Tags
books, Buddhism, James Joyce, Life, literature, poetry, spirituality, Ulysses, Zen
“He is, of course, attempting the impossible—to describe in words (which always lie) that which is beyond words.”—Timothy Leary, forward to Alan W. Watts’ The Joyous Cosmology
I’ve used that quote before, but pondering the latest Omphalos Cafe video uploaded to YouTube it, or something to that effect, comes to mind.
It’s in the nature of the beast I suppose, the beast being that incomprehensibly vast yet ultimately simple Thing called Life. We complicate it, oversystemitize it, lose it when we resort to that fabulous thing we alone evolved called ‘thought.’ Things, things, and more things: thoughts.
I titled the video The Ten Biggest Misconceptions Hindering the Reading, Understanding and Enjoyment of James Joyce’s Ulysses. It’s better, but I still cringe watching it. I need continually remind myself that it’s only my fifth video uploaded. They’ll get better, more natural in time. These things I speak of are not easy to convey. They’re ‘beyond words’ as Leary says.
Who calls Joyce’s masterpiece a “grand meditation upon all Life?” And yet to me that’s precisely what it is. The farther into it I sally—Life that is (and I’ve passed the fifty year point)—the more encompassing Joyce’s work appears.
“…[T]o describe in words (which always lie) that which is beyond words.” Of course Joyce lived those words. He understood their lying nature as well as That which is beyond them. Read Ulysses and you will see and experience words breaking down, dissolving. It is the work of a Buddha nature.
Finnegans Wake goes even farther. The words have disappeared entirely. Sure, he still employs letters and the printed page, but the words have melted into music and rhythm. If Life is beyond words, Joyce the consummate artist has gone beyond words to render it, portray it.
West is East and East is West…
And Life (beyond the words) is ALL there is….
Omphalos Cafe 
Hey, I absolutely love “Ulysses”! I have read it few times and don’t understand why even Irish people don’t read it and consider it complex, cloudy, boring… “Read Ulysses and you will see and experience words breaking down, dissolving. It is the work of a Buddha nature.”… hmmm… have never thought about it this way…
Put plain and simply, I don’t think anybody reads Ulysses properly, which is why I’ve posted the first of a series of videos on YouTube on the subject. I called it “The Ten Biggest Misconceptions Hindering the Reading, Understanding and Enjoyment of James Joyce’s Ulysses” and it can be found on my Omphalos Cafe channel. Excuse the shoddy production though, I’m pretty new at it.
Whoops, going back to the post I realize I’ve already referenced the video. Sorry. I put Miller and Joyce side by side up on the top shelves here at the Cafe. Their methods are widely different of course, but where they got to in the end very similar. Reading Ulysses everyone, I mean absolutely everyone, focuses on Bloom, but who (and who can) delve into Dedalus? Which brings to mind my increasingly used quote: “Bloomsday is for the masses, Dedalusday is for the few.” In short, Dedalus is the young Joyce, the young Miller of New York as recounted in Capricorn, and especially in the Rosy Crucifixion Trilogy, and in Ulysses Dedalus experiences his own Rosy Crucifixion when his old backward looking personality is knocked unconscious and reborn thanks to Bloom. They both gain equally from the meeting! But who sees it that way? And, as I intend on saying in my next video, now in production, without Dedalus Bloom and his wife Molly are finished, done for…. But again, who ever sees it that way? Nobody. Everyone is too busy celebrating Bloomsday.
Oh, and of course a big thanks for reading and commenting. It’s very much appreciated. Seems I chased off my first batch of commenters, but they were too hell bent on ‘intellectualism.’
Hey Jeff! I will definitely watch the video! I just need to find some time, so I can give it attention it deserves! May be handy as I’ve been thinking about coming back to Ulysses for quite some time – but only managed to read last chapter (the questionnaire) few times. I also want to finally read whole Ada or Ardor by Nabokov. Both are very demanding books. Not sure if I manage to handle two demanding books on top of two demanding kids, one demanding wife, full time job and meditation practice though. Wish me good luck!
Now there’s two videos up on the subject of Ulysses. The first was my 10 Biggest Misconceptions, and the latest is my Six Tips for Better Reading, Understanding and Enjoying Ulysses. Plus two follow up posts, one a sort of promotion for the latter video and the other a building on what I thought was a little flash of brilliance when I referred to Stephen Dedalus as ‘brooding Buddha-to-be.’ I rank a few Western souls up there with Buddhahood, Miller and Joyce among them. But the amazing thing when it comes to those two definitely distinct guys is that they left road maps on their own personal journeys to Buddhaland. Miller recounted his in his Tropic of Capricorn and especially The Rosy Crucifixion Trilogy, and Joyce did so in A Portrait and Ulysses. The results are Stand Still Like the Hummingbird and Wisdom of the Heart and others by Miller, and Finnegans Wake by Joyce.
Ok, that’s it for now. Just more demands upon your time. Sorry. Bless the kids though. I’ve an eleven year old boy.