Proteus

  • The Women of Ulysses: Maud Gonne

    Maud Gonne, beautiful woman, La Patrie, M. Millevoye, Felix Faure, know how he died? Maud Gonne’s name appears in Ulysses’ third episode, “Proteus”, as Stephen rummages through his recollections of his brief sojourn in Paris. Though Gonne did reside in Paris in the early 1900’s, she never met James Joyce (or Stephen Dedalus), but their non-meeting…

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  • Decoding Dedalus: Latin Quarter Hat

    He dressed in black, a Hamlet without a wicked uncle…. – Richard Ellmann This is a post in a series called Decoding Dedalus where I take a passage of Ulysses and  break it down line by line.The passage below comes from “Proteus,” the third episode of Ulysses. It appears on pages 41-42 in my copy…

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  • Decoding Dedalus: Wild Geese

    In gay Paree he hides, Egan of Paris, unsought by any save by me. This is a post in a series called Decoding Dedalus where I take a passage of Ulysses and  break it down line by line. The passage below comes from “Proteus,” the third episode of Ulysses. It appears on pages 42 44…

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  • La Vie de Léo Taxil

    —Qui vous a mis dans cette fichue position? —C’est le pigeon, Joseph. To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episode here. Midway though “Proteus,” Stephen reminisces on his time as a medical student in Paris. Amongst those reminiscences, two names are nestled. First, on page 41 (Vintage International Edition): But…

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  • Mahamanvantara

    “I wouldn’t be [Joyce’s] Messiah for a thousand million pounds. He would always be criticising the bad taste of his deity.” – AE Russell To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episode here. Hello, dear readers. Let’s have some fun with Sanskrit today. We’re in the thick of it now,…

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  • Houses of Decay

    The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and…

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  • Decoding Dedalus: Omphalos

    Daedalus in Ulysses was Joyce himself, so he was terrible. Joyce was so damn romantic and intellectual about him. He’d made Bloom up. Bloom was wonderful. – Ernest Hemingway, “On Writing” This is a post in a series called Decoding Dedalus where I take a paragraph of Ulysses and break it down line by line.…

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  • Decoding Dedalus: Ineluctable Modalities

    “The first phase of apprehension is a bounding line drawn about the object to be apprehended. An esthetic image is presented to us either in space or in time. What is audible is presented in time, what is visible is presented in space.” – Stephen Dedalus, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man…

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  • Ulysses & The Odyssey: Proteus

    This episode contains practically no action. Nothing happens…. – Stuart Gilbert, on“Proteus” Part of an occasional series on the Homeric parallels in James Joyce’s Ulysses. To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episode here. The Odyssey: Book 4 Telemachus and co. find their way to the home of Menelaus, the…

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