Whose Words are they Anyway?
Post Seven
I’d like to credit the U22 podcast (see Post One) with a point that had not occurred to me. One of the most powerful passages in Ulysses is from Aeolus; the speech by John F Taylor as conveyed in our book by Professor McHugh. The group of journalists and hangers on are considering examples of great oratory or rhetoric and this is McHugh’s contender. There is little doubt that it is the winner.
The speech was given at a debate concerning the Irish literary revival and Taylor was speaking in favour of the promotion of the Irish language as against colonial English and I’m given to understand Joyce was in the audience. Whether he was is not crucial but its nice to think. Joyce for several reasons that become apparent in the book, was not generally in favour of any suppression of English. His self-centred reasoning was that English was the tool of his trade and he was not going to happily see it blunted.
The speech concerned the enslaved Israelites in biblical Egypt and the story of the Exodus, a theme that undercurrents the Aeolus episode and how it parallels the Irish experience under the British. What is said is not, for the point I wish to consider, so important. What is interesting is that it was quoted by Joyce if not word for word then apparently pretty close to it. Why would Joyce, such a beautiful writer, feel the need to use the words of another? He could have referred to it and made the point without quoting it so extensively; across some three pages in the Penguin 2000 edition. Its possible that the extract from Dan Dawson’s speech is also a direct quote, though that is not to flatter.
The point raised on the podcast was that whilst Joyce admired the eloquence and effectiveness of Taylor’s oratory he did not wish to write that way. When Bloom makes a cogent point it is subtle without bombast and almost without register (save when Bloom is off on his narcissistic reverie in Circe) . Likewise Stephen in that very episode with the understated power of the Parable of the Plums. Joyce feels no need to pass off another’s words as his own but also seems unfettered and free to use them for his own purpose and giving credit to the author. Another shorter example might be the Leo Taxil extract in Proteus. Joyce liked it, felt he could use it and so it was incorporated.
Another aspect of Taylor’s speech which is interesting to me at any rate, is the conclusion. The part about the light of inspiration shining in his countenance. Taylor is describing Moses descending Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. Bloom used very similar words as he headed towards the Turkish baths on Leinster Street (is it downhill? – that would be cool) but the gift he has for his people is a racing tip. One might see this as an oblique link between Stephen and Bloom; Stephen hears McHugh’s recitation and Bloom thinks similar words. Of course its also possible that Bloom like Joyce and McHugh was in the room at Trinity College on 24th October 1901 and heard Taylor for himself.
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