Joyce's Places

Jorn Barger has a wonderful page on all
the places Joyce lived, with a numbered
map and information such as:

“Primary cities: Dublin (1882-1902), Paris
(1902-03), Dublin (1903-04), Pola (1904-05),
Trieste (1905-06), Rome (1906-07), Trieste
(1907-15), Zurich (1915-19), Trieste (1919-20),
Paris (1920-1939), Zurich (1940-41)”

And this generalization:

“- Youth (1882-1904): Ireland, with rare jaunts.
- Impoverished exile (1904-20): centers on
northern Italy
- Wealthy exile (1920-31): centers on northern
France and London
- Depressed exile (1932-41): centers on
Switzerland”

That Jorn Barger; what would we do without him? See
the whole lovely thing here.

In Finnegans Wake, the number 1132 appears
in each chapter in one way or another. In his
“Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake”, Campbell
attributes the use of this number as follows:
the number of the fall is 32 (The law of falling
bodies=32 feet per second); the number 11
represents renewal and redemption.

Later, Campbell changed his mind. While reading
Romans, he came across a verse that epitomized
what he felt Joyce had in mind in Finnegans Wake:
“For God has consigned all men to disobedience,
that he may show his mercy to all”. Campbell
thought - Oh I must write this down, this is
exactly what Joyce was talking about- and write
down “Romans, Chapter 11, verse 32”. Then it hit
him. He subsequently believed that Joyce had this
chapter/verse in mind when he worked 1132 into
Finnegans Wake.

In Berkeley for Thanksgiving, I stopped by
Shakespeare and Co this morning. Lovely
store. The bookseller on duty saw me looking
at the Joyce section and had a few extra
Joyce books lined up for me at the counter
when I went to pay for my purchases. He
also asked me if I’d be in Dublin next June.
Yep, I told him. He’s going too. I think it will
be very crowded week in Dublin. .

It was nice to meet a kindred spirit.
Shakespeare and Company is located on
Telegraph a few blocks from campus.
Kitty-corner to Shakespeare & Co is Cody’s
Books. I highly recommend them both.

The Guardian has a new article out on Sean
Walsh’s film Bl.,m (pronounced Bloom).
There’s an excerpt below or you can check
out the entire article here.

“...The film is faithful to the text but does
not treat it as sacred. Molly's famous closing
and climaxing soliloquy, for example, is
used to open the film and frame the action.
The plot, as much as one exists, remains
largely intact, although there are no scenes
of Bloom at the newspaper office, where he
works as a canvasser for advertisements.
Dialogue is drawn directly from the novel,
and the internal thought processes of the
three central characters are presented as
voiceovers. Walsh says his overriding
intention was to make the film work as a
story, to be at once intelligent and accessible."

Whoops! The NY Times artcle is Members only.
You can try this site for Kenner information
if you don’t want to hassle with the Times.

“Hugh Kenner, the critic, author and professor
of literature regarded as America's foremost
commentator on literary modernism, especially
the work of Ezra Pound and James Joyce, died
yesterday at his home in Athens, Ga. He was 80.”

The above was excerpted from the NY Times.
See the whole article here

I received an email from some anonymous
person who thinks I have money. I don’t,
but some of you might so I am passing this
information on:

“..... the forthcoming auction of the Alfred T.
Cowie Collection of James Joyce books, one
of the most comprehensive Joyce collections
to ever come on to the open market, will take
place on Dec 11th.

Highlights include:

* Pomes Penyeach (1932), one of twenty-
five copies, signed by Joyce
* Portrait of the Artist (1917), 1st UK edition
in the exceptionally rare dust wrapper
* Ulysses, numerous important editions
including 1st Paris and London editions, plus
illustrated editions signed by Joyce and Matisse
* Signed limited editions of Mime of Mick and
the Maggies, Haveth Childers Everywhere, etc.
* Two Essays (1901), fine copy of Joyce's first
printed book....”

More info here .

The first Frenchman to purchase a copy
of Ulysses was Andre Gide. (Actually, by
purchase, I mean fill in an order blank at
Shakespeare and Co to receive a copy of
the book when it arrived. ) The first
American: Ernest Hemingway, one of
Sylvia Beach’s best customers. Later
that same day, Ezra Pound personally
delivered a subscription blank filled in by
W.B. Yeats and put in his order.

