James Joyce's 'Ulysses,' Winds of War, and Iconic Realism

Winds photo from Google Images

Inhaling and expelling of air exists in James Joyce's Ulysses chapter, Scylla and Charybdis, with the obnoxious expelling of high verbiage between Stephen Daedalus and the other scholars. Here, Joyce employs the use of linguistic empowerment of those who 'have' against those who 'have not'…or very little. Joyce, through Stephen, refers to those who do not understand the human spirit as the ‘vegetable world.’ He decides to stay firmly planted in the present, as Harry Blamires states, “through which all future plunges to the past” (Blamires 77). Here, Joyce reveals an interesting foreshadowing of worldly events with which only the current reader can relate, for within 25 years of his writing of Ulysses, the world will revisit Joyce’s own recent experience with WWI through WWII. 

How does this foreshadowing illustrate iconic realism? Joyce reveals highly intellectual ideas through intelligent characters who have issues communicating with those less intellectual, in other words, those who may view their world with a more common sense approach. Through this juxtaposition, Joyce actually pokes fun at the 'highly educated' as a group of snobs who have trouble relating to the majority of society. Ulysses was written between WWI and WWII, and much miscommunication was occurring in the higher echelons of governments worldwide. Joyce breathes his own consciousness through Bloom’s passages through time. He creates his personal ‘winds of war’ as he journeys through the dissonant aspects of his life between the dates, 1918-1920 and thus presents his own mental and emotional transformation. 

Blamires, Harry, The New Bloomsday Book: A Guide through Ulysses, Routledge, New York: 1997.

Happy Flag Day, 14th of June

Happy Flag Day! 

See the history of the United States flag in a quick video HERE.

Hans Christian Andersen's "The Ugly Duckling" and Iconic Realism

Photo of two swans, canoodling on East Lake, Danbury, CT

One of my favorite childhood tales is Hans Christian Andersen's "The Ugly Duckling." In this tale, he introduces the concept of tolerance by the placement of the animal kingdom's icon of grace, the swan, in a home of ducklings, known for awkwardness. The young swan is completely out of place in this environment. Here, Andersen uses iconic realism in this way: 

1. He illustrates through the placement of a swan in the midst of the duck family, that one may experience cruelty and humiliation even with those with whom one is familiar. 

2. However, when one looks inward and sees God's child returning the gaze...

3. One can realize individual truth, and therefore, discover possibilities associated with self growth, and make decisions based on talents, skills, knowledge, individual purpose, and God's unceasing, nurturing  Love.  

(Click HERE to view Danny Kaye singing about this tale.)

Emily Dickinson and Iconic Realism

Portrait of Emily Dickinson painted by William Rock

Chinese calligraphy painted by Huang Xiang 

Click HERE to go to their site. 

(Calligraphy is from Dickinson's poems: "The Soul selects Her Own Society,"

"My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close" and "Presentiment")


Calligraphy Translations:
 

The soul selects her own society,

Then shuts the door;

On her divine majority

Obtrude no more.
Unmoved, she notes the chariot's passing

At her low gate;

Unmoved,

an emperor kneeling

Upon her mat.
I've known her from an ample nation

Choose one;

Then close the valves of her attention

Like stone.
I never saw a Moor

My life closed twice before its close;

It yet remains to see

If immortality unveil

A third event to me,
So huge, so hopeless to conceive,

As these that twice befell.

Parting is all we know of heaven,

And all we need of hell.

Presentiment

is that long shadow on the lawn

Indicative that sun goes down

The notice to the startled grass

That darkness is about to pass

By displaying the countenance of this reclusive poet in the midst of so many cultural icons, these two artists, Huang Xiang and William Rock, illustrate iconic realism of Emily Dickinson's poetry. In this painting by William Rock and the calligraphic representation by Huang Xiang, the iconic presence of Emily Dickinson's simplicity that this honorable position illustrates is iconic realism. 

The poet and her own poetry surrounding her are iconic. Yet, one would not normally see a portrait of Emily Dickinson, surrounded by Chinese calligraphy. This combination illustrates the impact on human cognizance and the importance for humanity to look inward because through Dickinson's travail, enlightenment has been revealed to many. Moreover, the use of blue and purple bring to mind the spirituality that surrounds this poet's expression: in her eyes, around the 'upper floor' of her mind, and in her heart.

Sydney Owenson's National Tales: Politics and Iconic Realism

The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys by Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan)

Photo from Google Images

An amazing coincidence exists in the writings of Sydney Owenson and current political possibilities.  

From my book, pages 116-117: 

Owenson utilizes dialectal variations in her national tales, aligning her personal philosophy with both her British and Irish reading audiences. In her national tale, The O’Briens and the O’Flahertys, she incorporates French, Italian and Latin in the dialogue between aristocratic parties, such as Lady Knocklofty, creating a linguistic image of a tray of fondant-covered 'treats, sweet.' Yet, conversations with O’Brien entail elongated monologues that bear some resemblance to political pamphlets, as her character espouses his political determination: 

Now that the whole world is in movement, that nations are alive to their own interests, and reflect on their own affairs, the education, which the public gives to itself, absorbs and neutralizes the instruction prepared for it by governments and hierarchies, whenever the results of both do not coincide. Open or secret, the confederacy to govern by misleading must fail…To govern the age in which we live, ambitious spirits must place themselves at its head; and to control opinion, they must advance it. (The O’Briens and O’Flahertys, p. 233)

Here, she conveys the historicity of her own background as she converses with the audience through her characters’ intellectual dialogue, bringing her readers into the heated debates of issues, which deal primarily with the human struggle for order, dignity, and self-expression. 

Owenson echoes these thoughts in many of her works through the use of iconic realism, placing her characters in iconic roles, and creating situations in which they must interact contrary to the common perception of these individual roles. Often, her aristocratic characters contend with hardships felt by the common man and woman. Through utilizing coping strategies not normally associated with aristocrats, these characters then learn that their cultural differences can evolve into tolerance. Even their linguistic disparity develops into a semiotic inclusion that Owenson employs to bring about enlightened cultural interpretation and eventual coalescence.

To hear me read this, please click HERE.