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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

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Assorted Bob Books

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan …

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.