‘Ulysses’, a work as wonderful as it is complicated. What do local authors think?

A hundred years ago, a book came out that has probably received all the accolades and accolades at the same time, from boring to obscene to wonderful, according to Ernest Hemingway. It is about Ulisesof the Irish writer James Joyce.

‘Ulysses’, by James Joyce, the most significant contribution made to fictional literature in the 20th century, turns a century

It is a book that narrates the experiences of a day in more than 600 pages. In other words, the adventures and misadventures of some simple inhabitants of Dublin on the day of June 16, 1904. Leopold Bloom, his wife Molly and Stephen Dedalus, are some of the characters that make up this book that broke into the novel genre of the time ; and that its sole publication was marked by controversy.

It was censored for a decade in the UK, and brought a fine to the magazine’s editors Little Review, for having published some passages between 1918 and 1920; something that brought its non-publication in the United States.

It was all due to his sexual content that is quite explicit, consolidating him as one of the first authors to talk about erotic themes. Magazine The Dublin Review said “read Ulises it is a sin against the Holy Spirit, the only unforgivable sin from God.”

Was Sylvia Beachowner of the publishing house and bookstore shakespeare & company, who raffled off strategies to make its publication possible on February 2, 1922, the writer’s 40th birthday. ”Ulysses will make my bookstore famous”, declared at that time Beach.

Marcelo Báez: ‘He has had to deal with the unfair label of “difficult work”‘

Marcelo Báez, writer and film critic, has read Ulises more than once, and in several editions that he has been acquiring since the 1990s. During the pandemic he immersed himself in the adventures of Leopold Bloom again, this time in an audio edition book.

Ulises (1922) by James Joyce (1882-1941) must be the most talked about novel and also the least read next to the infinite joke (1996) David Foster Wallace In Search of Lost Time (1913-1927) by Marcel Proust and under the volcano (1947) by Malcolm Lowry. Joyce’s work has always had to deal with the unfair label of “difficult work” plus the aura of cursed, product of the two trials for obscenity that it had in the United States, a country in which its publication was prevented for a time for allegedly violating morality.

The work ‘Ulysses’, by James Joyce, causes controversy between writers and columnists

In this age of social networks, where everyone knows everything, there will be no shortage of people who claim to have read it and even understood it, although the author stated in a letter to the historian Jacques Benoîst-Méchin: “If I revealed everything immediately, I would lose my immortality. I have packed so many riddles and puzzles into this book that it will keep teachers busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that is the only way to ensure immortality.”

What to expect when faced with Ulises for the first time? Puns, paranomasias, bulk intertextualities, strings of linguistic associations, neologisms, fragments of Irish songs and operas, streams of consciousness, musical prose, profanity, quotes in Latin and other languages, inside jokes, proverbs… To read it in Spanish is to consume a mere approximation of that innovative genius that was Joyce. Not reading it in its original language implies the impossibility of not admiring the full dimension of Joyce’s contribution to literature.

Just one example taken from chapter 7 that, due to its layout, seems to be a juxtaposition of microfictions. The Irishman writes “RHYMES AND REASONS. Mouth, south. Is the mouth south someway? Or the south a mouth? Must be some”. Subirat Rooms translates as follows: “RHYMES AND REASONS. Mouth, tap. Is it in some way mouth to touch? Or does a mouth touch her? There must be something.” Jose Maria Valverde bet on the following translation: “RIMAS Y RAZONES. Mouth, rock. Is the mouth a rock somehow? Or the rock a mouth? There must be something.” Tortosa and Venegas they differ: “RHYMES AND REASONED REASONS Boca, soca. Is the mouth somewhat soda? Or does a mouth suck it? There must be something.” They are all versions, reversals, “betrayals” allowed by that constantly changing discipline that is translation.

It is recommended to read first Portrait of the teenage artist and Dubliners as a prelude to a story that has as its frame of action the Odyssey (previous reading of Homer should be mandatory). A reading strategy could be the audio book format to be able to taste either the original in English or its approximation in Spanish by Salas Subirat. It must be taken into account that Joyce is the kind of novelist who writes by ear; poet and music lover, the Irishman makes language the great protagonist of the novel.

Much is learned by reading forewords or lengthy introductory studies. For this reason, the Cátedra edition is recommended, which exceeds one hundred pages and each page is annotated by the translators.. In the Lumen edition there is the invaluable reading map made by the same author, entrusted to an Italian friend, but distributed for the use of the semi-learned reader.

Translation as a discipline has been evolving by leaps and bounds in recent times. More and more translations of canonical writers appear in various languages. And each translation is welcome because it serves to shed new light on the original text. For example, the latest translation of Kafka is entitled The transformation burying the ovidian Metamorphosis. This means that any translation works, as long as the reader sees it as a guide, like a compass, with the condition of a shadow that is close to the original, a useful shadow in which any moderately educated person should dive. “Only the difficult is stimulating; only the resistance that challenges us is capable of raising, arousing and maintaining our power of knowledge”, said José Lezama Lima. There is no difficult reading, only easy readers to beat.

