Ulysses Blog

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Thursday, November 12, 2009

The group really came together today. Lots of energy and enthusiastic discussion. Our one man started it off by saying, " We've all finally caught up with Joyce." Wise words.

We watched more of the James Joyce's Dublin: The Ulysses Tour DVD, a wonderful way to start the session off.

Much of our time was spent n trying to understand why Bloom is so passive about Molly's affair with Blazes Boylan. Knowing that the assignation is at 4 o'clock, Bloom is constantly aware of the time and where Boylan is. And yet as troubled as he is, he doesn't appear to be angry. Why haven't he and Molly had sex for ten years, since their son died?Is it because of guilt? Does it have anything to with Jewish mourning? Is it because he's afraid he's become impotent? Most everyone agrred that he loved Molly and he wanted her to be happy and she seemed to enjoy the affair with Boylan. Most people also believed that Molly had always been sensual and probably had sexual relationships with other men before her son died. A majority believed it was Molly's choice not to have sex with Bloom.

Molly was a desirable woman and Bloom had her. He felt good about being married to Molly even though they weren't sexually active with each other.

We compared Stephen's intellectual approach to Bloom's enjoyment of the senses. Perhaps because Stephen was all Catholic and Bloom only half, Bloom could be freer in enjoying pleasure. Bloom enjoyed his senses, was intilligent, although didn't have the Jesuit educatino Stephen had. Nevertheless Bloom during the early 20th century did think about big issues. In his view, after seeing poor Dilly Dedalus, Stephen's motherless sister, Bloom thought that women shouldn't have to have so many childlren, that the government should give children ssome money with which to start their lives. Pretty modern.

We all enjoyed Stephen's pedantic lecture about Shakespeare, our only man in the group, commenting that Shakespeare was only the vehichle for a monologue on fathers and sons. Again back to Bloom who has no son. Mortality is fearful for Bloom, especially without a son. There are many blind men in the book and Bloom wonders what it would like to be blind. One person believes he is afraid that he may no longer be able to perform sexually, that he is losing his strength and is afraid of dying.

"Why doesn;t he pay attention to his daughter, Millie, for heaven's sake," one participant complained. "It really makes me angry. He has a child and he may have talked about her twice." But she's a girl in the beginning of the 20th century. Girls were to get married, cook, clean, and have babies.

Bloom and Stppen are both outsiders, somewhat by choice. Bloom goes into the bathroom when a group of them are in the hotel and while he's gone, everyone gossips about him. Stephen, whose father is accepted and one of the greoup isolates himself.

The Sirens episodes and Wandering Rocks are particularly appeaking to me. The cinematic quality of Wandering Rocks is amazing. Switching from one scene to another going on at the same time reminds me of the breakthroughs in the '60's in the French cinema. Sometimes I couldn't help but think of a split screen. The Sirens episode is a symphony of sounds and music with an overture of lines that make no sense until the reader discovers that each line, like a tune in a musical, is found later in the text.

I had prepared a little commentary to read in the beginning of the class to explain my feelings about our Ulysses project. Here it is:

I feel overloaded with information.Although there are some exceptions, every book I read and every lecture I listen about Ulysses comes up with new theories about each episode..all of the theories seeming to have  some weight. Nevertheless the broad approach on a first reading still has value for me.. If we can actually go from beginning to end, we have  a general idea of the scope and where Joyce eventually goes with his amazing experiment with language and character.

After reading these four episodes..I have come to believe that what we are doing is playing the role of honey bees who have discovered a huge garden and are drunk with pollen. Although I understand that our intent is to expose ourselves to Ulysses, I didn’t realize the depth of the  book and the vast opportunities reading it offers. I don’t mean the tricks and subtle clues. I mean that each episode is a little masterpiece to be studied itself. I’m sure this is true of The Odyssey is well, but in this little foray, Ulysses is our main subject.

I keep reminding myself that Ulysses was written in the beginning of the 20th century so that  I can keep in mind how innovative the book is. Some of it is cinematic..particularly the last  two episodes we read for today.

If we didn’t want to complete the bee’s drunken journey in the garden, we could be spending one session on each episode.  I’m still glad we are imitating the bee because I’m not sure that we would want to focus on each and every session.

Certainly as many people have said before, the book is really about language, street language, educated language and some wonderfully created language, not to be found in Webster's.

