On Ulysses' First Centenary

 

Per Marquard Otzen, date unknown, but closer to 2022 than 1922.

On the centennary of a book let us take after its author's example.

James Joyce in the sea of words. Tied up to experience freely, open to where art leads him. This is as close as we can get as readers to our first task: Let us in his image throw ourselves out into that very sea.

Reading a novel is a difficult and complex art Virginia Woolf laid out in her essay How Should One Read a Book? - with the emphasis on the question mark that there are no given answers. As readers we must be able to capture not only with great responsiveness, but with the daring of our imagination if we are to take it all in what the novelist - the great artist - gives us.

Do not dictate the author; become his accomplice. For one, we no longer remember the context for which Per Marquard Otzen originally drew Joyce above. Et alors. The drawing alone creates an uncontrollable urge to throw ourselves out without fear of drowning. At best and worst alike we risk coming back as new humans.

Let us therefore give the last word too to Virginia Woolf that when the Day of Judgment comes and the great conquerors and statesmen step forward to receive their reward - their laurels and their names engraved in eternal marble - "The Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy, when He sees us coming with our books under our arms:

- Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading ".

The cartoon shown is courtesy of Per Marquard Otzen and must not be reproduced without his permission.