Discover Joyce's Dublin by Reading and Running
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Barry Sheehan / Dublin School of Creative Arts / Dublin Institute of Technology Discover Joyce’s Dublin by Reading and Running James Joyce told his friend Frank Budgen: “I want’ said Joyce, as we were walking down the Universitätstrasse, ‘to give a picture of Dublin so complete that if the city one day suddenly disappeared from the earth it could be reconstructed out of my book” (Budgen, 1960, p.67, 68). This paper looks at the relevance of Dublin to Joyce’s writings and of the relevance of Joyce’s writings to Dublin. It is concerned with the virtual Dublin of Joyce’s writings, the physical manifestation of Dublin over time, and the relationships between them. Numerous scholars read and analyse the writings of Joyce without ever visiting Dublin. Is it necessary to visit Dublin to fully appreciate Joyce’s writings and is it necessary to read his writings to fully appreciate Dublin? What can be discovered in Dublin that cannot be discovered remotely? Could you recreate Dublin from Joyce’s writings? Methodology this research is trying to investigate wider “You are walking through it howsomever. associations between the people and the I am, a stride at a time. A very short space places that appear in the writings. of time through very short times of space” (Joyce, 1986, p.31). Reading and running are the primary methods of this research. Notes made from In making observations about a city, you, like the runs are linked with textual pieces from Stephen Dedalus, need to move around it. Joyce’s writings as well as observations Walking and taking public transportation in books about Joyce or the city. Runs are are one way; running is another, with the developed that link aspects of the writing advantage of speed. Reading all of the works with elements in the city and these are then of James Joyce is essential. The main works documented as a series of blogposts on a References are well known, but equally important are dedicated website www.jj21k.com. Birmingham, K. (2014) The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses, Head of Zeus Ltd., London, England. works such as Stephen Hero, Exiles and Bowker, G. (2012) James Joyce: A Biography, Phoenix, London, Giacomo Joyce, set in Trieste, Italy. The inspiration for a particular run usually England. comes from the writings. Items of interest Budgen, F. (1960) James Joyce and the Making of Ulysses, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, USA. Joyce wrote to his patron Harriet Weaver on are noted from the texts and a run is derived Burgess, A. (1968) Re Joyce, W.W. Norton & Company, NY, USA. 24 November 1926, “One great part of human around them. Occasionally the interest Byrne, A. (1999) Guinness Times: My days in the World’s Most Famous Brewery, Town House, Dublin, Ireland. existence is passed in a state which cannot comes from something observed, and the Coverley, M. (2010) Pyschogeography, Pocket Essentials, be rendered sensible by the use of wideawake writings are searched for references. Harpenden, England. language and goahead plot” (Ellmann, 1975, Curran, C.P. (1968) James Joyce Remembered, Oxford University Press, London, United Kingdom. p.318). This is one of the keys to Joyce. There Initially the sequence was reading, running Ellmann R. (ed.) (1975) Selected Letters of James Joyce, Faber is not a direct linear narrative. Like the and writing. Now blogposts may be partially and Faber, London, United Kingdom. writing, the running is not always linear and written in advance of the runs. This evens Ellmann, R. (1983) James Joyce: New and Revised Edition, Oxford University Press, NY, USA. short runs are made all over the city, many out downtime as a result of injuries or Gunn, I., Hart, C. (2004) James Joyce’s Dublin: A Topographical times at random. travel, that may prevent runs taking place. Guide to the Dublin of Ulysses, Thames & Hudson, London, United Kingdom. As more research is undertaken, or further Hickey, K., Hickey, D. (2004) Faithful Departed: The Dublin of Books such as Declan Kiberd’s Ulysses and Us observations are made, original blogposts James Joyce’s Ulysses, The Lilliput Press, Dublin, Ireland. Igoe, V. (2007) James Joyce’s Dublin Houses & Nora Barnacle’s provide an excellent introduction. Ellmann’s are rewritten. On occasion, locations are Galway, The Lilliput Press, Dublin, Ireland. biography James Joyce, is essential reading. returned to and photographed or videoed, to Joyce, J. (1963) Stephen Hero (ed. Spencer, T., additional pages ed., Cahoon, H., Slocum, J.), Reprint, New Editions, NY, USA. The Ulysses Guide, Tours through Joyce’s document further observations. All running Joyce, J. (1983) Giacomo Joyce (intro. and notes Ellmann, R.), Dublin by Robert Nicholson