More later if I can remember

Monday, November 9, 2009

Tomorrow is Ulysses day for me. Lot's of reading to so that I am ready for Thursday. Part of the reason for my having to catch up on Ulysses tomorrow is the time I spent preparing for the discussion groups about Mosquito by Roma Tearne. Beautifully written, it is a love story set in Sri Lanka during the last fifteen years. As in Joyce's Ulysses, the British do not emerge as heroes and colonialism certainly is the villain.

I'd like to recommend a movie I watched about Ireland in the 1920's. Below is the review from the New York Times

"The Wind That Shakes the Barley" reviewed by By A. O. SCOTT

Published: March 16, 2007 in The New York Times

In Ken Loach’s movies — he has made more than 20 in the last 40 years — characters frequently argue about politics, which is only fitting, since the films themselves are political arguments. There is no point in combing through Mr. Loach’s work for hints of ideological significance. Ideology — Marxist, anti-imperialist, aligned with the perceived interests of the powerless and the marginal — is the engine that drives his stories. The clarity and force of those stories is considerable, but their bluntness sometimes sticks in the craw of critics, who often scold Mr. Loach for lacking subtlety.

But in watching “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” his new film (which won the top prize at Cannes last year), it is possible to appreciate both Mr. Loach’s passion and his sense of nuance. Set in Ireland in the 1920s, the film paints history in stark colors and observes as they blur and bleed. Mr. Loach and Paul Laverty, the gifted screenwriter with whom he regularly collaborates, leave no doubt as to who the villains are in this tale.

From the start, when they raid an Irish farm, the British irregulars known as the Black and Tans are as brutal and sadistic as Hollywood Nazis. The atrocities they commit have an immediate radicalizing effect on the film’s hero, Damien (Cillian Murphy), who abandons his plans to study medicine in London to join the armed uprising against the British.

Injustice, in Mr. Loach’s world, tends to be a simple matter. It resides in the unprincipled, dehumanizing exercise of power — whether wielded by capital, the state, or an army of occupation — against those who have none. The complications arise, and the arguments start, when the powerless try to fight back.

Brutal as “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” is in depicting British acts of violence, it does not flinch from showing the harsh, sometimes heartless tactics of the Irish Republican Army flying columns. Among the most painful scenes are the executions of an informer and later a landlord, killings that foreshadow a turn from insurrection to civil war.

Radical though he is, Mr. Loach is hardly a romantic, and the deep humanism that informs his best work — a category in which “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” surely belongs — is insulated from sentimentality by the sense that history is a long, bruising fight, a chronicle of compromise and defeat as well as of tentative triumph and provisional hope. He is also, as anyone steeped in the history of the modern left must be, acquainted with the factionalism and disunity that bedevils those who see themselves on the side of the angels.

“Land and Freedom” (1995) examined this theme in the context of the Spanish Civil War, in which anarchists and communists at times fought each other as fiercely as they fought Franco. The logic of rebellion in “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” has a similarly grim implacability. You start out fighting an obvious, odious enemy, and you will end up killing your friends.

It’s an old story perhaps, but Mr. Loach and Mr. Laverty tell it with enthralling — and devastating — economy and force. Beauty too. Mr. Loach and his cinematographer, Barry Ackroyd, use the grays and greens of the cloud-cloaked Irish countryside as a moody palette. Sometimes the human figures stand out in bold relief against the flat sky; at other moments they are wrapped in fog and smoke.

Mr. Loach has always populated his films with superb actors (his knack for discovering them is uncanny), and the quality of the performances he elicits serves as a check against his more schematic polemical impulses. Mr. Murphy, fine-boned and ferocious, gives Damien a gentleness and sensitivity that shades toward fanaticism. He is a purist, an idealist, and therefore marked for a tragic destiny, either as monster or martyr.

His performance is perfectly complemented by that of Padraic Delaney, who plays Damien’s brother Teddy, a brave soldier but also a fatefully pragmatic politician. Between them is the marvelous Orla Fitzgerald as Sinead, a perfectly believable incarnation of an indomitable Irish woman.

