James Joyce, the Dubliners and the Pipe

[madox07]

I am reading the Dubliners by James Joyce, which I find a very particular type of literary work. I know that for the UK brethren this author may be mandatory reading in school, but non the less I am glad I got to reading him later than never. Most critics describe Joyce as an avangarde key player in defining modern literature, and I can understand why. Be that as a may, my fascination with the collection of short stories called "The Dubliners" is that he describes episodes of local people's life, from rich to poor, from all walks of life and all trades, of all ages and genders. Most stories imply a simple plot, they follow a rather plain and uninteresting plot, nothing fancy, nothing thrilling, but intriguing non the less. In these stories, surprisingly tobacco is all too present, the pipe is smoked by your working class people, or by priests, cheap cigarettes are the pleasure of the young - as I assume they became more popular starting with the 20th century, while cigars, the big fancy ones are the noble man's trade mark. It's a story about you and me, except that it was set roughly 100 years ago, and tobacco was still something that wasn't making news headlines. I mean, really it's a story about you and me, I so often found myself feeling similar anxieties to the characters, having the same dilemmas, fearing and thinking about death, wanting more in life, material and spiritual wise, taking risk, chances, traveling on adventures, lived a plain childhood, etc and all that often I found solace in tobacco just like the characters. Any thoughts on this particular collection, if you read it?

 

[mso489]

I've read and seen dramatized the story about a holiday party that reveals the party goers inner lives, "The Dead" I think it is titled. It pares back the surfaces to uncover a single moment in a woman's young life that captures the essence of sorrow. But on to pipes. I'm intrigued at the way pipes crossed class lines, however those would be defined. Working folks to farmers, to shopkeepers, to men in private clubs, and many women too, enjoyed a bowl of tobacco in a pipe. In the U.S., a very young country by comparison to some others, the classes were put in a blender and can be defined a hundred ways. But when pipes were more generally smoked, they spanned the society. "Ulysses" was Joyce's most read book, his accessible masterpiece. "Finnegan's Wake" may be an even better one, but it is inaccessible to most and as much an exercise in puzzling as it is a fiction in the usual sense, to many, including me.

 

[carlomarx]

I enjoyed " Dubliners" . I just finished " A portrait of an Artist as a Young Man". It was a chore to read; I admire his command of language but other than the last chapter that uses dialog, I didn't enjoy the story. While I relate to his views on the Church and Irish politics, I found the aesthetic philosophy way over my head.

 

[BasketCase]

Joyce is one of my favourite authors. I first read Ulysses when staying in Shakespeare & Co. in Paris (aspirations to be a writer, doncha know). I'm currently reading it out loud to the baby in my wife's tummy. I've not come across any pipe references just yet, but won't be surprised when I do.

He's such an interesting character. An almost self-imposed exile to France, yet to now be so thought of as an archetype of the 'Irish writer.' To my detriment, I have never made it through Finnegan's Wake.

My grandad, who grew up in Northern Ireland but moved South, remembered the local factory owner walking through the town each morning with a top hat and a cigar and each man would tip his hat and wish him 'g'morning.'

As George Orwell demonstrated so well, reading is a more economic type of pastime than tobacco (even before such heavy taxation!).

 

[puff_not_snuff]

On to Beckett next!

Also, If you like collection of short stories or novellas you might want to read Wineburg, Ohio, I found a lot relatable in that too.

 

[Irish-piper68]

Let’s open the can of worms, when “sitting down with a good book“, do you prefer to read actual books or are you okay with e-readers and tablets? I’m old school and have to hold the book and turn the page, my wife on the other hand is glued to her iPad and loves that she can download several titles at once from the library.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

On to Beckett next!

Also, If you like collection of short stories or novellas you might want to read Wineburg, Ohio, I found a lot relatable in that too.

***Winesburg, Ohio, no relation to Joyce, Ireland our pipes though.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

Let’s open the can of worms, when “sitting down with a good book“, do you prefer to read actual books or are you okay with e-readers and tablets? I’m old school and have to hold the book and turn the page, my wife on the other hand is glued to her iPad and loves that she can download several titles at once from the library.

Only actual books for me, the iPad has too many distractions... and too much screen time as it is.

 

[BasketCase]

Physical book all the way for me!

In terms of American novellas I really loved Brautigan’s ‘Trout Fishing in America,’ and Hemingway has a fair few to get on with!

 

[timelord]

Only actual books for me, the iPad has too many distractions... and too much screen time as it is.

I prefer books - am currently re-reading Ulysses in hardback edition - but often read books on a old kindle (no idea what model; no keyboard and no touch screen - I probably bought it in 2010-2012 when I was doing a lot (and I mean a LOT) of long haul flying). I have the kindle app on my iPad but that has too many other distractions; I find the old kindle is quite convenient when out and about but a physical book will always be my first choice.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

I prefer books - am currently re-reading Ulysses in hardback edition - but often read books on a old kindle (no idea what model; no keyboard and no touch screen - I probably bought it in 2010-2012 when I was doing a lot (and I mean a LOT) of long haul flying). I have the kindle app on my iPad but that has too many other distractions; I find the old kindle is quite convenient when out and about but a physical book will always be my first choice.

