Ulysses Episode 1: Telemachus
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ค. 2017
- We are off and running! Now that we have an overview of Ulysses, we can get started with the first episode.
I hope you enjoy it. Please subscribe to the series. And please feel free to leave comments or questions. I'd love your thoughts!
I want you to know that your enthusiasm is infectious. That helps a lot when facing a challenge like Ulysses.
liper13 Thank you so much! That means a lot to me. I hope you enjoy this journey as I try to put interesting and helpful content into the videos. Feel feel to ask questions along the way. I would love to see discussion. Cheers!
liper13 How are you doing? Let me know if you feel stuck.
Chris! I'm going to Dublin for Bloomsday this year and its thanks to reading the book with your help during lockdown. Thank you for this amazing resource. I can't wait to go.
Thank you so so so so much for doing this!! I love it to the moon and back!!🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸💖 I will come here after I finish every chapter ✨✨✨✨✨
Gayatri Mehta You are the best! Thank you for commenting. This is a big project and your encouragement and participation means a lot!
1:54 nice cut 😂😂 i KNEW you were Martin Scorsese!
Perhaps a little Spike Lee too!
Thanks Chris. This was really inspiring. Being honest, after I read the first episode I thought I would never go the distance, but the very moment you said Stephen Dedalus thinks poetically, then a new world opened in front of me. Thought can't just be linear! And thanks for the hint about the key. By the way I also believe that Martello Tower is a very good place to start the novel. A castle after all should be a safe place, a stronghold. Describing Stephen leave the tower and never come back, may be a metaphor of Irishness.
Cosimo Caputo Superb thinking! You are going to go the distance for sure! Thank you for commenting! I look forward to your thoughts as you progress.
Thank you Chris - I am an Irish man and have just started this wonderful book by a wonderful Irish man. I got through the first episode and enjoyed it but you have opened up my mind to so much that slipped by me and I missed ! I will be reading the second and further episodes with so much more awareness thanks to you, thank ou for sharing your wisdom and knowledge, its very much appreciated.
That sneeze break was so adorable!! I was like awwwww, those are awesome manners 🐻🙌🏼 I have so much to learn now 🙏🏼
Gayatri Mehta You are very kind! I try to do these videos in one take and in a conversational style so they aren't boring. The sneeze got me! I appreciate your comments so much. Thank you.
This is so helpful and clear!
Hi Chris, i came accross your videos about halfway through ulysses , i can't tell how much I've been enjoying them . They have been wonderfully insightful and have greatly enhanced my understanding and enjoyment of this seminal book . I am now discovering the videos i missed on my first read . I expect to return to your videos again and again with each read as this book is inexhaustible. Thanks so much chris. chapeau sir
Thank you. I was going through my TH-cam stuff and I just saw this kind remark from you. Thank you. I am sorry I did not see it months ago.
Hi man! I'm from Brazil and I study Letters at college.I've been enjoying your videos about Ulysses very much.They're helping me a lot. Thank you very much bro.
Thank you! I needed that today! Thank you for adding to the conversation.
@@TeachUBusiness Your videos are really great Chris.I usually read a chapter and then watch a video.Your videos are also helping me to improve my English.Thank you a lot.
Great summary!!! You break it down so well!!!
Thank you so much for this. Currently going to school as an English Major and we have to read Ulysses for a literature course I'm taking. Immediately when I began reading it I felt so lost due to Joyce's very poetic, and intimidating prose. Watching this video, however, made me realize I understood it more than I thought I had. Plus you do a phenomenal way of explaining especially when relating it back to Joyce's real life. Thank you very much for this series it will surely come in handy while finishing this book.
Hi and Welcome to our odyssey! Thank you so much for your kind words. Comments are greatly appreciated and encourage others to make it through Ulysses. I look forward to your impressions of future episodes!
Very helpful! Thank you! I’m reading the book for a second time with lots of extra guide books like Gilbert and Gifford etc. Will definitely be watching all the rest of your videos during my reread.
Thank you very much! It's great help!
Excellent video. Thank you for posting your thoughts.
This is excellent, man. Thanks so much for all the effort you've put in. Such interesting analysis.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. It means a lot to me. Stay safe, well, and reading for fun.
I'd just re-read chapter 1 for the 2nd time. I was struggling to understand what was going on and have been considering giving this up as a lost cause. Then found this helpful video. It turns out I actually understood far more than I realised and just needed a summary, such as this, to help me understand what I'd read. Thanks for this video. I'll keep checking back as I keep going through the book.
