Reading Ulysses, ostensibly the story of an adventure that takes place across the span of a normal day, is a meta-process: the ordinary act of reading takes on new and adventurous aspects. The process expands outwards too, as I find myself walking with the book, moving around my house, inside and outside, reading as much as I can process before I stand up to organize my thoughts and move on to my next perch. Like Woolf's successes with conveying the passage of time in "To The Lighthouse," Joyce manages to convey movement, specifically ambulation, in his prose. It's a trip to read, figuratively and literally.
Like any other Joyce piece, Ulysses has a way of sucking me in and pushing me away simultaneously. So far I'm enjoying his trademark use of biblical and classical allusions to describe what would seem like an everyday moment to a seaman (that's what I've gathered these men are) and filling it with analogies to Catholicism as well as Greek Literature at the same time. I love it.
Reading Ulysses is quite a challenge to me largely for the reason that the characters are never introduced by the narrator. They simply exist, and the only judgments that we can make about them are through either their dialog, or how they are described by others. This style narrative technique shares many of the same qualities of Woolf's To The Lighthouse. The reader is expected to be an active participant in the construction of the characters, and their understanding of them is continually shifting as they relate to, and are described by, other individuals in the novel. An example is of Buck Mulligan. In the beginning of the text he seems to be a gregarious, possibly a little arrogant and controlling, but primarily a positive figure. This conception possibly begins to shift for the reader, however, when Steven's father, Mr. Dedalus, hammers him for being a negative impact on his son, calling him a, "contaminated bloody doubledyed ruffian by all accounts." In this way, Joyce forces the reader to continually re-focus their lens by creating a weak narrator who seems incapable of passing any judgment.
Each time I pick up Ulysses, I find it easy to get in to certain scenes while I completely get lost in the prose of other instances. It feels as though I am doing what Stephen is doing and feeling what he is feeling when I get into the novel. But I also agree with John about the introduction of characters, since we are allowed to see one day of Stephen Dedalus' life, we are expected to know the characters as they are introduced. I think that, added to all of the allusions and things that Joyce is poking fun at throughout the novel make it a difficult read, but I am enjoying whatever I am catching on to. I'm looking forward to grappling with the text more in depth.
Reading Ulyssess was very interesting. As the class goes on I once again pick up the connection with all of the texts we read so far. Time, Memory, space. The text is very thick linguistically.Reading about Stephen Dedalus in his audible world, I feel that he was so open as he is writing his poetry. I felt as if I was in his shoes, feeling his emotions, feeling every word of the poem "touch.." Another interesting thing is how Joyce named the chapters. I tried to find the connection on why he choose to emulate Ulyssess in such a way. Its almost an adventure of the mind.The use of interior monologue is a technique that let such a thing be possible.
Joyce thought that readers made too much of the connections with Homer's Odyssey, but Joyce did intend Ulysses to be a modern "epic," the story of nations. But his notion of the "modern hero," compared to Odysseus, changes. In Bloom, we find a seemingly ordinary man--an ad man (compare to Madmen?) on an ordinary day with extraordinary thoughts and feelings conveyed through interior monologue.
But look at the parallels noted in Groden's notes and it will illuminate the links with the Odyssey.
Reading Ulysses, ostensibly the story of an adventure that takes place across the span of a normal day, is a meta-process: the ordinary act of reading takes on new and adventurous aspects. The process expands outwards too, as I find myself walking with the book, moving around my house, inside and outside, reading as much as I can process before I stand up to organize my thoughts and move on to my next perch. Like Woolf's successes with conveying the passage of time in "To The Lighthouse," Joyce manages to convey movement, specifically ambulation, in his prose. It's a trip to read, figuratively and literally.
ReplyDeleteLike any other Joyce piece, Ulysses has a way of sucking me in and pushing me away simultaneously. So far I'm enjoying his trademark use of biblical and classical allusions to describe what would seem like an everyday moment to a seaman (that's what I've gathered these men are) and filling it with analogies to Catholicism as well as Greek Literature at the same time. I love it.
ReplyDeleteReading Ulysses is quite a challenge to me largely for the reason that the characters are never introduced by the narrator. They simply exist, and the only judgments that we can make about them are through either their dialog, or how they are described by others. This style narrative technique shares many of the same qualities of Woolf's To The Lighthouse. The reader is expected to be an active participant in the construction of the characters, and their understanding of them is continually shifting as they relate to, and are described by, other individuals in the novel. An example is of Buck Mulligan. In the beginning of the text he seems to be a gregarious, possibly a little arrogant and controlling, but primarily a positive figure. This conception possibly begins to shift for the reader, however, when Steven's father, Mr. Dedalus, hammers him for being a negative impact on his son, calling him a, "contaminated bloody doubledyed ruffian by all accounts." In this way, Joyce forces the reader to continually re-focus their lens by creating a weak narrator who seems incapable of passing any judgment.
ReplyDeleteEach time I pick up Ulysses, I find it easy to get in to certain scenes while I completely get lost in the prose of other instances. It feels as though I am doing what Stephen is doing and feeling what he is feeling when I get into the novel. But I also agree with John about the introduction of characters, since we are allowed to see one day of Stephen Dedalus' life, we are expected to know the characters as they are introduced. I think that, added to all of the allusions and things that Joyce is poking fun at throughout the novel make it a difficult read, but I am enjoying whatever I am catching on to. I'm looking forward to grappling with the text more in depth.
ReplyDeleteReading Ulyssess was very interesting. As the class goes on I once again pick up the connection with all of the texts we read so far. Time, Memory, space. The text is very thick linguistically.Reading about Stephen Dedalus in his audible world, I feel that he was so open as he is writing his poetry. I felt as if I was in his shoes, feeling his emotions, feeling every word of the poem "touch.." Another interesting thing is how Joyce named the chapters. I tried to find the connection on why he choose to emulate Ulyssess in such a way. Its almost an adventure of the mind.The use of interior monologue is a technique that let such a thing be possible.
ReplyDeleteJoyce thought that readers made too much of the connections with Homer's Odyssey, but Joyce did intend Ulysses to be a modern "epic," the story of nations. But his notion of the "modern hero," compared to Odysseus, changes. In Bloom, we find a seemingly ordinary man--an ad man (compare to Madmen?) on an ordinary day with extraordinary thoughts and feelings conveyed through interior monologue.
ReplyDeleteBut look at the parallels noted in Groden's notes and it will illuminate the links with the Odyssey.