Ulysses Reading Group 2023

[ValentineGreen]

Hi all, on the back of a thread currently in Chat 'have you read Ulysses' it seemed like it would be a good idea to form a Ulysses Read-a-long group here.

No experience required, this thread is open to anyone who fancies reading it for the first time or the 100th time!

I don't know yet the best way to structure it, as in how many pages we all agree to read given that some 'chapters' are far denser than others. I'm totally open to anyone who has set up something like this before and knows what will work well?

For some context, I did not study English Literature but have always been an avid reader. I read Ulysses once, many years ago and while I say 'read' I mean my eyes read each word but I cannot say my brain decoded them all whatsoever.

Now, nearly 30 years later, and after a lifetime of reading, including Portrait and Dubliners as well as a lot of reading around the meaning of Ulysses, I wish to re-read it. But I would love to read it with others where we can share our thoughts and interpretations and knowledge as we go.

I find myself growing ever more fascinated by Joyce and his life and I really want to 'know' this great masterpiece and understand it (if I can!)

Please don't be shy! Come and join me...

Between us we can work out the best way to structure this undertaking.

Afternoon! Thank you so much, @ValentineGreen and I enjoyed your original thread. I'm a History teacher with a long term love of literature and like to read various styles and genres. I'd never read Ulysses until recently, a recommendation from my son. I thought it was compelling and immersive and I love the use of language. Happy to chat and learn from others 😊

Hello, I wondered if we might attempt an episode a week.

See https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/ulysses/

So, Valentine might start a thread with the title 'Telemachus' and people could chip in. Then a week later it would be 'Nestor'. People who read more slowly, could chip in as and when they got to the relevant section.

We could also add threads to discuss Joyce more generally. Ditto other authors/critics eg Woolf, Eliot.

Best wishes to all from Stately plump LaGiaconda....

I'm in!

I'm not sure if I can commit to it, but I'll dip my toe in.

Have just read the first episode. Very different reading this in my 60s - over 40 years on. Not as hard to understand as I remembered. Perhaps because of having read a lot of poetry in the interveniy and also having a sense of the overall storyline.

We read with our own lives in our mind. This time round I have been able to understand Stephen as someone who is self-centred - Mulligan is taken aback by this - but also as someone who is lost, shocked, grieving after the loss of his mother. But grief is complicated by the fact he can't take refuge in the rites of the Catholic church.

I am the parent of an adult child who can be righteous like Stephen!

Good morning!
I'm so glad to see I have some companions here. Thank you for joining.

I think it's an excellent idea to read a chapter a week. Perhaps we could run Thursday to Thursday giving the weekend to catch up for those who might not have as much time midweek?

When I did the Joyce Centre Bloom Walking Tour in Dublin last month the guide, a Joyce academic from Trinity College Dublin spoke about the schemata Joyce used, & later revealed , to construct the book.

So each chapter relates to Homers Oddessy but also each chapter or episode has a predominant colour associated, as well as a style of writing & a symbol.

I'm happy to admit that I did not know this (other than the homer reference & the fact that each chapter is written in a different style)

I'm v happy to start each chapter with this info which we can have in mind while we read if people would like that?

Or would we prefer to read that contextual stuff after we've read the text?

I'm heading to work now but can come back to this later this morning.

I'm so excited to get going & am really looking forward to the conversations!

Should have said its the Linati or Gilbert Scheme above..

Schema not scheme (autocorrect on phone + early & not enough coffee yet!)

I’d like to join please! Thanks for starting the group.
(having the contextual info before reading sounds good to me)

Thursday to Thursday sounds good because of work. I've already learned a lot!

I like the idea of having a sub-thread for each episode.

I would like to join in but will not be able to start for a few weeks, so if there were separate threads it would be easy to just read the thread for the bit I have currently got to even if I am weeks behind the rest of you.

Ok, so it seems like what would work for people is to keep this thread for general chat about Joyce and his life and work and each week I will set up a new thread for that particular chapter and in that I will include the Linata / Gilbert schemata info so we can keep it in mind as we're reading it?

I will post the new chapter info each Thursday and we will run Thursday to Thursday?

I'll get this week's info up at lunchtime!

Ok, let's go with that and see how it works 👍

Yes please. Only I can't find either of my copies🙁

@Bideshi you can join in anytime you want if you manage to locate your copies.

