Ronald’s Comments (group member since Apr 18, 2018)

Ronald’s comments from the Spring Is in Bloom: Ulysses at the Wild Detectives group.

I love it! Thanks for sharing that. I am primarily an organist. My doctorate is in Organ performance. Check me out on itunes. Organ Music of Ned Rorem, Ronald Prowse, organist, released by Albany Records in 2000, my first and last CD.

You are probably right, Mark. The search for a fugal form is peripheral to simply reading and enjoying the book, probably a waste of time, especially if Joyce is just pulling our leg.

I can often get caught up in a Joycean wild goose chase. I believe that there are quite a few enigmas, as Joyce once claimed, to keep us puzzling for years. I am sure that many, if not most, of his hints are dead ends. For whatever reason, I like to tear apart works of art to discover what "lies" below the surface. Often all I find are "lies." But there are lots of different types of fun at finnegans wake." Who ever thought that a funeral could also be "funferall," but it certainly can.

I get similar remarks from my students when I analyze a work by a composer like Bach, who can also be listened to on many levels. "Why can't we just listen to the music and enjoy it," they say. Well, you can. Personally, my enjoyment increases and is enriched, when I understand the many levels of a fine work of art. Analysis and discovery can also be exciting and satisfying.

That being said, I also love to just read and enjoy Joyce.

The introduction is like an overture of an opera; each line can be found somewhere in the chapter. I have tried hard to understand Joyce's claim that the chapter is a fugue, but I just don't see it. I read an article in the James Joyce Quarterly years ago demonstrating the possibility of a sonata-allegro form, but I was not convinced.

Joyce had at least a basic knowledge of music, I am sure, and we are told many stories about his desire for a period of time to be a professional singer. As a professor of music, having taught music theory and analytic technique for years, I keep trying to make sense of his claim. Actually, I am not convinced that he understood the fugal form. In book II, chapter 1, of Finnegans Wake we read, toward the beginning, in the credits for the play:

"…we think it well to add a chorale in canon, good for us all, for us all, us all, all." Now that made me laugh, imitating the end of a round (canon) as everyone drops off. But I haven't found anything like that in Sirens.

My favorite is the Sweets of Sin segment.

-Sweets of sin, he said, tapping on it. That's a good one.

As Ulysses unfolds, we become aware that Blazes Boylan is coming over to see Molly at 4:00 p.m. When Molly receives the letter from Boylan in the Calypso chapter, "bold hand, Mrs. Marion," we learn that Boylan is coming over, but the time isn't mentioned. Bloom, however, is very aware of the 4:00 time throughout the day, the inevitable moment when he is cuckolded.
. He must have learned the time off stage as it were, outside of our hearing, or reading. I find that nteresting. Am I missing something? Why didn't Joyce have Molly say, "he's coming over with the program at 4:00," instead of simply "here's coming over with the program."? What did Joyce gain by leaving the time out when we were eavesdropping? When did Bloom find out? Did he peak at the letter when we weren't looking, when Molly wasn't looking. Not likely. Any thoughts?

“The man in the brown macintosh loves a lady who is dead." -chapter twelve, the cyclops chapter. The man in the brown macintosh keeps popping up throughout Ulysses. At the end of fourteen he appears in the pub. He also appears in chapter fifteen, the Circe chapter.