Morpheus, master of the underworld, entertains his guest Carl Hausman by identifying for him various figures of the Earthly Paradise, “a sweet place to lie down i’ the shade awhile”:
Steven Millhauser, From the Realm of Morpheus (1986).
Related reading
All OCA Steven Millhauser posts (Pinboard)
Thursday, April 6, 2023
“Dreamers all”
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comments: 4
I’m proud to recognize H. C. Earwicker from Finnegans Wake. The list in which his name appears is my favorite part of the hundred or so pages I made it through. Wonderful that he appears in a second great list.
And in the distinguished company of Hasheesh Nell and the Poppy Face Kid. I looked them up: they’re in what must be an old song called “Cocaine Lil.” But that’s all the footnoting I’m willing to do.
We once had a faculty reading group to go through Finnegans Wake. You got further than we did.
That’s funny! I recognized those characters from the song. It’s by the Mekons, a great and important (but obscure) punk band. The song appears on the Rock -n- Roll album (1989). But I never guessed Millhauser was alluding to them. I figured the Mekons got it from an earlier source. I would love to think that SM loves the band.
A very patient professor, David Spurr, helped us through those pages. All I recall now is HCE and “tight before tea time.”
I’ve heard of the Mekons, as old blues guys used to say to interviewers.
I just looked again and found the words attributed to Auden (!). But no, it’s an anonymous lyric in an anthology he edited. It’s also in a collection by Carl Sandburg. But the only recordings I can find are recent.
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