ODE TO JOYCE
Dear Mr. Joyce
I'm so dismayed
And so relieved
that you died before
I was born.
I know
you'll understand that
If I had seen your face
but once,
or heard you sing,
I would have sought you out
And charmed you
And made you love me.
Nora?
Nora who?
You would have said
And off we'd go
On the boat
And the train
To Zurich,
While Nora
Emptied bedpans
Changed sheets
And flirted with-
Slept with
Other men.
We,
You and I,
Would have been
Perfect for each other.
I would have
Calmed your fears,
Assuaged your insecurities,
Fulfilled your desires,
So much so
That all your pain
And doubts and torment
And regrets
Would have faded away.
And you would have felt
No need or desire
To write Ulysses
So you can see,
James-
Dear,
Why I am relieved
And sad
We never met.
Love,
Kelly
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Another Bloomsday with no public celebration.
My fifth year in Idaho where people don't
celebrate Bloomsday. I am spending the
summer in Boise but all my books are still in
Moscow, so I went to a bookstore in downtown
Boise to buy a (fourth) copy of Ulysses. I asked
the manager and owner if there were any
Bloomsday events being held next week and
he said:
What's Bloomsday?
My fifth year in Idaho where people don't
celebrate Bloomsday. I am spending the
summer in Boise but all my books are still in
Moscow, so I went to a bookstore in downtown
Boise to buy a (fourth) copy of Ulysses. I asked
the manager and owner if there were any
Bloomsday events being held next week and
he said:
What's Bloomsday?
Saturday, October 04, 2008
JOYCE & EINSTEIN: PARTNERS IN CRIME
A new Zealand Professor has come up with an interesting
theory:
“A close analysis of Einstein's Special Theory of
Relativity published in 1905 and Joyce's novel Ulysses,
which is set in 1904, suggests that they had much in
common,” Professor Corballis says. “Indeed Leopold Bloom,
the central character of Ulysses, might have anticipated
Einstein's theory if only Joyce had allowed him to live
on for another year.”
Professor Corballis and Alan Sanson, PhD student, will
investigate this theory in this month’s professorial
lecture, The Race for Relativity: How the Hero of James
Joyce’s Ulysses Almost Forestalled Albert Einstein’s
Theories.
Find out more here.
A new Zealand Professor has come up with an interesting
theory:
“A close analysis of Einstein's Special Theory of
Relativity published in 1905 and Joyce's novel Ulysses,
which is set in 1904, suggests that they had much in
common,” Professor Corballis says. “Indeed Leopold Bloom,
the central character of Ulysses, might have anticipated
Einstein's theory if only Joyce had allowed him to live
on for another year.”
Professor Corballis and Alan Sanson, PhD student, will
investigate this theory in this month’s professorial
lecture, The Race for Relativity: How the Hero of James
Joyce’s Ulysses Almost Forestalled Albert Einstein’s
Theories.
Find out more here.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Of the many, many musical references that Joyce uses
in Ulysses, there are some that are quite significant
and some that are only briefly alluded to. One of the
more significant references, though it's appearance is
much more concise than songs like The Croppy Boy and
Love's Old Sweet Song is the traditional Irish song
Suil a Run. It is used in the Ithaca chapter. Chapter
17 of Ulysses (Ithaca) is written entirely in question
and answer form, like a catechism.
At one point as Stephen and Bloom walk back to Bloom's
house, they each refer to one song, which represents
their culture. Bloom picks a Hebrew song with which I
am unfamiliar. Stephen chooses a song which tells of a
young woman who is pining for her lover, who has fled to
France. If you don't have your copy of Ulysses handy, you
can find this portion on the internet here. But this
particular question and answer are below:
"What fragments of verse from the ancient Hebrew and ancient
Irish languages were cited with modulations of voice and
translation of texts by guest to host and by host to guest?
By Stephen: suil, suil, suil arun, suil go siocair agus suil
go cuin (walk, walk, walk your way, walk in safety, walk with
care). By Bloom: kifeloch, harimon rakatejch m'baad l'zamatejch
(thy temple amid thy hair is as a slice of pomegranate). "
There are many recordings of Suil a Run. The best is on the
album All of It by the band Skylark. Instrumentally, the song
is simple and perfect and no one sings it as beautifully as
Len Graham does in this recording. Suil Arun (the spelling
varies) is also a song from Joyce's personal repertoire. Listen
to it if you get the chance. The link above provides a sample
of the song.
in Ulysses, there are some that are quite significant
and some that are only briefly alluded to. One of the
more significant references, though it's appearance is
much more concise than songs like The Croppy Boy and
Love's Old Sweet Song is the traditional Irish song
Suil a Run. It is used in the Ithaca chapter. Chapter
17 of Ulysses (Ithaca) is written entirely in question
and answer form, like a catechism.