In 1921, after several years of fierce fighting, the Anglo-Irish Treaty established the Irish Free State, an event that split the Republican movement and unleashed a period of factional bloodletting, the Irish Civil War. The consequences of this strife propel “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” through its terrible final act, which is all the more chilling for being dramatized with such precision. Afterward it comes almost as a shock to recall that the Republic of Ireland today is a prosperous member of the European Union, and that even the Northern Ireland seems to have moved beyond sectarian violence.

But the history presented in “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” hardly feels like a closed book or a museum display. It is as alive and as troubling as anything on the evening news, though far more thoughtful and beautiful.

Directed by Ken Loach; written by Paul Laverty; director of photography, Barry Ackroyd; edited by Jonathan Morris; music by George Fenton; production designer, Fergus Clegg; produced by Rebecca O’Brien; released by IFC First Take. Running time: 127 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Cillian Murphy (Damien), Padraic Delaney (Teddy), Liam Cunningham (Dan), Orla Fitzgerald (Sinead), Mary Riordan (Peggy), Mary Murphy (Bernadette), Laurence Barry (Micheail), Damien Kearney (Finbar), Frank Bourke (Leo) and Myles Horgan (Rory).

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

It's a beautiful fall day, our reward for last evening's wild storm. Earlier this morning while I was walking the dog, I imagined Bloom strolling around Dublin on a glorious day like today, greeting his acquaintances, perhaps doffing his hat, while his mind runs on in thought. He seems to know everyone. Perhaps this would be our experience if we lived in one place all our lives. Many of us move off to the city or to warmer climes once we have raised our children, severing everyday contacts with family members and old friends.

This morning I picked up The Bloomsday Book by Blamieres and read his analysis of "The Lestrygonians." When I finished I felt as if I had been to a party and met fifty people of whom I know seven, Molly, Stephen, Millie, Boylan and a few others.

I've become accustomed to the experience of jumping into a new episode, having a general sense of what's happening but not feeling sure of where I'm going. What is apparent in "Lestrygonians" is that the issues Bloom addresses remain with us in 2009: the dirty water into which he throws the paper from his candy, evangelism, the choice of eating animals versus a cool salad, the issue of gluttony, the price paid by families who have no control of how many children they produce, and the lack of fealty in marriages.

Was Joyce prescient or have human being always faced the same quandries and pitfalls?

As I read the beginning of "The Lestrygonians", I think about what goes in my mind as I drive or walk somewhere,

buy bread, flowers , I'm near the bakery, I'll go the the florist later, maybe the flowers can wait till tomorrow. forgot to call Joan, I hope she's OK. must buy something for dinner

Sometimes I see someone who looks like an old boy friend and I relive the scene of me telling him I didn't want to see him anymore. Joyce knew that the mind doesn't stop going when we're silent. Tthe mind runs on and on, sometimes making unconscious transitions, more like a bee flitting from one flower to another, than an ant's steady pace as it carries a crumb back to its colony.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

After watching the sections of James Joyce's Dublin appropriate to Thursday's session , we discussed what we thought of Leopold Bloom and the techniques Joyce used to bring him to life. People used the following terms to describe Bloom, "down to earth," "crude," "practical", an "outsider," and like Odysseus, a captive. We agreed that our opinions of Bloom were formed by his actions, his conversation, and internal narrative.

A new member to the groupwho reads The Odyssey every few years drew parallels between Bloom and Odysseus and Stephen and Telemachus. When someone raised a questions about a specific connection between Bloom and Odysseus, I suggested that although Joyce used the The Odyssey's structure and a framework for Ulysses, the relationship was loose. Joyce used many other allusions, including Dublin locations, neighborhoods, and businesses.

Perhaps because I am reading Ulysses for the first time, I particularly enjoy learning about the neighborhood stores and people walking the Dublin streets. I can almost smell the lemon soap Bloom buys for Molly from the chemist. I also found that the story, "Grace" in The Dubliners enriched the characters of Mr. Power, Mr. Cunningham, and Mr. Kernan, all of whom appear in Ulysses and The Dubliners.

Bloom's internal narrative in the cemetary added depth to his character. Rather than spending so much money on the dead, Bloom feels the money might be better spent on the living.

As I read some of the passages, I felt a bit uncomfortable for Bloom. He must have overheard Power and Cunningham's anti-semitic comments about the "Reuben" they saw walking on the street, as well as their comments about the sin of suicide. Suicide is a sensitive subject for Bloom, having lived through his father's.father committed. We also learn of the sadness Bloom feels about the loss of his infant son.

