JOYC E AND THE RUSSIAN GENERAL
431
young Mahon were among the things we cited. Let us look at these
again.
On p. 342, Emancipator is the Son. Immense Pater is the
Father. T hey are clearly the same horse.
Young Mahon (344 ) thinks that he has killed his Sire. It devel–
ops that he hasn't. The old Mahon is alive.
On p. 353, we witness an explosion. It's the atom's annihilization .
But, on turning to the page, we notice that the word is really
"abnihilization." Ab-nihilization.
There
is
thus a dual motion.
A
and
ab o
To
and
fro.
Atoms are
made into nothing. They are made out of nothing. Old Adam
is
destroyed- a new one takes his place.
But-instead of atom, Joyce uses the word
etym .
This is the
Greek for
meaning.
J oyce is destroying language. He is annihilating meaning- he is
re-creating meaning. He
is
re-creating lang"lage. In other words–
"in other words"-he
is
writing
Finnegans Wake!
