Thursday, 7 April 2016

The reading stopped at, “The spry rattle had run on in the same vein of mimicry but for some !arum in the antechamber” (14.737)

The group seemed particularly amused by the bull story, Catherine tells us, maybe also because it never fails to trigger laughter and stories from Fritz Senn. The description of the bull with a full belly and soon to “rear up on his hind quarters to show their ladyships a mystery and roar and bellow out of him” (14.907) also always makes him think that Joyce must have seen the bull at the Bürkliplatz (near the lake in Zurich). This was enough to tickle Catherine Meyer's creative nerve. She sends the following:

On Sunday I wanted to pay the bull at Bürkliplatz a visit and fix the rearing creature on paper. Unfortunately, the place was full with the fun-fair and the only side from which I could focus on the bull and its master was from the right. I would have preferred drawing the bull from the front, showing its rearing up „on his hind quarters“ at its best. But there was no place to put myself with half an hour's peace. The monument is made out of shelly sandstone and was donated to the town by Arnold Geiser, Stadtbaumeister 1876-1907. Now there is a bit of Zürich bull  history on Thursday-Ulysses-blog.

© Catherine Meyer, Zürich 2016

Thursday, 31 March 2016

The reading stopped mid paragraph at, “but God give her soon issue” (14.515). 

Catherine Meyer sends her visual rendering. She notes the following:

As a contrast to my mental fatigue (french influence in the elizabethan time) I have decided to paint a realistic scene  which does not ask you too many questions.

In Chandra’s blog for the Tuesday Ulysses group, I found the roundup of who is present at the maternity hospital and, therefore, I have put them around a table, drinking and talking. Stephen is leaning against the window being struck, figuratively, by lightning.

I'm sending the watercolor and the sketch, which is to my mind always interesting to look at.

The blog for the Tuesday reading group can be found at:

http://tuesdaysulysses.blogspot.ch

© Catherine Meyer, Zürich 2016

© Catherine Meyer, Zürich 2016

Thursday, 24 March 2016

The reading has advanced to, “Ut novetur sexus omnis corporis mysterium till she was there unaided” (14.348) but will probably pick up again from the beginning of the paragraph, “To be short this passage was scarce by” (14.323).

Catherine Meyer sends this lovely drawing for the blog with a comment:

Poor bat – it is used for all kinds of mysterious phenomena, gloomy films and, last but not least, for the immaculate conception. In Stephen's long monologue he quotes  the church, the two philosphers Averroes and Moses Maimonides and reflects about how conception could have taken place without committing the great sin: 

“by wind of seeds of brightness or by potency of vampires mouth to mouth or, as Virgilius saith, by the influence of the occident or by the reek of moonflower or an she lie with a woman which her man has but lain with, effectu secuto, or peradventure in her bath according to the opinions of Averroes and Moses Maimonides” (14.243).

Thank you very much – I prefer the sin. But, in the drawing, there is a bat trying to kiss the bride. The little mark in its throat shows the cross signifying its inevitability. The girl is lying on a virginally white cushion covered with a blue garment, which stands for the Virgin Mary.

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016

Note for Thursday, 24 March 2016

Next Thursday, 24 March, the group is meeting as usual, regardless of the public holiday.

Since there was no reading last week, Catherine sends a painting inspired by a previous passage from “Oxen of the Sun” “to fill the gap”. Remembering a reference to “the spaceless labyrinth of the human conscience and the physical space of the womb”, she adds that:

“Beside the difficulties of the language,  the chapter will treat anothere big purpose in life, which is birth. This is the link to the picture.”

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016

Thursday, 10 March 2016

The reading of episode 14 has started and got as far as: “and of the scales of these serpents they brew out a brewage like to mead” (14.159).

Note that next Thursday, 17 March, due to Fritz Senn's absence the group will not be reading but watching a film.

