|
Having read
several masterpieces of world literature it was not without high-screwed
expectations that I started reading James Joyce's Ulysses. The book had
been on my 'to-be-read' shelf for years. Its reputation as a hard piece
of work had deterred my eager to start. Only after having read Homer's
Odysseus and even that together with others in a reading circle Joyce seemed
possible. With determination we started. What will be Joyce's message for
which he needs double the amount of pages compared to Homer, who told a
story of 10x365 days whereas Joyce's story only comprises one day?
The book was divided into 28 roughly even weekly portions. This meant
at least 3 hours of weekly reading considering that I read always first
in English and then the same in Finnish. Already the first portion arose
a rough impression: educated young men speaking very unpolished language.
Then entered the main character: Leopold Bloom. My first impression of
him was quite pleasant. He takes good care of his wife Molly. The sympathetic
impression of Bloom is actually retained throughout the book. Likewise
maintained is the frivolous and educated jargon of the young men surrounding
Bloom. This kind of usage is rare in paramount world class literature.
I am only asking, whether it is needed here either. No obvious grounding
for it can be found in the book. Of course, the great Shakespeare uses
obscene expressions, Homer has some of them, more of otherwise rough words.
But these masters know their limits. I am not sure whether Joyce does.
Maybe, in the mouths of medicine men as they here are…
The richness of Joyce's vocabulary is praiseworthy. I collected little
less than thousand English (or Anglicized) words unknown for me. But my
remark is that a great part of them are searched idiosyncrasies or unfounded
peculiarities, not necessary from the point of the context. Another collection
I made is the alien language expressions. My vocabulary program counts
some 14 languages. Practically all big Western European languages are represented,
starting from Latin, ending to Hungarian. Greek and Russian are not represented.
These expressions are presented without translation. So, the author either
expects a lot of his readers or deliberately sneers to the reader. Maybe,
he writes the book for himself only! The old Russian practice is nice:
if foreign language is used, it is always translated in a footnote. (Another
pleasant Russian habit: if foreign language text is transliterated, it
is done according to the pronunciation. Because Russian is a completely
phonetic language; this way you find out, how the foreign citation is pronounced.)
I cannot see any reason, why Joyce has used different style in every
chapter. To show, where a new chapter begins? To offer some variety in
a long, much too long text? Two of his styles almost pleased me. The question-and-answer
style in the last but one chapter somewhat helped to focusing to the subject
matter at hand. Also the woman's-angle style in the last chapter was agreeable.
I am still astonished, how 'womanlike' text he is able to produce. 'Almost'
means that there are unpleasant features in both chapters: many questions
and/or answers are very strange and artificial and the 'womanly' style
is maimed by suppressing the (inconsequent) division into sentences and
paragraphs.
All in all I consider reading Joyce's Ulysses more than a cultural event,
an achievement like running a marathon or bathing in a hole in the ice.
In no case could I approve the Nobel price to Joyce. Especially as there
are several persons, who in my opinion well deserve it but have not got
it. For instance Frank McCourt's 'Angela's ashes' is far better, if an
Irishman should be denominated. I consider a blatant injustice that such
writers as Mika Waltari [too late] and Jaan Kross [hurry up, Nobel committee]
have not been laureated. Oh, these writers and their readers! In the case
of Joyce I must ask the famous question: Where's the beef?
|
o AJK kotisivu o Joyce