At one point as Stephen and Bloom walk back to Bloom's
house, they each refer to one song, which represents
their culture. Bloom picks a Hebrew song with which I
am unfamiliar. Stephen chooses a song which tells of a
young woman who is pining for her lover, who has fled to
France. If you don't have your copy of Ulysses handy, you
can find this portion on the internet here. But this
particular question and answer are below:
"What fragments of verse from the ancient Hebrew and ancient
Irish languages were cited with modulations of voice and
translation of texts by guest to host and by host to guest?
By Stephen: suil, suil, suil arun, suil go siocair agus suil
go cuin (walk, walk, walk your way, walk in safety, walk with
care). By Bloom: kifeloch, harimon rakatejch m'baad l'zamatejch
(thy temple amid thy hair is as a slice of pomegranate). "
There are many recordings of Suil a Run. The best is on the
album All of It by the band Skylark. Instrumentally, the song
is simple and perfect and no one sings it as beautifully as
Len Graham does in this recording. Suil Arun (the spelling
varies) is also a song from Joyce's personal repertoire. Listen
to it if you get the chance. The link above provides a sample
of the song.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Tis the Last Rose of Summer
’Tis the Last Rose of Summer
A hauntingly beautiful song written by Thomas
Moore, also used in the opera Martha by Flotow.
One of his most popular songs, ‘Tis the Last
Rose of Summer sold over a million copies -
quite an achievement for a song in the late 1800s.
(Moore will receive a post of his own later on
this blog). More recently, Ken Burns used it as
background music for his documentary “New York”.
I don’t know of Joyce singing this one anywhere
but it certainly seems like one that would be in
his personal repertoire. It’s in his range
and all about loneliness and being left alone....
He used in the Sirens chapter like so:
“Last rose Castille of summer left bloom I feel so
sad alone.”...“Under the sandwichbell lay on a bier
of bread one last, one lonely last sardine of summer.
Bloom alone.”
Here are the lyrics of the first verse:
'Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming all alone,
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.
No flower of her kindred,
No rose bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.
’Tis the Last Rose of Summer
A hauntingly beautiful song written by Thomas
Moore, also used in the opera Martha by Flotow.
One of his most popular songs, ‘Tis the Last
Rose of Summer sold over a million copies -
quite an achievement for a song in the late 1800s.
(Moore will receive a post of his own later on
this blog). More recently, Ken Burns used it as
background music for his documentary “New York”.
I don’t know of Joyce singing this one anywhere
but it certainly seems like one that would be in
his personal repertoire. It’s in his range
and all about loneliness and being left alone....
He used in the Sirens chapter like so:
“Last rose Castille of summer left bloom I feel so
sad alone.”...“Under the sandwichbell lay on a bier
of bread one last, one lonely last sardine of summer.
Bloom alone.”
Here are the lyrics of the first verse:
'Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming all alone,
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.
No flower of her kindred,
No rose bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.
Friday, July 04, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Some Songs You Know and Some You Don't
The hot temperatures here are not conducive to long
thoughtful posts. But here's something to think
about:
Songs you probably know about in Joyce's Works:
Love's Old Sweet Song
I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls
The Croppy Boy
Finnegan's Wake
Songs you probably don't know about in Joyce's
Works:
Chin, Chin, Chinaman
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze
Farmer in the Dell
Toot, Toot, Tootsie.
The hot temperatures here are not conducive to long
thoughtful posts. But here's something to think
about:
Songs you probably know about in Joyce's Works:
Love's Old Sweet Song
I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls
The Croppy Boy
Finnegan's Wake
Songs you probably don't know about in Joyce's
Works:
Chin, Chin, Chinaman
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze
Farmer in the Dell
Toot, Toot, Tootsie.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Mr.Yeats
Happy birthday William Butler Yeats
and Tyler Nolan.
James Joyce tried to emulate Yeats not in
writing but in music making.