Catherine Meyer sends this painting for the blog with a note on the process of its making:

not understanding one thing might be a good requirement to try to paint the first few pages of “oxen of the sun”.

With no clear idea in mind I worked my way through dark colours to very shiny ones, wiped and moped till the paper got pulled to pieces, and I was not happy at all with the result.

Not understanding Joyce I looked for some explanation in Frank Budgen's James Joyce and the Making of Ulysses. I wrote down two of his comments and, with this help, I fought my way through to the attached painting.

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016

Thursday, 3 March 2016

The group has now finished “Nausicaa”, episode 13.

Catherine Meyer – artist, regular attender of the reading groups and by now regular co-blogger – sends this painting. It emerged from the reading and she explains:

My challenge was to summarize the chapter in one picture. I patterned the picture with a sense of the chapter's closing lines:

Mr Bloom with open mouth, his left boot sanded sideways, leaned, breathed. Just for a few

Cuckoo

Cuckoo

Cuckoo

The clock on the mantelpiece in the priest’s house cooed

Cuckoo

Cuckoo

Cuckoo

Because it was a little canarybird bird that came out of its little house to tell the time and Gerty Mac Dowell noticed at once that that foreign gentleman that was sitting on the rocks looking was

Cuckoo

Cuckoo

Cuckoo

I love the idea that the cuckoo might be  the holy ghost, hidden in the dark of its little house and, knowing and seeing everything, tries to coo its revelations, repeating them every hour – and nobody will ever understand it.

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016

Tuesday, 25 February 2016

The reading stopped at, “Not my fault, old cockalorum” (13.1165).  

Catherine Meyer sends in her own rendering in colour and comments: 

Soon after we startet the reading, we reached the passage about scents: “Wait. Hm. Hm. Yes. That's her perfume” (13.1007). „hm, hm“, I said to myself, that could be a painting theme. And a few lines later I knew I would try to paint Molly's seductive scent. Joyce describes that fragrance so distinctively that all I had to do was paint what we'd read – the scent: “It's like a fine fine veil or web they have all over the skin, fine like what do you call it gossamer, and they're always spinning it out of them, fine as anything, like rainbow colours without knowing it” (13.1019). 

And then: “Know her smell in a thousand. Bathwater too. Reminds me of strawberries and cream. Wonder where it is really. There or the armpits or under the neck” (13.1024). I was smiling at myself when I had the idea of painting a strawberry bosom and a milk creamy arm. As Fritz said, “gossamer” can mean both 'very fine' and it can refer to Indian summer (“Altweibersommer”). So the colours are held in autumn tones.

Sending it in for this blog, Catherine jokingly refers to her painting  as „here comes everybody’s armpits“. We are enthralled by them. Thank you, Catherine!

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016

Thursday, 18 February 2016

The reading stopped at, “That young doctor O'Hare I noticed her brushing his coat” (13.962) but will probably resume from the beginning of the paragraph with, “Place made me think of that I suppose” (13.949), right after the two-liner:

Her maiden name was Jemina Brown

And she lived with her mother in lrishtown. 

Catherine writes:

as an echo to bloom's long inner monologue I have drawn the working-progress of his thoughts, not linear but layered and, because I love the idea that our thinking can be colourful, I made it in strong crayon strokes. 

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016

Thursday, 11 February 2016

The reading will resume at: “Tight boots? No. She's lame! O!“ (13.771).

Artist Catherine Meyer writes:

after a few pages in nausicaa i thought about a „because“ picture or an exclamation sketch  from fritz like „isnt’t that beautiful“.

But now that we have been listening to this soft and convincing voice from the tape, which whispered ohhhhs and ohms, again i can’t ignore the climax oft he chapter. So there you go – bloom is

„upside down you’re turning me“ reffering to the song form diana ross.

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016

Thursday, 4 February 2016

The reading stopped at: “That would have been a very charming exposé for a gentleman like that to witness” (13.488).

