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James Joyce's Ulysses Episode 4: Calypso
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ส.ค. 2017
- Here's Video 7 is our Odyssey together. The Calypso episode is a lot of fun. It's packed with interesting clues about what's ahead and it marks our introduction the greatest hero in literature, Leopold Bloom.
I hope you are reading Ulysses for fun and I hope you will leave a comment. Your comments add to the discussion and may spur someone to read one of the greatest books ever written.
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Thank you so very much. At the age of 82, I am grateful for this greater understanding of Joyce
This has to be my favorite episode so far.....or I’m getting more comfortable with the style of Joyce. It would be impossible without you. Thanks buddy.
Thank you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate ot very much!
I'm loving these videos. I've been reading one episode a day myself. Then, at work, I listen to your breakdown, followed by listening to the chapter again from an audio book. It's been great. Sometimes seeing the text helps, the audio book is done beautifully, and that helps in its own way, and your videos are great for a beginner to help elucidate this masterpiece. I really feel like I am getting a lot out of this, and the sheer poetry of it carries me through. I've been thinking a lot about the "cracked lookingglass of a servant" in particular. It's probably one of the most symbolic things in this book by my reckoning, especially given the comment about it as a symbol of Irish art.
i can't tell you how much your videos are enhancing my experience of the book. your tone...your humility as much as your brilliance and expertise...are just the perfect mentor. THANK YOU!!!!!
Thank you for making these videos! As a first time reader of Ulysses I am enjoying them and the book very much.
One thing that I found particularly fascinating with Joyce's writing in this episode is how he conveys which words in Milly's letter that Leopold picks up when first glancing over it a short time before he actually reads it. It's such a clever way of letting the reader understand what Leopold (maybe unconsciously) finds most interesting in the letter. For example "Boylan's song (I was on the pop of writing Blazes Boylan's) about those seaside girls." becomes "Blazes Boylan's seaside girls". It also accurately shows how reading is not really linear because just by looking at a page of text the reader will pick up on some words and thus have an idea of what the text is about and how these words will fit in.
Cheers from Stockholm!
Sebastian Gedin Your comments are very insightful. It is great that you add what the videos do not include! Thank you so much! Great to hear from Stockholm! Cheers from California, USA.
Really enjoying your series on Ulysses .. started reading Ulysses for the first time and the emphasis on having fun has really added to the enjoyment. I love the language games Joyce plays. Fascinated by all the themes, especially the one of usurpation, as writing from this from Scotland and watching devolution and democracy being usurped by Westminster.
I have thought about that every time I hear from one of my Scottish friends. Makes me happy that you are reading this book for fun. It will become a part of you. Have a fun read!
I just started to read Ulysses and I love it! The way he plays with language is great.
You’re videos have been very helpful. Thank you for doing this-
Thank you! That means a lot to me. I'm glad you enjoy Joyce's word play. His writing is a lot of fun. Enjoy your own odyssey.
Thank you very much!
_
One favourite quote:
'Travel round in front of the sun, steal a day’s march on him. Keep it up for ever never grow a day older technically.'
I find this whole series really helpful. Thank you. I love the way you are encouraging us to see Leopoldo as a great literary hero - he is received so coldly but holds on to his compassion and interest in others.
These videos are a great companion to the book. Really valuable effort , thanks.
Thank you for taking the time to drop a note! Your words mean a lot to me. Pat yourself on the back for taking on a very challenging book!
Thank you Chris. Your videos are so helpful and well done. I appreciate your explanations so much! They will keep me going through this challenging Classic.
Thank you for joining the journey! And thanks for commenting. If you need help or want to 'talk' about an issue, just leave a comment. I try to catch them all. Take care!
Awesome series, my friend. I just finished reading Ulysses (with very little guidance) and your lectures are finally making it seem not only worthwhile, but rewarding.
i watched 1967 b/w film ulysees yesterday. your videos so far prepared me for the expectation of something that would be different. liked it...
My goal in the videos is to help readers enjoy the book. You are making a real effort to understand what Joyce is doing. You'll find that the book will open up a little more every time you read it. When you tell me you've gotten pleasure from the book, I'll be happy. Enjoy your Odyssey! And thank you for commenting.
Hi Chris! Just wanted to personally thank you for doing this video series for us. I started reading Ulysses by myself and after the third episode was about to give up on it until I found your videos. After watching your past videos and re-reading the episodes with the new knowledge, I have come to change my mind completely about this novel. I have now just finished reading chapter 4 and found myself actually enjoying what I was reading! Your enthusiasm for this book is contagious and I really appreciate you taking the time to prepare these videos for us. You rock! Looking forward to watching the next videos and enjoying the rest of the book.
WOW! Thank you so much for both your kind words and for letting me know you are staying with the book! Way to go! Don't ever let it stop being fun. It's a mental PLAYground. Enjoy. You can analyze in your 3rd or 50th read. Take care.
Loved this video! Thanks.
You are so welcome!
So helpful! Thank you
You're so welcome! Please let me know if you need any help. Stick with it and enjoy.
this is so dang good
Hi. I am a novice to Joycian literature. Your video encouraged me to explore. Please tell me what is the similarity between the Homeric character Calypso and our own Mr loom.
Remember that we are not following the Odyssey exactly. That would more like a parody which will come brilliantly later. Calypso refers to the distractions that "captivate" Bloom---a glimpse of stocking? The woman at the butcher? All try to captivate our hero. There is a little Calypso in Molly too!
