27/11/12: Ulysses quotation analysis

[Mr. Hendrick]

Task:

• (10-15 mins) In pairs, discuss what you think are the 10 most powerful and effective quotations from this list, then say why you think so. Post your choices here.
• (30 mins) Pick at least 5 quotations out of these and evaluate them using your own bank of analytical phrases and vocabulary and post each piece of analysis in this topic as a reply. (with the original quotation also)
• (10 mins) Read other peoples work and pick out what you consider to be the 5 most effective pieces of analysis by other students and post a comment in this topic again, saying why you thought so.

[Mr. Hendrick]

Sample answer 1: 

Quotation: "British Beatitudes! … Beer, beef, business, bibles, bulldogs, battleships, buggery and bishops."

Analysis: Joyce uses alliteration in this quotation to create a powerful sense of rhythm. The use of the words '_____' and '_____' are significant because they create an image of....

[Mr. Hendrick]

Sample answer 2. 

Quotation: “INELUCTABLE MODALITY OF THE VISIBLE: AT LEAST THAT IF NO MORE, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read, seaspawn and seawrack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot. Snotgreen, bluesilver, rust: coloured signs.

Analysis: Here, Joyce use a stream of consciousness technique to portray the interior mind of the character. He also employs neologisms (made-up words) such as 'seaapawn' and 'seawrack' to further symbolise the random workings of the human mind and also to push the boundaries of how literature functions. Furthermore, the use of powerful imagery such as the 'nearing tide' gives this a sense of urgency.

[Georgie Hockenhull]

'I fear those big words, Stephen said, which make me so unhappy'

Tom - Do you think that Stephen is alluding to the fact that knowledge, which supposedly is the key to enlightenment, actually cuts us off through symbolic castration. It shackles us and distances us from each other 

[Mr. Hendrick]

Question for the class: Has Joyce used very difficult language to frame and surround these very simple, but effective sentences we are looking at today in order to make them stand out more? 

[Georgie Hockenhull]

'Stephen jerked his thumb towards the window saying:

That is God'

This sentence is extremely profound, the idea that God surrounds us, we are, according to the Bible, made in Gods image. All we know is the world that is around us, and how do we know that God can be any different from our surroundings. Our world is the most solid thing we know and yet the most volatile.

[Michael Calvey]

Quotation: A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery. Stephen Dedalus

Analysis: This quotation alludes to how Stephen considers himself to be extremely clever when he makes the shrewd remark" a man of genius makes no mistake" He is almost trying to explain to someone he is talking to what his attitude towards mistakes should be. The way he says this makes it seem as if he is referring to himself when he says the word "genius".

[Jonny Laxton]

Joyce's language in these quotations is mainly simple, however, the techniques he uses makes these sentences extremely effective. The quote " Love loves to love love" is very simple language. The repetition of love put a large emphasis on the word love, without using any complex language. This sentence stands out because the same word is repeated four times, which also acts as alliteration. This sentence does not have, nor does it require any difficult language to surround it. Ithe simplicity of it, forms the sentence without need for any other more complex language.

[Alexandra Russell]

"A darkness shining in brightness which brightness could not comprehend".

Here Joyce alludes to the concept and influence of language in our society today. The oxymoronic nature of 'a darkness shining' indicates an unknown or invisible contradiction between truth and the methods by which we conduct ourselves and interact with others. Alternatively, Joyce could be making a reference to the process of childhood, through which we experience the raw beauty and nature of events without utilising language.

[Lewis Symonds]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VclJmNXMXs81bXMCDSGgcp5vBgjLFCBh-0-XPzoTPkk/mobilebasic

[Jessica Gadd]

The quote “Love loves to love love.” appears to be a rather cynical perception of love, possibly implying that the joy that comes from the various kinds of love we feel as humans may not be from the affection we feel towards another person or object but it may be the feeling of love itself that we are addicted to. This quote is using indirect personification, for it plays with the notion that love is vain, this is further emphasised by the fact that love is repeated so many times in that short phrase. It is the minimalistic use of language that draws in the readers attention.

[maxwels]

“History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”

 

In this quote Joyce uses the notion of the past to create this "nightmare" that Stephen is trying to escape from.

[Jessica Gadd]

"Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past."

 

This is a romanticised take on time, it describes the present at the point at which the past and the future meet. Beginning with the phrase "hold to the now" immediately draws the readers attention to the extended synonym 'capture the moment'. I particularly like the facet that it is dramatised, namely displayed through the word 'plunges'.

[Matthew Bailey]

  In the quote "a darkness shining in brightness which brightness could not comprehend.” Joyce uses powerful imagery with language to show the meaning of something that is darker than the brightest bright. This give the impression that there is nothing left in the world for someone/something and they have nothing to live for.

