Jason Furman's Reviews > Ulysses

My interest in reading very difficult novels like Ulysses peaked about thirty years ago and whatever I missed then from Pynchon, Gaddis the like I am unlikely to have filled in since then. But last year my former high school English teacher and now friend pulled me into a reading group the finally got me to read Gravity’s Rainbow, which I liked in part but disliked in part. This year he got me to read Ulysses, which I ended up truly loving (and, more rarely, disliking in part) and might even read again some day.

First a word on process for those who have not read Ulysses and are considering it. I do not think I could have read it without support, although in my case that was probably more support than was needed. If you are a novice I would recommend at least one guide, my favorite was XX but XX was also good. Without them I would have been lost and baffled in the second episode (as they are called in Ulysses, basically chapters, or really long parts) and have given up in the third. In addition, I have been finding the reading group helpful with rolling discussions, motivations, insights, and encouragement/sympathy from several people that range from multiple-rereaders of Ulysses to novices like me. Finally, I listened to the RTÉ Player’s recording for about a third of the book, it is a full cast of an Irish theater company available for free as a podcast and elsewhere. This was particularly helpful for some of the chapters, as noted below, and in some ways easier to follow than the text because the different voices helped delineate the characters, internal monologues, and provide sound effects that are sometimes useful context.

And with that long preface, here is a brief stream of consciousness of my reading of Ulysses:

PART I: TELEMACHIA

Episode 1, Telemachus: This is a famously difficult book but I can read it and understand a bunch of it and even enjoy some of the language and characters. I'll join the reading group after all.

Episode 2, Nestor: OK, A little disorienting at first, puts an end to the idea that I would read this without a guide, but once I have a little orientation it comes together, the language almost feels more interesting than the first Episode, thrilled to be reading it.

Episode 3, Proteus: What just happened? Did I make a mistake reading this book? I have been in the mind of a pretentious person—and I am not sure even any real person would actually think this pretentiously—and regardless do not particularly enjoy being in their mind which seemed like something the author did to get me to stop reading.


PART II: ODYSSEY

Episode 4, Calypso: Wow, the first sentence blew me away and the rest of the episode sustained the same level of language, imagery, perspective--not to mention smells, perhaps the pungent chapter I've ever read of anything. Is truly amazing. Not just a certified great book that I can sort of understand, but a book I can't stop thinking about. Leopold Bloom is both boring and interesting, his relationship to his wife is almost sad and bizarre, I'm hoping we meet Blazes Boylan because he seems particularly ridiculous, the stream of consciousness is working for me because it is not just one long stream but intermittent perspectives and images between something a little bit more like a narrative.

Episode 5, Lotus Eaters: Still good, still understandable Feel broadly the same way I did about Calypso, while finally getting more of the Dublin I was promised.

Episode 6, Hades: Cool, there are more people. And they have normal dialogue. And none of them are ridiculously pretentious. And I finally get to see Bloom from the perspective of others. Also I might even have figured out this one was “Hades” without the guide. Shows how insightful I’m becoming about this book.

Episode 7, Aeolus: The politics and other concerns feel a little dated, the arguments a little windy, but I guess that’s the point.

Episode 8, Lestrygonians: Bloom’s consciousness is a much more pleasant, relaxing, place to be than Dedalus’ was in Proteus. It’s better to be around a human with animal-like desires. Plus all that food, yum.

Episode 9, Scylla and Charybdis: A long time ago I spent a summer in Russia. One evening I was hanging out with a group of Russian friends engaged in lively conversation. At some point they grew tired of speaking in English just for my sake and switched to Russian. I sat for a period of time listening to the conversation and enjoying it--feeling like I was a part of something and could imagine that I understood and was more intelligent for that understanding. That’s how I’m feeling now. I couldn’t pass a test on any of this. I couldn’t even really explain or repeat what I read five minutes ago. But I’m enjoying the vicarious pleasure of being around someone smarter than me, plus his dialog is less pretentious than the mind we were exposed to in Proteus, so starting to overcome that trauma.

Episode 10, Wandering Rocks: This was fun, different characters, different scenes, all wandering around Dublin.

Episode 11, Sirens: What, this makes no sense at all, and it’s too long. Wait, I just listened to the RTÉ Players full cast recording and I still don’t love it but it did sort of come to life when you have actual sound effects (mostly music) and different voices, something Joyce was clearly trying to do but absent the literal version I could not actually hear myself.

Episode 12, Cyclops: More hanging out in Dublin sort of fun as we witness a long argument with the “Citizen,” a man with an eyepatch, a lot of bluster, and a certain amount of anti-semitism too. I don’t get many of the historical references but not sure they matter.

Episode 13, Nausicaa: This is getting too easy. And almost feels like a plot twist, learning that Bloom is not just the innocent cuckold—but a man who acts on his own needs and desires in ways that go beyond a furtive epistolary romance. Plus nice to have a new character who I can also follow, Gerty MacDoweell, who is a bit superficial, a bit vain, and also a bit risqué.

Episode 14, Oxen of the Sun: I’m dreading this because the guides say it is a long and difficult experiment with language that goes from older English up through Dickens and beyond. Now I’m reading it and quite liking it, feeling immersed in the different styles, recognizing them (even if I can’t place most of them exactly without a guide), and feeling like there is so little happening in terms of characters and plot that I’m not missing anything by not following all of it. Then the reading group shakes me a bit when my former high school English teacher argues the episode is all showing up and linguistic tricks with no plot or character development. I’m worried he’s right and I’ve been reading it all wrong.

Episode 15, Circe: What a bizarre episode, a several hundred page selection in the form of a play complete with stage directions, it goes in and out of fantasy and reality as Leopold and Stephen wanter through Nightown, Dublin’s red-light district. Getting swept away in each of the scenes is variously interesting, I’m not trying that hard to sort out fantasy from reality or understand what exactly is happening. Is that wrong of me? I don’t really have a choice.


PART III: NOSTOS

Episode 16, Eumaeus: I feel sobered up already, the prose is becoming almost a little wooden, as Leopold and Stephen return to reality and make their way to Leopold’s home.

Episode 17, Ithaca: I once gave a speech in the form of a Q&A. I thought it was an original format but it turns out James Joyce did it too, admittedly with somewhat more literary value than my own attempt at the genre. The minutiae is fun. The relationship between Bloom and Dedalus is fun. I have to go the bathroom.

Episode 18, Penelope: Finally I can see why this novel was banned. Wow, I knew this was coming, but yet was not remotely prepared for it. Eight “sentences” with no punctuation, all of what seemed like genial peccadilloes when seen from Leopold’s perspective seem worse and more tawdry from hers. And you can sympathize more with the affair she is having with Blazes Boylan. But mostly it is just astonishing to hear all the thoughts of a character you have heard a lot about but barely seen and even more barely heard until this final episode. Oh, and I’m done. That wasn’t so bad (in retrospect). Maybe I’ll do it again sometime.