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."

What does he mean?

I've been away from this blog for several months. First, my Irish Studies course took up my life for 8 weeks--was amazingly academic and rigorous, but I got me A and I actually learned quite a bit. Then I got distracted by Maria Edgeworth and wondered why Jane Austen is so famous both in pop culture and in academic culture, so I started reading all of Jane's books, collecting articles about Maria Edgeworth (which are only academic), collecting academic and pop articles about Jane Austen and finished reading nearly all of Maria's stories. Now I'm really curious as to why Jane and not Maria is a mainstay of our pop culture. Maria (a contemporary of Jane) was very famous during the beginning of the 19th century and her National Biography entries far out-weighed Jane's. Then something happened at the turn of the 19th century and the trend reversed. Stay tuned to find out why--I'm still looking myself.

I gave up on Ulysses during those months. I felt that I simply do not have enough hours left in my life to complete this book. The third section is a bear to read. I'm plowing through it but geez, why make it so hard. (Because James Joyce was Irish and he knew he could confuse everyone and they'd spend a century decifering his gobbledegook.) Here is what he means in the Proteus (3) section (1st page):

Ineluctable modality: impossible to avoid or evade:"inescapable conclusion"; "an ineluctable destiny"; "an unavoidable accident." and Theology? Church teaching? I'm too stupid to get it.

maestro di color che sanno: Dante on Aristotle: "the master of the men who know."
Diaphane--transparent silk--or cells? Which one. Stephen sees color in them. Can he go through them?
adiaphane--The opposite--he tries to "shut his eyes and see" as he walks--through a door, a gate? A very short space of time through very short times of space (great phrase)
nacheinander/nebeneinander: "one after another/successively”; “next to one another/adjacent.”
Los Demiurgos: Beats me--Los could be an article for Demiurgos; or it could refer to Blakes poetry, or just a pun to make us all look stupid for looking it up. All I know is that Demiurge refers to a diety.
Sandymount--ahhhh--a beachy strand on Dublin Bay--I've been there!
am I walking into eternity along Sandymount strang? Crush, crack, crick, crick. Wild sea money. Dominie Deasy kens them... The teacher from the second section...knows all the wild sea shells that might bring money.
catalectic tetrameter of iambs--works for me.
And that is just the first page!!

Can I continue reading? Maybe I'll try--After my own walk along the streets of suburan Colorado; no crush, crack or crick, crick. Just a silent walk, clean sidewalks, no wind, eyes open, past budding tulips, blue sky and happy thoughts of motherhood--no trailing navelcord, hushed in ruggy wool. The cords of all link back, strandentwining cable of all flesh.
Okay, all you Joyce scholars--admit you were clueless until you looked this all up phrase by phrase over the early years of your career....

Saw Flogging Molly last night...fun, fun, fun.