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Tag Archives: james joyce
Thoughts on James Joyce’s “Clay”
In Joyce’s story “Clay,” Maria is the clay—completely molded by events outside herself. None of Maria’s emotions originate from within herself… each is a reaction to the needs or emotion of someone else: she’d rather not take a gift, but … Continue reading
Joyce’s “A Little Cloud”
Joyce’s “A Little Cloud” is structurally interesting— consider Little Chandler and Gallaher as parallel to Corley and Lenehan—and were I back in school writing post-structuralist criticism of the kind understandable only to a small inner-circle of other students of post-structuralist … Continue reading
Thoughts on Joyce’s “The Boarding House”
They call Mrs. Mooney, rather ambiguously, “The Madam.” A term of respect for making something of her shambolic circumstances, but also a none-too-subtle allusion to the fact that she is essentially prostituting her daughter. Polly wants a new life through … Continue reading
Limerick for “Two Gallants”
“Two Gallants” didn’t do much for me… feels like a series of symbols in search of a story. So here’s a metrically challenged limerick (seemed like the appropriate form) in honor of the “The Two Gallants” and the two gallants: … Continue reading
A Thought on Joyce’s “After the Race”
There are a few things that strike me about this story, but I’m going to talk about just two. First, the punny title. Yes, there’s a race. But isn’t Joyce also commenting on the Irish people and how they always … Continue reading
Thoughts on Joyce’s “Eveline”
A “creature” “burning with anguish and anger.” Wearing a straitjacket. “Passive, like a helpless animal.” Paralysis. Eveline looks to God for an answer to what shouldn’t be any kind of dilemma but finds none. No surprise, this being Joyce. In … Continue reading
Thoughts on Joyce’s “Araby”
The language! On his deathbed, Jack Spicer’s last words were “My vocabulary did this to me!” I think Spicer meant vocabulary in the broadest sense, the way that those who possess (and obsess) over language are inhabited by it, the … Continue reading
Thoughts on Joyce’s “An Encounter”
Joyce apparently said many times that Dubliners is meant to be more like a novel than a collection of individual stories. At the same time, he also spoke to the process of writing Dubliners as one of gnomon, which Wikipedia … Continue reading
Thoughts on Joyce’s “The Sisters”
I have to remind myself that Dubliners was intended, as I understand it, to be closer to a novel than a collection of individual stories. It was certainly written to be read as a whole, which can make it problematic … Continue reading
Posted in Art & Life & Politics, motleyread
Tagged books, dubliners, james joyce, motleyread, reading
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Join the Motley Reading of Joyce’s Dubliners
[CC licensed image by reillyandrew] Today begins a motley reading of James Joyce’s Dubliners by a shaggy collective connective group network. Its easy for to join in the fun if you’d like!
Ulysses Update: Episode 15 – "Circe"
[image by FlickrJunkie] I think I may have lost my companions on the voyage through Ulysses, a loss I am feeling most keenly after reading this and the previous sections… I would love to know what they make of them. … Continue reading
Ulysses Update – Episode 14 – Oxen of the Sun
[image by occhiovivo] OK, so this is section that broke my back the first time I “read” (and the depth of my engagement that time demands the scare quotes) Ulysses, and it very nearly did so again this time. With … Continue reading
Ulysses Update – Episode 13 – Nausicaa
[image from litmuse; created by Jonathan Day] Ah, the infamous Gerty MacDowell. This is one section of Ulysses that has remained in my mind from the first reading and even before I had started considering the Homeric parallels, thinking instead … Continue reading
Ulysses Update – Part 12 – Cyclops
[photo by Walt Jabsco] A strange, strange section of Ulysses (I should get my terminology straight– these aren’t properly books, but section doesn’t accurately represent the degree to which each is different from one another. Part? Episode?). There are two … Continue reading
Ulysses Update: Book 11 – The Sirens
[art by mikem1115] This is a late update; I finished the “Sirens” section of Ulysses almost three weeks ago and have finished two more section since. As a result, I have only my marginal notes and poor memory to … Continue reading
Ulysses Update – Wandering Rocks
[photo by Jamelah] This relatively straightforwardly written section of Ulysses was quite a changeup from the complex “Scylla and Charybdis” book just before. In The Odyssey Ulysses chooses to sacrifice 6 of his men rather than risk the Wandering Rocks, … Continue reading
Ulysses Update
[photo by Bikkhu] Finished Book 9 (Scylla and Charybdis) of Ulysses. I found Book 9 fiendishly difficult, not because the writing style was impenetrable, but because I found it continually difficult to get a good grasp of the two main … Continue reading
Brief Ulysses Update
[image by maxf] Just finished Episode 8, The Laestrygonians. Random, likely incoherent thoughts that’ve crossed my mind over the last 60 pages or so: There’s something interesting and tricky going on with the voice and perspective of Bloom’s monologue… a … Continue reading
Ulysses Annotated
Ulysses Annotated is a great resource when tackling Joyce’s densely allusive novel, but in some ways it is almost as unwieldy as Ulysses itself! If you make it through the lengthy, but immensely useful introduction– which is generally concerned with … Continue reading
Joyce’s Prose Poetry
Some segments from Chapter 1 with a musicality that particularly appealed to my ear, even if they are sometimes unpleasant: If I were suddenly naked here as I sit? I am not. Across the sands of all the world, … Continue reading