A member of our group felt the seventh episode, "Aeolus,"was difficult to follow because of the large cast of characters and the windy rhetoric. We were reminded that Aeolus, the God of the Winds, presents Odysseus with a bag of bad winds, cautioning him to keep the bag closed on his voyage home. Odysseus' men disobey him, open the bag, and release the unruly winds which blow Odysseus and his men off course. Not surprising that Joyce would create an episode titled "Aeolus" about men who are "bags of wind!"

I responded that I really didn't pay much attention to the content of "Aeolus" because the conversation seemed trivial. The sense of the episode for me was that most of the newspaper people were taken with Stephen who was pretentious and they responded in kind, the editor asking Stephen to write a piece for the paper. Bloom in contrast, "the only man working," as someone commented, was treated poorly by the rest. His way of walking was ridiculed and his client, Keyes' request for an extension rudely rejected.

The newspaper titles in the Aeolus episode were noted as being new and inventive for the times, and appropriate to the episode. One person felt Ulysses is particularly Irish in nature, some of the language even being different from our spoken English, causing difficulty for readers who aren't Irish.

We all look forward to reading about Molly because we have been made aware of Bloom's preoccupation with her. There was some question from the group abpout whether Bloom and Molly have had sexual relations in the past five or ten years.

The four episodes we read for last Thursday, created a colorful urban environment as a background for Bloom as he began his day in Dublin and shared his interior narrative with us.

For our next session Thursday, November 12, we will read the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh episodes ( "Lestrygonians," "Scylla and Charybdis," "Wandering Rocks," and "Sirens") .

Thursday, October 8, 2009

I know I have been a bit absent. Apologies, a virus and two discussions of Le Clezio's Wandering Star interfered with my postings.

This morning we had the second meeting of our Ulysses discussion. We watched the James Joyce's Dublin: The Ulysses Tour DVD, conducted byRobert Nicholson, curator of the James Joyce Museum, Sandycove. He took us to the settings and spoke a few lines from each of the following episodes, "Calypso," "Lotuseaters," "Hades," and "Aeolus." Each segment is brief and well done.

Did I mention that the power went off last night just when my husband who is handicapped was halfway up the stairs in his chairlift? I have tried to outgrow my leaving things to the last minute but I confess I read "Grace" from The Dubliners and the second half of "Aeolus" by the light of the battery powered lamp my neighbor loaned to me. At 4:00 a.m., mercifully, the electricity returned. More tomorrow about our session this morning..

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Just read "Hades," and I must say that had I known how engaging a character Bloom would be as he goes on his rounds on June 16th, I would have read Ulysses long ago. Perhaps if the book began with episode 4, less people would give up reading the novel, and more critics would pronounce the book accessible. Of course, I can't comment on episodes beyond "Hades" but certainly the three episodes I have read since our last class are reader friendly. The people Bloom meets up with are colorful and memorable. Bloom's interactions with them provide some characterization of him while his internal voice is easy ans natural; one that could be found in a quality novel written this year. There is nothing artificial or even banal about his thoughts. One can imagine thinking in much the same way.

I also enjoy the references to The Dubliners. Although I have read Dubliners twice, with the single exception of Sister Mary Alocoque from "Eveline."I don't remember any of the specific characters Joyce mentions in Ulysses. Nevertheless, the references to them remind me that the community Bloom travels in is a smal one and one in which people are familiar with each other and one another's life stories. The names mentioned also give me the feeling that on another reading it would be fun to go back and reintroduce myself to the people from The Dubliners, whom Joyce sees fit to reference in Ulysses

Monday, September 28, 2009

Just reread "Calypso" and read "Lotuseaters" for the first time. Although both episodes are fairly easy to understand, I find the annotated version from http://www.columbia.edu/~fms5/ulys.htm a pleasure. As Leopold Bloom passes by stores, says hello to people on the Dublin streets, and visits the chemist, the Web site's brief explanation of places and people helps me walk in the neighborhood along with Bloom.

I think we will have an interesting conversation on October 8th when we get together for the second time. The two episodes place Bloom on center stage. His external conversation and inner thinking pattern create a flesh and blood character, one with both feet planted firmly in Dublin. Tomorrow, I hope to read at least one of the two remaining episodes I assigned.

