I am one stride at a time. I am still working my way through Ulysses by James Joyce. So far, dear old Jim has tried to weaponise language, in a way to put me off comprehending him a number of times. James Joyce must have had a busy mind. If Ulysses represents just over a day- do we ever stop to consider how many thoughts we have in a day? Although I do find value in his stream of consciousness, the raw honesty, the details, how language appears in the mind and on the lips… the unique sound of Dublin…how thoughts often crop up unbidden…how we all have a different voice… He has been obscene, obscure and obtuse. It’s like following someone around the town and they keep trying to give you the slip into a crowd- kicking trash cans down in their wake. He has thrown multiple cultural references out of the frame of my context, he has been deliberately rude, he has used Jewish slurs. He is walking me through a Dublin I don’t recognise. I understand why challenging the passivity and expectations of an audience is important. One of my favourite examples of this is John Cage’s 4’ 33. Everything we do is music. Are you still following me through Dublin Amy? Oh Yes Jim…Mr. Bloom.
As the book I read this month for Rebel Book Club Four Thousand Weeks pointed out, sometimes it’s a necessity to focus on giving a complex novel the time it needs. I am currently on chapter 12 of 25. I really applaud anyone who can get past chapter 8. It is a meandering intellectual conversation that argues in a circle around Hamlet being involved in a grandfather paradox. Interlaced with ample references to Greek and Roman mythology. All to emphasise how educated and clever and impenetrable we must find the mind of Stephen Daedalus. Who I am thankfully acquainted with from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I am a huge fan of Shakespeare. I have seen 12 of the 40 plays preformed. My next Shakespeare experience will be Titus Andronicus at the Globe. My favourite sonnets are; 8, 9, 27, 29, 35, 36, 94, 116, and 154.
Thankfully, chapter 8 ends - this grand philosophical distraction for bloom ends and we get to move on with the story. Which is Bloom avoiding going home because his wife Molly is having an affair with Blazes Boylan. How will he avoid going home next??