Imagine Andre Gide, Ernest Hemingway
and Ezra Pound all coming in your book-
store on the same day. That’s what I call
a good day at work.

Have just started to read “Girls Lean Back
Everywhere” by Edward de Grazia and
have a couple of nice quotes to share
with you. Ezra Pound referred to the last
chapter of Ulysses as “Joyce’s Mollylogue”.

T.S. Eliot agreed with Pound that it was
one of the best things Joyce had ever done
and wondered how anyone could ever write
again “after the immense prodigy of that
last chapter”. Eliot also said, “I wish, for my
sake, that I had not read it.”

John Nolan has a new art exhibit in Dublin.
It’s entitled “Journey Into The Abstract" and
runs until 2004-02-28 at the Westin Hotel
in Dublin.

John Nolan is well known in Ireland for his
portrait of James Joyce which covers the
facade of no. 15 Ushers Island, Dublin City -
The Joyce House.

Here's an interesting comment about Joyce's sense
of Irishness from a 1997 Joyce list entry by Matt B.

"M. G. wrote:

> Joyce himself, however, as I understand it,
>always regarded himself as British.

Matt B responded:
... Joyce was very much anti-British in political outlook.
While his own sense of Irishness has always been a
touchy issue(what with his shouts of Erin go Bragh
after the Brits agreed to partition on one hand
and then his 'let my country die for me' attitude in
dichotomy), but JJ also supported the Sinn Féin
party in its infancy--even anachronistically including
it in CYCLOPS a year before its founding. Of course,
Griffith's anti-semitism and Catholicism would have
forbidden the dealings with a freemason jew like
Bloom, but that's just nitpicking, isn't it. Anyway,
no more time; but JJ was definitely not a man who
considered himself British--of course, like Bloom et
al, he did carry a passport that stated that he was
a member of the Empire on which the unfortunate
yahoos believed the sun never set upon, but
considered the cause of Irish independence from
Brittainia a worthy endeavor--just not the way
Cusack, Pearse, and the rest threw violence into
the mix. .....Slan go fill, "

The past few days have been so eventful that I
haven't read or thought much about James Joyce,
until today and today he's occupied my thoughts
a lot. Thoughts like: "in 13 days I'll be unemployed;
that's not so bad, James Joyce was unemployed
most of his life" and thoughts like "I'll be able to sit
in a cafe and write, despite money worries - just like
James Joyce"

Yes, I'm soon to be completely unemployed. scary.
And tomorrow's my birthday. Damn. I'll have a
better post for you tomorrow.

One good piece of news: the little caterer's down
the street offer a small variety of dinners four
days a week that one can pick up and take home.
This week they are offering Irish Stew. Won't that
make a nice dinner tomorrow night...

The Audio version of Finnegans Wake
is now out. Five hours and twelve
minutes long, the audio book is put
out by Naxos, a company which usually
puts out music cds, making it an
appropriate choice for this undertaking.

The Guardian printed a review of the new
audio book yesterday. Here’s an excerpt:

This is the perfect way, possibly the only
way, of swallowing the Joycean pill pain-
lessly, thanks largely to the exuberance,
the humour, the sheer brilliance of Jim
Norton's reading ...... Forget the plot (there
isn't one), and abandon yourself to the
fluency and sheer musicality of the writing.
To celebrate the centenary of Bloomsday
next year, Norton is reading Ulysses, all 25
hours of it, for Naxos. This is the perfect
aperitif.

The Literary Traveler has a nice article on their site
entitled A Portrait of the Artist in Trieste. Here's
an excerpt:

" 'Where did Joyce live?' I idly asked a clerk in the
tourist office, and suddenly she came to life.
'He lived all over, the clerk said, laughing. Joyce
moved constantly, whenever the rent was due.'
She spoke as though he were a current city
character and handed me a slip of paper with
a phone number. 'Ask this man about him.' "

- - - - -

You may have noticed my posting has become
more sporadic. I place the blame squarely on
my newly expanded job. I think they should enact
labor laws against working 40 hours a week.
Still - if you look at the top of the sidebar to
the right of this blog - you'll notice my empty
Bloomsday or bust fund. As I mentioned earlier,
I'm presenting at Bloomsday 100 in Dublin next
June, that is, if my money saving skills improve.
And that's why I have increased my hours at
work.