Artist and member of the reading group Catherine Meyer writes:

My issue was the summer evening that had begun to fold the world in its  mysterious embrace linked with the litany of our holy virgin, the “stranger” who looked towards the girls and Gerty mcDowell who wanted the man to fall in love with her. I made two watercolours and I don’t know which one we should take for the blog. Could you two choose?

Of course I couldn't.

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016

Thursday, 28 January 2016

The reading progressed to: “Give it to him too on the same place as quick as I'd look at him” (13.269). 

These lines have been inspiration for Catherine Meyer:

“The waxen pallor of her face was almost spiritual in its ivorylike purity though her rosebud mouth was a genuine Cupid's bow, Greekly perfect” (13.86-89). 

She comments:

blue is the colour of the virgin mary and the rosebud mouth, a genuine cupid’s bow, refers to the god of physical love – usually you can’t have both – although contradictions are the spice of life.

« my » gerty mc dowell is imprisoned in her daydreams and sad, because any kinds of expectations usually don’t come true.

Her rendering in colour:

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016

Thursday, 21 January 2016

The group has now finished "Cyclops" and read the first paragraph of episode 13 ("Nausicaa"), stopping at "Mary, star of the sea" (13.8).

Catherine Meyer sends a watercolour and says:

During the reading I was drawing a little sketch to the idea of a wheel of nymphs surrounding the ship. I like the idea of the wheelwright fashioning the heart of his wheel with spokes (rays) "whereof each one is sister to another" and then "he binds them all with an outer ring and giveth speed to the feet of men" (these lines from "Cyclops are at 12.1777-79).

Enjoy this work that has "a touche of symbolism", as Catherine says, "but enough space for imagination and a lot of dynamic speed to race away over the sea to an aim faraway".

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016

Thursday, 14 January 2016

The reading of "Cyclops" (episode 12) has progressed to: "Off with you, says Martin to the harvey" (12.1771).

Thursday, 7 January 2016

The reading has resumed and reached the following line of Cyclops, episode 12: "So the citizen takes up one of his paraphernalia papers and he starts reading out:" (12.1513).

Artist and reader Catherine Meyer is back, too, this time tickled by the line "All wind and piss like a tanyard cat" (12.1311). Enjoy the tankard cat:

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016

Thanks, Catherine!

Thursday, 17 December 2015

The group will resume the reading on Thursday, 7 January 2016 from where it left off: " — As treeless as Portugal" (12.1258)

Thursday, 10 December 2015

The reading has progressed to: "A nobody, two pair back and passages, at seven shillings a week, and he covered with all kinds of breastplates bidding defiance to the world." (12.1070)

Here is Catherine Meyer's rendering of the Irish growling tower encountered in a scene from last week's reading:

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2015

Thursday, 26 November 2015

The reading stopped at "The friends we love are by our side and the foes we hate before us" (12.524).

A ghost made an appearance in this chapter ("In the darkness spirit hands were felt to flutter … " (12.338). Dignam came back -- which prompted Catherine Meyer to try to capture some of the scene visually. Note the distinctive feature of her mirror writing (Catherine writes with both hands at the same time, in two directions, and in mirror). 

Of the drawing she says: 

"Although ghosts are not paintable because they are invisible I painted a stereotyped ghost in the return room (Fritz Senn likes this word, because in French "ce sont les revenants"). The immortal soul is at the right hand side of the picture under the bed waiting to be soled. (The boot has to be soled.)"

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2015

Thursday, 19 November 2015

The reading of a new chapter, (no. 12: "Cyclops"), stopped at: "Greek street with his cod’s eye counting up all the guts oft he fish" (12.214).

Catherine Meyer, local artist and long-standing member of the reading groups, has allowed us to post here her rendering of a particular favourite of this week's reading: "He drink me my teas. He eat me my sugars. Because he no pay me my moneys" (12.31-32). (She explains about the picture that "there is no spoon there and the hands are under the table – because he can no pay the moneys".) We would like to thank her.

