It’s a brilliant play on the Nicene Creed. “They believe in rod, the scourger almighty, creator of hell upon earth and in Jacky Tar, the son of a gun, who was conceived of unholy boast, born of the fighting navy, suffered under rump and dozen, was scarified, flayed and curried, yelled like bloody hell, the third day he arose again from the bed, steered into haven, sitteth on his beamend till further orders whence he shall come to drudge for a living and be paid.” You can almost hear the rain dropping and the man knocking at the door. Cockcock.”Īs you can tell, more from the music chapter. One rapped on a door, one tapped with a knock, did he knock Paul de Kock, with a loud proud knocker, with a cock carracarracarra cock. Now! Language of love.”Īnother example from the musical chapter, Sirens. Tipping her tepping her tapping her topping her. Flood of warm jimjam lickitup secretness flowed to flow in music out, in desire, dark to lick flow, invading. “Bloom looped, unlooped, noded, disnoded.īloom. Joyce wanted this chapter to read like music sounds, so he uses words to create a ringing in your head as you read them. This comes from my favorite episode, called Sirens.
“She smilesmirked supercilious (wept! aren’t men?), but, lightward gliding, mild she smiled on Boylan.” Joyce spends 700 pages telling of a single day! It is undoubtably the longest day in literature. But always meeting ourselves.”Īnother passage that sums up the book quite well. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love. Clever and fascinating to read? Absolutely yes. There is a not-so-subtle pun in there about the virgin Mary too, and the collision (bang) of the Divine and the human in the incarnation. It also helps when you break it down: con-trans-magnific-and-jew-bang-tantality. It plays on the word consubstantiation and transubstantiation, which are beliefs that have to do with the communion elements in church. It is a jab at the Catholic church (one of the many throughout the book). It’s silly, and hilarious if you get the pun. “Where is poor dear Arius to try conclusions? Warring his life long on the contransmagnificandjewbangtantiality.”ģ0 pages into the book when I read this absurd sentence I knew I was in for a book like no other. It’s a very clever, funny sentence, and thousands more like it are found all over this crazy book. Is Piper back? Peter Piper pecked a peck of pick of peck of pickles pepper.”Ī great example which shows how much Joyce just loved playing with his words. Stephen Dedalus is monologuing in his mind about the inescapable limitations of perception. These lines sent me straight to the dictionary. “Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes… Shut your eyes and see.” This could very well be an aptly applied summary of the entire book! P. “From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.”
Some are here because they’re genius, some because they’re funny, and others because they are just so beautifully written I couldn’t help but share them (though much of the book is this way).
Here then are a few of my favorite quotes from the book. It’s less a book to be understood and more a book to savor, like a symphony, for the beautiful masterpiece it is. Though will admit that it is incredibly difficult! 1 But don’t let that hinder your from picking this book up and enjoying it. It’s is a literary yes to the mundaneness of every day life. It is a book of music, color, life, vitality. This book is a literary masterpiece that implements many unique writing techniques, many of which Joyce invented (such as “stream of consciousness”). But the story takes a back seat in this book, putting the beautifully creative, hilariously odd, and truly genius prose to the fore. It follows the life of Leopold Bloom, Stephen Dedalus, and Molly Bloom. Loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey, Ulysses give the account of a single day in Dublin, Ireland: June 16th, 1904. I’m talking about the masterpiece of James Joyce: Ulysses. ( Amazon link) So I figured why not read the book that’s considered by many to be the greatest book ever written in the english language? It’s a notoriously difficult book, but a celebrated one nonetheless. This year I’ve been reading more fiction.
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