I hope discussion members will be prepared to talk about what they think of and about Bloom. Also, it would be great if people would choose a passage they particularly like. Perhaps we will have time to read some aloud. I plan to play the DVD of Joyce's Dublin to introduce the discussion of the four episodes we will have read. Did I email Joyce's voice recording of some of Ulysses' passages to everyone?

Friday, September 25, 2009

Thought this might be fun for you to read. From The Irish Times:

"'Ulysses' among titles most people lie about reading"

Thu, Mar 05, 2009

James Joyce's Ulysses came in third behind George Orwell's 1984 and Leo Tolstoy¿s War and Peace .

Not in a survey of most acclaimed titles, as might be expected, but in a list of books most people have lied about reading.

A survey, carried out on the World Book Day website in January and February, found two-thirds of people lied about reading books they have in fact not read.

Asked why they had lied about reading a book, the main reason was to impress the person they were speaking to.

Orwell's futuristic thriller topped the literary fib list with 42 per cent of people claiming falsely to have read the book.

This was followed by Tolstoy¿s historical epic which 31 per cent pretended to have perused.

Leopold Bloom's jaunt around Dublin came in third with 25 per cent of those surveyed claiming erroneously to have read.

The Bible was in fourth position, and newly-elected US President Barack Obama's autobiography Dreams from My Father came ninth.

Aside from a list of ten titles which respondents were asked to tick or leave blank, many admitted wrongly claiming they had read other "classics" including Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Herman Melville.

Those who lied have claimed to have read: 1. 1984 - George Orwell (42 per cent) 2. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (31) 3. Ulysses - James Joyce (25) 4. The Bible (24) 5. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (16) 6. A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking (15) 7. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (14) 8. In Remembrance of Things Past ¿ Marcel Proust (9) 9. Dreams from My Father - Barack Obama (6) 10. The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins (6)

© 2009 irishtimes.com

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Just read "Calypso," on http://www.columbia.edu/~fms5/ulys.htm Quite wonderful, your cursor goes on an underlined blue letter and the meaning of the word or phrase appears. A second away from the text and you can keep going, barely interrupting the flow of Joyces rich language. (Thank you Colmbia University.)Most of the annotated words are places or terms, Dubliners contemporary with Joyce would have known.

In this episode, the writing seems similar to colorful writing one would read today, rich with detail summoned by sensory images. The inner thoughts are easily understood to be Bloom's and seldom is the reader confused. After the three episodes with Dtephen at the center, we are now introduced to Leonard and Molly Bloom, their relationship and daily life. At the close of the episode, Bloom expresses sympathy for "poor Dignam," the man whose funeral Bloom will attend later in the day.

Friday,September 18, 2009

Had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine from junior high school. He had read the blog and was interested in joining the Ulysses group. He mentioned something I found interesting, one of those things you sort of know but don't verbalize. Instead of using the title of Odysseus, the Greek name of the hero of The Odyssey, Joyce uses the Roman name, Ulysses. We all know that Odysseus and Ulysses are one and the same. Nevertheless, Homer, the Greek poet is the writer and Odysseus the original name. Joyce knew Greek but was probably more competent in Latin. Also, as my friend conjectured, Joyce's Catholic education with its Latin liturgy, would have made his natural choice of a title the Roman name rather than the Greek. If anyone would like to respond to this comment or make any other comment, we'd love to read it. just send it to hsobol4336@aol.com with Joyce in the message box.

Haven't begun the October assignment of Ulysses yet. Was busy reading Breath by Tim Winton. The New York City Group liked it and we had a good discussion. Tuesday and Wednesday are the discussions in Scarsdale.

Monday, September 14, 2009

A friend of mine who is not in the Ulysses group asked a question I would like to pass on to you . Does it make any difference to us as readers whether we know that Joyce used The Odyssey as a sketchy outline for Ulysses? Does this sort of information matter to us as we read the novel? The truth is, I don't know. I believe it helps me to know aboutnsome of the references to places, people, and historical events referred to in the text. It also helps me to know the meaning of some of the words in a language unfamiliar to me or expressions inearly 20th century Irish. But do the allusions make the book more enjoyable?