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2015

Thursday, 12 November 2015

The reading stopped not long from the end of the chapter at, "Wallop. Seems to be what you call yashmak or I mean kismet. Fate" (11.1233).

Catherine Meyer (local artist and long-standing member of the reading groups) has, in her own words, "tried to paraphrase this lovely passage about music". We thank her for permission to reproduce her visual interpretation here:

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2015

James Joyce Pocket Calendar 2016

The Joyce Pocket Calendars for 2016 are out. The Calendar records as many datable events from Ulysses, Portrait, Dubliners and Exiles as we could find. 

We have a limited batch of 50 and (thanks to a sponsor we found for this lot) are able to make them available for CHF 25 a piece (or $ 25 / EUR 23 / £ 17), plus postage. Orders can be placed through Fritz Senn (fritzsenn@me.com) or directly with Bill Brockman (uxb5@psu.edu) or Sabrina Alonso (sabrina.alonso@bluewin.ch). 

Thursday, 5 November 2015

The last reading stopped at line 11.996 on:

— What key? Six sharps?
— F sharp major, Ben Dollard said.

Thursday, 29 October 2015

The group has read as far as, "too slow for boylan, blazes boylan, impatience boylan, joggled the mare" (11.766).

Our faithful updater (and artist), Catherine Meyer, notes in her email to this blog's host:

Wieder einmal hatten wir als thema die sprache, die nur hintereinander erzählen kann, obwohl dies und das gleichzeitig geschieht.

Ich habe zu diesem thema eine kleine tuschzeichnung gemacht. Während man schläft und träumt, kommen die bilder haufenweise miteinander und durcheinander und gleichzeitig hat man angstschweiss, wenn knurrend der tiger einen frisst. (Bei mir so der fall.) Das mädchen auf der zeichnung hat aber süssere träume. Träume dürfen wild durcheinandergewürfelt sein, während ein text doch mit einem wort nach dem anderen gefüllt sein sollte. mit ausnahme von finnegans wake (der auch irgendwie durchstrukturiert ist).

We have the artist's permission to reproduce the drawing here.

Catherine Meyer © Zürich, 2015

Thursday, 22 October 2015

The reading stopped at: "Amoroso ma non troppo. Let me there" (11.541)

Thursday, 15 October 2015

The group has started episode 12, also referred to as "Sirens" and reached line 11.279 in the Galber edition:

– The tuner was in today, miss Douce replied, tuning it for the smoking concert and I never heard such an exquisite player.
– Is that a fact?

Thursday, 1 October 2015

Our trusted co-reader Andreas Gross reports the group's progress to: "the threemasted schooner Rosevean from Bridgwater with bricks" (10.1099).

Thursday, 24 September 2015

The reading stopped at: "You say right, sir. A Monday morning, twas so, indeed" (10.829).

Thursday, 17 September 2015

The reading of the chapter Wandering Rocks paused at: "He shut his eyes thight in delight, his body shrinking, and blew a sweet chirp from his lips" (10.565).

Catherine, who keeps us posted about the group's progress, comments: 

Do you like to wander around? It turns your head in a meditative mood and sometimes "God" sends you some creative ideas. Who knows if something similar may be happening in this episode when Father Conmee thinks "of that tyrannous incontinence, needed however for men’s race on earth, and of the ways of God which were not our ways" (10.171). Is he including himself in "our ways"? It may be an honest thing to do…

Thursday, 10 September 2015

Catherine Meyer, our faithful reporter on the group's progress, adds in her note (in German):

"im wandering rocks irren wir durch zeit und raum, vorwärts und rückwärts und ich sehe so, dass die gedanken wirklich gleichzeitig fast überall sein können, wohingegen die physische last (körper) immer schön alles nacheinander abtrippeln muss. Also ist sprache wie körper. Eines nach dem anderen. Wohingegen die einzelnen sinne im körper ja sehr wohl mehrere sachen miteinander verbinden können. Also wir sind bei den dedalus kindern zu hause."

