Tuesday, April 8, 2008
this from that
The first paragraph of Nausicaa was really strange to read, multiple times I checked either the the cover of the book, or my place in it to make sure I wasn't reading some strange text, because it was so conventional in it's eloquence. After giving into the style of the chapter, I continued to puzzle over what was being accomplished not simply by the this narrative derivative, but again by the style of it. Of course once Bloom enters, and the style takes back its stream of consciousness, internal Bloom dialog, it seemed clear to me that the long drawn out section with the girls was merely something to juxtapose Bloom against. In reading the criticism on the last chapter, I thought that the discussion on Joyce being ever "two eyed" was very interesting. It was mentioned that which we initially see through Stevens eyes as a confused bright and artistic youth, Joyce also shows us that he is arrogant and in many ways ignorant. Blooms narative, while not that different from previous chapters, gives him this sort of filthy, repulsive feel, which comes strictly from the stark contrast we get from the juxtaposition of the girls story in it's style, and its abrupt shift to his story in his style. This was a thought I had a lot during the wandering rocks chapter as well in terms of the amount of characters we meet, their style of narrative, etc. (I basically said all this in class so I wont get back into it) but, Joyce, while he certainly has the talent to tell us things directly, creates part of the appeal by having us learn this from that, insuring that we always keep two eyes open. Theres no question here, I'm just thinking of this as one of the major functions of "style" in Ulysses, maybe theres a paper topic?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
The first part is indeed conventional, but - eloquent? That's funny, in a way, since Joyce is making fun, as always, of sentimental prose. It's flowery and, most of all, emotional. Compare it to the Citizen's ramblings or the Celtic hyperbole in Cyclops. Or even the Dickensian passages in Oxen. All forms of sentimentality which seem normal to us (not the Celtic one), because much of today's writing is in this mode.
More family ideas:
the family as a metaphor for social structure
sexuality in the family
symbols of female dominance in the book
In a sense the whole book is about family as a social structure, since Bloom's "house is in disorder" and must be put aright.
"Learning this from that":
Joyce, like James, definitely uses indirectness, hints, omitted information, and the failure to explain things as a technique to keep the reader guessing. This could be a paper topic if applied to a specific issue, like Molly Bloom's sexual history or Bloom's personal history (which has been excavated in detail by critics). But not as a general point, since it encompasses the whole book. Give yourself a doable task.
Post a Comment