The dreaming male protagonist of Finnegans Wake — "HCE," "Here Comes Everybody" — the everyman whom Bob threads through the whole series as one pole of the Formula Chart, paired against ALP. Bob reads the figure two ways at once: as McLuhan himself, the observer who "figured out how to circulate in all the worlds of society" , and as the male bureaucratizing role that manages effects "a step behind" . On Grace Eckley's reading the journalist W.T. Stead is a real-world model . New to it — start with dialogue 02 for "Here Comes Everybody," then dialogue 10 for the chart.
Across the dialogues
Enters as the Wake's "Here Comes Everybody," read as McLuhan himself — the observer who circulates through every world
Bob unpacks the acronym — HCE as Finnegans Wake's Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker and, at the same time, "Here Comes Everybody," the everyman the dedication invokes.
"the book is dedicated to HCE, which refers to Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker and Finnegans Wake, who's also Here Comes Everybody."
Bob reads the dedication as naming McLuhan — HCE as McLuhan the universal observer, the man who "figured out how to circulate in all the worlds of society," which Bob then extends to "we are HCE" too.
"I like the fact the book was dedicated to Marshall as HCE."
Mapped onto the Formula Chart — HCE as one half-stage against ALP, the male bureaucratizing role that manages effects a step behind
Bob places HCE on the Formula Chart — one "half-stage" set against ALP, where "stage means the ground," the two locked in the dynamic interaction that drives the chart.
"and HCE is the other half of the stage, and stage means the ground."
Bob assigns HCE a role — the male, top-down effort to "manage or bureaucratize" effects, always lagging the bottom-up ALP ground it is trying to administer.
"and HCE is the male attempts to manage or bureaucratize the effects that they see, which are usually a step behind."
Tied to the "superlative nobody" — HCE as the everyman-nobody of Finnegans Wake
Bob identifies the "superlative nobody" as HCE — the everyman-nobody of the Wake, funny "on a whole bunch of different levels," folded into the series' running Joyce structure.
"that's Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, that's HCE, Finnegans Wake."
Given a real-world model — W.T. Stead as a major character reference on Grace Eckley's reading
Bob relays Eckley's scholarship — the reformer-journalist W.T. Stead as a major real-world model for HCE, one of the historical figures woven into the Wake's composite everyman.
"sees Stead as a major character reference for HCE, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker."
Recruited out of literary criticism into the archive's operating theory — paired with ALP as one half of a mechanism for how a staged exposure conceals a structural one
HCE is assigned one half of a two-part mechanism — against ALP's ground-level environmental exposure, HCE performs the deliberate, distracting kind, which turns the Wake's pair into the archive's working theory of how scandal conceals structure.
"And so the pulling the curtain away is done by HCE to expose something to distract from the environmental exposure done by ALP."
The book's séance read as media theory — HCE is finally reached not by narration but by mediumship through Yawn, and what he delivers is an inventory of technologies, making the Wake's climax a technological confession.
"when he comes through Yawn, I think it is, one of the Shaun mutations, channels HCE."
Connections
HCE is the Wake's dreaming male protagonist — "Here Comes Everybody" — whom Bob pairs with ALP across the Formula Chart.
Bob reads the dedication of a book to "HCE" as a dedication to McLuhan — the man who "figured out how to circulate in all the worlds of society."
On Grace Eckley's reading, the journalist W.T. Stead is a major real-world reference for HCE.