Originally Posted by: Jolly McJollysonUlysses is the greatest novel ever written and I would die for James Joyce. However, try reading it along with a book of criticism on it, particularly Hart and Hayman's James Joyce's Ulysses, read a section of the criticism twice before the corresponding section of the Novel. Don't ever feel like you're using a crutch by trying this method. After all, Joyce had to publish two schemas so people could actually read it.

Now for your other questions:

Thomas or Tommis is lonely and more likely jilted than bitter. However, he certainly does have his bitter and angry moments. Really I think of him more as a recluse at this point.


Perhaps Thomas's first trip to the art museum was some noble sojourn. Sadly he keeps returning for this petty sexual fulfillment.


Sadly he's only getting off.


He would, but he is, after all, Thomas/Tommis (To miss) and doesn't realize what's playing out right before his eyes. The shaking painting and assless David hide both what's behind and underneath them, denying the existence of excrement or savage, empassioned, animalistic sex. Hiding behind walls. That's why the David statue is made of plaster, he's a sham, a mockery of solidity. This is really more about language than art, but the parallels had to be drawn somewhere.


Man and language's assumption that beauty overpowers ugliness is really the mockery here. By denying the existence of the horror, man creates something lifeless and confined to preconceived notions (hence the frame and Procrustean bed). Remember, though, the ugly side is not some transcendence either, merely a reality pushed aside by aesthetic deceptions. I do think Thomas has a broken heart, though. At this point, though, his behavior is encoded by experience, and maybe some day I'll go write about it.

Touche' my friend - well said. (understand, I am not denigrating Joyce. I am only saying that I find Ullyses a very dense and difficult work. I thought that Finnegans Wake and the Dubliners to be wonderful reads. Joyce was a major literary force. Perhaps I am a little too stupid to appreciate Ullyses??? That is most likely the case. ) But then literary criticism is nothing more than fusing of literature and art and art for arts sake...??? a snake eating it's own tail, wot? :)