Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock tells the story of the downfall of the Boyle family (Jack the father, Juno the mother, Mary the Daughter, and Johnny the son) from relative poverty into destitute conditions. They live in a tenement in Dublin and are working class through and through. Near the beginning of the play, it seems as if good fortune will finally smile upon the Boyle family, as they receive news that a rich uncle has passed away and intends to leave them a sizable sum.
It turns out bad for the family as they are swindled by Bentham, a young lawyer from London, who has, in the words of Captain Jack Boyle done to us the same as he's done to Mary. He had "screwed" the family financially and Mary literally, as he has absconded leaving Mary pregnant and unmarried.
Some interesting parallels to a Doll's House, which Mary is reading at one point in the play: a woman leaving her husband is the finale of both dramas, and the idea that this is pretty radical given the time and the social conditions is evident. Perhaps, as Juno claims "two mothers'll be better than one"... tough from very different social classes, both stories present powerful argument for suffrage.
Mary's character is interested in improving herself, but she has been born into unfortunate circumstances. Page 5 stage direction states that there are "two forces working in her... one, through circumstances of her life... the other, through books..."
Captain Boyle is antagonistic toward her reading and sees it as putting on airs. At one point he even indirectly blames Mary's reading and new ideas as leading to her pregnancy. "What did the likes of her born in a tenement house, want with readin?"
There is an interesting attitude toward religion in the play, as the clergy certainly has power, but religion and god seems to be rendered impotent "agen the stupidity of men". Bentham presents himself as a theosophist and then proceeds to swindle the family. It could be a symbolic indictment of the church in Ireland. Another interesting line comes from the mother of Tancred during her son's funeral procession: "O blessed Virgin where were you when me darlin' son was riddled with bullets?"
The lines spoken by Joxer near the end of the play seem so important thematically: "The whole worlds in a terrible state of chaos." This seems a very modern idea, reminiscent of Eliot's "unreal city" and Yeats' widening gyre of history coming apart. This modern idea of history coming apart, is not a totally hopeless state in the hands of a writer with a truly modernist bent. That, I think, explains the feeling of hopefulness one may feel at the end of Juno or a Doll's house. The modernists see the end as the beginning. Things have to be wiped out before they can begin again, anew. Similar to Giambista Vico's theory of history, which Joyce drew on to write Fennigan's Wake, Juno constructs a world that needs to be torn down-- a world that by being torn down opens the door for new possibilities.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
A Day with Leopold
A Day with Leopold
a play list loosely tied to James Joyce’s Ulysses
“This song is first associated (in the Wandering Rocks episode of Ulysses) with Blazes Boylan, who steps to the catchy refrain as he marches down the street. We hear the song later played on the pianola in Bella Cohen's brothel during the Circe episode, where it is linked with Privates Carr and Compton, two British soldiers who eventually get into an altercation with an inebriated Stephen Dedalus.
The song features two young men discussing their girls; in the course of the conversation they find out that the respective girls share similar characteristics. Inevitably it turns out they are both talking of the same girl; and to make matters worse, the lads — who have decided to pay her a visit — are greeted at the door by her husband, who chases them off with his own rendition of the chorus of the song.
Obviously the song furthers the Odyssean theme of a universal temptress, suitors, and a husband who reclaims his right to her. In this way it is a direct parallel to the main dilemma of Ulysses.”
[from CD liner notes, contributed by Prof. Zack Bowen]
2) I know I’m losing you—This is a recording by Rod Stewart from the 1971 album Every Picture Tells a Story. Stewart was born and raised in North London. The song was a 1966 #1 hit single by The Temptations, on Motown records. Thematically, I connected this song to Leopold’s likely feeling that his wife having slowly slipped away from him.
3) Leopold’s Morning—this is a homemade piece, with sound recording from pages 59-60 of Ulysses, and my addition of music using Apple Garageband software. I like this passage as it sets up so much of Leopold’s and Molly’s and Millie’s and Boylan’s relationship, and all in a stream of Leopold’s thoughts as he goes through his morning routine.
4) The Letter—The song was a number one hit for the Memphis group, the Boxtops in 1967. This is a live recording by Joe Cocker of Sheffield, England with his band Mad Dogs and Englishmen. The song appeared in the film and on the live Album Mad Dongs and Englishmen (1969-1971). Letters figure prominently into Leopold’s Morning (one from Millie and one from Boylan). Also, the theme of this song is desperately trying to get home to someone you love, which connects both to Leopold and to Homer’s Odysseus.
“This is a song Bloom buys for his daughter Milly when she is taking piano lessons. Known in English as "The Flower Song," it is tied to Bloom's pen name, Henry Flower, which he uses in his clandestine correspondence with Martha Clifford. It is one of a number of flower references throughout Ulysses.”
[from CD liner notes, contributed by Prof. Zack Bowen]
6) The Rocky Road to Dublin—this is a recording of the traditional Irish ‘slip-jig’ performed by The Chieftains and The Rolling Stones. “The song is partially recited several times by Mr. Deasy in James Joyce's Ulysses. The words were written by D.K. Gavan, "The Galway Poet", for the English music hall performer Harry Clifton (1824-1872), who popularized the song.”
Wikipedia
“This cheerful ditty is perhaps the most frequently mentioned song in Ulysses. Milly's morning letter to Bloom erroneously refers to the song as having been written by Blazes Boylan, and Bloom associates the song with Boylan throughout much of the rest of the book. It becomes the motif of the universal temptress figures leading all men to their eventual destruction. Most of the subsequent references to the song in Ulysses are made by Bloom, who of course is never far from female temptation.”
