James Joyce: A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

[ions]

I'm only a little bit of the way through my first Joyce experience but it's certainly been an interesting experience in style. At times the passages are beautiful, other times baffling.

This is an excerpt from a post I wrote here mildly edited.

Joyce certainly has succeeded in confusing me a few times and I'm only 139 pages through Portrait. And it certainly is the style causing the confusion. I'm worried that if I'm not comprehending a sentence how much of the symbolism am I missing? I've detected a lot of repetition, which thankfully does make comprehension a little easier. But if there's symbolism beyond the emphasis it is lost on me.

My copy is a library loan that was printed in 1966. The library stamp inside the cover indicates it became their copy in 68. There are no notes. Something it does have which is odd is a letter printed at the bottom of certain pages parallel to the page number on the left side close to the spine.

On page 33 there is the letter 'B'.
On page 129 there is the letter 'E'.
On page 161 there is the letter 'F'.
On page 193 there is the letter 'G'.
On page 225 there is the letter 'H'.
On page 227 there is the letter 'H*'.

This was a relatively quick scan so I might have missed one or two but I think I got them all. If these are footnotes they're not included in the book and there is no statement or word labeled with the corresponding letter on the same page to indicate what is being noted. I see no evidence of pages being removed. Maybe there is significance to be found after the book is finished?

When I am finished and have done some studying on the book I may have questions that I'll post here.

 

[Tom]

I have encountered several books with this (mostly older ones) and am also puzzled.

 

[Sitaram]

Knowing glances

We pass through a forest of symbols which regard us with knowing glances. - Baudelaire

The unanswerable question is the unmoved mover of the soul.

Spoiler

P.S. - these are simply idle, but possibly interesting, thoughts which pass through my mind as I sip my morning coffee, and not Kantian antinomies intended to incite a French Revolution, 500 posts and three bans later.

 

[ions]

Finished Portrait last night. Gotta admit I was lost a few times. Very easy book to just read and absorb nothing at all if you're not being careful.

 

[novella]

Portrait is, to me, a very old-fashioned book in many ways. Daedalus's journey, extricating himself from an intense, confusing maze of familial, cultural, religious, and sexual constructs in a culture in which so much is assumed, undiscussed, and intentionally cloaked, is—in a Western context—the journey of a different generation. It's a given in British, European, and American cultures now that a young person may make different choices than their parents, explore ideas outside their own culture, be sexually active outside of marriage. The whole theme of the Church's ostracizing of Parnell and what a huge social issue that was is not well understood by the casual reader today because the social strictures of those times are so foreign to modern sensibilities.

There is much less naivety and much more tolerance and diversity today. Daedalus, on the other hand, was buried under generations of obligations and assumptions about Catholic morality and ritual, political constructs with problematic and bloody histories, class divisions, sexual repression, and a culture that did not invite young people to question their families' allegiances.

His peeling back and shedding of these layers of social obligation is almost more relevant to Islamic culture than to Western culture at this point.

For everything written about the 'symbolism' in Portrait, it's really all right there on the surface if you are aware of Irish history and religious rites. There's not much 'hidden', though much may be misunderstood or unseen by someone uninformed about Catholicism, Irish Home Rule, and Gaelic culture. Point is, Joyce was not hiding anything behind obscure symbols—he was openly describing the world around him in the terms in which 'Daedalus' understood them at the time.

 

[ions]

But do you not think that there is some timelessness to Stephen's experiences? There are specifics in the setting, which you say are plain to someone who is familiar with 'Catholicism, Irish Home Rule, and Gaelic culture', that are so relevent but even to someone like me who is not remotely familiar with any of the three I can still relate to Stephen's struggle. Many of us today still struggle with religion, how we see the opposite sex, and the paths we choose to take and those that our seniors feel we should choose even if such things are not imposed upon us as strenuously as they were in Stephen's time. I agree with your synopsis but perhaps I don't agree that it's old fashioned.

I had not thought of making the comparison to current Islamic society. The similarities between the Catholic religion then and the muslim religion now are kind of striking. Reaching the same conclusion that devout religiousness is not the most fulfilling way to live life is hopefully universal. And conversely the hedonistic lessons are also there to be learned.

 

[novella]

But do you not think that there is some timelessness to Stephen's experiences? There are specifics in the setting, which you say are plain to someone who is familiar with 'Catholicism, Irish Home Rule, and Gaelic culture', that are so relevent but even to someone like me who is not remotely familiar with any of the three I can still relate to Stephen's struggle. Many of us today still struggle with religion, how we see the opposite sex, and the paths we choose to take and those that our seniors feel we should choose even if such things are not imposed upon us as strenuously as they were in Stephen's time. I agree with your synopsis but perhaps I don't agree that it's old fashioned.

I had not thought of making the comparison to current Islamic society. The similarities between the Catholic religion then and the muslim religion now are kind of striking. Reaching the same conclusion that devout religiousness is not the most fulfilling way to live life is hopefully universal. And conversely the hedonistic lessons are also there to be learned.

Well, insofar as those are the common themes of any coming of age story, they are present and they are largely universal--but what is it that sets Portrait apart from, say, Running with Scissors, Siddhartha, Sorrows of Young Werther, or David Copperfield?

To me, the intensity of his immersion in Ireland is the outstanding difference, and that means Catholicism (in his case), history, and culture. The intensity is also what is absent from today's world, apart from those closed and repressed societies like fundamentalist Islam.

The issue of symbolism in Joyce is complicated. If his 'true' subject is Ireland--Catholicism, culture, history, politics--then all aspects of that subject are virtually composed of symbols. The rituals, dress, language, history of those aspects are ineluctably symbolic--but they are still ordinary things in the ordinary life of Daedalus.

 

[ions]

Ah, fair enough. I see.

 

[ions]

I took the book to a local bookstore and asked about the odd letter markings. The best explanation they could think of was that the letters were 'signature markings'. A tool used in book binding. The letters don't seem spaced appropriately for that but it's the only explanation I have received and while plausible just doesn't seem right. Maybe one day I'll find the answer to this mystery.

 

[czgibson]

Maybe one day I'll find the answer to this mystery.

I'd say the answer you heard is probably right. In books from the early twentieth century (and maybe earlier, I don't know) it's quite common to find a bit of the alphabet set out through the book in this manner. It's not Joyce's doing, that's for sure.

Anyway, it seems you've got something out of Portrait, which is great. As a previous poster said, it doesn't really have too many "hidden depths", like Ulysses or Finnegans Wake, which are consciously obscure in different ways. Even they can be read for surface meaning and (I think) still be enjoyable - especially Finnegans Wake; the secret is to listen to it rather than reading it.

Two of my favourite sections of Portrait are the Christmas dinner scene and the Hell fire sermon. I particularly like the description of eternity - one of those infinity puzzles of the kind you find in Borges.

P.S. Have a look here for some good notes:

http://web.nwe.ufl.edu/~kershner/port.html

 

[ions]

The Hell fire sermon was great. I'm not remotely religious nevermind Catholic and I felt like going to confession after that!

Thanks for the link I'll check it out.