Birthday Blips: James Joyce
PeetieWheatstrawOn this date (2/2) in 1882, James Joyce was born in Dublin, Ireland. So why am I celebrating this in a feature usually focused on music? Easy. James Joyce made music with the written word.
Joyce’s love for music lasted his entire life. At times when writing seemed to be failing him, Joyce often considered pursuing his second talent as a singer. His tenor voice won him several awards as a young man, and his father hoped this would be the path he followed toward fame. Socially, Joyce often entertained friends by singing and accompanying himself on piano. But even while chosing the pen instead, music never left his approach to art. For starters, his first attempt at poetry was titled Chamber Music. After deciding he felt more comfortable with prose, he went on to write many works where music played a central role. What would “The Dead” be without the influence of the music involved? Portrait of an Artist... begins and ends with the budding artist as infant and then a young man appreciating the sounds and inflections of language. As for the often deemed “unreadable” Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, I suggest reading them aloud, or at least listening to audio versions of them. Never did either of these texts come to life more than when I heard the music of the flow of language within each. For more on Joyce’s connection to music:
http://www.james-joyce-music.com/joyceandmusic.html.
I admit James Joyce is my favorite writer. Just as when I hear a song I love, reading or listening to Joyce’s writing gives me more enjoyment than any other writer I’ve ever encountered. In casual conversation, I usually have to admit this with a shirk; for some reason the appreciation for Joyce is coupled with arrogance, literary elitism, and in the worst cases, straight up posturing as a faux-intellectual. At an age and comfort with myself knowing that I am not any of these, I am then left defending my appreciation for someone I simply find to be a master of language. I don’t always understand what he writes, nor do I think I ever will. I also don’t think he is for everyone, and do not think people that don’t like him are less cultured or educated than me. That said, I do think many people who dismiss Joyce as someone they could never “get” aren’t giving themselves, or Joyce, enough credit.
If you’ve ever considered trying to read Joyce--especially his more challenging material, I offer you one suggestion: leave the life-long literacy training you’ve received that urges you to search for meaning and comprehension behind for a moment. It's not as crazy as it sounds; in fact, it can be quite liberating. Hear words like you did as a very young child--strange sounds and rhythms with curious builds and breaks. Enjoy the glimpses of meaning you perceive, but also laugh at the nonsense you do not. This is an artist playing with multiple tongues, accents, and dialects, melding them together while molding them into something new. And, just as much as with a soul stirring song, it doesn’t take a doctorate in literature or a privileged upbringing to appreciate what language can do.
If you’d like to dive right into it, click here to hear Joyce himself reading the “Anna Livia Plurabelle” section of Finnegans Wake:
Reader Comments (3)
I like what you said about letting go your literary training in order to listen to Joyce. It's so true because language functions on many levels, and a master like Joyce certainly feeds into its dynamics. I listened to Ulysses and Portrait awhile back and there were some points when I would get frustrated with what seemed to be gibberish. But once I stopped trying to understand and decode everything, I rather enjoyed just hearing the patterns of sound, even if they seemed incoherent in meaning. So in a sense the audiobook became more like music than a consistent narrative, especially for Ulysses.
The other interesting aural component of the librivox audio recordings of Ulysses was that they were narrated by many different voices. Not just the words themselves, but the narrators can breath new life and meaning into the book, like different singers remaking the same song. I found the chapters with the background noise to be most interesting. I could picture what some of the pub scenes or street sounds must've been like for Bloom because the readers of the audiobook included similar background music in their recordings. All of it was a cool experience that gave me access to an author, who, as you addressed, I probably would've neglected as an unapproachable oddity that was kept in the glass cases of academia and only reserved for an elite few.
I have been taken for a ride with Joyce a few times in my years. It is a ride with the windows down and no map. You nail it as Nick said when you have to leave the baggage of expertise at home when you hit the road.
You make a good point when you said that many people fear the written word. They would must rather listen to music, though I never really saw the difference in the two. It is an album you listen to when you read a novel. It is a song you listen to when you read a poem or short story. They can be enjoyed on many levels, but they both require, at least the good stuff, participation. You recognize a talent when you hear a song and it is the same with writing.
I prefer the written form of art over any other and it because I value silence and control. I can stop the voice in a book, but not with Joyce. He is in control and out of control. But Joyce held sacred the sounds of words as much as their image and their formation of meaning. Artists do not play with us, but they understand that their writing or creation may never bring people as much enjoyment or enlightenment as it does for them. What I can say about Joyce that is different than Hemmingway or Fitzgerald, you could tell he was enjoying his writing and was conscious of doing it. Now that is something to sing about.
Thanks
The sounds of Joyce's literature are still what stands out for me and I love that you brought attention to a much underappreciated aspect of his writing. His ability to capture the sights, sounds, and smells of so many diverse places, especially the watering holes of Dublin, have always enthralled me as a reader. There's a vividness to his writing that all readers can appreciate, regardless of their literary expertise or training.
I agree with you it is shame that so many turn away from Joyce on account of his classic achievements of Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake. There's a certain irony to it thought, which Joyce himself would probably appreciate most of all, that his most famous and recognized works are the same ones that the fewest have read and also the cause of most people's opposition to him as a writer.
In addition to leaving behind one's literary training or literary pretenses, I think another way to encourage Joyce is starting small and manageable with The Dubliners. All of his short stories are accessible length and style but also provide the classic aspects of all great Joycean literature.
Thanks for the post!