Ulysses
Ulysses by James Joyce
There is a strong argument for studying this intimidating text- and I believe the only way to study it is with a group of hungry, curious readers who all contribute to evoking meaning. The Ulysses Salon will commence with a close study of the first 100 pages. After two rich Salon studies of A Portrait of the Artist…, I know that any time spent studying Joyce leaves one a better reader- a broader thinker- even if all the references, repetitions, epiphanies and allusions are not understood. Now, to the Why do it? Again, Clifton Fadiman (thanks Dave Frey!)
1. It is probably the most completely organized, thought out work of
literature since The Divine Comedy.
2. It is the most influential novel (call it that for the lack of a
better term) published in our century. The influence is indirect-
through other writers.
3. It is one of the most original works of the imagination in the
language. It broke not one trail, but hundreds.
4. There is some disagreement here, but the prevailing view is that
it is not “decadent’ or “immoral” or “pessimistic”. Like the work
of many of the supreme artists…it proposes a vision of life as
seen by a powerful mind that rises above the partial, the
sentimental, and the self-defensive.
5. Unlike its original, the Odyssey, it is not an open book. It
yields its secrets only to those willing to work, just as
Beethoven’s last/ /quartets reveal new riches the longer they are
studied.
Ulysses can be read with passion without intellectually understanding the text. In this case, we identify ourselves completely with the character, our imagination lays hold of his sensation, his pleasure, his reminiscences, and we live with him, we dream with him. The prolonging of the interior monologue in our imagination will provoke pure reverie…Because the interior monologue in its fragmentary incoherence includes, as we have seen before, all the logical structure and grammatical armature of thought.
–Emeric Fischer
“You should approach Joyce’s Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.” William Faulkner
The good news: reading Ulysses is fun. And I don’t mean in a frustrating, overly-analytical see-how much you know way- the language is amazing- even when I don’t understand it- perhaps especially when I don’t understand it- because meaning sneaks in through more than my critical faculty- meaning slides in through sound, through the lushness of the language- through the filmy and substantial images- and suddenly I find myself transported from a walk on a beach to a contemplation of the origins of man- thanks, JJ.