Ulysses: The Mechanics of Meaning

by David Hayman

Since its original publication in 1970, the Mechanics of Meaning has become one of the most talked about, cited, and respected of commentaries on Joyce's classic work. Its compact format and its crisp, lucid style make David Hayman's book an essential one for all new readers of Ulysses . For this new edition Hayman has added a convenient chapter-by-chapter account of the action and a substantial afterword extending and amplifying ideas presented in the original edition and briefly summarizing the current critical scene. This makes the book of additional value both to sudents and to the many Joyce scholars who have long depended on the Prentice-Hall edition, now out of print.

Genres: Literary Criticism

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Bob R Bogle · Rating 3 out of 5]

After you've read enough books about the same book it becomes an easy exercise to skim off what is truly intriguing and original from what is common and reciprocally shared by all. I take notes when I read commentaries about James Joyce because I want to remember what's of most abiding interest in any given author's take on our shared subject of interest, and also because in doing so I'm generating my own personalized index should I want to dip down into the book again in the future. It's a fact that for most of these books, generally a few hundred pages long, I end up with between ten and twenty pages of notes. David Hayman's ULYSSES: THE MECHANICS OF MEANING generated seventeen pages of notes which is pretty good for a 172 page book, including about thirty pages of end material.

I'd wanted to read this book ever since I first heard about Hayman's famous Arranger theory, first mentioned in the original edition released in 1970. As he points out in his final chapter, added a decade after the original publication, Joycean narratologists have taken this idea and run with it ever since. Speaking for myself, my Ulyssean interests tend to self-assemble into three categories: the architecture of the book, built upon the Odyssean design combined with a vast symbolic and allusive network; the voices, which include all the narrators and related non-character incursions; and the words themselves, which Joyce strung together according to the dictates of his own curious muse. Hayman has less to tell us here about the first or last category but, as I'd anticipated, his thoughts about narration are at the heart of this little book.

Hayman views the Arranger is as an exterior force operating beyond or outside the more-or-less impartial narrators of ULYSSES. The consequence of the intrusions by the Arranger are to substantially alter and distort the text of ULYSSES, increasingly so, particularly in its last several episodes. While my own understanding of how this external force operates on the text is not the same as his, it was most satisfying to finally read the original conception which has since become so important to critical thinking about Joyce's book. I'm not at all bothered that the original notion has substantially evolved in the decades since 1970.

How does Hayman's commentary stand in comparison to other books about its subject? This is probably not the book for the first-time explorer of ULYSSES, not because it is difficult to understand, but because it assumes a certain knowledge of the novel which the neophyte can't possess. It's an excellent companion for someone making his or her second read of the book. More generally, Hayman is a more reader-friendly Joycean writer than many others you might come across out in the wild. His thinking is more innovative than many, so you'll encounter several original and provocative gems embedded in his writing.

[Natalie]

Kathy's book

[Robert Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and well written