If any of us were to embark on a scholarly career and have a goal of unearthing all the puzzles and allusions Joyce inserted, the answer to my question would of course be affirmative. Somehow, however, I don't think this is the case. I'd love to know what you think.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Will we ever be able to write or say today's date without remembering the horror of that day? Probably not and perhaps we shouldn't. So, I must at least stop for a second and hope all the killing in the world stops. I suspect Joyce would join in the hope.

Yesterday at 10:30 we began our first session. As we went around the room introducing ourselves and responding to what we had read, it seemed as if we had achieved one goal..demystification of Ulysses. Notes from Web sites and The Bloomsday Book: A Guide through Joyce's Ulysses by Harry Balmires had helped explain to us what was happening in the first three episodes. The group was delighted to hear that the third episode, "Proteus" was one of the most difficult in the book, and that many people stopped reading after they struggled with the "shape shifter" episode which is dominated by Stephen's internal monologue.

We talked about Stephen and the sort of person we thought he was." Brilliant," was one response, "nerdy," someone else said, "arrogant, isolated, narcissistic, someone who would never be rid of his early Catholicism as much as he denied it." Most people had read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which was a good preparation for the Stephen of the first three episodes of Ulysses. Many had also read The Dubliners. O noted that when I reread The Dubliners, I was surprised how modern the stories are. I wouldn't have been surprised to find one of them in "The New Yorker." Plot is not essential, the stories often are not resolved. Joyce left literature as it had been in the dust.

I asked what might be the reason Joyce chose The Odyssey for his model. There are other heroic myths he could have used, Beowulf, The Iliad, Gilgamesh, and others. People responded that Joyce might have wanted to use the motif of travel and the idea of a hero trying to go home. I added that Odysseus was a true hero, a good man, trying to get home, occasionally halted by enemies, tempations, and his own flaws. Coincidentally he had a son, Telemachus, an outsider in his own home, afraid of his mother's, suitors, taking over his home (Buck Mulligan and the key.) Telemachus offered a role for Stephen, who many say represents Joyce.

The first three episodes, "Telemachus," "Nestor," and "Proteus" are said to be the bridge between Portrait and Ulysses. At the end of Portrait, Stephen leaves his home, his country, and his religion, to seek an unfettered creative life. Between the end of Portrait and the beginning of Ulysses, in a an unwritten scene, but a scene dramatically referred to by Buck, Stephen was called home because his mother was dying. Buck Milligan taunts Stephen for not praying for his mother even though itwas her dying wish he do so. Stephen loved his mother and may feel guilty but his personal denial of his Catholicism had more force.

In the beginning of Ulysses, Stephen is back in Ireland. He is living in the Martello Tower with a medical stident, Buck Mulligan, and a British Student, Haines, whom Stephen finds insufferable. Stephen pays the rent but Buck holds the key. Stephen is determined to leave the Tower. The last word in the first episode is "Usurper," clearly intended for Buck and Haines.

In the second episode, Stephen goes to his teaching job where his history class behaves the way a contemporary middle school class does with a substitute. The principal, Mr. Beasy tells Stephen that he believes Stephen won't be teaching much longer. We believe him. In this episode Stephen shown a kind side, feeling empathy for an unattractive boy, realizing that he is a boy probably loved only by his mother.

Our discussion of "Proteus," the third episode, was short. There were sections people understood, but Stephen's personal monologues were impenetrable for most of us. One person, a former Biology teacher mentioned that Proteus is related to the one celled organism, Protozoa, which like Proteus changes shape.

I reassured the group that the fourth episode was readable and interesting, so we shouldn't join the majority of readers who give up at "Proteus." Although there was great interest in Stephen's character, brilliant, arrogant, self-involved, I emphasized that Bloom was the central character of the book. I asked why Stephen chose an everyday kind of person to be the hero of the book but people felt they hadn't read enough to answer. They were still involved with Stephen and wanted to talk about him. I might add here that Stephen's close friend in Portrait, Cranly was a good person and lived in an everyday world, rather than, as Stephen did, a life of the mind. Perhaps, Stephen's friendship with Cranlyis a foreshadowing of the choice of Bloom as Ulysses' hero.

I led the group through the line references to Telemachus, Nestor and Proteus in The Odyssey. The lines provide a minimal reference to the first three episodes in Ulyseesl. It's interesting to me that in the editions of Ulysses I have seen, there are no headings or names for the episodes. Nevertheless, in the schema which Joyce gave to his good friends, the titles appear, and in all the scholarly criticism, they also appear.