@@TeachUBusiness wow! so apt and so prompt. Thanks from India
excellent sir!
Thank you! Cheers!
I am currently writing an analysis of this episode for my senior level course in college. What direction would you recommend me take the analysis is and what specifically should I analyze?
There is a lot in this Episode and it's one of the more digestible. Considering the year, 1904, it's very remarkable that Bloom is giving Molly breakfast in bed. We know she is planning to hook up with Boylan, but that information isn't presented in a very obvious form. What is obvious is that Bloom is serving Molly---that would be quite unusual for that time. Consider the activities of women throughout the book and none have the freedom of Molly. The entire book moves around the axis of Bloom rising in the role of the usurped cuckold and retiring as the conquering hero who asks Molly to make his breakfast. Brilliant thing Joyce does with that.
I've read Ulysses twice but there's something I've never understood. How does Bloom know he's going to be cuckolded? I know Molly tells him the letter's from Boylan but he could be coming simply to discuss business. Can anyone enlighten me?
Great question! I think people who are in the situation, know. Molly is hardly the quiet type so she is not hiding anything. I think she made it clear that he is to be out for the afternoon. And then there is Blazes' reputation. The sum of the parts...
@@TeachUBusiness Thank you.
As a northside Dubliner I'm surprised Bloom didn't go and knock out Boylan
Hi. How are you? I would like to see the subtitles in this video but I cannot. Although they are automatically generate it, they are really helpful for a non native english speaker.
thanks again for your "light in the dark", Chris. This time I have a couple of comments about two themes.
1) "Calypso keeps Odysseus captive on her island ans she promises him immortality if he will stay with her". I believe that an evidence of the truthfulness of this statement resides in one specific detail: there is a painting called the "Bath of the Nymph"
just over Leopold and Molly's bed. Now, the question is who is the Nymph? it may be Molly. It may be Calypso-Molly. It may be an androgyne Leopold. It may also be both or neither or them. We will never know :-( Most people, especially at the time of Joyce, used to consider marriage as a goal; as it was the higheest step in their life: they go to school, get a job, buy a house and get married, DONE. Marriage is so much often seen as the last level of a video game: only the best ones can get married but, once you do that, you are on the top of the social ladder. You are supposed to do nothing more. Society requests to do nothing more and you simply indulge yourself the right to just wait your death coming (that is why most marriages end). Like in videogames, however, our life is just mockery. "Till death do you part" is a mockery; "PERMANENT JOBS" are mockery (you can get fired any moment); all sorts of "CERTIFICATES" are mockery (you may fake it or pay an examiner). This is why most of us are so disappointed in education. If you aim to the goal (CERTIFICATE/ COLLAGE DEGREE) you miss the process and the goal gets meaningless, you get bored and the Grim reaper comes before your time.
2) LEOPOLD BLOOM'S ANTIHEROISM
Apart from being androgyne and Molly's slave (he works as a maid for Molly), Leopold Bloom also speaks to his cat. This may be seen as a silly gesture at first glance, but, as I am going to explain in point 3, it is far from being so.
(PS: there is nothing wrong to work as a maid for your wife...I'm the first one doing so. Just let's remember that 100 years ago it was not like this)
3) STEPHEN DEDALUS SEES THROUGH MOCKERY AND HE MISSES IT
"What does Stephen miss?" you ask. Well, I'm not sure, since we are at the beginning, but I have some clue. While Leopold in totally in it ("ate with relish the inner organs of beast and fowls"), the "ineluctable modality of the visible" will alway keep Stephen far from it. He is disillusioned by this ruined world; he perfectly sees through the mockery. Yet this constant distance make him numb. He can't run after shadows of birds any more.
Dedalus has not set sail for a journey as Leopold has never build the Trojan horse, but while the former (a teacher, a person who is supposed to know everything) gets caught in the trap of dealing in absolutes. As Obi wan Kenobi would say:" Your hunger and your lust for power have already done it" (= taken the world away from you). th-cam.com/video/k3frK9-OiQ0/w-d-xo.html
Leopol speakes to his cat, as a sign of understanding what cannot be understood. To do that you are requested to speak a language thet cannot be spoken.
Cosimo, you are certainly going very deep in your thinking about this book. That's excellent. Your points are very good and you see the many layers that Joyce puts into every episode of this journey.
Stephen sees things analytically but not humanely.
Hey man, are you ok? You are welcome to email me. Take care...chris at teachu dot com
Now I know why it is called Calypso - metempsychosis. I see poor Bloom is treated badly by everyone, even the cat.
I am very much enjoying these videos.
One minor point: "Mrs. Marion Bloom" is even a bit more of a usurpation than it would seem on the surface. Yes (this is based on when I grew up), it should be "Mrs. Leopold Bloom," but when would "Mrs. Marion Bloom" be proper form? For a letter to a widow.
molly sounds like a replacation of the birth event . an initial act..9 month wait..not much to do..then the big event. 9 months represented in one day. is that it ?
There is a cycle of life theme that recurs throughout the book. It's pretty hard to nail any one person down to representing any single event or idea. Like people are, Molly is a complex person. We'll get a deep understanding of her at the end. One very important thing to catch is her question of metempsychosis. Rebirth, reincarnation, life cycle, people changing, etc. I love this episode because it is so simple and yet so rich with details. The cat, the misplaced key, Bloom preparing the food, what Bloom eats. There is a novel within a novel in Calypso. Enjoy it as an informed observer. You are doing GREAT!