I'm pleased that I've finally found a way to read Ulysses (pron. OO lis ayz) after all these many years of letting it sit on the shelf unread.

When Joyce first made it available for reading and publishing, it was considered unreadable even by his best artist friends and supporters. It took a good fifty years of hard study, research, and explication by some very good and dedicated people to make it intelligible, interesting, and engaging. Thus, I've found that I can read it as long as I have a series of keys to guide me through it... including a good synopsis of each book of Homer's Odyssey; Cliff Note summaries of each chapter and the characters; and some very elucidating essays by Guy Davenport, the most helpful being those on the Daedalus myth and the way Joyce used each symbol of the ancient Irish alphabet as a way of setting up each of the 18 chapters. It's also essential to have a good grasp of what a Catholic education meant in those days, along with a knowledge of both the classic literature and the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. Joyce's alter-ego in the book, Stephen Dedalus, is considered an expert Aristotelian and logician. Joyce portrays him struggling between two choices as an artist: the back to the Irish movement, seeking authenticity in the ancient and pagan past, and the ultra modern European movement (which he finally sees as move viable for the future of art). Thus, as more and more keys become available, so the novel opens up more of its many layers and resonances.

A piece of good reading advice that I found at a Joyce site is to read this ultra-realistic novel with an mpresioniist's eyes.. i.e., let the words, scenes, and images make impressions instead of trying to get meaning and import out of every litle word, phrase, chapter, or detail. It's also made me think that perhaps it's best to view an impressionistic work with the eyes of the realist.

Another plus is the way that other strands of art stand in conjunction with Ulysses as artists have taken ancient myths and stories and interpolated them into their works. Davenport has very helpfully shown how parallel and interwoven these works are, as he explicates the importance of the Daedalus myth and its many permutations throughout the history of art and literature.. in the nursery rhyme "The House that Jack Built," echoes of which appear in Ulysses; in Picasso's Minatauromachy and other of his art; in the art of Pavel Tchelitchew; and elsewhere. This extra-textual and visual art helps the reader to see the way that these images, symbols, and themes take relevance in our changing modern world and, at the same time, resonate in the psyche and the way that people act in the great metropolis of living labyrinth of life.. not just in the square mile of Dublin on June 16, 1904.

I've read seven chapters now, and I believe that I can finish the book without too much trouble. Each chapter, remember, has a title given to it by a critic, while at the same time representing the symbolic meaning of that place in the Irish alphabet.

Part One consistes of three chapters: the first is called "Telemachus," the second "Nestor," and the third "Proteus"; these three chapters introduce and establish Stephen Daedalus as both the Telemachus and Icarus of the novel and the man who triumphs humanly as a sensitive thinker, his challenge being dealing with extroverted doers and bullies.

Part Two introduces and establishes Leopold Bloom as the Ulysses of the novel and the Wandering Jew, the christlike man of sensuality and the world.. the bee gatherning nectar in order to build out of the labyrinth the golden honeycomb of love.. whose struggle is to complete himself through relationships with others, especially with his troublesome wife Molly, the queen-bee, the nymph, and the Penelope of the novel. As you can see there are parallel myths working intricately through the characters as they move through Dublin.. the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus; Homer's Odyssey; and the Judeo-Christian Bible, including the Catholic gospels and the way the Irish conduct rituals, often at odds with the way they actually think about the religion. The main tone of the novel, however, is one of bitterness at the socio-political climate and attitudes of the people, emphasizing their twin bondage to the English and the Pope. Joyce didn't approve of the back to the old Irish movement in art, theater, and literature .. spearheaded by Yeats and Lady Gregory.. and that was why he expatriated himself from the country, in order to involve himself in European art and thinking as a way of moving forward instead of backwards. He was a very angry man, and it shows in the novel through the character of Stephen Daedalus and the way the Irish Catholics treat the central character, Leopold Bloom, a man of Hungarian Jewish origins. Even so, there is much love and humor in the way that Bloom thinks and deals with the world.. and that redeems the novel in a big way.

Also interesting is that Ulysses is a work of poetry embedded in the prose of everyday thoughts, words, movements, actions, and events. As I have been reading, my observing mind has been remarking on how much like poetry many of the lines read. Yes, the syntax and stream-of-consciousness thought processes can be very difficult to parse out, but the key-guides generally make most of it intelligible and meaningful.

Sue