I really hope it's worth the perseverance though!
Thank you! I appreciate your comment very much. I can't say the book gets easier but it does get interesting. There is a video for every chapter and some have two. Take your time and enjoy the book. That's the most important tip I can give you. If you do that, you'll find this to be a very rewarding journey. I watch the comments so if you feel discouraged, let me know! Take care, stay well. Chris
@@TeachUBusiness I'm looking forward to using them to help me through. Currently furloughed due to the pandemic, so having an unusual amount of free time has given me the opportunity to get through a good chunk of this book!
Hi David. I had a similar experience. I listened to chocolate cake video and then overview and 1 video. Then picked up the book and realised the I and II were not the chapters. So I read through chapter 2 and 3 thinking they were chapter 1 and realised Chris had only held my hand up to the end of the line. So I then listened to 2 video... read up to the line and actually.. I had taken some of it in. I can see why people would get half way through 3 and just quit.
(Ps I am furloughed knowing I'm being made redundant when the money runs out so have a lot of time to take my time) Hope you getting through it ok.
@@theresabruno2452 hi, only just noticed this message! I'll be honest, I gave up when I went back to work. One day I'll do it...
How did you get on?
This series following the episodes of Ulysses has been very helpful while I am attempting to tackle this novel for the first time during quarantine. Even though it can be very off-putting, I cannot help but be compelled by Joyce's use of wordplay and representing the thoughts of the characters.
Hi Erik! Keep going. If you get discouraged, reach out and we'll talk. I would love to see you make it to the end. Don't work too hard. Remember, read this book for fun.
Great video . Thank you.
This series is fantastic! It has deeply enriched my reading experience :)
Thank you for that! I have been trying to catch up with my life so I can make more videos. Enjoy your journey. Keep me posted!
reading it for the second time, I noticed something more:
1) statistically speaking, words like "death, ghost, phantom" appear a huge number of times
2) The green sea is a metaphor for Ireland. Mulligan says: " Look at the sea. What does it care about offences?" = What does ireland care about offences? = any usurper could come any moment and take it
3) The milkwoman is addressed as the "witch"
4) Stephen said "The problem is to get money? From whom? From the milkwoman (= Ireland) or from him (= Haines = England)?
5) regarding the cycles of history, Mulligan sings a song that says "I rose from the dead"
Go man! Remember too that the "rose' is always a symbol of Ireland. Yeates wrote many poems referencing "the rose". Joyce brings us back to the rose later when he refers to the opera "Martha" and the aria "the Last Rose of Summer". Take a moment to let this enter your soul: th-cam.com/video/mv9UdtFepdY/w-d-xo.html.
In this aria there are indeed many references to the main themes of Ulysses (death, shadows, life cycle, waking up). Besides summer is the season of the story and Leopold BLOOM may actually be that rose. He actually comes with many thorns, but you eventually notice his beautiful petals more than them.
Thank you for your videos, they’re a great help and much appreciated.🙂
Loved it sir!
I love these!!!
Very helpful and insightful. Joyce's mind was very creative.
Thank you so much Chris, i start reading recently, and i don't read the other books that people recomend, because in my 7 grade they give this book but in a essy edition so i think that will be easy too. Now i understand that is not true. But i will not give up.
I still remember like was yesterday, the day that i read this bbok. I was reading the Trojan horse part, and I was fascinated by this very creative idea. I loved it so much that when everyone was saying they were tired I kept reading. Now i'm reading all and your video was a fascinante incentive for keep going.
You make me understanding all the chapter, and the parts that i fund irrelevand. I wiil kept whatching your videos in the end of evry chapter. Have a great day!
After many years of being intimidated by this book, I decided to start Ulysses. I listened to your video after reading Episode 1 Telemachus and I think I am going to come back to your channel after each episodes. I can see your love for this story and after listening to you I am realising I understood more than I thought. Thank You
Thank you so much. I hope you keep reading to the end. Enjoy the read. It's a great book that should be fun to experience. Best wishes and please continue to comment.
I’m diving deep Chris ! Just wanted to say THANK YOU. ❤️ Because of the use of “stream of consciousness” , I’m pretty sure that I’m gonna enjoy this book just as much as I enjoyed Woolf’s.
Eliot, Woolf & Joyce are my favorite human beings. 🙌🏻
thanks a billion, that was great
This was a great video that helps me have a deeper insight on this first beautiful chapter. Thank you.