One of Joyce's early ideas was to be a
traveling minstrel, sort of a 20th century
O’Carolan. He had heard that Yeats had recently
puchased a hand made lute. Here’s how he
explained it in a letter to Gogarty written
June 3rd, 1904:
“My idea for July and August is this - to get
Dolmetsch to make me a lute and to coast the
south of England from Falmouth to Margate,
singing old English songs”
And he told Padraic Colum that the tour would be
“personally conducted, like the Emperor Nero’s
tour in Greece.”
The plan didn’t work out. Dolmetsch, the one who had
made a similar instrument for Yeats, was hesitant
to make another one. He told Joyce that making a
lute would be highly expensive and “I could hardly
say when it would be finished. The lute is moreover
extremely difficult to play and very troublesome to
keep in order.” He recommended Joyce use a spinet
or harpsichord. Joyce gave up on the idea instead.
Happy birthday William Butler Yeats
and Tyler Nolan.
James Joyce tried to emulate Yeats not in
writing but in music making.
One of Joyce's early ideas was to be a
traveling minstrel, sort of a 20th century
O’Carolan. He had heard that Yeats had recently
puchased a hand made lute. Here’s how he
explained it in a letter to Gogarty written
June 3rd, 1904:
“My idea for July and August is this - to get
Dolmetsch to make me a lute and to coast the
south of England from Falmouth to Margate,
singing old English songs”
And he told Padraic Colum that the tour would be
“personally conducted, like the Emperor Nero’s
tour in Greece.”
The plan didn’t work out. Dolmetsch, the one who had
made a similar instrument for Yeats, was hesitant
to make another one. He told Joyce that making a
lute would be highly expensive and “I could hardly
say when it would be finished. The lute is moreover
extremely difficult to play and very troublesome to
keep in order.” He recommended Joyce use a spinet
or harpsichord. Joyce gave up on the idea instead.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
A Good Day at Work for Ms. Beach
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.
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.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Early Bloomsday in Lisbon
PORTUGAL’S IRISH Association holds Joyce
festivities on June 6th including a reading
from Ulysses by Joycean scholar, David Norris.
Admission is free and the evening will start with
a reception hosted by Vincent Herlihy of the Irish
Embassy. The performance will start at 7.30pm
and will finish by 9pm.
The Irish association is located at Casa Fernando
Pessoa, Rua Coelho da rocha N˚16, Lisbon.
PORTUGAL’S IRISH Association holds Joyce
festivities on June 6th including a reading
from Ulysses by Joycean scholar, David Norris.
Admission is free and the evening will start with
a reception hosted by Vincent Herlihy of the Irish
Embassy. The performance will start at 7.30pm
and will finish by 9pm.
The Irish association is located at Casa Fernando
Pessoa, Rua Coelho da rocha N˚16, Lisbon.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Ulysses Reviewed
UK paper The Independent ran a review of
Ulysses this weekend entitled:
Book of a Lifetime: Ulysses by James
Joyce
Chosen by Michael Horovitz who wrote:
“For liberation of language, imagery,
punctuation and sound effects; for stream
of subconscious and shifting points of
view; for dream realities and inner
monologues; for the incorporation of every
extreme of parody, play, epiphany, and
uncensored speech or thought, in a
wondrously ebullient wordhoard that
celebrates the continuity of 3,000 years
of literature. “
UK paper The Independent ran a review of
Ulysses this weekend entitled:
Book of a Lifetime: Ulysses by James
Joyce
Chosen by Michael Horovitz who wrote:
“For liberation of language, imagery,
punctuation and sound effects; for stream
of subconscious and shifting points of
view; for dream realities and inner
monologues; for the incorporation of every
extreme of parody, play, epiphany, and
uncensored speech or thought, in a
wondrously ebullient wordhoard that
celebrates the continuity of 3,000 years
of literature. “
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Today is Bloomsday! (If you live in Spokane
Washington and have no idea who James Joyce
is.) Very sad.
Washington and have no idea who James Joyce
is.) Very sad.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Molly Bloom and Her Classmates
Someone named their daughter Molly Bloom!
Well done! Not only that, but Molly goes
to school with a number of classmates
whose names would fit right into one of
Joyce’s works including:
Justice Snickles, Kelly O’Keefe, Olivia Goode,
Brittany Casino and Caroline Augustiniak -
all of whom play on the girls basketball team.
Someone named their daughter Molly Bloom!
Well done! Not only that, but Molly goes
to school with a number of classmates
whose names would fit right into one of
Joyce’s works including:
Justice Snickles, Kelly O’Keefe, Olivia Goode,
Brittany Casino and Caroline Augustiniak -
all of whom play on the girls basketball team.