[from CD liner notes, contributed by Prof. Zack Bowen]
8) Tales of Brave Ulysses—This is a song recorded by the group Cream. The explanation from Wikepedia makes clear the song’s thematic connection to Ulysses. “The lyrics are inspired by Homer's Odyssey, an account of the adventures undertaken by Ulysses. This can be seen in the song's reference to "naked ears ... tortured by the sirens sweetly singing," an event from Homer's epic. When interviewed on the episode of the VH1 show, Classic Albums, which featured Disraeli Gears, lyricist Martin Sharp explained that he had recently returned from Ibiza, which was the source of many of the images in the song (e.g. "tiny purple fishes run laughing through her fingers") and the general feeling of having left an idyll to return to "the hard lands of the winter"; Clapton stated in the same show that he had been independently writing a tune based on the Loving Spoonful's "Summer in the City", and when Sharp gave him the words (on the back of a bar napkin) they fit the tune.” [1](Wikipedia)
9) Finnegan’s Wake—No allusions to Ulysses here, but to Joyce’s last work. Probably no need to explain this choice!
10) Stranger in a Strange Land—The title of this song and its mood connects to how Leopold might be feeling as he wanders Dublin all day, possibly feeling, if not homeless, at least dispossessed of his home for the time being. Incidentally, Leon Russell, who recorded this song as part of his 1971 Album Shelter the People, was a part of Joe Cocker’s Mad Dog’s and Englishmen album and tour, so we have some intertextuality within this compilation!. Also, a bit of trivia is that this song contains one of the first uses by a popular musician of the Moog Synthesizer, which later became very common in pop and rock music.
“One of the major musical themes running through Ulysses, this song gathers many large issues — Ireland's tortured political history, Roman Catholicism, divided loyalty, betrayal, and Christ-like self-sacrifice — into one bundle, ripe for Joyce's elaboration. The song dates to the rebellion of 1798; like their hoped-for French allies, the most ardent Irish revolutionaries wore their hair short (i.e., cropped ) in emulation of the virtuous republican Romans. Stephen Dedalus shares a similarity with the song's protagonist by failing to pray for his mother, even on her deathbed: this thought will come back to haunt him, literally, at the climax of the Circe chapter.”
[from CD liner notes, contributed by Kevin McDermott]
12) Satisfaction—This is from the Band Devo, and it just seemed to fit thematically with how Leopold might be feeling by the end of his day. The name of the Band, interestingly, is based on the concept of “Devolution”—the idea that humans are actually devolving rather than evolving.
13) Dublin—I think this is just a beautiful, moody song that happens to be set in Dublin home of the band featured here—Thin Lizzy.
14) Struggling Man—Jimmy Cliff is not normally associated with Ireland, but with Jamaica—another Island nation with a somewhat turbulent history. I certainly see Leopold Bloom, much like all moderns perhaps, as a Struggling Man.
“This is one of the most frequently referred to and significant musical allusions throughout Ulysses. Molly Bloom will be singing this song on her concert tour with Blazes Boylan and, indeed, the afternoon liaison between her and Blazes is ostensibly for the purpose of rehearsing the music for that concert, including this song. Bloom learns that the song will be included in the concert tour early in the morning, and it serves throughout his day and the novel Ulysses both as a leitmotif of Molly's adultery and as the theme song of her potential reconciliation with Bloom.
” [from CD liner notes, contributed by Prof. Zack Bowen]
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Mrs. Dalloway
I read Mrs. Dalloway some time ago, and didn't take particularly good notes. I need to try here to summarize some very basic ideas I have about the book:
This is a modern novel, one that breaks with tradition in rendering its vision of the life of a small group of people. Like many great modern works, it is stylistically, and perhaps thematically linked to classic of western literature. Again, as with Joyce, Pound, Eliot, the famous dictum "make it new" does not mean a complete destruction of the past, but rather a reworking of classical elements in order that the tradition may continue. The dramatic structure of one 'day in the life' is much in line with Aristotle's pronouncement in his Poetics that drama take place within a 'reasonable time frame'. This is reminiscent of Joyce's one day in the life of Leopold Bloom, in Ulysses. Other things, such as the stream of consciousness style, identify this work as a modernist piece of fiction, as well as the non-linear narrative (with flash-forwards and flash-backs). Thematically many part of the story also seem distinctly modernist: the focus on time's passing, the obsessions of the characters with the past and confusion about their places in the world, or if not confusion, at least thoughtfulness.
This is a modern novel, one that breaks with tradition in rendering its vision of the life of a small group of people. Like many great modern works, it is stylistically, and perhaps thematically linked to classic of western literature. Again, as with Joyce, Pound, Eliot, the famous dictum "make it new" does not mean a complete destruction of the past, but rather a reworking of classical elements in order that the tradition may continue. The dramatic structure of one 'day in the life' is much in line with Aristotle's pronouncement in his Poetics that drama take place within a 'reasonable time frame'. This is reminiscent of Joyce's one day in the life of Leopold Bloom, in Ulysses. Other things, such as the stream of consciousness style, identify this work as a modernist piece of fiction, as well as the non-linear narrative (with flash-forwards and flash-backs). Thematically many part of the story also seem distinctly modernist: the focus on time's passing, the obsessions of the characters with the past and confusion about their places in the world, or if not confusion, at least thoughtfulness.
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