and James journeys are tracked using GPS on the fitness Faber and Faber, London, United Kingdom. Joyce’s Dublin, A Topographical Guide to app, Runkeeper. Joyce, J. (1986) Ulysses: the corrected text (ed. Gabler, H.W., with Steppe, W. and Melchior, C., Afterword Groden, M.) First the Dublin of Ulysses by Ian Gunn and Clive Vintage Books Edition, NY, USA. Hart are excellent guides to the locations of Comparisons are made between Joyce, J. (1992) Dubliners (intro. and notes Brown, T.), Penguin Books, London, United Kingdom. events in Ulysses. These books explain the observations made whilst running and Joyce, J. (1992) Finnegans Wake (intro Deane, S.), Penguin situations that arise in the writings, whereas observations made when reading. A good Classics, London, United Kingdom. Page 36 PAPERS understanding of the writing is essential, but Archetypal city references can be hard to locate, particularly “For myself I always write about Dublin, in Finnegans Wake. In order to do this because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I efficiently a Kindle and iBooks are utilised. can get to the heart of all cities of the world. They allow for text searching. You could In the particular is contained the universal” thumb your way through Finnegans Wake (Power quoted in Ellmann, 1983, p.505). looking for the word Grangegorman, but it could take some time. Joyce created an archetypal model of Dublin and expressed it through literature. Most of the major Joyce works are available In it he positioned people in places to suit on iBooks and Kindle. But there are his purposes and move them on real and numerous textual inaccuracies in the texts. imagined journeys in time and space. Arthur By way of example the iBook is entitled Power notes the picking and placing of ideas: Finnegan’s Wake. These platforms are not used for reading the works, rather for initial As we know, he finally placed the scene, as checking of references and observations. he placed everything, back in Dublin – this Dublin which he never left in his imagination As well as physical copies of the works and … now a sort of half-real and half-dream city; the iBooks and Kindle editions, Dubliners, for Dublin was to Joyce what Florence was to The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Dante, the city of his soul (Power, 2004, p.95). and Ulysses are all listened to on Audio Books. Finnegans Wake is available on CD, As Joyce explained to Power, a fellow but only in abridged versions. Listening to Irishman, “—A writer’s purpose is to describe abridged work can give a false impression, the life of his day, he said, and I chose Dublin and many of the things of specific interest because it is the focal point of the Ireland to this research may have been edited out of today, its heartbeat you may say, and to as being tangential to the story. Audio books ignore that would be an affectation” (Power, are not listened to when running so as not to 1999, p.123). Joyce wrote from what he knew distract from physical observations. and what he had experienced and he used the people and places to assemble his model. Online mapping is a great resource “In Ulysses I have tried to forge literature particularly Google Maps with Street View out of my own experience, and not out of and Apple Maps with a movable a three- a conceived idea, or a temporary emotion” dimensional model of the city. Both can assist (Power, 1999, p.50). in comparing old photographs with new and both help in planning routes, for example, In making this model he consulted a map. crossing the city without passing a public “Joyce wrote Wandering Rocks with a map of house, a well-known puzzle from Ulysses. Dublin before him on which were traced in red ink the paths of Earl Dudley and Father Online maps are available on the Ordnance Conmee” (Budgen, 1960, p.122, 123). Joyce Survey Ireland Website, www.osi.ie. You mapped the city and he timed his created can toggle between current and historic journeys through it. mapping and compare the two. The historical References Joyce, J. (2000) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (ed. mapping dates from 1897 to 1913. This is ideal People with intro. and notes by Johnston, J.) Oxford University Press for looking at the city layout at the time in James Joyce placed people into his model, Inc., NY, USA. Joyce, S. (2003) My Brother’s Keeper: James Joyce’s Early Years, which Joyce’s works were based. sometimes thinly disguised and sometimes (ed. with intro Ellmann, R., Preface Elliot, T.S.) DaCapo Press, referred to by their real names. In Stanislaus Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Kiberd, D. (2009) Ulysses and Us, The Art of Everyday Living, The Dublin City Library on Pearse Street, Joyce’s book My Brother’s Keeper, James Faber and Faber, London, United Kingdom.