The 10-year-old group, which meets weekly, is carefully making its way from the Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n And we thought we were a slow reader! Actually, As was perhaps to be expected, given the nature And yet, we suspect we reached a clearer understanding For the record, the Dowbrigade considers Joyce SOMERVILLE — It’s a quiet night at The Thirsty Scholar, an Irish pub and dating bar on Beacon Street. A handful of bored-looking guys sit at the bar, watching a hockey game on the TV, and a few couples and … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/fllv.jpg\")
<\/a>SOMERVILLE — It’s a quiet night at The Thirsty Scholar,
\n an Irish pub and dating bar on Beacon Street. A handful of bored-looking
\n guys sit at the bar, watching a hockey game on the TV, and a few couples
\n and small groups chat quietly at scattered tables. But in what Irish
\n pubs call ”the snug," an alcove off the dimly lit main room, conversation
\n is animated, laughter frequent, and there are more books than bottles
\n on the table. The Boston-area ”Finnegans Wake" Reading Group is
\n in session.<\/p>\n
\n — word by word, line by line, and page by page — through James Joyce’s
\n famously difficult final work. The book is 628 pages long, and they’re
\n now on Page 251.<\/p>\n
\n the Dowbrigade has been a member of a Reading Group for even longer.
\n The
\n "Doctor Gonzo" has been trying to work its way through that American
\n classic, "Fear
\n and Loathing in Las Vegas<\/a>" since shortly after it came
\n out in 1972, meeting in burnt-out basements, poorly illuminated street
\n corners in dangerous neighborhoods and sleazy dives in what was once
\n known as
\n the Combat Zone.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n of the Group, our attempts to gather and discuss were almost universally
\n unsuccessful,
\n due to an inability to follow directions and arrive at the same place
\n at the same time. On those uncommon occasions when a handful of the Doctor’s
\n disciples did manage to meet, our readings rarely penetrated more than
\n a paragraph or two into the text before disintegrating into digression,
\n non-sequitors, rambling off-topic rants, marginally related commercial
\n transactions and barter, and an unhealthy mix of paranoid schitzophrenia,
\n psychoses,
\n bi-polar disorders and drug or mental health induced halucinations.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n of our work than these jokers….<\/em><\/p>\n
\n an obscure, old-world sot not worth the time and effort requrired to
\n figure out what the hell he was trying to say. Give us robust transparent
\n American writers any day – Poe, Kerouac, Burroughs, Bukowski, Pynchon……<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"