HJS

TRANSCRIPTS

The ease with which transcripts of the discussions are made is one prominent and undeniable advantage of these internet discussions. For better or for worse, the members of live groups do not usually consider saving the material they generate, so an enormous body of material generated by these collaborative groups is irrecoverably lost unless it is preserved in the books produced by critics who attend them. The transcripts preserved at DU-MOO on the other hand constitute a permanent record of at least one group of readers as they traverse the chapters. The quality of that record varies of course, but having looked back at the transcripts I think that I may say that the information and insights they contain are on a par with any discussion of the Wake I have seen in the criticism. Granted, they lack the focus of a critical work with a specific ax to grind, reflecting instead the collective preoccupations of the members in attendance at any given session; but in peculiar and surprising ways the readings the groups produce do cohere and succeed in illuminating the novel.