I'm halfway through reading ... well listening to a free 1982 audio reading of James Joyce's'Ulysses' and I watched free on Vimeo the 1967movie version of the book by the same name to get the feel of the city it took place in, even though the movie takes place in the year 1966 and the book takes place in 1904.
As I'm slogging my way through the tale, I was wondering what Carl Jung would have made out of Joyce's epic work, and by chance I stumbled across an article where Jung wrote a review of his attempt to make any sense out of Joyce's work.
Jung even wrote an apologetic letter to Joyce over Jung's review of his book.
I kind of agree with Jung that the book is pretty bloody boring and at times I just want to stop reading/listening to it, but I think I can see what Joyce was doing by writing it this way, but I don't know if Joyce realized that his story is a mirror within a mirror within a mirror ... and so on metaphorically.
I found it rather synchromystic that it would be Jung who would later diagnose Joyce's daughter with schizophrenia and that Joyce would pass away in Switzerland, as would Jung 20 years later.
It was first serialized in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920 and then published in its entirety in Paris by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, Joyce's 40th birthday.
It is considered one of the most important works of modernist literature and has been called "a demonstration and summation of the entire movement."
So far my favourite section of Joyce's book is the meeting of the Fools/Experts at the national library in Dublin on June 16th, 1904, because it is such a microcosm of the macrocosm of what 'Ulysses' and all literature, myth and story is all about when it comes to the authors who write it ... in my humble opinion ... and we could argue of this at the national library one day if you like, and think that you have a better opinion than that;-)
The irony is that the experts/fools could be meeting today at the national library to be discussing James Joyce's motivations for writing 'A Portrait of an Artist as a Mid-Life Crisis' ... 'Ulysses':-)
This audio reading above of the meeting in the national library in the novel is key to reading 'Ulysses' in my opinion, and the motivation for Joyce writing the novel and it won't be a spoiler alert even if you haven't read the novel yet.
It's almost a stand alone chapter about works like 'Ulysses'and their authors I think.
But ironically, reading ... or trying to read 'Ulysses' is a great test in 'mindfulness' and trying to keep following the constant train of thought in the novel without being derailed by your own:-)
My football hero Paul Gallen is fighting his 13th professional fight on Bloomsday2021, and he is undefeated in 12 straight fights.
Which was pretty much why I decided to read Joyce's 'Ulysses' before Bloomsday this year, after reading the story below in the May 11th, 2021 Queensland newspaper:-)
I'm pretty neutral when it comes to whether 13 is an unlucky number, but it sure didn't seem to be lucky for Joyce passing away on a Moonday on January 13th, 1941.
Ulysses is a modernist novel by Irish writer James Joyce.
The irony is I put Herman Hesse's 'Siddhartha' on the back-burner to read 'Ulysses' before 'Bloomsday' 2021 when I was reading and listening about Zen Buddhism at the beginning of May, 2021.
But ironically, reading ... or trying to read 'Ulysses' is a great test in 'mindfulness' and trying to keep following the constant train of thought in the novel without being derailed by your own:-)
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