100 years ago, James Joyce was out to confront a crisis in the world, a crisis in Dublin, Ireland.
Ultra clear
This isn’t about LOL LOL James Joyce is like LSD drug. That’s not the real point James Joyce was addressing. The REAL TOPIC is what other books are like LSD drug to their audience? The Bible stories of Jesus and Mary? The Quran stories of Adam, Eve, Noah, Jesus and Mary?
If a book from 1920 can be like LSD drug, are we ignoring the behavior of people at the Mosque, Church, Synagogue and Temple. Let us be ULTRA CLEAR that this isn’t about being amused and entertained. This is about Ireland and KILLING and MURDER and The Crusades between Pope and Christians against Muslims, etc.
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“I confess that I do not see what good it does to fulminate against the English tyranny while the Roman tyranny occupies the palace of the soul.” - James Joyce, “Ireland, Island of Saints and Sages,” lecture, Università Popolare, Trieste (27 April 1907)
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To Nora Barnacle, the woman he would later marry, James Joyce wrote in 1904: “Six years ago I left the Catholic church, hating it most fervently. I found it impossible for me to remain in it on account of the impulses of my nature. I made secret war upon it when I was a student and declined to accept the positions it offered me. By doing this I made myself a beggar, but I retained my pride. Now I make open war upon it by what I write and say and do.”
Yes, of course, enjoy the books, enjoy the Upanishads, enjoy the Quran, enjoy the Bible - but do not confuse fiction with non-fiction. Do not murder and kill or siege or enslave other people because they enjoy a different book in parenting their children than you do. !FictionNonFiction@lemm.ee - we must all get on “the same page”, and James Joyce was giving us poetry to confront the problems of other poetry, The Bible and Quran, etc.