JOYCE

LUCK CLUB

A LITTLE CLOUD:

Welcome Guidelines Listserv Reading List Discussion based on: "Dubliners" Read A Little Cloud Discussion topics: Introduction Comments Quoting Terence Brown Joyce & Yeats Doubting Thomas More thoughts A little cloud

Chandra muses:  "What is this little cloud?" Gayatri said: "Chandler floats on a little cloud, a temporary one, after his meeting with Gallaher, and he thinks he can also be a poet. This desire renewed in him after his meeting makes him react with disgust at his wife and child who he considers to be the obstacles to his creative impotency." So Gayatri's interpretation i(if I understand it correctly) at least for that evening little Tommy can float like a little cloud of happiness, till he is brought down to the earth by Gallaher's "vulgur" behaviour. Maureen said: "i had thought that the little cloud was a little black cloud always hanging over chandler's head, keeping him from getting where he wanted to go, keeping him in ireland, that cloudy, rainy, 'dull' little place. he is such a dull little man with little hands and even smaller courage, and i envisioned him before as a little frail squirmy guy who looks down on people he wishes to believe are below him on the rungs of life, whilst he dreams of grandeur he will never ever realize, because he lacks what it takes to be successful in any case... hence the little cloud always o'er head... i dunno..." So Maureen looks at the cloud as a cloud of unhappiness, as something which casts darkness over Tommy. I think (at least thought till I read all these interpretations!) that even the cloud in Tommy's life is little, like everything else he is associated with. A little cloud is sometimes nice to look at because of the contrast it shows against the blue sky, but it is not of much use, if you are looking for rain. A little cloud in the sky after many hot days teases the hopes but does not deliver what it promises. Is not capable of delivering. In the poetic world of Tommy, his poetic qualifications/capabilities are like the little cloud. It is great that he feels that he can write poetry, and thus distinguish himself from the rest of his world, but he cannot achieve much. And Terence Brown says in the notes appended to this story: "A little cloud is a possible allusion to the Biblical tale of Elijah and the prophets of Baal and more particularly to I Kings 18.44 " Now whatever is the tale of Elijah? Ask me to tell you the story of Ganesha, I can. But Elijah? Would love to hear the story from one of you!   Maureen comments: this , "A little cloud is sometimes nice to look at because of the contrast it shows against the blue sky, but it is not of much use,...." was an excellent interpretation of the title of this story, chandra, and i think spot-on! :-) yes, clearly joyce portrays chandler as a little man with little ideals and a weak little spine :) who we can guess will never amount to much, least of all the chronicler of the irish spirit through melancholic poetry!! that *was* yeats' gig, however. ;-) maureen. ...speaking of yeats, here is what i believe to be my favorite poem by him...i have read it at least a hundred times methinks and it still gives me goose bumps every time... from his collection entitled "the rose" published in 1893... "When You Are Old" WHEN you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face; And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead And hid his face amid a crowd of stars. END OF "A LITTLE CLOUD"!

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A Little Cloud

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