Sub Rosa

Not too sure if I believe this - I think you can find fractals/images/messages in anything if you look hard enough (though God alone knows what they would make of  Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves creation).  If it is all 'stream of conscious' stuff like Virginia Woolf's 'The Waves', then that makes perfect sense, but not really in Joyce's work.  To be honest, I am surprised that they find anything structual in Joyce's Ulysses at all, as the last chapter is a monologue that seemingly has no punctuation whatsoever.  Where is the 'perfect cascade' there?

Chatted to senior lecturer about this.

Me - Is there any truth in this?

MW - Well, you may find structures in anything if you frame the parameters of the search in the right way.

Me - I was thinking that, too.  You can read into something any which way you like.

Well, after a delayed start, I am back in the saddle again - trying to work out the corners of Joyce's bizarre mind and get a coherent essay out of it.  I am sat with a jug of mint tea, a tissue full of rosemary oil to keep me alert, classic FM on discreet burble and the fire cranked to half way.  Alas, this is the Road to Hell.

18:09
Have done a LOT of editing, only to find that I am short about 1,000 words, but have been smart enough to have a Ulysses Word Dump in a seperate document so I can use the lines that I have got rid of.  Long, long night ahead.

21:53
Long, cold, dark night - I cannot fall into your arms.

23:41
I am cold, I am doubled up and I can't feel my feet.

00:56
!!!!! ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff***ing powet cuttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt !!!!! Plus near heart attack, but thank microsoft for autosave.

02:54
Still here, still plodding, still can't feel my feet.

06:20
Submitted work 10 minutes ago and I can say with hand on heart, it has been the crappiest piece I have ever written.  And I actually don't care as long as I get a mark.  I have been awake for nearly 24 hours and now I want to sleep.

Time for bed, said Zebedee

*boing*

Well, you get my general gist - time to leave the social media alone for a while and get to grips with this thing.

17:03
Done with 'Nausicaa' for now - moving on to 'Circe' now and have to write legitimate argument for that, too.  The main frame is gutted out, just need to furnish it with actual text.  All this catholic guilt!!!!  The plus side is that I posted on the Uni forum that 'Ulysses' is a little-known ancient Greek word for 'Agony'.  Two replied - one said she was glad that she wasn't the only one doing Ulysses, the other said that she is 1,100 words in and totally sleep deprived.  Oh and she is on day 5.  Our own little epics :-)

20:32
I have just read through 'Circe' more thoroughly.  I normally pride myself on being open-minded and relatively modern in outlook - all I can say is WTF??? I mean - seriously???  Why am I having such a reaction to it? I can understand why it was banned...but so much of it is so confusing.  So many things going on.  For those not familiar with the text, a summary is HERE.  I truly do not mean to be twee about it - I just find the whole thing disconcerting.

Saying that, I think I am done for the night. Toe feels like it has exploded and I need to sort out my extenuating circumstance form.

Have been AWOL for most of the day so haven't done a lot of work re Ulysses.  I have just read 2/3rds of 'Circe' - there is no polite way of saying it, it's a headfuck.  I understand the idea of free flow thought processes, as we are not linear in our processing - but sheeesh!!!! I understand that it is about guilt complexes, but don't understand the hallucination parts (which is what this extended chapter is about), unless Bloom/Dedalus are on something stronger than mere alchohol.  Train of thought derailed often.  I think if I wasn't pressured into reading this, I will see it as a truly great piece of work, or 'epic' as Neil Gaiman once said.

Right now, I could do with a library to sit in as there are so many distractions in this house.  Need to gut out my impressions, other than Joyce has tested the idea of 'random' to it's limits.  Probably won't get a load of marks for that observation either.

PLUS:::: I have had an infected toenail bed since 3rd week of December, of which I had antibiotics for and a referral to a podiatrist.  it appears I have now got an ingrown toenail - it feels like it is growing out of the top of my toe.

* mumble, grumble, crumble *

21:59
907 words altogether. Almost a third of the way there - will be pinning a LOT of quotes soon, but I am done for the night.

Basically the weather has been like this for days on end - blustery, rainy or a mixture of both.  I have returned to my lonely existance of desk sitting - trying to get the gist of the main themes of Ulysses specifically Calypso, Nausicaa, Circe and Penelope.

Questions on Ulysses are as follows:
Ulysses
Assignment 3: critical essay (fiction)
Either;
7. Explore the treatment of sex and sexuality in Ulysses.
Or
9. Explore the idea that Ulysses is an ‘epic of the human body’.

Again, modernism and this time, the late great James Joyce. Might be out for dinner tomorrow, so I don't know how much work will be done - right now there is a LOT of paperwork in front of me.

I am also having to embark upon James Joyce's Ulysses - the 1922 version with all of its notes is an absolute tome.  Think I will stick to Zola for now, though.  Already had my glut of nonsense via 'postmodernism', now I have to doubleback and understand its predecessor 'modernism.'

I maybe gone for some time....