[Mr. Hendrick]

Jessica, I am really impressed with your analysis of this quotation. Really insightful reading of the extracts and superbly written. Well done. 

[Tom Probert]

The quote "the heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit" symbolises the beauty of the night, the use of words "nightblue" and "heaventree" appeal to me as they represent the tranquility and solitude of the night sky Joyce is describing. The use of personification also stands out as it gives a sense of reality to the phrase.

[jack ingall]

When one reads these strange pages of one long gone one feels that one is at one with one who once…”

This is a brilliant example as to why some people faill to finish Ulysses or struggle to read it. This is just a hard to understand and complicated way of saying, when someone reads these strange pages of the dead, they feel as so they become one with that dead person. I personally think the second most interesting thing about this phrase, is ,how does someone write a phrase with so many repititions of that 'one' word and still manage to make sense of it, this almost imediately explains too me why it took Joyce so long to write the book, everything had to be in order and in Ulysses almost every other sentence has the same intensity and complicity so it would be hard to write a book in a shorter time limit.

  (1st most interesting) When reading this quote it made me ponder further upon the idea of why would Joyce write a sentence like this when there are easier ways to write it which are easier on the eye. The reasoning behind this, i think, is because he wanted people to have to read into this book with the depth that hasnt ever been neccesary before. It is often people read books without having to think because the explanations are in the book, however for Ulysses people have to stop and think at certain points and possibly refer back, in serious cases. This shows that Joyce didnt want to test peoples reading abilities, however their understanding.

[Gabriella Farah]

"The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring"

This is a very interesting phrase. It indicates that all form of art and everything else in the world is created by someone who's work of art is greatly influenced by their personal life. The best way to understand a piece of art is by understanding where the original idea came from, what was going on in the artist's life, and what they were thinking as they created it. Every work of art is the result of an idea which is related in some way to the artist's life.

[Alberto TG]

Thought the first stages of Ulysses I have noticed how the language in that Joyce uses changes. It varies to a commonly used word in every day such as love,'love loves to love love' to sentences such as 'a darkness shining in brightness witch brightness could not comprehend.'
Both sentences cold be interpreted in different ways for example the phrase 'love loves to love love'. What type of love is it talking about?? Romantic love, object love, friendly love. We don't know the meaning of love used but we have to try and guess almost like through the whole book of Ulysses.

[Eliza Cudmore]

"Thought is the thought of thought"

Joyce uses language in this quotation to symbolise the complexity of the thought process, the word "thought" is phrased in a paradox way, this undermines the your original views on the quote, making you second guess yourself, which in turn brings you to the process of thought. The technique of repeating the word brings emphasis to different aspects of it, for example the sharp T at the end makes the word sound bitter, therefore the thought behind it is cynical.

[Mr. Hendrick]

To those of you who have done the work:

Just reading through these comments and analysis, some really excellent work in here people! Really insightful. Well done, you have really engaged with a text that even most adults find impossible. 

[Cotters]

"The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring."

This quote elaborates the question of what is art saying that it doesn't matter what art is, but instead how it is embodied and interpreted. Joyce exemplifies his point by saying the supreme question instead of the main question or a question about... He goes to the supreme, literally and metaphorically, by saying this and is almost saying that if you look hard enough then the answer is obvious.

[Chibi Auerbach]

"Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liver slices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencod's roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine."

 

This quotation is powerful and highly effective because it explores the notion of characterization without using adjectives that would usually describe a particular persona. For example, instead of using a negative adjective such as "greedy" when describing the character's eating rituals, the writer uses unappealing words to describe the food being eaten, as opposed to the way he eats the food. Although this might be a genuine way of describing the food that the persona enjoys eating, the negative tone in the author's voice suggests the flaws in the personality of the character.

[Chibi Auerbach]

"A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery."

 

This is an extremely powerful statement because it is highly controversial and can raise many different opinions and perspectives on the the fact that "a man of genius makes no mistakes". Having such a controversial statement said with such certainty is effective because it provokes a wide range of varied opinions and encourages the reader to inquire about the statement with greater depth.

[novisc]

'History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake'

This quote provides a fantastic insight into human nature. We are all trying to escape from our past, from our mistakes, from the influence of our ancestory, hopefully trying to escape the torment of actions we can no longer influence.

[zoe weingarten]

“What's in a name? That is what we ask ourselves in childhood when we write the name that we are told is ours.”

 

This quote explores what a name actually means. As a child, you have no choice over what name you get, and it does't mean anything to you. 

[Harry Verden]

“As you are now so once were we.”

Joyce in this sentence is I believe is trying to suggest that your past effects your personality because Joyce says "As you are now" which suggests that Joyce is talking about the personality of the character. Joyce then suggests the fact that your personality is connected to your past if by saying "so once were we" this quotation also suggests that your personality never changes. This quotation also suggest that Joyce is trying to send a cytological message.