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Hi CJ, Chandra, et al. CJ You mentioned that you find Joyce's willingness to place unsympathetic characters as the focus of a text, mars your enjoyment of the stories. I can't disagree that many of the central characters are unappealing _Two Gallants_ and _Counterparts_ came instantly to mind. But I still found the stories enjoyable to read. Few Characters are less appealing than Farrington. Yet the description of alcoholism in _Counterparts_ is, for me, fascinating and thought provoking: the inner psychology of the alcoholic, the social pressures, and the consequences for the alcoholics family, are all concisely considered. Thanks, bye the way, for pointing out the omitted consonants and how they don't relate an injury of the tongue...I guess if we were being kind to Joyce we could say that Kernan was more drunk than disabled by his injury...however it strikes me as one of those things that crop up to boggle the mind, when writers try to make things seem real. Like the way Frankenstein's monster is made out of many rather than one body. It highlights the way Joyce quotes rather than reports dialogue so as to encourage the reader to see Dubliners as a series of real events. We see this again in the Dead where Joyce does what the English teacher will tell their pupils never to do - render speech with all its um's, err's and meaningless repetition's. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you found the moments in which _Grace_ no longer seems real, an irksome failure on the authors part. This includes both the imperfect rendition of the injured Mr Kernan's speech, and the use of name-tags like Power and Cunningham. I wonder if this is because what pleasure you got from the text, came from its appearing real enough to bring to mind a personally significant event - the atmosphere of the church retreat (an institutionalised phoney optimism) reminding you of your father's experience as a sales man. I think the enjoyment to be got from these latter stories in Dubliners has been more because they make the cogs of your brain whirr, rather than because they provide any kind of "ticklish" pleasure (the sort of pleasure that I get from reading Kurt Vonnegut). I think Joyce is deliberately foregrounding the realm of ideas by titling a story _Grace_ by naming a character Power, or Cunningham. Joyce gives us an opportunity to engage the whole concept of grace. Grace as something that Christians are given to preserve for their soul's salvation, to grant to others (with those in power having special measure of it to grant), or to abandon for sin. In that realm of ideas, CJ, you don't see much to enjoy either. You're not far from seeing Joyce as expounding a kind of Nihilism. "painting a picture of a society that has no core of authenticity, no real heart and soul, according to him, and just "gets by" by sort of going through the motions of things, or worse." I recognise a lot of distaste for aspects of Dublin's society in the stories. But I wouldn't go as far as to say that Joyce implies inauthentic, shallow characters dominate Dublin. Mrs Mooney in _The Boarding House_ is unpretentiously true to her own ideals, and acts positively to make the best out the opportunities life offers her, and her daughter. Interestingly in _A painful Case_ we see how Duffy tries to act in an inauthentic manner, and maintain a shallow, un-engaged reaction to Mrs Sinico's death. He fails in this attempt and is soon shaken to his very core: "he began to doubt the reality of what memory had told him...He felt he was alone", this last sentence closes the story. Kiri |
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