I just read a literary blog about command of voice (mentioned in Nathan Bransford's literary blog). The example used, "Call me Ishmael." How much more commanding can those first words be in a novel? The voice has control of the writer and the writer has control of the story. Call me Ishmael. The blogger goes on to name examples of great voice--Tim O'Brien (at least in The Things They Carried), Cormac McCarthy, and more.

Perhaps, that's one unspoken problem with Ulysses. The voice is not commanding--"Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead..." If truth be told (and I no longer believe truth is being told about Ulysses), that is a pretty weak beginning compared to "Call me Ishmael." Or, John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, "The truth is, if old Major Dover hadn't dropped dead at Taunton races Jim would never have come to Thursgood's at all." Or, The Dead--to me, James Joyce's masterpiece--, "Lily, the caretaker's daughter, was literally run off her feet."

Section 3 of Ulysses, Proteus: "Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that is no more, thought through my eyes..."

The second truth here today--I could not, simply could not, plow through Proteus. Acccording to Ellman, a single process "binds the two parts of the episode," birth and death. This is not growth but corruption. Stephen sees all created things in process of decay, every day dying a little, as if death were a concurrent process. Then he has many examples in his head. Ellman goes on to say that besides generation and corruption, another element is hinted at (buried in?): The beginning of the episode begins with his reading and ends with his writing a poem. The poem is of revulsion, but in rhythm and rhyme. Joyce continues this in Stephen's urinating into Cock lake--the sound 'verbalized in wave-speech.'"

I truly appreciate any story that brings together growth and corruption, the process of decay, how little parts of us die every day, and, I appreciate Joyce's disgust at the corruption of not only the Irish Catholic church but of the Irish government--going back to the unforgiveable treatment of Charles Parnell. However, I keep returning to my original impression--how can we discuss these issues, feel these emotions, unless an artist/writer communicates them to us. That is their job--their reason for being--okay, I know that present-day American writing is all about the writer, not the communication of universal themes, but in Proteus, these issues are not communicated at all. Let's all channel--"Call me Ishmael."