The Dead - The James Joyce Reading Circle (select the dropdown arrows to access episodes, cantos, and stories)

(M) Joyce’s Modernism: The Gnomon of Joyce’s Dubliners

The Jesuits taught Joyce that Euclid’s influence extended beyond angles, legs, and cosines. According to Wertmeimmer’s Gestalt, Euclidean geometry creates a search for consistency (Miller 248). Rene Descartes, also Jesuit educated, balked against Aristotelian logic and set geometry on a course toward the concrete application of simple principles. Descartes’ influence may have been the reasonContinue reading “(M) Joyce’s Modernism: The Gnomon of Joyce’s Dubliners”

(D) about “A Mother,” August 27, Joyce’s Antient Concert Rooms Performance

In her essay “Stifled Back Answers,” Margot Norris cites from “The Dead” to mark the role of women in Dubliners, whether courting or married. Her examples include “…the men that is now is all palaver and what they can get out of you”; and “That’s a nice husband for you, Mrs. Malins.”) (480). The status ofContinue reading “(D) about “A Mother,” August 27, Joyce’s Antient Concert Rooms Performance”

(BL) “Voice, Knowledge, and Truth” or “Saying Nothing”

The 27th Annual Bloomsday Omniscientific Joyce event alternately titled “Voice, Knowledge, and Truth” or “Saying Nothing” was conducted on BloomsWeek Tuesday during Session 5. The session explored the unsaid in Joyce, open secrets, and anonymity all attributing to “the unspeakable and the unspoken.” Presenters included participating Chairperson Vincent Cheng delivering “Saying Nothing in Joyce,” Margot NorrisContinue reading “(BL) “Voice, Knowledge, and Truth” or “Saying Nothing””

(D) about “The Dead,” January 6

‘the dead are dancing with the dead./The dust is whirling with the dust.’ (Oscar Wilde, “The Harlot’s House”) Befuddled Julia Morkan, “toddling” on the arm of Mister Archibald DeathBrowne, appears “ignorant, old, grey-skinned, and stupified.” She exits the room of her minor musical triumph for the feast where Gabriel of the next generation will eulogize herContinue reading “(D) about “The Dead,” January 6″

(D) A Year of Dubliners

What follows is an experiment. I have long suspected that there is a calendar nesting among the fifteen stories of Dubliners. Beginning with “Clay” on October 31, I’ll post an essay about each story in the collection. The stories follow the Celtic Year. ~Don 2020 The dropdown menu has reverted to the Gregorian Calendar aboutContinue reading “(D) A Year of Dubliners”