Thanks for this, Chris. FWIW I've been intimidated forever by Joyce. Long ago read part of Stuart Gilbert's "Guide" which I found vastly oss-putting. I'm truly looking forward to following your YT as I re-read Ulysses at age 83. Best regards.
Dear Chris: I am glad I found your video. It is extremely helpful in getting more out of reading Ulysses for the first time. Your explanation of the "key" makes good sense, including why Stephan decides to "surrender" his key to both Mulligan and Haines who are his guests in the Tower. Also, I am glad to learn of the multiple layers of usurpation in just this beginning episode. Thank you for taking the time and effort to make and post this video. I'll be viewing your other videos, no doubt. P.S. I have read enough Charles Dickens that it dawned on me that I should read another author. And I picked Ulysses.
Keep going! Let me know how you're doing! Chris
Thanks!
So helpful-thank you. Without your insight, I wouldn’t have got even half of the references Joyce makes to other literature. I made a commitment during Covid to read the classics. Obviously, I haven’t finished with the list. This book is by far the most difficult to enjoy
Thank you so much for this! I was so nervous seeing Ulysses on my university reading list but this video has made me excited instead! :)
Thanks for the decyphering of Telemachus.🙂 Ive met a few of those " Mulligans " over the years, regarding the old lady not remembering how to speak Irish. At that time, I doubt any Dubliner would have remembered a time when Irish was the language of Dublin City. In fact Dublin would have felt more like a North English city, than a part of Ireland. Though if she had originated from the West, she could well be fluent.
Thank you for this series of videos.This is my fourth full reading of Ulysses. Incidentally. June 16, 1904 was a Thursday.
My understanding is that Stephen was 8 days from the end of the mourning period, that being 1 year plus a day. The death of his mother was not recent time wise, but in memory it was like yesterday.
Stephen had compassion for Haines and Mulligan although fully aware both were takers, i.e., usurpers. Stephen paid the rent. Stephen never directly answers Haines question if he believed in a God, most pointedly a personal God.
Thank you Chris…
it reminds me of the difference in viewing habits. ie linear time bbc1; you look at fixed time programs, verses pick and mix youtube jump around. joyce was ahead of the game..
I like that idea very much!
I fell down some stairs and lost my baby. I don't know if it was a boy or a girl. I feel however it was a boy. I always wanted to name my son Telemachus. So I named him Michael Telemachus Thompson and when I die I will be reunited with him. Silly story but true.
Not silly at all. I appreciate that you can add the pain of your experience to our journey. Thank you and take care.
@@TeachUBusiness 😊
Greetings Chris, I'm waiting for my visa application which takes a while and since I have a decent amount of time, I decided to finally read Ulysses. I watched some other book club videos to get familiar with what I'm getting into and then bought the 'new bloomsday book' & Ulysses Annotated to better arm myself. I'm just reading a chapter a day so I can invest and try to get as much as I can. Then I found your channel and it has made a good refresher and revealed some things that I overlooked. I watch your videos while typing in your commentary to my kindle notes. I think now is the perfect time to read Ulysses where you don't have to tote around tomes of books and you have the internet to find others who are embarking on this reading expedition. Much thanks for these videos!
Nikolai Lipnicky wow, thank you so much! My purpose with the videos is to add to your reading pleasure. I hope to point out things that you may not have noticed. Go back and enjoy each chapter after watching a video. Have fun and feel free to post questions. I appreciate your invilvement very much!
Nikolai Lipnicky where have you been, man? Everything okay? Hope all is well.
I like what said about the keys. I know Joseph Campbell wrote (with another person) A Skeleton Key to Finnegan’s Wake, and that makes me wonder if Campbell talked to you. Ha!
Just read Ulysses for the first time and am looking for some assistance before I re-read it with a bit more attention to detail. This series looks like it's going to be just what I need! I appreciate the info on how the book parallels Joyce's real life.
Read it for the pleasure. Don't stress over every little point. You'll see the book come alive in your second journey through...
Thank you :)
Thank you and welcome aboard. I hope you enjoy your odyssey.
Thank you so much. Its gonna help me with my exams
Thank you! I hope you also enjoyed the book. I appreciate your comment and am pleased you have joined the world of those who made it through! (Or are making it through!) Just don't give up!
Thanks.
Thank you! I wish you a successful journey through this book!
After finishing Wallace's Infinite Jest, Ulysses and hopefully Finnegans Wake are my next to be read hard books. I really like what he does in Finnegans Wake but Ulysses is definitely the classic. It is intimidating but still very interesting. Thank you for these wonderful videos! Btw, what is your opinion on Finnegans Wake and maybe even the other Joyce novels?
