Self-Reflective Revision

A nice account of one aspect of Finnegans Wake:

In a process of revision that is itself self-reflective, Joyce moulds language for purposes we cannot grasp, leaving us to guess at how to bring these strange words towards meaning, at how they might 'same with' other words. This game with language seems purely experimental, toying with fixed rules of language, but it also reflects on the common processes of language change and variation--such as the way phrasal verbs, expressions, and grammatical structure emerge (and fade) continually. It compresses and makes these processes explicit, while taking them to an extreme, continually stressing the materiality of language and suggests that we can, if we wish, do what we like with it. Joyce refuses to lag behind those changes that occur to language in its everyday use, wishing instead to embody the spirit of the transformation of expression.  (Finn Fordham, Lots of Fun at Finnegans Wake, Oxford 2007, p. 203-204)