Like many, I have been avoiding reading James Joyce’s Ulysses for decades, and I don’t know why. The popular conception is that the book is difficult and a time waster. This is the same criticism for Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, but I found that observation was wrong, really wrong. Without hesitation, I can say the time spent reading the five volumes (so far) of the Proust masterpiece is the best time spent in my life. To be thrown into a world that is so different from mine, yet it seemed familiar because the passions are the same. The same goes for Ulysses, but I can’t give a final answer because I’m only on page 151 and have 633 pages to go until I finish the book. At the same time, I’m reading Patrick Hastings’ The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses because my friend Brian suggested that I read a guide along with the original text.
Brian is the greatest of all the readers I have known, met, or do know. His focus on a book is like a piece of metal attached to a magnet. He won’t let go until he digests the entire book's content. He is also a fast reader compared to others, but his attention to detail is phenomenal. He recommended that I read Ulysses years ago. Still, I kept putting it off because I felt that reading such a book would sidetrack me into being a classical literature person rather than a man who enjoys Noir writing. I realized that when one puts themselves into categories of reading subject matter, one is missing the entire forest while studying that one tree. Noir is about a specific aspect of the world, but a masterpiece is usually about the whole landscape within the world. There is a difference here in that one reads about a subject matter that they are comfortable with but feels uncomfortable when dealing with something more significant in theme, or at the very least, different. Then, one realizes that Ulysses is a noir novel in its way.
The Universe portrayed in this novel is Dublin. It's a specific space, but it can also be West Hollywood or Bushwick, NYC if one puts their imagination to it. Joyce knows Dublin, and through his writing, we catch aspects of that city and its culture experimentally. Although the novel takes place in real-time, nineteen hours, it seems to go beyond time itself. I’m reading the complete and unabridged text version published by Vintage, which is 783 pages long. One can think that 783 pages equal nineteen hours in one day. I looked at this book on my desk and saw it represented that many hours, making me believe I could read it straight through nineteen hours in real time. I believe in conceptual thought and practices, and I am a great admirer of conceptual art and its artists, but I realized that I’m more of an observer than a practicing conceptualist.
The procedure I’m following is to read the Joyce chapter first and then, right afterward, read a chapter corresponding to that chapter in the Hastings guidebook. Hastings himself is a good writer, and he doesn’t explain what is happening but instead states the narration as it takes place and some of the symbolism that modern readers might miss.
Although I’m technically just beginning to get into the book's rhythm, I'm enjoying it immensely. Do I dare say it is a page-turner? Like Proust, the language and style are the factors that make these works appear as masterworks. One reads novels and then reads literature by Proust and Joyce, and one realizes how great these works are compared to other books written in the 19th and 20th centuries. As I read Joyce, I feel like I’m experiencing a psychedelic series of moments accepting the world in such a violent and beautiful gesture. Joyce (like Proust) makes my head explode, but my head is imploding. I’m digesting these words and visions like a portal that opens onto another landscape. If I can, I’ll report more of this reading.
I have read i Ulysses and have gone back several times to read sections of it. It’s just astounding. When I was working at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and also the Denver Center Theatre I would attend their Bloomesday Celebration. I was able to hear fine actors and other members of the communities read portions of Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake which is a much more difficult book. Those recitations were great fun and often hilarious and helpful for me to get a clearer view of Joyce’s writing. Thanks for your observations Tosh.
This is a wonderful project!
May I also suggest (whenever you have time) that you take a look at our friend, writer and professor Eckhard Gerdes, who writes experimentally, publishes “The Journal of Experimental Fiction,” and who is also a big fan of Joyce. He wrote a volume called “The Chronicles of Michel du Jabot,” a 700 or so page long homage to Joyce and to language (among other books). Your post inspires me to pick up one of these books!