alex marshall's thoughts (cont'd)

Trying to follow Stephen along Sandymount strand, I'm reminded of Philip Pullman's advice to first-time readers of Paradise Lost, which is basically "Just bomb on through, enjoy the ride and the view, and worry about the meaning later."

PL readers can be pretty sure that Milton had a narrative in mind, and that once they'd decoded all the references they'd be left with a richer, deeper understanding of that narrative.

With Joyce, not so much. What pops into his head seems to be pretty random, triggered by what he was supposed to be doing (going to his aunt's) what he'd decided to do (skip it) what came into his field of view (a dog lolloping along the beach) and so on.

The relevant book of the Odyssey gives some clues-- but then there are for example the blue-footed Egyptians. (Or does he have blue feet?) OK, "Egyptians" means "gypsies", and the various apparently nonsense words that follow are Romany and thieves' slang from the 18-19C. So far so good. The question is -- why? What is Joyce trying to do here and at any one of a dozen other places in this chapter? It's fun, and he plays with language like a juggler producing footballs and fireworks from his back pocket. But is that all? Is it enough? I found myself getting annoyed, like Robert's Cyclops.

More and deeper? Or just bomb on through and let the meaning take care of itself? Wd that be to miss 90 per cent of what's in there, or simply avoid running up a bunch of dead ends and into brick walls? My head hurts.

alex marshall's thoughts

Reading Ulysses I feel less like the Cyclops (a one-eyed blind man trying to hit a shifting target) as you suggest than Theseus in the labyrinth without a clue (e.g. in Zachary Mason’s “The Lost Books of the Odyssey”).

If the Odyssey is "about" the search for identity and a home, “a local habitation and a name”, maybe the snarky throwaway line about the “cracked looking glass” gains power as a metaphor for Joyce’s resentment at his own loss as well as Ireland’s collective deprivation. However complete his identification in English (his own birth language, after all, for many generations back) it would always be the language of the conqueror, the imposed colonial power. This isn’t just a matter of politics, but of the very significance and weight of words, their back-story and place in the history of the land and the people, and therefore the inner identity that language expresses. Joyce and Beckett were exiles long before they left Ireland.

It occurred to me that the metaphor goes not only to Ireland’s long history of repression of Irish life and thought as well as literature under the British, but extends to the Church. The Church was in effect a rival colonial power, struggling to suppress not only the the native Irish church, which was the easy part, but the customs and ways of life and thought that stretched all the way back into the time of myth and legend. (You don't have to be a misty Yeatsy "Celtic twilight" nut to accept this.) As much as the Irish common people embraced the Church (and whatever part the Church played in the Irish liberation struggle) the Church suffocated in return a lot of what it meant to be Irish – Brian Friel’s play “Dancing at Lughnasa” comes to mind.

Then there’s the assimilation of “West Britons” like Deasy (doesn’t “The Dead” also deal with this?) searching for their own identity, another part of the story, and turning into pathetic imitators of the English (language and life) in the process.
It also recalls to me Friel’s “Translations” which deals not just with the blindness and stupidity of the colonial power, hurling rocks in rage and frustration, but the impossibility of comprehension, even with a lover’s eye.

syllabus

NYU/SCPS
Reading James Joyce’s Ulysses
Thursday evenings
Professor Robert Frumkin
robert.maxim.frumkin@gmail.com
ulyssesnyublog.blogspot.com

Description
This class is designed to appeal to a wide range of students who would like to read James Joyce’s Ulysses. For those with little knowledge of James Joyce, I attempt to make the book accessible and less intimidating; for those who have read Dubliners and/or A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I will often make connections to Joyce’s earlier writings; while for those who have already read Ulysses one or more times, I will offer topics to ponder and deepen a second, third, or twentieth reading of the novel.

Organization
This class will consists mostly of discussion. I will give a broad introduction to Joyce and his works in the beginning of the semester and will introduce each chapter before students attempt to read it, but class time will be spent mostly on hearing students reactions to each week’s readings. I encourage discussion and even disagreement about the book. We will discuss everything from trivia to small problems in interpretation to broader questions of character, style, meaning, and interpretation. Because of the themes of the Ulysses, some larger philosophical discussions will arise.

Course Objectives
The main objective of this course is to get students through the book. As students will discover, it is in some ways impossible to read Ulysses only once since it is a novel that needs to be re-read several times to be truly appreciated and understood. That said, we will attempt the impossible, using my extensive experience, as well as common sense and the range of abilities of the students in the class.

Books and other resources
As our main required text, we will use the edition of Ulysses edited by Hans Walter Gabler. It is published by Random House. Students need to get this edition and bring it to the first class. This edition has line numbers. We will jump around a lot in the book; you will not be able to follow if you have a different edition.

For novice readers, Harry Blamires’ The Bloomsday Book provides helpful summaries of each chapter. It is also useful in pointing out to first-time readers details they will need to remember for later on in the novel. This book can be expensive and/or hard to find. Use the internet. Any edition is fine.

For those nagging historical questions (e.g. who was Parnell?) and other trivia, Ulysses Annotated provides handy answers. It will not be possible during a first reading of Ulysses to “look everything up.” We will use common sense in deciding how much we need to know, for example, about turn-of-the-century Irish politics.

There are myriad Joyce resources available on the internet, among them the Brazen Head website, that are useful and that give some idea of the scope of the Joyce “industry.”

Richard Ellmann’s biography, with its excellent index, is a very useful resource for those interested in Joyce’s life.

I will keep a blog during the semester. It will include my musings on the book, suggested additional reading, topics for reflection, etc. The blog is at ulyssesnyublog.blogspot.com. The blog will have the syllabus on it if you’re on the road or lose yours.

Grading
Most students take this class for pleasure, not credit. If you need a grade for this course, please let me know at the beginning of the semester.

Attendance
Since there are only ten classes, I expect students to attend every class meeting. If you must miss a meeting, please let me know in advance and I will keep you updated by email about what you missed and what to do for the next meeting.

Rules of Conduct
Please do not eat or drink in class. If you’ve read Ulysses before, please respect how difficult the novel is for first-time readers and give them space to struggle with the book.

Tips for success
If you have not read a novel in a while, be prepared for the need to concentrate for extended stretches of time. This may involve setting aside one morning a week for reading. This is not a book to pick up late in the evening before falling asleep.
Do not try to be a hero. You will get more out of a first-time reading of Ulysses if you use The Bloomsday Book and other resources to assist you.