Joyce/ Portrait - Discussion Thread

[Scheherazade]

*gasps*
There is the infamous six (thought 7 people voted for that book?)... Haven't seen eric for sometime. Maybe he is busy too...

PS: Shall we start a nomination thread for the next book?

[subterranean]

well maybe...i dont know whther it's too early or not..

[Scheherazade]

One week for nominations and two weeks for the voting---> December 15th! Voila!
I was thinking maybe we should choose a short book for the next month so we can finish it by January and go back to monthly cycle of book readings... What do you say?

[subterranean]

then from 16 dec to end o the month read? and dont forgot it's for january coz this one is for nov and dec

[Scheherazade]

Yeah, I was thinking we could read a short book from Dec 16-31 and choose another one for January...
Hopefully, we should be able to finish with the Artist by mid December??
*gets ambitious*

OK, I am showing my true colours. I am a geek (and proud of it, thank you! )

[subterranean]

Oh i can see that you are since the first days u got here


well ok..then. i mean there arent many who participate as well.....so dont really need to keep the artist too long

[Scheherazade]

Oh i can see that you are since the first days u got here

I will take that as a compliment!

[Jester]

move over another geek coming through... id be happy to start the next nomination round.... not me perosnally start it but lets see.... not likely to finish portrait byu the end of the month... hmm... what to do we kind of sidetracked didn't we?

[papayahed]

The following section is from Chapter 2 (towards the end of, just before the section Stephen goes to Cork with his father):


When he came out on the steps he saw his family waiting for' him at the first lamp. In a glance he noted that every figure of the group was familiar and ran down the steps angrily.
-- I have to leave a message down in George's Street, he said to his father quickly. I'll be home after you.

I have kept reading it more times than I am willing to admit here but somehow I cannot understand his unwillingness to avoid his family or the reason for his anger. Any suggestions?

I think he was angry because the girl he was with on the tram (the one that his friend alluded to being present at the play ) wasn't standing there with his family. "In a glance he noted that every figure of the group was familiar and ran down the steps angrily."

[Shore Dude]

I don't think the light had anything to do with the going to hell/heaven. He simply wants to finish his prayers and be in his bed by the time they turn the light off because he is afraid of the dark.

And yes, he was pretty young at the time, maybe elementary school age.

He was actually at University when this occurred. Which kind of takes the child-aspect of thought, where he was simply afraid of the dark, out of the interpretation.

Yes, he could have been regressing in some ways, but it seems more his intrepretation of "right" versus "wrong" -- using the idea that any person should have his or her prayers completed before lights out, because that was what was right or the appropriate thing to do at a religious school.

He had a lot of pressure, from his family, from the school, from social conformities -- to be a good practicing Catholic. It shows an example of the oppressive nature of his life. And the life Stephen wants to lead, a result of his unocontrollable emotions and feelings, is that of a cathartic, expressive nature. The Catholic faith was not permitted to be interpreted like other aspects of his life.

[Scheherazade]

He was not at university when this happened. It is in Chapter 1;it is when he was first sent to the boarding school.

[Shore Dude]

Check out the part where Stephen is interacting with the boys on the playground. Right after one of the kids asks Stephen about his name, he said something rude to Stephen.

Stephen then said to himself: "That was not a nice expression. His mother had told him not to speak with the rough boys in the college."

[Scheherazade]

The college mentioned, Clongowes Wood College, is a boarding school, which was also attended by Joyce himself when he was young.

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jjoyce.htm

It was not a Collge/University in today's sense. And the sentence you mention points out how young he was at the time as it is hard to imagine someone who attends university to think like that: "His mother had told him not to speak with the rough boys.."

[papayahed]

Speaking of the girl from the party that he rode the tram with, why wasn't her name given? Is it given later (I'm halfway through chap. 2, i think)?

[Scheherazade]

It is Emma Clery (E- C-) It is mentioned later on.