Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by grb8
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
2.0
I first read this book when I was 17 and I think I credited it with genius as a way to fill in the gaps I couldn’t comprehend.
In revisiting it I’m more turned off by Joyce’s pontificating in the second half of the novel. In the first half this works both as a study of the human mind and its unconscious formation and habit to draw connections as well as a thorough investigation of religious fervor. The entire third section is enough to inspire PTSD in any former Catholic and at times even enough to scare one into reconsideration.
But, Stephen’s (Joyce’s) salvation through art after he sheds his religiosity comes off as hollow as art becomes his new religion but not in the inspiring spiritual sense and more as a new battlefield for him to conquer through discipline and study. After his epiphany on the beach Stephen the character becomes immediately insufferable as a smarmy know it all with an inflated sense of self. He thinks he’s smart. He thinks he’s funny. He’s all too eager to show this to everyone.
The book redeems itself toward its end in Cranly and Stephen’s final conversation/meditation. But not enough to wash off the stench of the preceding 50 pages which sucked the artistry out of the first half and replaced it with noxious theorizing and pontificating as a show of intellectualism. Interested to read more Joyce in hopes he used this first run to get all of this insecurity out of his system or at least enough so that it isn’t such a barrier to a fully realized idea.
In revisiting it I’m more turned off by Joyce’s pontificating in the second half of the novel. In the first half this works both as a study of the human mind and its unconscious formation and habit to draw connections as well as a thorough investigation of religious fervor. The entire third section is enough to inspire PTSD in any former Catholic and at times even enough to scare one into reconsideration.
But, Stephen’s (Joyce’s) salvation through art after he sheds his religiosity comes off as hollow as art becomes his new religion but not in the inspiring spiritual sense and more as a new battlefield for him to conquer through discipline and study. After his epiphany on the beach Stephen the character becomes immediately insufferable as a smarmy know it all with an inflated sense of self. He thinks he’s smart. He thinks he’s funny. He’s all too eager to show this to everyone.
The book redeems itself toward its end in Cranly and Stephen’s final conversation/meditation. But not enough to wash off the stench of the preceding 50 pages which sucked the artistry out of the first half and replaced it with noxious theorizing and pontificating as a show of intellectualism. Interested to read more Joyce in hopes he used this first run to get all of this insecurity out of his system or at least enough so that it isn’t such a barrier to a fully realized idea.