Siomara Spain: ‘Joyce parodies the human being’

Siomara España, poet and university professor, defines Ulises as “a tremendous book”. Although she tried to read it several times in her teenage and student days, she took it up again and read it definitively when he was doing his master’s degree. Now it is part of her practice as a teacher. “I’ve studied the play in my literature classes,” she says.

When I started reading it seriously in 2015, I established relationships between the Odyssey and its character Odysseus or Ulysses by Homer and the character of Ulysses by Joyce. Beyond the technical difficulties that critics talk about, all these resources that also caught me as the theme of musicality within Joyce’s work, which many consider an important point within the narrative itself. This element that runs through the entire work of the Irishman, in each of its chapters, acquires tones of different musicality, many have said that it should be read like a score.

In addition, I was very interested in the topic of intertextual and semiotic relations that can be seen within the Ulises, of Joyce and the Odyssey, from Homer. These representations of systems, or the novel presented as a great living literary system -where they are present literally at times, and veiled at other times-, all these muscles, nerves, fluids, the uterus, the blood and all the locomotion of human beings, their genital organs, etc. Everything is within the novel, such as words, phrases, where these relationships with the body are ordered.

On the other hand, this direct relationship with these three great units of the Odyssey, that which telemachy teaches us, which is also related to the first part of Ulysses, where he talks about his youth but also in relation to Odysseus’ son, Telemachus. Then this journey of the main character, Leopold Bloom through the streets of Dublin, which logically has that direct reference to those adventure stories of Odysseus.

Lastly, this part after Leopold gets tired of these adventures that he has in a single day, he returns home; such as the return and the famous revenge of the Homeric play. I think it’s great how in a different time and in such a different way, in such diverse social, human contexts, having related these relationships also from a psychological point of view.How could the genius of a man like Joyce do this?

There is something I want to comment on, and that is so beautiful to imitate, because a character like Leopold Bloom goes down in history as a living character in what is called Bloomsday, a celebration that takes place every June 16 in Dublin. It seems beautiful to me that homage is paid, that it is celebrated with the food that is in the novel, people in the street dress as the characters in the novel, it is something fabulous. It is valuing a writer, someone who gives literature, who gives art and who is one of the oldest literary celebrations in the world. And June 16 is also the date that Leopold Bloom goes out to live these adventures or misadventures through the streets of Dublin.

Ulises It is the greatest, most important work, it is a very complex work to read, but it is not exempt from all the beauty that one of the most important works in the world has. I believe that Joyce’s Ulysses can be compared to the greatness of Shakespeare, just like the greatness of Cervantes in his Quixote. But above all, what James Joyce does here is to parody the human being with all his everyday life, his misadventures and adventures, and human beings in all their historical, political and social context.

Clara Medina: ‘I have respectfully stayed away from that text’

Since its publication, Joyce’s work has been marred by not-so-favorable publicity. Virginia Woolf confessed in her diaries that no book of hers had ever bored her as much as Ulysses. “It’s the effort of a nauseous student popping pimples,” attacked the author of A Room of Her Own, who only managed to read the first 200 pages of it and refused to publish it in her Hogarth Press publishing house.

“My God, what a gross ‘putrid pot’ James Joyce is!” said DH Lawrence. While his compatriot Bernard Shaw called it a “disgusting record of a disgusting phase of civilization.” In fact his own wife, Nora Barnacle, asked him why he didn’t write a book that people liked.

Opinions like these and others have kept some from reading this work of more than 600 pages, as has happened with the journalist and cultural manager Clara Medina.

There are books on which a kind of myth hangs. One of those books is Ulises, by Joyce, for some critics the best novel of the 20th century. She is said to be innovative, challenging, and difficult to read. Which is complex in form and substance. I have read and heard so much about it. And those comments, far from motivating me, made me respectfully stay away from that text.

How much has this novel really been read? How have they read it? Why should it be read? I have asked myself all these questions now, just in the year that marks the first centenary of its publication and that in various parts of the world tributes are being prepared, at the same time that the international press, especially, has turned to publish articles of the mood: “Keys to read Ulises and not fail in the attempt”, “How to read Ulises in Spanish”, etc.

The anniversaries of the birth or death of a writer or the publication of a book, serve as a situation or context to return to the authors and the works. So now, with more years, with more reading experience, perhaps, I have been genuinely curious about Ulysses and I am putting it among my reading priorities. In this 2022 I want to embark on the experience of reading it. I will delve into its pages and its content. Who else signs up?