On Joyce

I had a fascinating discussion with MD last night on James Joyce. “I discovered him at a time in my life when I was unsatisfied with my situation.” This line stuck with me, for obvious reasons. As things feel heavy, and Serbia seems trapped under a permanent cloud, foggy with the temperature always around -2, I am struggling to keep things in perspective.

“I understood him right away and he was illuminating for me. It lifted me out of my depression.” I resolved to give Joyce a shot. I haven’t read him since 1997, when we were assigned Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. I have little memory of the book, as I never could find a way into it. Thus my reading of it was superficial. But now, I am more experienced, and my motivations, needs and desires are a bit different.

So why not? Maybe it is time to try again?

According to MD, Joyce wrote because he had to, not because he wanted to publish. He wrote for himself and in order to make sense of the world around him. We should all have this freedom… The challenge now? To find a source for these book in Serbia!