I'm hoping that having the amount of savings
posted publically will embarrass me into doing
a better job at socking away $2000 for the trip.

In the Odyssey, Ulysses comes home to his
faithful friend and companion Argos:

"...Soon as he perceived
Long-lost Ulysses nigh, down fell his
ears
Clapped close, and with his tall glad
sign he gave
Of gratulation, impotent to rise,
And to approach his master as of old.
Ulysses, noting him, wiped off a tear
Unmarked.
...Then his destiny released
Old Argus, soon as he had lived to see
Ulysses in the twentieth year restored."

James Joyce, who was afraid of dogs, portrays
a different sort of dog in Ulysses. In the Cyclops
chapter there is a dog in the pub, but it isn't a
friendly relaxed dog as one would expect of a pub
pup. The Dog, named Garryowen, has a personality
similar to the Citizen, who has brought him to
Kiernan's pub. Both the Citizen and Garryowen
dislike Bloom.

Here's a thought-provoking quote which Ellman
attributes to James Joyce, speaking to Stannie in
1904:

"Do you see that man who has just skipped out
of the way of the tram? Consider, if he had been
run over, how significant every act of his would
at once become. I don't mean for the police
inspector. I mean for anybody who knew him.
And his thoughts, for anybody that could know
them. It is my idea of the significance of trivial
things that I want to give the two or three
unfortunate wretches who may eventually read
me."

The deadline for abstracts for the 2004 International
James Joyce Symposium has been extended to Dec
31st, 2003. Go here for more information.

The Oregonian recently wrote a review or a
new book by J.M. Coetzee about Elisabeth Costello
who I have mentioned before in this blog.

"Elizabeth Costello is an elderly Australian author,
sort of a one-hit-wonder famous for her fourth
novel starring Molly Bloom, a character plucked from
James Joyce's "Ulysses." Despite her age, she still
has somewhat of a following; she continues to win
awards and garner invitations to speak. "Elizabeth
Costello" is structured in eight "lessons" - each
chapter organized around a formal address, each
an examination of what happens to this writer when
she must venture out into the world."

I haven't been able to locate Costello's book anywhere.
Anyone out there know of it?

The Christian Science Monitor had a story
yesterday on the difficulties with creating a
democracy in Iraq. The story quotes Ms. Siham
Hittab "who teaches James Joyce at Baghdad
University" !

".... developing the skills to make democracy
work will take time. She compares the process
to working with students on Joyce's famously
impenetrable texts. 'We need time. This is a new
life, and every day we're learning something new.
Frankly, it's easier teaching "Portrait of the Artist"
than getting everyone to understand what we're
doing.'

This past Bloomsday our local men's choir
(The Celtic Knights of the Sea Mens Choir)
sang Toot Toot Tootsie, written by Gus Kahn
in 1922. Toot, toot tootsie has only a quick
reference in FW - a mere stutter, but what
a great song to perform. Here are the lyrics
as they were originally written:

Toot-toot-tootsie goodbye
Little Momma, don't cry
That choo-choo train that takes me
Away from you
Ah woman, no words can make me
Kiss her for me, tootsie, and then
I wished you’d do it again,

Watch for the mail
I ain’t gonna fail
If you don't get a letter
Then you'll know I'm in jail
Tootsie, tootsie goodbye
Honey, Momma, don't cry
Take it, son!
I’m singin’, tootsie, tootsie, goodbye
Honey, please don’t cry
That old choo-choo train that takes me
Away from you, no words can ever make me
Kiss me, tootsie, and then
I wish you’d do it over again

Watch for the mail
Killer won’t gonna fail
If you don't get a letter
Then you'll know I'm in jail
Tootsie, tootsie goodbye
Honey, Baby, don't cry
You better watch for the mail
Jerry Lee won’t fail
Tootsie, tootsie goodbye
Good-lookin’ woman, don't cry
Play your accordion, killer!