Short Story Club: Araby by Joyce

[King Mob]

This second half of September we will be reading and discussing Araby by James Joyce.

[King Mob]

And let me start this thread by saying this is one of my all time favourite short stories and I'll be more than happy rereading it! Hope we get some nice discussion and analyzing here!!

[Rores28]

I enjoy the way Joyce casts human properties onto the buildings and the city as a whole, right away referring to the street as "blind." and then "The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces "

**Spoilers**

And of course protagonists epiphany is also realized in terms of the city. There was a little of this in The Sisters as well, and I imagine Joyce maintains this thread throughout in order maybe to highlight the collective conscious of the Dublin experience.

/Spoiler

Something interesting about reading Joyce is that he can create an ambiance without me being able to pinpoint exactly how he achieved it. There is something somber and dark that pervades the whole story, but its crafted in a subtle way so that I don't know that I'm being made to think it is somber and dark... if that makes sense.

"The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns. The cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed." - Really enjoyed this

[Rores28]

Anyone else finished this yet???

I've got an edition of Dubliners that has extremely exhaustive notes and I'm interested to see how other people interpreted some of the things this book points out.

Did anyone think anything for instance about the apple tree and the rusty bike pump outside of the priests house?

What did people make of the horse imagery?

As a side note did anyone read this story and not know what the hell had happened?

**Spoilers**
The first time that I read this, I really had no idea what was going on. Some of it was because I didn't realize exactly what Araby was and also I didn't completely realize the sort of expectations that attended a bazaar. When the character gets there and is disappointed by all of the tacky trinkets I wasn't even making the connection that they were tacky because that is just basically what I expect from a Bazaar.

[Rores28]

Anyone else read this one?

[Virgil]

I've read this before. I have to admit, I find this story extremely underwhelming. I see the symbols, I see the allegory. It's an ok story. A boy tries to set up a date to go to the bazaar with a girl and is disappointed. Like most things associated with James Joyce, the greatness is blown out of proportion. It's about a boy who gets disapppointed and if you want to stretch the allegory, disillusioned. It doesn't knock me off my feet.

[Rores28]

With all the praise surrounding Joyce, I was a little disappointed as well. I like the ambiance and the prose but overall I think the story itself was just good and not spectacular... but maybe I need to get the hollistic value by reading all of Dubliners.

Symbols, style, allegory, etc.. all add to a story but if they aren't anchored to a solid backbone it still can fall pretty flat

[dfloyd]

A very short story which can be read in a matter of minutes. If Joyce had been as direct in his novels, they might be more readable. My opinion - a good story, but Somerset Maugham wrote many better.

[Virgil]

With all the praise surrounding Joyce, I was a little disappointed as well. I like the ambiance and the prose but overall I think the story itself was just good and not spectacular... but maybe I need to get the hollistic value by reading all of Dubliners.

Symbols, style, allegory, etc.. all add to a story but if they aren't anchored to a solid backbone it still can fall pretty flat

I completely agree. Do read all of Dubliners. There are some good stories in there.

[Pensive]

Completed it in about ten to fifteen minutes.
Generally a good read that can serve to be a good reminiscence of one's own adolescence. We have all been through something of the similar sort at least once in our lifetime.

So what I like the best about the story is how easily one could relate to it, and the prose goes in a pretty good flow too.

[Virgil]

Completed it in about ten to fifteen minutes.
Generally a good read that can serve to be a good reminiscence of one's own adolescence. We have all been through something of the similar sort at least once in our lifetime.

So what I like the best about the story is how easily one could relate to it, and the prose goes in a pretty good flow too.

If I remember corectly the stories in Dubliners use the language of the central character, which in this case is adolescent boy.

[Pensive]

If I remember corectly the stories in Dubliners use the language of the central character, which in this case is adolescent boy.

whether boy or girl, we all share the period of adolescence I guess (those who manage living past it).