meeting with Festy King. It will take us two sessions to get through the intricate episode, and we will be rewarded with the third Thunderword in the end. Here is our guide to this labyrinth, compiled as always by our Master Matrixbuilder @augustinealoysius.bsky.social

As ruzzorcs, spitting on ceasefire, keep firing at Ukraine, murdering kids on a playground, we look, through our tears, at the attackler, who is getting paid to stop attackling. Will this ever work? The nightmare of history, always prerepeating itself. Will we ever wake? Art by Linda Lotiel

Our next session is coming, the geese are getting fat. I mean the puzzles and drinking cues. Lots of bearded men and one beardless woman in our current matrix, as well as some Irish jokegraphy. Things keep prerepeating themselves – more on this in a poem by @augustinealoysius.bsky.social

We’ve been discussing anarchy in the Wake, from politics to linguistics. Tolkien found Joyce’s treatment of language anarchistic and even satanic. But how far did JJ’s interest in anarchy go? Probably as far as his interest in anything and everything... A poem by @dasciassl.bsky.social

Gods and Godkins compete for people’s attention, while Romans build civilisation and sanitation. Venuses get creative with their erotic giggling, the Salmon leaps and Shakespeare incarnadines all over the place. The branch is gently tapping on the window. That was a good fragment, tiptiptip!

For those of you in Canada, dear siblings-in-joyce, here is an interesting taste to try. Let us know what it's like!

Beware the Ides of March. Or don't. St Patrick’s day is on the way and our next reading of Finnegans Wake is tomorrow (and tomorrow, and tomorrow). Lots of puzzles to solve and cues to drink to. Or, if you will, lots of puzzles to drink and cues to solve!

All that you wanted to know about stubborn and defiant Ukrainians, reading the Wake in the midst of war, but were afraid to ask, is now the WAKE podcast. Those guys are certainly not afraid of asking questions, and Igor reveals how Joyce pushes us to create (and, oh, what a pushy author he is!)(1/2)

Yes, the mood of the moment: by the rivers of Finnegans Wake, in our teargarten, sit down and weep. Or just as well lay down and die and bury ourselves with funebral pomp. Wait, pas encore. We keep fighting. We keep reading. Art by Linda Lotiel

Deep in ch.4 now. Travelling at full speed in a yellow submarine or sitting by the river, watching water-liliths. Monet, Proust… is there a basilisk nearby? Or is it Big Lebowsky? We feel a bit concerned about the Unterwealth, too. And here is a poem @augustinealoysius.bsky.social wrote this morning

We can't wait to plunge into the discussion of chapter 4 of Finnegans Wake. As we are getting ready to rustle its opening pages, puzzles keep piling up, as stones in a cairn. One of them is actually a limerick.

Three years of the full-scale war in Ukraine. Three years of constant pain and loss, but also of endurance and resistance. Stand with Ukraine! Now, in the times of trumpinsanity, we need it more than ever. (1/3) Art by Anya Chernenko

I.3 - done! It was sdense: deepknee in error, freakfog and abusive names. For the finale, we were joined by Toby Malone from the Cold Reading podcast! Together we found lots of macaroni, which we stuck proudly in our hats. And boots. Yeah, we keep minding our heads goin in and our mindmaps goin out.