:: The Blurst of Times ::

:: 10.26.2004 ::

June 16, 1904

I am now over halfway done with Ulysses. It has taken me a long time. To understand why it has taken me a long time, let’s review a couple sample sentences [p 383]:

Universally that person’s acumen is esteemed very little perceptive concerning whatsoever matters are being held as most profitable by mortals with sapience endowed to be studied who is ignorant of that which the most in doctrine erudite and certainly by reason of that in them high mind’s ornament deserving of veneration constantly maintain when by general consent they affirm that other circumstances being equal by no exterior splendour is the prosperity of a nation more efficaciously asserted than by the measure of how far forward may have progressed the tribute of its solicitude for that proliferent continuance which of evils the original if it be absent when fortunately present constitutes the certain sign of omnipolent nature’s incorrupted benefaction. For who is there who anything of some significance has apprehended but is conscious that that exterior splendour may be the surface of a downwardtending lutulent reality or on the contrary anyone so is there inilluminated as not to perceive that as no nature’s boon can contend against the bounty of increase so it behoves every most citizen to become the exhortator and admonisher of his semblables and to tremble lest what had in the past been by the nation excellently commenced might be in the future not with similar excellence accomplished if an inverecund habit shall have gradually traduced the honourable by ancestors transmitted customs to that thither of profundity that that one was audacious excessively who would have the hardihood to rise affirming that no more odious offence can for anyone be that to oblivious neglect to consign that evangel simultaneously command and promise which on all mortals with prophecy of abundance or with diminution’s menace that exalted of reiteratedly procreating function ever irrevocably enjoined?

No. Bullshit. You didn’t really read that. You skipped over it because it was so long and it doesn’t make sense. Go back to the top and read, really really read each and every word. Copy it and paste it, print it out, I don’t care, read it. It’s two sentences from the beginning of a section, the least you can do it read it. You hear me, Newsie? Read that fucking paragraph and suffer with me!!

Okay, you get it? Me neither. Fortunately, the whole book isn’t that tough. Some parts are very literal, some parts are references to mythology, history, and literature that I get - others I don’t. A lot of things are in other languages, mostly Latin, French, and some Italian. Sometimes I can piece the references together by the narrative, sometimes I can’t. You kind of have to move through the whole piece trying to grab the gist of what’s going on, rather than follow every bit of dialogue or (as is often the case with Mr. James Joyce) every thought. Also, he doesn’t really use punctuation or any other form of written language that writers usually use to convey information. I guess this makes him cool, I don’t know.

Here’s what I do know: The story takes place in Dublin, Ireland and is a modern retelling of Homer’s Odyssey. The main character is Leopold Bloom. He has a wife named Molly who has large breasts. He has a daughter named Millie who is just coming to suitors’ age. He has a son, Rudy, who died at childbirth - this seems to lend itself to a lot of pain that Bloom keeps within. Bloom is Jewish and devoted to the free Ireland cause. He works writing and selling ads to newspapers, I have a feeling he’s also into some crooked stuff, but it could just be a sense of suspicion from others because he’s Jewish. His wife is an opera singer. Bloom loves to eat kidneys and have sex with lots and lots of young women. He spends the first part of his day running some errands and going to Paddy Dignam’s funeral. Then he spends the afternoon running errands and going to pubs and talking to people. There are a lot of conversations going on, many which are incomplete and have sometime to do with people fucking around. There’s also lots of talk about Ireland’s sovereignty. Other important (recurring) characters include Simon Dedalus (name is itself a Greek mythologic reference) as a friend of Bloom’s, Stephen Dedalus as the son of Simon and an aspiring writer (and, I’ve heard, as the persona of the author in the novel), and Buck Mulligan as a friend of Stephen’s. And a number of other people, here and there. Currently, I think Bloom is with Stephen and a couple other guys in a whore house with girls named Zoe, Florry, and Kitty. There was a very surreal confrontation between Bloom and the head mistress (head whore?). I think he is starting to figure out the true cost of all his philandering, in the same way the suitors threatened Odysseus’ home. But I’m a little shady about all that because the last fifty pages appear to be visioning a dreamlike hallucination through Bloom’s mind’s eye, and the last hundred pages have been written in a style of some kind of play.

So now I know he’s just fuckin with me.

“It’s been so long, man, I wanna go home...”

:: Freddy F. at 8:31 PM [+] ::

Comments:

First of all, I think you should adopt Joyce's writing style for your blog. I didn't realize the second sentence was a question until I got to the end and saw the question mark.
Second, your synopsis of the story did not explain at all what this has to do with the Odyssey.

# posted by  DrNewsie : 11:32 PM

 

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