Shall we trial the multiple threads thing? I am now thinking it might get really messy trying to keep up with 19 different threads - one for each chapter and this one? or am I overthinking it?

I wonder if it's best to have one thread.
Just every Thursday to discuss what we've read. I think multiple threads could get very confusing! People can dip in and out.
Just continue this thread for part 1.

@Maireas I think that is the way to go.

I'm procrastinating with work and gathering the information now and will post shortly for Chapter 1.

Thursday 01 June - Thursday 8 June
Chapter 1 - Telemachus

The Schema
In a 1920 letter to Carlo Linati (a friend and early reader of Ulysses) Joyce wrote 'in view of the enormous bulk and the more than enormous complexity of my novel it would be better to send you a sort of summary-key-skeleton-scheme (for your personal use only). Perhaps my idea will appear clearer to you when you have the text' (letters I 46)
So, even before having finished writing the novel Joyce recognised that readers needed some support in grasping the nuanced allusions and intricate structures he had put into Ulysses. He later sent similar 'schemas' to other friends and early scholar's of his work, including Stuart Gilbert. Joyce gave Gilbert permission to publish the contents of the schema in his study of the novel published in 1930. The Gilbert and Linati schemas have some differences.

Episode 1: Telemachus* *
Time: 8am
Scene:* Tower
Colour: Gold, white
Technique: Narrative (young)
Correspondences: Stephen/Telemachus; Buck/Antinous; Milkwoman/mentor
Science / Art: Theology
Meaning: Dispossessed son in struggle
Organ: *None
Symbols: Hamlet, Ireland, Heir

In addition to the individual episode titles, the Gilbert schema also divides the novel into three parts, which Joyce also titled

• Part I: "Telemachia" (episodes 1-3)
• Part II: "Odyssey" (episodes 4 -15)
• Part III: "Nostos" (episodes 16 - 18)

All the above information is from www.ulyssesguide.com

And now we read chapter 1 and come back to chat about it all!

Please don't feel you have to analyse the book according to the 'schema' above as that might be off putting to some.

As I said at the start, I do not come from an English Lit background, I am merely an interested amateur. I included the schema as I heard someone speak about it very recently and I thought it was interesting.

This is a space to share all and any thoughts we might have as we read our way through the book.

I'm planning to read episode 1 after work and I'll be back with my thoughts after that.

I am a little late and need to buy the book but I’d love to tag along with this. Im an avid reader but not really of classics. Im hoping to learn and also maybe to be able to contribute something too.
Thank you

Hello!

There's a Gutenberg version online too.

For anyone interested, there's a newish book (2020) by Sangham Macduff called Joyce's Panepiphanal Worlds, which traces JJ's repetitive use of the 40 extant 'epiphanies' throughout his work. There's something more subtly interesting going on with U than the earlier work - most take his mockery of the epiphany in 'Proteus' (remember your epiphanies, deeply deep ...) as a sign he'd outgrown the aesthetic (he hadn't).

Unusually for an academic monograph this one's open access! Panepiphanal World (oapen.org)

And thanks @ValentineGreen for these threads. This is opportune as I need to reread U (again! any excuse) for a project I've just completed but want to expand upon. The opportunity to share that with interested others would be a joy!

Can I join? I thought the centenary year would be a good opportunity to read it, and I just read the first episode, so this is a perfectly timed thread for me!

Hi @MrsW9 of course you can join! Delighted ro have you here

So...I've just read the first episode. I'm tired after work but have been waiting all day excitedly & just had to read it.

I really enjoyed it. There's some gorgeous imagery capturing the atmosphere inside the tower & the sea, which was a pleasure to read.

I stated to wonder about the nature of Stephen & Bucks relationship. It seems like they'd had a pretty intense friendship but something had changed or shifted & now Stephen feels pushed out. On the outside. The episode ends with the word usurper.

I think he's threatened by Haines & the growing friendship between him & buck.

Buck is a larger than life bombastic type & given Stephen has lost his mother, he says some shockingly insensitive things to Stephen. I actually felt sorry for Stephen in this episode. He's sad & poor & tormented with regret / fear he did the wrong thing.

I'll come back in the morning as too tired now & I'm going to have a little time to mull over that episode some more

There are a couple of references I wabg to look up too.

I think the religious imagery is quite strong in the first episode. Buck's shaving bowl like a chalice. Also references to Irish nationalism. Neither of those themes struck me the first time around.