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Ulysses
Ulysses 2017
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Questions, Resources, and General Banter - Ulysses 2017
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Mod
We need to talk about James…
Before we begin our read of James Joyce’s Ulysses, we need to chat a bit about the various editions of this mammoth text. The publishing history of Ulysses is nearly as complex as the book itself, but hopefully, we can shed a bit of light on the subject. (BTW, this is just my own understanding of the puzzle. I’m sure there are better explanations/details out there, but I’m not a Joyce scholar.)
First published as a book in 1922, there are several versions, with a variety of edits, major and minor, and hopefully, this will clarify the history a bit.
After the first printings in Europe and book bannings in several places, Random House published the first American edition in 1934. In 1936, Bodley Head published an improved edition in England. Various editions of the Bodley Head version were printed in later years, and in 1960, the Bodly Head was reset (as was the Random House in 1961). You following that?
At this point, you may rightly ask, “Why, Jim, are you telling us all this publishing trivia??!?”
Because, Mr. Joyce didn’t go out of his way to mark the beginnings of each of his 18 “episodes” and there is no table of contents. There are two basic numbering systems: The Bodley Head “old” version (740 pages) and the “new” version (933 pages).
For example: page 135 “old” corresponds with page 183 “new”
This little tidbit will come into play in the reading/discussion schedule for Ulysses.
The 18 episodes are each given names (which are not printed in the book) relating to titles of the ‘books’ of Homer’s Odyssey. The episodes are organized into 3 parts.
Here’s the basic setup:
Part I – The Telemachiad
Episode 1, Telemachus
Episode 2, Nestor
Episode 3, Proteus
Part II – The Odyssey
Episode 4, Calypso
Episode 5, Lotus Eaters
Episode 6, Hades
Episode 7, Aeolus
Episode 8, Lestrygonians
Episode 9, Scylla and Charybdis
Episode 10, Wandering Rocks
Episode 11, Sirens
Episode 12, Cyclops
Episode 13, Nausicca
Episode 14, Oxen of the Sun
Episode 15, Circe
Part III – The Nostos
Episode 16, Eumaeus
Episode 17, Ithaca
Episode 18, Penelope
This is just the beginning of the puzzle. Wait til you see the Gilbert Schema!
For more details, start at the wikipedia page. There are lots of notes, descriptions, and links to all things Joycean:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_...
Jim: I don't know if this will help anyone with the same ratty Penguin Modern Classics edition that I have (which has all my notes in it from 1985ish?) but there is a page in the back I never noticed before that has equivalent pages for the Penguin with the 1937 Bodley Head.
Mod
Yes, my Penguin edition has the same.
Just for Fun: A Thematic Outline for Ulysses"protasis, epitasis, catastasis, catastrophe." (U. 212)
INTRODUCTION
Stephen
Telemachus
Nestor
Proteus
Bloom & Molly
Calypso
Lotus-Eaters
Hades
Aeolus
Lestrygonians
DEVELOPMENT
Stephen
Library
Wandering Rocks
Bloom
Sirens
Cyclops
Nausicaa
CLIMAX
Stephen & Bloom
Oxen of the Sun
Circe
Cabman
RESOLUTION
Bloom - Stephen - Molly
Ithaca
Penelope
I think the climax occurs in Nausicaa.Just sayin'.
Mark wrote: "Ok."Joking aside, may I ask why you put the "Cabman" or Eumaeus in a separate section from the last two?
Isn't that episode almost ridiculously "relaxed" and "sleepy"?
I see the three episodes: Oxen, Circe and Cabman as a set-piece: I call it the Party. Oxen is getting high. Circe is tripping. And Cabman is crashing.The other reason I separate Cabman this way is because nothing is resolved in the sixteenth episode. So it doesn't belong with those labelled resolution.
Mark wrote: "I see the three episodes: Oxen, Circe and Cabman as a set-piece: I call it the Party. Oxen is getting high. Circe is tripping. And Cabman is crashing.The other reason I separate Cabman this way is..."
That is interesting, except I think Joyce had three final episodes to compliment the three at the beginning- narrative (Telemachus, Eumaeus), catechism (Nestor, Ithaca), monologue (Proteus, Penelope).
Ok, but I was trying to group the episodes in a way that might highlight their contributions to the story, not just a comparison of a similarity of styles.
Mark wrote: "Ok, but I was trying to group the episodes in a way that might highlight their contributions to the story, not just a comparison of a similarity of styles."I like your "party" trio.
Mod
Whoot! Let's get this party started!
