Throughout the book's seventeen-year gestation, Joyce stated that with "Finnegans Wake" he was attempting to "reconstruct the nocturnal life", and that the book was his "experiment in interpreting 'the dark night of the soul'." According to Ellmann, Joyce stated to Edmond Jaloux that "Finnegans Wake" would be written "to suit the esthetic of the dream, where the forms prolong and multiply themselves", and once informed a friend that "he conceived of his book as the dream of old Finn, lying in death beside the river Liffey and watching the history of Ireland and the world – past and future – flow through his mind like flotsam on the river of life." While pondering the generally negative reactions to the book Joyce said: I can't understand some of my critics, like Pound or Miss Weaver, for instance. They say it's "obscure". They compare it, of course, with "Ulysses". But the action of "Ulysses" was chiefly during the daytime, and the action of my new work takes place chiefly at night. It's natural things should not be so clear at night, isn't it now?