We read briefly through the first three episodes, followig the action, occasionally reading passages.

At the close of the class we watched the first three parts of the DVD "James Joyce's Dublin" which I highly recommend. Link is below Amazon's description.

" In James Joyce's Dublin: The Ulysses Tour , Robert Nicholson, curator of the James Joyce Museum, Sandycove, conducts us through Joyce's world, with great enthusiasm and an irreverent sensibility that Joyce would surely have relished. Whilst allowing himself a couple of very Irish digs at the great man, he shares his admiration for the writer with us, together with his love of the novel and the city that gave birth to it, in a manner that is entirely captivating. " from Amazon.com

Joyce created a schema for his friends which I will post on the Ulysses page. Also, I have found an online annotated text on the Columbia University site which I shall also put on the Ulysses site. Some people are using Cliff Notes, some the Blamires book, and some the Spark Notes. I am using everything I can find and there is a great dealh. So many people and groups are reading Ulysses. There is even a graphic novel being created. I will put that site on the Ulysses page as well.

As we know, people read very differently, even on a first reading. Some will read and get what they can and not understand what they don't understand. Perhaps they will read it several times more. That is my way, first trying to follow the story, then looking at the details. Others need to understand every word in order to keep going.. As much as we try to convince each other that our way is the way to do it, each of us will continue on following our own way. That's just fine.

The assignment for the October session is to read Episodes, 4, 5, 6, and 7. They are. "Calyso," "Lotuseaters," Hades," and "Aeolus." It's a lot of reading but if we are to finish by Bloomsday, we have to take large bites.

Thursday, September 8th, 2009

I'm not sure what possessed me to organize a Ulysses discussion group. It must be my Type B personality content to do what I can without a classical education, without a religious education, but with an insatiable curiousity. It's not as if I have nothing to do. All the rooms in my house are screaming out for attention, "Organize me, gve me a big tidy-up, (my friend Jane from the UK's expression), throw out all this stuff, it's choking me."

I close my ears and try to find out, "Why did Joyce write "Ulysses?" "Why did he have to leave his country, his family, his religion in order to write?" "Why did he pick Bloom, a Jew to be his Odysseus?"

I hope I do a decent job of leading this group. I sent the Workshop members this email today:

My first orders of the day for Thursday is that we keep in mind that we are all novices at reading Ulysses (unless there is a Joyce ringer in the group). Aanyone who can prove her point of view with  the text is not wrong..as a matter of fact, no one is wrong...therefore no one should be afraid to have a point of view or a question. Our communal goal is to garner thoughts from each other so that at the end of the session each of us feels a bit more comfortable with what we have read, than we did before we meet.  

 4 Things for to bring Thursday Morning

1.Choose among the following (as many as you wish) or offer something entirely different:

1. Your reaction to the first  three episodes and Blamires' analysis if you read it... for example:  total befuddlement,  too much information, a  general understanding of the story, a pick and choose attitude about allusions, a willingness to pass over puzzling passages,   a need  to  understand everything which leads to frustration......all of the above 

 2. One or two questions you would like to raise with the group for discussion    

3. What you think of Stephen or feel about him...try to use examples from the text that make you think or feel this way      

4. Finally...a passage from the first three episodes you would like to read aloud or have someone else read aloud.  Please email me if you have other suggestions and don't want to wait until Thursday.    

Time for me to reread The Dubliners

September 2nd, 2009

In a Time Magazine article, Paul Gray quoted Joyce, "One of the things I could never get accustomed to in my youth was the difference I found between life and literature." Making the jump to conversation in life versus conversation in literature, I can't help but be amused and delighted by this comment. My friends and family are constantly bemused and befuddled by what they conclude are non sequiturs in my social conversation. What they don't understand is that my internal voice has provided the transition. Joyce has provided me with an explanation for my "jumpy" conversation. If I have already thought the transition, why bother saying it aloud? I use the term "social conversation" because, we are all less careful when we talk to friends and family than we are in our professional conversation.

Are the words Joyce gives to Stephen a combination of internal and external conversation, a combination whose parts may be indistinguishable to the reader? Perhaps our little adventure with Joyce will elicit more questions than answers. More later, the dog needs walking.

Please join the conversation.