BookPalaver: Ulysses for Eejits

 

On June 16, 1904, within the pages of James Joyce's Ulysses, Leopold Bloom criss-crosses the city of Dublin, occasionally bumping into Stephen Dedalus, whom we already know and love (or not) from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  Also on June 16, 1904, Joyce had his first date with his future wife, Nora Barnacle.  In honor of Bloomsday, to learn all about what happens in this magnificent but difficult book without having to read a single one of its 783 (or so) pages, click here.

The first chapter, pictured above, shows Stephen talking to Buck Mulligan (based on Joyce's friend Oliver St. John Gogarty, the very same whose name graces a pub in Temple Bar), in a Martello tower down the coast from Dublin in Sandycove.  I visited once in November 2000 but it was closed. I had to content myself with climbing up on a high and very narrow ledge in big chunky heels.  If you've ever clicked on the "About" link at the top of this page and wondered what that was all about, now you know.

I bookmarked the Ulysses for Dummies site pictured above many years ago and am so pleased to know it's still there, in all its Paintbrush glory.  Despite its low-tech look, I should point out there is some mildly lewd animation.  This is, after all, the novel that Joyce struggled to get published and was actually banned as obscene in Great Britain as well as the United States.  On December 6, 1933, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, by the Honorable John M. Woolsey, lifted the ban.  (United States v. One Book Called "Ulysses," 5 F. Supp. 182 (S.D.N.Y. 1933).) Judge Woolsey's opinion is worth reading; in fact, it's fantastic (well, to bookish egghead/lawyers anyway).  Here are a couple of excerpts:

The words which are criticized as dirty are old Saxon words known to almost all men, and, I venture, to many women, and are such words as would be naturally and habitually used, I believe, by the types of folk whose life, physical and mental, Joyce is seeking to describe. In respect of the recurrent emergence of the theme of sex in the minds of his characters, it must always be remembered that his locale was Celtic and his season Spring.

. . . .

I am quite aware that owing to some of its scenes "Ulysses" is a rather strong draught to ask some sensitive, though normal, persons to take. But my considered opinion, after long reflection, is that whilst in many places the effect of "Ulysses" on the reader undoubtedly is somewhat emetic, nowhere does it tend to be an aphrodisiac.

"Ulysses" may, therefore, be admitted into the United States.

If you want to learn even more about Ulysses (who wouldn't?!) you can find everything you always wanted to know -- and then some -- here.  In the meantime, here's some literary/musical theatre/Mel Brooks trivia.  According to Wikipedia, in the musical version of The Producers, Matthew Broderick's character, who is called Leopold Bloom, asks in a scene at the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, "When will it be Bloom's day?" In an earlier scene, when  Bloom first meets Max Bialystock, the office wall calendar shows that the date is 16 June.

Happy Bloomsday!

Comments

[Shorty]

This commentary and tutorial on Ulysses and Joyce is too good not to be enjoyed by more people. What can be done to make sure it gets a wider audience? The hypertext leads to other sources are fantastic. I never liked Joyce's stream of consciousness style but maybe I have missed something. I should try him again. -Blaise

[mbpalaver]

Thanks! If you want to try Joyce again, I'd suggest A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which is a short novel and, although it also uses stream of consciousness, much of the narrative is more conventional than Ulysses. It also begins with Stephen Dedalus's early life, which creates more sympathy for Stephen as he grows into a young adult who is challenging to love -- as well as for Joyce himself, as the novel is somewhat autobiographical. You could also try Dubliners, his collection of short stories (which includes The Dead, his most well-known short story). The short stories are written in a more straightforward narrative style, though based on the number of annotations I wrote in my copy from college (which still bears the ubiquitous orange USED label on the spine) the meaning is not so straightforward.