An Encounter by James Joyce

 An Encounter by James Joyce


 

I am so grateful for this wonderful short story. First of all, it is so beautiful, magical and full of tenderness. Then, it helps with my goals of understanding better and reading more of the works of James Joyce, winning in the end- the great prize- finishing Ulysses. James Joyce may very well be the greatest writer of the last century, together with Proust, but, if I have read A La Recherche du Temps Perdu twice, my attempt to read Ulysses has failed, so far. I did not have the proper mindset, the necessary attention and perhaps, circumstances. But I will be at it again, and finish it- Insha’Allah.

„IT WAS Joe Dillon who introduced the Wild West to us. He had a little library made up of old numbers of The Union Jack , Pluck and The Halfpenny Marvel .”

This is the exhilarating start of An Encounter, where we meet with a few children from the first few lines, and then go along with them on a Joy Ride...

-          “Real adventures do not happen to the people who stay at home”

The adventure comes in the form of, I would say a few, not just An encounter as suggested by the title.

Religion is pervasive, in the works of Joyce that I have read so far: A Portrait of The Artist As A Young Man and The Dubliners, the latter I read again now. There is father priest on every other page, at least that is the feeling I have, going back and forth through the first two stories. Reading through Ulysses, on and off, religion came in a different form there, but that is a work which stands on its own, completely different from both Dubliners and The Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man.

James Joyce is an Inspiration. The magnitude of his genius is self- evident in these Dubliners stories which are wonderful, albeit much less acclaimed than Ulysses and The Portrait of The Artist As a Young Man, which are placed in the top three books of the 20th century, in the list compiled by The Modern Library

James Joyce is also intimidating. How can one write about Joyce, even for personal use, with the knowledge that hardly anybody would look on these notes, and even then, it would be by accident?

You can be in awe, aspire to write at least a few lines encouraged by the possibility that a tiny drop of the enormous talent may somehow transfer to you. You wish!

-          „But, however well we fought, we never won siege or battle and all our bouts ended with Joe Dillon's war dance of victory

-          Ya! yaka, yaka, yaka!"

The story is amusing and small incidents bring a smile on the reader’s face, if not roars of laughter.

"What is this rubbish?" he said. "The Apache Chief! Is this what you read instead of studying your Roman History? Let me not find any more of this wretched stuff in this college. The man who wrote it, I suppose, was some wretched fellow who writes these things for a drink.”

One of the boys is caught by father Butler, with the wrong book, as you guess from the quote and we are amused again, if worried for the boys who were frequently and physically punished in those days.

Indeed, we meet a character, who seems to be the one referred to in the title, which turns the rather funny tale into a bit of a “Horror Show „as Alex used to say in A Clockwork Orange.

The old man is creepy and seems to have sadistic and perhaps even pedophile inclinations, speaking of whipping with such pleasure that he nearly brings the reader to nausea.

He reminded me of Louis CK who has some outrageous material. In the latest episode I have watched, which is mind you one of the first in the first series, not the latest- the comedian speaks about pedophiles and the way to get kids back. Society may have to be more lenient and in this way, more children would be saved.

There is sarcasm and humor on the edge there.

I loved An Encounter and it makes dream of the day when I can say that about Ulysses. Alhamdulillah- Allah in his greatness may help me, or perhaps Buddha…for I must say I like the sound of God is great in Arabic, but do not believe there is only one God and Mohamed is his prophet…albeit I may come to that, if I ever achieve (at least) my literary goals

 

You can read this online, within copyright law, at:

 

http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/953/

Comentarii

Trimiteți un comentariu

Postări populare de pe acest blog

Epistolary edited by Gabriel Liiceanu http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/11/50-minutes-with-plesu-and-liiceanu-10.html - 10 out of 10

  Epistolary edited by Gabriel Liiceanu http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/11/50-minutes-with-plesu-and-liiceanu-10.html 10 out of 10     This wonderful book contains letters exchanged between the brightest minds we have in this realm – there is the exception of Eugen Simion, the late president of the Academy here, a rather horrid attack on luminaries that were so much wiser than this fellow, who came to lead a forum that should be only for the crème de la crème, yet, his presence at the top in fact reveals the ‘values’ that have reached what should be the chamber of the nec plus ultra – and as such, much of what is being debated is quite inaccessible   Ergo, the spoiler alert, warning, disclaimer, and maybe the way out of accusations of spam – one of the notes I have posted on Goodreads, Cleo From 5 to 7 http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/cleo-from-5-to-7-aka-cleo-de-5-7-by.html has been deleted, because it was considered spam, while the one who is the #...
Citiți mai multe

The Killer by Luc Jacamon 10 out of 10

  The Killer by Luc Jacamon 10 out of 10     Reading about killers, or watching the stupendous The Killer, with fabulous Michael Fassbinder in the leading role may seem like the wrong idea, in a world that has some nasty wars taking place in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, and the danger is that they might be expanding, as it is, Iran is attacking the USA, through its proxies Hezbollah, Houthis in Yemen (they have launched missiles) and militias in Iraq and Syria   It all depends on how good the author is, what the adaptation looks like, cast, director, you could have a magnum opus that is a crime story, such as Crime and Punishment http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/crime-and-punishment-by-fyodor.html by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - an algorithm has recently looked at various relevant compilations and established the 50 Greatest Novels and the story of Raskolnikov is on it, together with other astounding works, Marcel Proust is at number one The Killer starts...
Citiți mai multe

The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett – included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read List http://poemeglume.blogspot.com/2023/04/1000-novels-everyone-must-read.html - 7 out of 10

  The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett – included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read List http://poemeglume.blogspot.com/2023/04/1000-novels-everyone-must-read.html 7 out of 10     The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom was first published in 1753, which might mean that it is not for the tastes of readers from our times, not even middle aged ones, like yours truly (who is actually sixty in a couple of months, but like to adopt the ‘the sixties are the new forties’ slogan) who has abandoned this   Hence, the spoiler alert, warning, disclaimer to avoid being (again) censored for spam – though I did not get the inclusion in that category, a reading of the definition could help, but this being my note, until it is obliterated by the Goodreads staff, and then it will still be available at the new blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/ I say that spam is used for the unrequested messages we receive, meant to make us buy things ...
Citiți mai multe