* AluminiumChristmasTrees: [[http://peterchrisp.blogspot.in/2015/03/television-in-finnegans-wake.html One section that is surprising to modern readers]] concerns characters watching a discussion on television. The technology of the television had already been unveiled and demonstrated by John Logie Baird in 1925, but had certainly not become a popular mass medium. In other words, this section of the book is technically science-fiction, and accurate in how it anticipates TV watching at pubs in the future.
* CultClassic: While the book is (in)famous for its sheer levels of [[MindScrew incomprehensibility]], a lot of people over the decades have come to see it as Joyce's best work, and one of the best novels of the 20th century.
* DancingBear: Ask a person what he or she knows about ''Finnegans Wake'': the first thing to come to mind is most likely the style of the book, rather than the actual content.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Of Joyce's four major works, the ''Wake'' certainly sticks out the most for a few reasons.
* EpilepticTrees: ''From literary critics.'' With years of training they are well placed to hold forth on how Joyce counterpoints the surrealism of the underlying metaphor by [[ExpospeakGag utilizing indigenous ligneous vegetation with a tumid episodic spasmodic pathophysiology]].
* GeniusBonus: Joyce apparently sneaks a few references to existing jokes into this book, most of which are obscured beyond recognition and most likely stacked on other jokes. e.g. "Gee each owe tea eye smells fish." (p. 299)[[labelnote:Explanation]]It is a reference to the word "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti ghoti]]" an existing joke word playing on English's lax pronunciation rules with the word being supposed to be pronounced as "fish"[[/labelnote]]
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The book is [[http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.asp?id=122123 surprisingly popular in China]]. A new translation sold out of its first pressing within the first month of publication.
* ItWasHisSled: The first and last sentence. Also, it's necessary to look through multiple outlines to understand even vaguely what the hell the book is about.
* VindicatedByHistory: Most of Joyce's contemporaries and even his own family thought the book was stupid or a joke. It initially had negative reviewers, although one reviewer held off on judging the work, predicting that in the future, "with sufficient study and with the aid of the commentary that will doubtless arise, one might be ready for an attempt to appraise it." [[IKnewIt He was right]].
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