On the 16th of June 1904, 120 years ago today, the 22 year old James Joyce consummated his relationship with Nora Barnacle, somewhere on the streets of Dublin. Some twelve years later he enshrined this day in his epic novel 'Ulysses', recording the innermost thoughts of one Leopold Bloom as he traverses the old city and its many characters. He took six years to write the book and have it published, finally in Paris in 1922. My copy of Ulysses was the eleventh printing, published in May 1930, from which the two pages below are copied. It was a period of dramatic change similar to the current one, but perhaps with more optimism about the future. While Joyce's Bloom focuses on Irish politics and the divisions and petty arguments, pretences and affectations viewed from above the fray, his own world was much affected by global events, living in exile in Zurich before moving to Paris after the war. The passage relates closely to those events, remembering that the Balfour declaration was in 1919 and that migration to Palestine had been encouraged for a while before then. Joyce was fussy about details however, so may have used a paper cutting from 1904 for this illustration. It offers an investment opportunity from the Turkish Ottoman government, providing a return on land planted in your name. The context in the book however is barely related to this - Bloom has gone out in the early morning to fetch something for his cooked breakfast - kidneys - and picks up a page of newsprint from the butcher's counter, reading: "The model farm at Kinnereth on the lakeshore of Tiberias. Can become ideal winter sanatorium..." As he muses on this he also regards the working girl buying some sausages in front of him, anticipating her walking ahead of him...but she has gone by the time he escapes the porkbutcher's grasp: "Mr Bloom pointed quickly. To catch up and walk behind her if she went slowly, behind her moving hams. Pleasant to see first thing in the morning. Hurry up, damn it. May hay while the sun shines. She stood outside the shop in sunlight and sauntered lazing to the right. He sighed down his nose: they never understand. ... the sting of disregard glowed to weak pleasure within his breast....! --- Threepence, please. "
Each passage in the sparsely punctuated story is matched to the corresponding passage in the Odyssey, with the trials of Odysseus-Ulysses represented by the more mundane experiences of Mr Bloom in Dublin. The above passage is in 'Calypso', who in the Odyssey was a nymph who held Odysseus for seven years in blissful captivity on her island.. I make a similar connection between Joyce's Dublin and today's Damascus
DM 16th June 2024