Status Updates From James Joyce

Discussing Joyce's germinating thoughts on what would turn out to be his great novel "Ulysses", the author Ellmann opines:

pg362 "Nor is he [the character Bloom] concerned with the conception of a personal god. The divine part of Bloom is his humanity..."

My response: "Oh really? Humanity equals divinity? Okay,Richard,I disagree with you on that point...but that does not diminish the excellence of your biography."

Nearing the end now. I can’t believe he finished Finnegans Wake, with all his eye troubles and caring for his daughter. He truly lived for his work.

It took Joyce 9 years to publish Dubliners. Have faith, young people.

finally, we’re into the creation of Ulysses. I like the image of artist as squid, whose ink (art) comes from their own body (life). echoes of Pollock there.

The further I get into this the more disillusioned with Joyce I become. I grant to him that, like Poe, his art always came first, but I would amend myself to say His drunken stupidity preCeded Everything.