Ulysses

When I was in my twenties, one of my favorite books was James Joyce's Ulysses. I loved the the language and the challenge of it, as well as the flashes of humor and humanity. I can't remember how many times I read the book; I would guess three times all the way through, though some episodes I've probably read five times or more. However, I often felt that I was missing out on a lot of what the novel had to offer because I was unfamiliar with the book's touchstone, the Odyssey. For those who don't know, in Ulysses, Joyce takes the action of Homer's Odyssey and translates it to Dublin in 1904; the reincarnation is a bit ironic, however, because Odysseus's double, Leopold Bloom, is not a hero but an ordinary man, and his perils and adventures are mostly of the everyday sort. Regardless, I'd long had the ambition of reading the poem and then immediately going back to Ulysses to see what that opened up for me. Around 1997 or 1998 I bought a copy of the Robert Fagles translation of the Odyssey for this purpose, as well as his translation of the Iliad, since as long as I was doing the one I might as well do the other, but they looked awfully long, and I kept putting off reading them.

Eight or nine years later I suddenly discovered that I wasn't getting any younger, and so in the interest of having as few deathbed regrets as possible, I hunkered down and made my way through the Iliad; it was worthwhile, but a bit of a slog at times, and I wanted to take a break before tackling the Odyssey. The short break became a long one, but this month I finally accomplished my goal: the Odyssey is finished. It's funny, though—what struck me on reading the epic was how vague the connections between the two works were; I had imagined that there would be elaborate correspondences between the two stories, but instead it's more as if Odysseus's adventures are merely frames or inspirations or jumping-off points for Joyce. Regardless, I think that knowing what parts belong to who will help me in understanding Ulysses.

So anyway, this is all a roundabout way of saying that I'm reading Ulysses again. It will be an interesting journey, I think; in a way it's as if I'm revisiting a younger version of myself, just as Joyce revisited his own younger self in the creation of Stephen Dedalus. What's particularly interesting (to me) is that when I first read the novel I was close to the age of the Stephen Dedalus; now I am almost the same age as the older man, Leopold Bloom. Already I feel as though I understand the character better.

I think it would be a worthwhile exercise for me to write up a little something about the episodes as I read them; it will help ensure that I am thinking about what is going on in the novel and getting the most out of it. I will post the thoughts here on the off chance that they'll be useful to someone.