Thursday, 16 March 2017

The last reading stopped at: “imagine paying 5/- in the preserved seats for that to see him” (18.1290)

Catherine Meyer sends a painting with the following words:

In my pile of older, sometimes abandoned drafts, I found a watercolour sketch of one of my models which I could use to depict a court-scene from the 1933 trial, where Judge John M. Woolsey ruled that Joyce’s novel Ulysses was not obscene and could lawfully be imported into the United States. His word, which became famous, were:

“I am quite aware that owing to some of its scenes Ulysses is a rather strong draught to ask some sensitive, though normal, person to take. But my considered opinion, after long reflection, is that whilst in many places the effect of Ulysses on the reader undoubtedly is somewhat emetic, nowhere does it tend to be an aphrodisiac.” (Richard Ellmann, James Joyce, p. 667)

In my picture I turned “the somewhat emetic” into “tends to be aphrodisiac”.

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2017