A “paja mental” is a spanish expression that I think it fits with the pages we read this time. Literary means a “mental jerk” which is what I think Stephen suffers in his brain before having a real one. The author tries to put on words every single thought Stephen has while having a stroll in the beach. So any attempt to find a meaning is useless (unless you are Freud or an argentinian…) I did read once that this is what made Joyce´s book so relevant at the time. It supposed a revolution in the rule of writing, basically becouse he does not follow any. The sense of being lost in translation when reading the story can make you throwing the towel and stop reading it… till you realize that you need to change the traditional way of reading a story in order to enjoy the book. Here there is not an structure, just strokes without an aparent conection. In this sense it is like an abstract painting, you cannot approach it as realist picture where you can identify the pictures and the landscape but like a mass of colours put in such a way that can provoke a strong feeling in you without knowing the reason why. This is the success of the Ulysses, you like it but you dont know why.
good post israel
4:25 PM
the picture is way difft from your usual ones
lapereauinfime
4:25 PM
you are still in edit mode, leave that page and i’ll make the change
catherine zeidler
4:25 PM
i like it
lapereauinfime
4:26 PM
you should make a comment to the post catherine
4:26 PM
you are breaking protocol
Do we have any rule that allows to post skype copy paste comments?…
By the way (ans I know that I was the first one introducing rules in the experiment) As far as the book does not follow any rule should our experiment not have rules either… or at least not so many… lets let our psyques run free.
yeah ok. i’m letting my psyche run free. but it would be nice to have people posting on time at least!
i think you’re dead right about the fact that you cannot read this text and expect the same experience as a traditional novel- but i think we mostly knew that before starting. and while there’s more strokes than structure, i think the structure is still very strong, strong enough to keep people moving forward and feeling satisfied by the plot and the emotional attachment to the characters. maybe the reason people consider it to be so great is because it carries one right along the edge of absurdity (or unreadability), but seemingly without going over it (so far at least).
which reminds me of henry miller- outside of tropic of cancer, i think a lot of his writing crosses that line…
Si, estoy de acuerdo (I agree)
There is a structure, but I think its role in the book is secondary, it is in a second plane. Like a tool the author uses to support Stephen´s thoughts (the very important thing in the novel… till now) Structure here (in my opinion) would be like the canvas in a painting, without it there is not painting at all. So yes it is important but not from an artistic point of view. Is like if, when looking at a painting in a museum, you asked to the guide “could you turn it over so I can see the canvas with the wood planks behind?”
Yes, I think there are some connections with Tropic of Cancer, however I find Miller´s vision of the world more sad and pesimistic. I think Joyce´s vision is more funny. Is like Joyce-Stephens have already accepted the way the world it is and they are having fun just looking at it from the outside, as if they were play.