I think the kindle benefits from the matte looking screen and lack of access to pipe forums.

 

[carlomarx]

Let’s open the can of worms, when “sitting down with a good book“, do you prefer to read actual books or are you okay with e-readers and tablets? I’m old school and have to hold the book and turn the page, my wife on the other hand is glued to her iPad and loves that she can download several titles at once from the library.

Old school here too Piper, no e-readers or tablets.

 

[jhowell]

Gentlemen, may I humbly add J.D. Salanger's "Nine Short Stories" to the list...

 

[Epip Oc'Cabot]

Let’s open the can of worms, when “sitting down with a good book“, do you prefer to read actual books or are you okay with e-readers and tablets? I’m old school and have to hold the book and turn the page, my wife on the other hand is glued to her iPad and loves that she can download several titles at once from the library.

I have tried many times to read a novel on an electronic device, but it is to me, quite difficult to get “into” the story to a depth where reading becomes almost a “movie in your mind” sort of experience. I find that I need a paper book in order to get that deeply into the work. I read a lot of non-fiction (technical stuff) in electronic reading devices with no problem.... but for me.... with novels.... I need an actual paper book.

 

[anotherbob]

Joyce is one of the greats. I find Finnegans wake is such a unique way to tell a story. But what blows my mind is it's been translated into various languages. Which buggers the question of how???!!!

 

[anotherbob]

Translating the Untranslatable: 'Finnegans Wake' in Chinese - The World from PRX

The World's Leo Hornak reports on a new Chinese translation of James Joyce's notoriously difficult novel "Finnegans Wake." The book has become a sensation in Chinese literary circles, the first print run selling out in weeks.

www.pri.org

 

[puff_not_snuff]

I just read this about Joyce on Wikipedia which I found interesting:

Some critics and biographers have opined along the lines of Andrew Gibson: "The modern James Joyce may have vigorously resisted the oppressive power of Catholic tradition. But there was another Joyce who asserted his allegiance to that tradition, and never left it, or wanted to leave it, behind him." Gibson argues that Joyce "remained a Catholic intellectual if not a believer" since his thinking remained influenced by his cultural background, even though he lived apart from that culture.[58] His relationship with religion was complex and not easily understood, even perhaps by himself. He acknowledged the debt he owed to his early Jesuit training. Joyce told the sculptor August Suter, that from his Jesuit education, he had 'learnt to arrange things in such a way that they become easy to survey and to judge.'[59]

 

[anotherbob]

I just read this about Joyce on Wikipedia which I found interesting:

Some critics and biographers have opined along the lines of Andrew Gibson: "The modern James Joyce may have vigorously resisted the oppressive power of Catholic tradition. But there was another Joyce who asserted his allegiance to that tradition, and never left it, or wanted to leave it, behind him." Gibson argues that Joyce "remained a Catholic intellectual if not a believer" since his thinking remained influenced by his cultural background, even though he lived apart from that culture.[58] His relationship with religion was complex and not easily understood, even perhaps by himself. He acknowledged the debt he owed to his early Jesuit training. Joyce told the sculptor August Suter, that from his Jesuit education, he had 'learnt to arrange things in such a way that they become easy to survey and to judge.'[59]

well Dubliners is filled with Catholic ideas, often the more esoteric ones, so yeah I'd have to agree with this sentiment.

 

[marlinspike]

I admire anyone who can do much of anything while smoking a pipe simultaneuously. I've tried to work in the yard with a pipe, tried to read, and I just can't seem to make it work. Smoking a pipe has therefore become a kind of meditation to me, the closest I get to meditation, anyway. When I try to work, I concentrate on the job at hand, and find myself biting down hard on the pipe stem; when I tried lunting, going up or down any kind of incline found me puffing the pipe too much. But when I sit and go through the process of packing the pipe and lighting it, I seem to relax and the smoking process becomes pretty effortless, and I fall into a natural puffing cadence.

As far as books go, Joyce never lit my candle (most of the great modernists don't either). I'm currently reading Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" books, and enjoying the hell of them. I have a particular love for Patrick O'Brian's "Aubrey/Maturin" historical novels.

 

[mso489]

Dublin is an amazing city today as ever. I've been there twice, once with my late wife and once after she was gone as a sort of tribute. It's all unexpected, that city. The two largest cathedrals in that strongly Roman Catholic city are Irish Anglican, because of the fraught history. In St. Patrick's, where Jonathan Swift was the dean, he is buried in the Cathedral beside his longtime woman friend; can you imagine that today in any religious forum? Just beside St. Stephen's Green, their Central Park if you will, is an old stone church, rather small, which is a Unitarian Universalist church these day, illustrating the cosmopolitan and tolerant nature of Dublin, despite its past of hardship. There are bullet holes in the facade of the national post office building from past struggle. Entirely by chance, while there the second time, I managed to attend the 150th birthday of Oscar Wilde where his great grandson read from his work; the man looks just like him and grooms himself accordingly. I had to wait for an overflow ticket when they obligingly opened more seats there at Trinity College.