I’m tackling this book chapter 1, then 1 and 2, then 1 and 2 and 3 etc. So I’m on 3 now, and discovered your videos, thinking I hadn’t missed a thing. I appreciate what you’ve done, as I’ve missed 2 “things”. The grey slacks while morning. Makes sense, but I just didn’t get it. So thank you. And the woman counting back change. I was thinking perhaps she remembers the old language, but doesn’t care to share it because she doesn’t particularly care for Muligan?? Or am I way off base here? Anyway, thanks for what you’ve done.
We aren't clear about what's in the old woman's mind and I suspect it's a bit of both not going to the old language and knowing she'll be lucky to get paid. The language important to her is commerce.
Several years ago Ulysses was a set book in my university Literature course. We were told that we didn't have to read the whole thing but could choose a chapter to study. I was horrified by this as it seems an insult to the author. I can't believe that you are in a position to critique any artistic product without having experienced it in the whole. This is particularly true of Ulysses. It would be the story of the blind men and the elephant, each projecting the small part they have touched onto the whole animal; reading one chapter and projecting it to the rest of the book completely misses the mark.
I skim read the whole thing and got the impression that it was a joke, a practical joke at the expense of the reader of 'serious novels', yet though this seemed self evident to me, I couldn't find any critic or person who saw it the same way, in fact, they were shocked by my view. But I mean - completely changing style from chapter to chapter - what's that all about? It's brilliantly done, but it felt like just showing off! However, when something is held by the cognoscenti to be a great, or even the greatest, classic, then one must feel oneself to be in the wrong. So I was taken by your admonition to read it for pure fun and look forward to reading it again under your guidance.
I love the idea you raise. Is Joyce a pedantic twit or a brilliant writer? They ways he parallels the Odyssey, using themes and different styles, in my opinion, is brilliant. I had one academic tell me the book is a modern day Torah. Academics can seek out deep references and arcane topics. I love the general technique and the brilliant handling of each episode. So I clearly believe the book should be read for fun. Joyce was a very funny guy and would want us to enjoy the book.
thanks daddy
Thank you. Hope you enjoyed it..
How can you tell the difference between the "inner dialog" vs.the conversation between Stephen and Buck.
In my Penguin Modern Classics paperback, dialogue begins with a hyphen (-) everything in between that is generally stream of thought as far as i can tell.
i think i.ll watch all episodes and if ok then i'll read the book. so you better be good...
I would recommend watching a couple of videos and then reading the chapters and then watch again. I think only watching videos wouldn't give you the wonderful experience you can have from conquering the book. Let me know how you do.
@@TeachUBusiness ok. will do...
What is meant, in your interpretation, by Stephen's remark about broken mirrors and irish, i dont understand the joke.
Don't get too hung up---but I believe Stephen is saying that the mirror is a symbol that reflects reality. Ireland, under the British, has a distorted sense of reality. We see later that parallax becomes a theme---and a broken mirror gives many points of view---as many mirrors. We are headed through a novel of parllax, or different points of view and distorted points of view.
Brilliant
10:53
should i read Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist before i start this?
Pavle Banjac Welcome! I would not see that as necessary. You might dable with Dubliners...those are easy short stories that give a feel for Joyce's style. I am happy to help you get through this...stay in touch. You can not only get through the book, you can enjoy it.
+Chris Reich thank you;i have found in my house a collection of four Joyce books(including drama Exiles) so i might get into those before i get into Ulysses.And when i get there i will for sure check your videos on episodes
Pavle Banjac Don't study too much. Sometimes people get discouraged trying to cram too much. Ulysses is a lot of fun with a little guidance. Dubliners is a great start...especially The Dead. That is the last story in Dubliners and it is a masterpiece.
Long story...but here's the short version: at the tender age of 18 I jumped from "A Portrait" directly into Finnegans Wake. When I then took on Ulysses, it seemed so much easier! I don't exactly recommend this strategy, but it sure worked for me.
Frank Weaver You are a sick man, Frank. 😄 Hope you will join the conversation! Thanks for posting. Chris
What is "agenbite of inwit" supposed to mean
It's an expression about feeling guilty. "Oh my guilty conscience"
maybe stephen wearing black is like the divorcee, who when her ex- husband dies tells people she is a widow. it gets her sympathy under false pretences.
3 characters. that suggests something in the religious context of the opening scene. humour is to be had here but maybe with a modern touch of irreverence..