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thePeorian.com
Literarea
JAMES JOYCE
ULYSSES
When it comes to s/o/c writing,
James Joyce is the Beatles of the
genre
5
.
Consider his masterpiece,
Ulysses, which follows Leopold
Bloom and Stephen Dedalus as
they go about their day on June
16, 1904.
The novel parallels Homer’s
Odyssey and is divided into 18
episodes, starting with Dedalus
rising and going off to teach a
history class, followed by him
wandering the city ruminating
on his family and station in life.
The book then switches to Bloom,
the advertising canvasser, start-
ing his day with his wife Molly,
attending a funeral, having lunch
at a pub, doing a little work, a
lot of talking and finally hav-
ing dinner with Stephen’s uncle
at a hotel, all the while having
rather lascivious thoughts about
various women he encounters
6
.
The last portion of the novel has
Bloom and Dedalus together,
after a night of drunken carous-
ing, heading home, with finial
episode consisting of the s/o/c
thoughts of Molly, Bloom’s wife,
upon him returning.
While the story is interesting
in structure, it’s the s/o/c writing
that makes that novel stand out
7
in 20th century literature. It’s a
unique capability of presenting
the story by bridging the gap
between speech and prespeech,
sometimes moving freely be-
tween the two (sometimes within
the same sentence) and resulting
in half-words and mixed words,
plus puns and phrases with a
unique Irish flair. For example,
from Ulysses:
“
When I makes tea I makes tea,
as old mother Grogan said. And
when I makes water I makes wa-
ter … Begob, ma’am, says Mrs.
Cahill, God send you don’t
make them in the one pot.
Plenty to see and hear and feel
yet. Feel live warm beings near
you. They aren’t going to get
me this innings. Warm beds:
warm full blooded life.
Coffined thoughts around me,
in mummycases, embalmed
in spice of words. Thoth,
god of libraries, a birdgod,
moonycrowned. And I heard
the voice of that Egyptian
highpriest. In painted chambers
loaded with tilebooks. They are
still. Once quick in the brains of
men. Still: but an itch of death
is in them, to tell me in my ear a
maudlin tale, urge me to wreak
their will.
As we, or mother Dana, weave
and unweave our bodies,
Stephen said, from day to day,
their molecules shuttled to and
fro, so does the artist weave and
unweave his image.”
S/o/c in this manner can also
be called mindfulness, which
involves not only observing
thoughts and emotions as they
arise, but noting them as well.
There’s no evaluation or analysis,
no judgment or valuation, just
observation and note taking.
See also: Finnegans Wake
CONTINUED ON PAGE 48
