April 24, 2013

"Mr. Joyce was not teaching early Egyptian perversions nor inventing new ones."

"Girls lean back everywhere, showing lace and silk stockings; wear low-cut sleeveless blouses, breathless bathing suits; men think thoughts and have emotions about these things everywhere — seldom as delicately and imaginatively as Mr. Bloom (in the 'Nausicaa' episode) — and no one is corrupted."

Funny the way literature was defended on the ground that it wasn't going to affect us. But that was a literary device, used to portray the social conservative as unsophisticated — cringing at phantoms.

7 comments:

Jim said...

Now they lean in, not back.

Paddy O said...

If everyone is corrupted, then nobody is corrupted.

traditionalguy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
edutcher said...

Mr Joyce could be damn difficult to understand.

"Finnegan's", with which I was stuck in undergrad school, made "Moby Dick" a walk in the park.

mccullough said...

James Joyce is over-rated. Silly Catholic guilt.

deborah said...

I recently read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It was excellent.

ken in tx said...

Read George Singleton's novel, “Novel”. It is the greatest send up of James Joyce I have ever read. If you have even tried to read “Finagans Wake” or “Ulysses “, you will understand this writing better, and laugh a lot.