Mod
Christopher wrote:
I would be glad to get back to "Nestor," but I will quote from Ulysses on the Liffey on "Why Stephen Dedalus picks his nose," according to Ellman:
Stephen urinates to anticipate the 'urinous offal from all dead'; he picks his nose for that reason, and for another as well. Like Joyce in 'The Holly Office,' he sees it as his heroic duty to carry off all the filthy streams, to acknowledge corruption. He has a more abstract purpose too, to parade his unsociability. Not having found a handkerchief in his pocket, he is obliged to proceed bravely without one, and announces 'For the rest, let look who will.' But to belie his nonchalance, he suddenly says, 'Perhaps there is someone,' and looks quickly behind him. This backward glance is a parting denial of the subjectivist universe which briefly attracted him at the beginning of the episode, as well as of the universe of moribund gloom which has filled his thoughts. Since Stephen is an artist, Joyce implies that art is not self-isolation, that it depends upon recognition of other existences as well as one's own.
Mark wrote:
I think Stephen pees because his bladder is full. I think he picks his nose because something's up there that's in the way.
I think Ellmann is out of his depth here. He doesn't understand why Stephen is in the book, but not the hero. So he makes-up some Jabberwocky about Stephen and Joyce and how to become an artist, or some nonsense.
I do like, though,"the universe of moribund gloom". I don't think it means anything, and I don't believe it's got anything to do with Ulysses...but I do like the way it rolls off the tongue.
"Halfway" through (episode 10- but I know it's not really half-way), I finally find that my edition has a headnote to each episode, including summaries of The Odyssey.. AND a little "postmodernist" critical gobbledygook, but that's all right.I guess this stuff would be easy to find in the print edition, not so obviously 'there' in the Kindle edition.
https://www.amazon.com/Ulysses-Oxford...
(Note: $1.89 for the Kindle edition.. probably worth it.)
Hey Jim - I posted by mistake message #40 & #41 on the Proteus thread and they belong on the Nestor thread.Could you move them please, Sorry. - )
Mod
Could you move them please, Sorry. - )"
okay...
Mod
Thanks Jim! It's a great discussion, I'm reading them all and trying to soak up like 20% of what's being discussed!
http://m.joyceproject.com/notes/04000...This is a cool find if no one's seen it: pictures of the Blooms' house in Dublin, 7 Eccles Street.
Tracy wrote: "http://m.joyceproject.com/notes/04000...This is a cool find if no one's seen it: pictures of the Blooms' house in Dublin, 7 Eccles Street."
Thanks Tracy! - )
Very interesting! My nephew went to BC and hung out at their Joyce House from time to time. I even have a Joyce teeshirt designed by them. - )
Am I reading it wrong but is there an extra episode between Wandering Rocks and Sirens--Where the Earl of Dudley goes about past everyone in WRocks and gets various responses of recognition or not? Did I miscount or is that separate? It seems somewhat different.
The framing events for Wandering Rocks are Reverend Conmee in the first section and the Earl of Dudley in the last section. The viceregal cavalcade does also appear at the beginning of Sirens.
I'm going to put this in general banter, although I don't think it applies to the book as a whole. It has definitely crossed my mind reading the Cyclops, though.Much as I like the "gigantism" contrasted with the vernacular of the 'sez I' guy- eye, cyclops, this, from Samuel Johnson's life of Prior:
His affection was natural; it had undoubtedly been written with great labour; and who is willing to think that he has been labouring in vain? He had infused into it much knowledge and much thought; had often polished it to elegance, often dignified it with splendour, and sometimes heightened it to sublimity: he perceived in it many excellences, and did not discover that it wanted that without which all others are of small avail - the power of engaging attention and alluring curiosity.
Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults; negligence or errors are single and local, but tediousness pervades the whole; other faults are censured and forgotten, but the power of tediousness propagates itself. [...]
Unhappily this pernicious failure is that which an author is least able to discover. We are seldom tiresome to ourselves; and the act of composition fills and delights the mind with change of language and succession of images. Every couplet, when produced, is new, and novelty is the great source of pleasure. Perhaps no man ever thought a line superfluous when he first wrote it, or contracted his work till his ebullitions of invention had subsided.
Before we begin, I’d like to share a few guidelines for the discussion.
1. I will be opening a separate discussion thread for each of the 18 episodes. For each discussion thread, I ask you to restrict your comments to that episode and the preceding episodes. It isn’t because I’m concerned about spoilers, but simply because some people will be reading Ulysses for the first time. If we discuss episode 11 in the episode 4 thread, for example, then the first time readers won’t have any frame of reference, and so – limit your comments appropriately.
2. For the discussions, let’s keep the focus on the text and your personal responses to the book. Resist the temptation to cite scholarly works, famous opinions, and other extra-textual materials. Instead post links to these types of material in this “Questions, Resources, and General Banter" thread. This will allow us to keep it personal and not force people to go in search of these resources if they’re not inclined.
Okay, so that’s it for guidelines. Beyond that, argue your positions fairly and cordially and remember that not everyone has access to the same background resources and education about Joyce that you may have.
I will be reviving a bit of the information I posted during the 2012 reading.
See you on Bloomsday!