Friday, April 13, 2007
A Win For Scholars!
Congratulations to Schloss and her legal team! Schloss fought notoriously tight fisted Stephen Joyce and won the rights to use the excerpts she needed. More here.
And the IRE's take here.
Congratulations to Schloss and her legal team! Schloss fought notoriously tight fisted Stephen Joyce and won the rights to use the excerpts she needed. More here.
And the IRE's take here.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Here's an interesting review of The
Departed which discusses the film's minor Joyce
connection.
An excerpt:
" Second, one of the key secondary characters
in the film, played by Mark Wahlberg, is named
Dignam. As befitting an ironic literary allusion,
Dignam, whose funeral is one of the central plot
points of Joyce’s Ulysses, turns out in The
Departed to essentially be the last man standing..
... Aside from the theme of losing one’s soul (or
the secular equivalent), the only connection
between “The Dead” and The Departed seems to be
that everyone is very Irish. Either Monahan wanted
to re-imagine Finnegans Wake as an American crime
epic, or he mistook James Joyce for James Ellroy."
Departed which discusses the film's minor Joyce
connection.
An excerpt:
" Second, one of the key secondary characters
in the film, played by Mark Wahlberg, is named
Dignam. As befitting an ironic literary allusion,
Dignam, whose funeral is one of the central plot
points of Joyce’s Ulysses, turns out in The
Departed to essentially be the last man standing..
... Aside from the theme of losing one’s soul (or
the secular equivalent), the only connection
between “The Dead” and The Departed seems to be
that everyone is very Irish. Either Monahan wanted
to re-imagine Finnegans Wake as an American crime
epic, or he mistook James Joyce for James Ellroy."
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
"I cited the Book of Joshua because
of the grotesque thirst for blood of
our own Old Testament deity--far
uglier than anything in the Koran
(which is simply stream-of-
consciousness nonsense--Mohammed
should sue James Joyce for
plagiarism).
A Quote from retired Army Lt.
Colonel Ralph Peters in a 911
Symposium that can be found
here, if one wanted to read such
a thing.
of the grotesque thirst for blood of
our own Old Testament deity--far
uglier than anything in the Koran
(which is simply stream-of-
consciousness nonsense--Mohammed
should sue James Joyce for
plagiarism).
A Quote from retired Army Lt.
Colonel Ralph Peters in a 911
Symposium that can be found
here, if one wanted to read such
a thing.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Finn's Hotel
Joyce considered "Finn's Hotel" as a
title for Finnegans Wake. Finn's was
the hotel where Nora worked as a
chambermaid when James Joyce first
made her acquaintance. Finn's Hotel
still stands in Dublin. (Photo here thanks
to The Modern Word)
Joyce considered "Finn's Hotel" as a
title for Finnegans Wake. Finn's was
the hotel where Nora worked as a
chambermaid when James Joyce first
made her acquaintance. Finn's Hotel
still stands in Dublin. (Photo here thanks
to The Modern Word)
Monday, August 07, 2006
A big day to day in legal history. It’s
the day that the case of United States
vs. One Book Entitled Ulysses by James
Joyce was found not to be obscene by the
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
(Judge Manton dissenting). For those of
you with Westlaw of Lexis access, here’s
the citation: 72 F.2d 705 (1934)
For those of you without, here’s
a bit more information and an excerpt:
But many passages show the trained hand
of an artist, who can at one moment
adapt to perfection the style of an
ancient chronicler,and at another become
a veritable personification of Thomas
Carlyle. In numerous places there are
found originality, beauty, and distinc-
tion. The book as a whole is not porno-
graphic, and,while in not a few spots it
is coarse, blasphemous, and obscene, it
does not, our opinion, tend to promote
lust.
the day that the case of United States
vs. One Book Entitled Ulysses by James
Joyce was found not to be obscene by the
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
(Judge Manton dissenting). For those of
you with Westlaw of Lexis access, here’s
the citation: 72 F.2d 705 (1934)
For those of you without, here’s
a bit more information and an excerpt:
But many passages show the trained hand
of an artist, who can at one moment
adapt to perfection the style of an
ancient chronicler,and at another become
a veritable personification of Thomas
Carlyle. In numerous places there are
found originality, beauty, and distinc-
tion. The book as a whole is not porno-
graphic, and,while in not a few spots it
is coarse, blasphemous, and obscene, it
does not, our opinion, tend to promote
lust.
