Dubliners in James Joyce Reading Group

Apr 20, 2016 Cormac rated it it was amazing

Ellipsis
Ellipsis, as they appear in Dubliners, seem to connote a prudent intuition, instances of characters collapsing into inexpression appear manifold throughout; I see this hesitation and eventual cessation of speech not as an explicit articulation of illiteracy or a frenzied groping for words, but as an expression of the social grammar that negates and governs much of the social interaction that transpires in Dublin. Speakers, with a conscious sagacity, curtail or altogether suppress what th Ellipsis
Ellipsis, as they appear in Dubliners, seem to connote a prudent intuition, instances of characters collapsing into inexpression appear manifold throughout; I see this hesitation and eventual cessation of speech not as an explicit articulation of illiteracy or a frenzied groping for words, but as an expression of the social grammar that negates and governs much of the social interaction that transpires in Dublin. Speakers, with a conscious sagacity, curtail or altogether suppress what they would presumably care to convey in order to fulfill social expectation. Myriad quotations participate in illustrating the cautious and presupposed social climate of Dublin, as it appears in the collection. The quotations can be viewed further as context ambient to public life in Dublin. It is important to consider, I think, the implications of this static social setting, and consider the ways in which it renders nearly all social interaction paralyzed and predictable.

Anthropomorphic Houses

In Dubliners, buildings and houses assume anthropomorphic qualities, and these ostensibly facial qualities seem to, moreover, mirror the countenances of their owners. These buildings, analogous to T.J Eckleberg in their eternal wakefulness, impart an austere and judicial energy that seems very reminiscent of those that congregate within their interior. I would like to make mention of, for illustrative purposes, that houses are commonly indicative, in appearance, of their owners, and I think several descriptive efforts in Dubliners lend legitimacy to that idea. Mr. Duffy, a man whom endeavors to distance himself from the prosaic cultural composition of Dublin, comments initially not on his disdain for the sentient population of Dublin, but on the abysmal architectural sensibilities of the Dublin populace. Mr. Duffy is further circumventing the stolid judgment of others by virtue of the absence of ancestral portraits on his walls; he is, for example, unlike someone such as Eveline, insofar as he is free from the judgmental and oppressive gaze of his ancestors. The buildings and homes in Dubliners seem not to loom indifferently; but, appear a population of quasipious architectural arrangements that seem more alive and grounded in the cultural convictions of the time than most would expect. Neighborhoods collude, almost nefariously, in imposing social inflexibilities and limitations on those that inhabit them, and seem a brief microcosm of the social and cultural climate of Dublin; they seem, if nothing else, from the feeble, ghastly lanterns that offer only a lazy magnitude of luminosity to the imperturbable faces, an ambient assumption of decline.

Humans as a zoological collection
Throughout Dubliners, the image of man as an animal is invoked; the characters, like helpless animals, each seem fettered to the intentionality of their respective cultural environments. Like corpses in the aftermath of a primitive hunt—the boy in Araby, Eveline and Gabriel were each led astray by the values inherent and associated with their culture. Although these epochs of epiphany see characters arrive at revealing realizations concerning themselves and the futility of their past actions, it seems as if a despotic cultural determinism is at fault here. Perhaps the boy in Araby, Eveline and Gabriel are not altogether significant victims of a culture burdened with the presence of two pervasive evils. ...more

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Jan 23, 2017 Biblio Curious rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-western

Joyce only jostles active readers. He jerks around lazy readers :)

A couple stories were easy to get into, I was more active when reading them. They are fused into my soul and I just know one of them will deepen my 1st reading of Anna Karenina. I just know it will!!

I 'get' Joyce, maybe. He's a brilliant writer who runs an invisible thread through his stories and maybe into other stories as well. And why not run that thread into various parts of what makes us human? Dubliners is my 1st attempt at ...more

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Aug 08, 2016 Raymond Keogh is currently reading it

I had a surprising breakthrough in clarifying the identity of my father’s people when a good friend of mine persuaded me to read James Joyce’s The Dead. I found it conveyed an uncanny familiarity. I related immediately and intimately to the Christmas-time party scene. The parties that were held in my grandfather’s house at Beechwood Road may have been less dramatic affairs, but the sensations evoked by Joyce captured the feelings generated at these gatherings. I was so taken by the experience th ...more

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Aug 18, 2014 Dana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: best-i-ve-read

A book composed of short stories which weave together a heart of a city. The intimacy these stories hold within them, the way one could identify with each character, and the simple stories which behind them lies the complexity of daily life makes this book a heartwarming read.

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