The reading will thus proceed from: "Katey and Boody Dedalus shoved in the door of the closesteaming kitchen" (10.258).

Thursday, 3 September 2015

The reading group has now started episode 10, also referred to as "Wandering Rocks", and reached line 39 with "O, lest he forget. That letter to father provincial" (10.39).

Thursday, 27 August 2015

The reading stopped at: "Unwed, unfancied, ware of wiles, they fingerponder nightly each his variorum edition oft he taming oft he shrew." (9.1062)

Thursday, 20 August 2015

The reading stopped at:

          What of all the will to do? 
          It has vanished long ago ...

It will resume from (9.800):

- She lies laid out in stark stiffness in that second-best bed … 

Thursday, 13 August 2015

The reading stopped at: "O, you peerless mummer! 0, you priestified Kinchite!" (9.555) 

Thursday, 30 July 2015

Note there will be no reading of Ulysses during the first week of August (due to the Workshop held at the Foundation): no reading on Thursday, 6 August 2015

The group stopped at: 
– Mr Dedalus, your views are most illuminating. (9.328)

Thursday, 23 July 2015

Note: There will be no reading of Ulysses during the first week of August (due to the Workshop held at the Foundation) - no reading on Thursday, 6 August 2015


The group has started the library chapter (episode 9, also referred to as "Scylla and Charybdis") and has read to: "Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past" (9.89).

Thursday, 16 July 2015

The reading stopped at: "The blind stripling tapped the curbstone and went on his way, drawing his cane back, feeling again" (8.1105). 

Thursday, 9 July 2015

The readers have progressed to:

     His midriff yearned then upward, sank within him, yearned more longly, longingly.
     Wine. 

(8.794)

Thursday, 2 July 2015

The reading group was halted at: "Stop. Stop. If it was it was. Must." (8.592).

Thursday, 25 June 2015

The Thursday group has stopped at: "Barmaids too. Tobaccoshopgirls." (8.456)

Thursday, 18 June 2015

The group has read to "Could see her in the bedroom from the hearth unclamping the busk of her stays: white" (8.197).

Thursday, 12 June 2015

The reading did not take place on 12 June.

Thursday, 4 June 2015

The Thursday group has now reached the end of episode 7 (Aeolus).

Thursday, 28 May 2015

The group has reached "– Muchibus thankibus" (7.780), ending the section headed "A POLISHED PERIOD". 

The next title is "A MAN OF HIGH MORALE".
     

Thursday, 21 May 2015

The group has now reached line 7.511:

– How do you do? the editor said, holding out a hand. Come in. Your governor is just gone.

The next headline is made up of three question marks: ? ? ? 

Thursday, 14 May 2015

The reading has now advanced to "Our lovely land" (just before the heading "SHORT BUT TO THE POINT") in episode 7, also referred to as "Aeolus" (7.271).

Thursday, 7 May 2015

The group has now gone through "Hades" (episode 6), ending on the words "How grand we are this morning".

A note re 14 May (Ascension Day): There will be a reading. Even though almost everything will remain closed on Ascension Day, the group assembles as usual.

Thursday, 30 April 2015

The group stopped at: "New lease of life" (6.796).

Thursday, 23 April 2015

The group has read to 6.573 (chapter 6, line 573, according to  the Gabler edition):

— Many a good man's fault, Mr Dedalus said with a sigh. 

Thursday, 16 April 2015

Got to: "Foundation stone for Parnell. Breakdown. Heart." (6.320)

Thursday, 9 April 2015

Into "Hades" now (episode 6) and stopping at "No, Mr Bloom said. He was alone" (6.50)
 

Thursday, 2 April 2015

Stopping at an ironically fitting passage before Easter, the group has made it to I.N.R.I. or: "Iron nails ran in" (5.374).