{"id":71,"date":"2016-09-06T03:37:59","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T03:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/?p=71"},"modified":"2016-09-06T03:39:11","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T03:39:11","slug":"beginning-and-endings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/uncategorized\/beginning-and-endings\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginning and Endings – Sources of Complications"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the very start of Ulysses<\/em>, it is immediately apparent that the death of Stephen Dedalus’ mother is an important topic of conversation. The controversy surrounding Stephen’s refusal to kneel at her deathbed is a point of contention that exists as a large source of speculation. It is this initial moment that first jumped out at me as an important example of the coexistence\u00a0of beginnings and endings in the book. More obviously, this death marks both the end of a life and a relationship (that of Stephen and his mother). However, it is also the beginning of a year (Gifford 15) during which Stephen can only wear black: “I can’t wear them if they are grey” (Joyce 80).\u00a0Beginning the novel with the ending of a human life seems to set a course for many moments and relationships that follow.<\/p>\n

Another key moment that emphasizes\u00a0a\u00a0concurrent example of beginnings and endings is when Stephen decides to tell his class a riddle. Firstly, the class has already “bundled their books away” and “buckled their satchels”–in essence–the class has ended<\/em>. But it is at this moment that he decides to\u00a0begin<\/em> telling a riddle. While this stands out as an interesting overlap of beginning and ending, it is the content of the riddle itself that complicates our understanding of the two concepts. Although given the riddle itself, the children of the class are still rendered speechless, one even responds “We give it up” (Joyce 22). Thus, Stephen gives them the answer, and naturally, the end to the riddle. As put by Gibson: “it is unanswerable unless the answer is already known” (33). Such a fact left me wondering, what is the significance of a riddle that emphasizes the importance of knowledge of the ending over the process of understanding?<\/p>\n

Lastly, a key moment to the study of beginnings is the discussion of birth and life in “Proteus.” In\u00a0speculating about the contents of a midwife’s bag, the possibility of a “misbirth with a trailing navelcord” (Joyce 32) is considered. \u00a0While this image (the navelcord)\u00a0is so key to the beginning\u00a0and manifestation of life, this image complicates such an understanding as it is now useless and attached to a lifeless being. This complicated imagery is only continued when Eve–“Spouse and helpmate of Adam Kadmon” (Joyce 32)– is considered as without this literal source of beginning that was so recently mentioned (a “navelcord”). Instead, she is said to have “Belly without blemish, bulging big, a taut vellum, no whiteheaped corn, orient and immortal, standing from everlasting to everlasting” (32). It is clearly emphasized that human sustenance was not a source of Eve’s beginning, however, it is also stated that hers is a “Womb of sin” (32). While this portion of the novel is clearly discussing human beginnings, both in present (for the novel) times and in religious imagery, it still leaves me with many questions. What purpose does the emphasis of both scientific and religious creation (beginning) serve? How does it relate to this rest of this episode and the novel overall?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the very start of Ulysses, it is immediately apparent that the death of Stephen Dedalus’ mother is an important topic of conversation. The controversy surrounding Stephen’s refusal to kneel at her deathbed is a point of contention that exists as a large source of speculation. It is this initial moment that first jumped out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}