Discussing Joyce and His Ulysses by Bob Ding

Clippings and Articles on James Joyce is a collection of clipping from newspapers and magazines. The object is neither a single publication entity nor a single piece of information. Instead, this object collects many individual discussions about James Joyce, offering comprehensive views of Joyce’s contemporary opinions and his works, either positive or negative. From the figures below, we observe that each piece of information takes up a small portion of the entire page, creating a scene as if there is a rapid discussion: clippings of information flying everywhere on a big single sheet of paper as if these are conversation bubbles we commonly see in comic books. Indeed, Joyce was born in the era during which the Stream of Consciousness type of literature revolution was happening. In this revolution, literature switched from implying figures’ inner being via descriptions of their external traits and behaviors to directly writing out the figures’ inner-being monologues [1]. Such a transition, including its impacts, was unprecedented. Joyce’s literature focused more on the non-heroic and imperfection of human beings. Therefore, it stressed writing on human’s animal instincts (sex, violence, etc.), which are very common in Joyce’s later work, Ulysses. Therefore, there was a wave of discussion on Joyce’s works and publication ban. This object vividly provides such ambiance, bringing me into the 1930s as if I am also participating in this discussion and hearing all different voices and opinions. Once you open the first page, you can see small clippings flying everywhere. Needless to say, cramming more smaller clippings tightly into a single page does create such an impact.

Two clippings caught my eyes (Attached below). The first one was written in 1934, potentially from a magazine, while the second one is from the New York Times in an unknown year. The first one stressed James Joyce’s progression in literature from his more traditional Dubliners to the revolutionary Ulysses. I was intrigued by this clipping’s usage of the word “conventional” (line 8, left side) on Dubliners, as my reading experience of the book already is very different from other reading experience: the Stream of Consciousness has begun in this early work. At the end of Araby, Joyce is already using a monologue-ish sentence to directly point out the boy’s inner being: “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity, and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” Such a writing style is the typical Stream of Consciousness type of writing that appeared multiple times in Dubliners. Perhaps when Joyce was crafting the Dubliners, he has not mastered the Stream of Consciousness yet. Therefore, when you are reading it, some of the Stream of Consciousness writings seem a bit abrupt, suddenly standing out as if they do not fit in the story’s language flow, forcing a temporary pause to show its readers some additional information. Therefore, comparing to classical fiction, the Dubliner is somewhat less fluent to read. Nevertheless, the frequency of such Stream of Consciousness sentences is still relatively low. Thus, the Dubliner is still pretty reader-friendly.

However, in the first piece of clipping, Joyce gradually expanded his usage of the new writing techniques, culminating in his writing of Ulysses. In Ulysses, Joyce largely used Stream of Consciousness to depict “all-rounded characters” (second object, right half line 10-11). Therefore, he courageously wrote about the obscene minds of these characters, believing that vulgarity is also part of any true character. This is definitely prohibited in the era that classical heroical literature still dominates. I find this very similar to the renaissance period when artists wanted to create art that depicts the “imperfection” of human beings and human nature. In contrast, the former medieval art only allows the depiction of the holy god. Hence, it is expected that the US government banned the work’s publication. Rapid discussions and different views on Ulysses emerged in the 1930s.

Nevertheless, does it bother Joyce? Perhaps not. From the first clipping, we learn that Joyce himself was once a “moody, poetic, sex-and-religion tortured young Irishman whose arrogant mockery was the Dublin Jesuits’ despair who taught him.” He later became a “nervous, ill, half-blind recluse of fifty-two, resident of a Paris suburb, to whom a whole school of modern writing owes its existence” (the first object, left half). Due to this, Joyce’s arrogance never dims, just as his original words to Budgen (Joyce’s friend): “Do you. know any complete, all-around character presented by any writer?” (second object, right half, line 10-12). Such arrogance gives Joyce the courage to keep writing Stream of Consciousness kinds of literature regardless of critics. Only the courageous can initiate a revolution. I guess that is probably why Joyce’s insistence on his style finally obtained others’ recognition, which accelerated modern fiction reform. Furthermore, I guess Joyce was even happy about his work being banned, as being banned to publish his work is another recognition of the work’s potential influence.

[1] Devices, L. (2018, December 19). Stream of Consciousness. Literary Devices. https://literary-devices.com/content/stream-consciousness/