Monday, May 25, 2020
A Review of the Ulysses Lotus Eaters
A Review of the Ulysses Lotus EatersWhen I read the Ulysses Lotus Eaters article it made me think about the kind of author Joyce was. This was the same Joyce who wrote Finnegans Wake. The Ulysses book has been one of the most discussed books on the shelves of many libraries and the first book that are ever to be published in the twenty-first century.The year was 2020 and Joyce was being interviewed by an Umwelt in a television series called Son of a Gun. The series followed the lives of real people. It was done by special effects man (and, incidentally, the man who did Alien) Peter Jackson. His main subject was the special effects of some of the movies he had worked on such as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.During the course of the interview (which is available on YouTube), Joyce says 'The main problem in my life has been doing 'Ulysses'.' This was not the first time he had said this. We know that he disliked the job of writing Ulysses, and he would often tell his friends about it. He told T.S. Farrell about how he hated writing Ulysses because of the family history.He told Michael Cunningham of the book Ibid Pgs.80-81, 'You have to talk to these people about what they have to say, for their sanity.' The following year, he wrote another book of fiction called The Dead, but the only people who actually read the parts he was writing were his wife, his sister, and their daughter. In the final review, he said that he had to agree with T.S. Farrell's criticism of him in Finnegans Wake, saying that he did not see eye to eye with Joyce on the character of Joyce's mother, Annie. As a parent, his sister simply wanted Joyce to marry a man, the best of which he could not name. The family's attitude towards Joyce may not have been that bad in reality, but it does seem very negative in the book, I'm afraid.In Ulysses, we meet Jane Muir, the narrator, who is a detective working for Ireland's Met office of the Dublin police. The Ulysses Lotus Eaters series takes place in the 21st century, some years after the war. She is the only person to see the book before its publication. She is also the only person to write a true review of the book.She was pleased with the ending of the story, which many have criticized. This end leaves Joyce's mother alone and unwilling to travel to another part of Ireland, from where Joyce is presumed dead. This end allows the reader to think about the question that opens the book, which is, 'What does love mean? What is death?' However, she could also wonder about her own fate: 'I am no longer safe as a woman. There will be no second marriage for me.'Jane Muir did not agree with how closed Joyce was in Finnegans Wake. 'I had no interest in the wider world of fiction. It had no meaning for me,' she wrote.The Ulysses Lotus Eaters series follows Jane Muir, an Irish detective of sorts, throughout the years of her life. She travels to the far corners of the world, away from her hometown and country. She is responsible for solving c rimes and reviewing unsolved ones. She is also responsible for the opening chapter of the book, which was written by Joyce.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.