Ulysses: The Art of Creating Ourselves

This is my final meditation on Ulysses. The assignment was to write a 1-page paper on the meaning of the novel.

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Ulysses: The Art of Creating Ourselves

Nothing has a single meaning. Phenomena, human existence, a pork kidney—each is its own universe, each with its own distinct existence, each also connected to one another: a dynamic producing incalculable possible interpretations, functions, meanings. Religion once defined reality, but its claims could not withstand the mind’s desire for truth. Science strives for truth, but objective truth cannot account for subjective truth. All of the fantasies projected into the future by frameworks that once established “meaning” are merely the product of language: one possibility in a network of infinite possibilities. The void: the network of infinite possibilities that must inevitably be realized as one actuality: each human life.

Ulysses has no single meaning. It will mean something different to each person who reads it. The meaning of Ulysses is that, like the novel itself, meaning is subjective and dependent upon perspective. Each human inhabits a viewpoint directed towards reality, and each viewpoint gives rise to a limited set of possible meanings for that reality. 

Ulysses says: Abandon all beliefs about the future, all claims to understanding how reality should be. Stephen Dedalus, completely stuck, wonders what purpose is there for the way things are? Not why is reality the way it is—not, why is Ireland colonized?; history and science provide sufficient explanation. He is stuck, rather, at: What does it mean that reality is the way it is?

Ulysses says: The state of things does not mean anything, reality simply is. There is no absolute Truth to be extracted from the state of things. Ulysses gives its reader Bloom and Molly, who are aware that there is no meaning to existence beyond existence itself. Bloom, in particular, inhabits a viewpoint informed by Love (selflessness, acceptance, understanding): he perceives the world from different perspectives, understands the explanations that have produced a specific reality, and, finally, chooses to accept that reality. Though Bloom and Molly have different conceptions of Hope, the two of them are aware of the void, and of life’s infinite possibility. The past is irreparable, but the future promises everything/nothing: Bloom could be a quasi-father, Molly an actual mother, Stephen an artist. Awareness of this state of possibility gives me, at least, a reason to endure, a purpose.

Ulysses says: We are meaningless. A human is thrust into this world with no single, intrinsic reason why. Placed thus within reality, we are equipped to take the raw materials of life and give words to our subjective experience. Life, seen in this way, is Stephen’s definition of art. 

Also, Ulysses says. Words are Joyce’s tool. The novel says, and in doing so creates, its own reality. Language is what facilitates parallax—allows us to experience, understand, and elaborate subjective truth. A word can uncover the history, the politics, the religious, the poetic that lies within, for example, a pork kidney. The novel touches and evokes each of these themes, but none of them is the “meaning,” since they all emerge from Joyce’s particular, skillful use of language. This, artistically, rather than thematically, is the meaning of Ulysses. Its experiments in style echo the theme of parallax: each of us uses some form of symbolic thought, some kind of signification/meaning construction, in our interactions with reality. That is our reason that follows our meaningless entry into life: We exist, and we create the world for ourselves. 

Ulysses says: Life is a work of art. Each of us is the artist, crafting our own existence.

wvkr 91.3 fm

There are new shows on WVKR Vassar College radio.

There are new shows because it is now summer. 

One of these shows is called “Monday Afternoon Recovery Room,” on from 12-3 pm.

The show is hosted by Sam “the Tattoo Man,” a gruff, burly man with scraggly grey hair and, apparently, a Joan Jett tattoo on his chest. (I haven’t seen it.) (Yet.) 

He plays garage rock on vinyl. Chatter with his co-host, Tony Two-Hats, is fantastic. Example: on baseball, “It’s just a bunch of men in silly suits runnin’ around chasin’ each other.” Insightful. 

i just remembered a dream i had last night where i had to take a final exam but i needed the signature of a professor to do so and for some reason it had to be one of the professors from the ‘black shakespeare’ department. also in order to get the signature of a ‘black shakespeare’ professor, i had to draw the professor’s insignia, which was kind of like an axe.

Wind Map

(Source: everylostship)