Categories
Books Jerusalem Ulysses

Mashing up Jerusalem and Ulysses …

I’m a big fan of Alan Moore’s Jerusalem, so when the r/ReadersofJerusalem subreddit started a group read of the book, I decided to join in even though I’m already immersed in Ulysses. Below is the first post I made to the subreddit after having re-read the first chapter …

A few things I’m noting … very random, some specific to the way I’m approaching Jerusalem this time around.

Barefoot/Sole/Soul

  • During her dream, Alma (soul) notices the Angles’ “feet were naked in the dust and shavings piled like curls of butter. Wouldn’t they get splinters?”
  • At one point during the dream, she thinks about a grass slope near Peter’s Church “the grassy slope she pictured Jesus walking … in his long dress with lights all round his head and nothing on his feet.”
  • And the wild-eyed kid who Mick assumes is on drugs “stumbled barefoot off across the grit and shattered headlight glass of Scarletewell Street corner.”

For some reason, this reminds me of a line from the Hal Ashby’s 1971 film Harold and Maude, where Maude tells Harold, “The earth is my body; my head is in the stars.” Harold. like Mick, needs to connect with the spiritual, to find the link between earth and sky.

Joyce/Homer

I’m also re-reading Ulysses along with Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey and I can’t help seeing a few vague parallels here.

  • It’s perhaps not coincidental that we find a mention of the Iliad (“Truth? Why would I want the truth? I was just making conversation, Warry. I weren’t asking for the Iliad.”)
  • The housing project tenants are referred to as “Myrmidons,” who were soldiers Achilles commanded in the Iliad. “Myrmidon” means “ant people” in Ancient Greek, and the image of these housing projects full of “disgruntled man-herds” is a flex on Moore’s part, showing his deep knowledge of Greek mythology and etymology.
  • Moore clearly is signaling that we’re embarking on an epic journey here, perhaps similar to the one James Joyce leads us on in Ulysses. Just substitute Northampton for Dublin. Mick’s walk from his house to Alma’s art exhibit is a deep, detailed dive into the sights and smells of Northampton. I’m also thinking that Stephen Dedalus and Mick might be similar, with the former running from spiritual matters (Catholicism, in particular) and Mick storming full storm toward them, though he hasn’t realized that at this point.

Language

Moore is an incredible writer. I’ve read/listened to this book several times, and his ability to create detailed, believable characters has kept them alive in my head long after I finished my most recent read. To wit, here’s his description of May Warren:

May Warren, formerly May Vernall, was a stout and freckled dreadnaught of a woman, rolling keg-shaped down the tiled lanes of the covered Fish Market most Saturdays, leaving a cleared path in her wake and gathering momentum with each heavy pace like an accumulating snowball of cheery malevolence, the speckled jowls in which her chin lay sunken shuddering at every step, the darting currants of the eyes pressed deep into the heaped blood-pudding of her face glittering with anticipation of whatever awful treat she’d visited the market to procure.

Categories
Books Ulysses

Diving Once More into the Scrotumtightening Sea

After 20+ years, I’m re-reading James Joyce’s Ulysses. I’ll be tracking progress here and making notes. If anyone wants to join me, just reach out.

Sources

  • Homer’s Odyssey, [Emily Wilson translation], which is fantastic and delightful to read. I wish this had been around during high school and college when I first read stilted, overly “poetic” attempts at translation.
  • The Gabler Edition of Ulysses. After researching the various editions, this seemed to be the one most accepted in academia. It has its detractors, but all in all I’m happy with it for my purposes.
  • Blooms & Barnacles. This is a website and podcast by an American woman and her Irish husband that notes it’s “A non-academic* take on James Joyce’s Ulysses. (*more Simpsons references than Joyce’s text).” It’s very conversational, humorous and in-depth.
  • The Joyce Project’s James Joyce’s Ulysses Online. It’s the full text with massive annotations that are generally well done and comprehensive. It also allows readers to select the edition they want to use so pages and lines can be cross-referenced with the print version they’re reading.

General strategy

I’ve already read the book once, but that was more than 20 years ago and I’ve forgotten way more than I remember. So for each chapter, I listen to the intro podcast for that chapter from Blooms & Barnacles, then I’m reading the Gabler print edition, focusing more on the flow and story than the insane intricacy of the references/history etc. Then I’m reading the chapter a second time, using the online annotated version and doing deep dives into the details and nuance. Then I’m reading the corresponding chapter of the Odyssey and finally, I’m listening to the podcasts that do deep dives on the info in that chapter (for Telemachus, for instance, there are five or six individual, 40-minute pods.)

I’m currently through the second chapter (Nestor) and am listening to the podcasts and digesting what I’ve read from the first two chapters. I’m already astounded by the beauty of the language and layered storytelling.

Needless to say, this is going to take a while. But it’s giving me something to obsess over while Orange Nero burns the empire to the ground …. If you’re interested in joining, let me know. Myriad ways to structure it …

Isn’t the sea what Algy calls it: a great sweet mother? The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea. Epi oinopa ponton. Ah, Dedalus, the Greeks! I must teach you. You must read them in the original. Thalatta! Thalatta! She is our great sweet mother. Come and look.

— Buck Mulligan