Dubliners

While reading James Joyce's "Dubliners," the short stories struck me as being very modern in the sense that many of these pieces thematically connect, using disillusionment and stagnation as an organizing principle. Many characters experience frustration with their present circumstances and wish to rail against them in some ways, but the setting of Dublin is so oppressive it is cloying, inescapable. "Counterparts" struck me as a story that most reflects this sensibility. Farrington works a dead-end job and feels a great amount of tension because he cannot change his circumstances. This manifests itself in his anger (which is an emotion shared by many of Joyce's central characters), which Farrington placates/drowns with alcohol, and comes to a boiling point where he utters a snappy quip about his boss's intelligence. However, his brief moment in the sun (which, in modern capitalist culture, we now all desire and can sympathize with on some basic level) is crushed, as he must apologize. There is no way for him to overcome the vast disparity in power and position. I feel Joyce's stories not only comment on Dublin, but also contain a universal element that resonates for anyone who has lived in a small town with narrow job/life prospects to look forward to.

Another thing I noticed prior to our class discussion (before I knew that the "epiphany" was something that Joyce pioneered) was the abrupt manner in which many of his short stories close. At the time, I did not realize these were "epiphanies" or a structure that deliberately critiqued the pat endings of romantic stories. I simply thought these types of endings were a comment on the uncertainty of our modern age - life does not have closure, and Joyce is following a realist tradition, which even shows in the way he describes things. When he describes any social gathering, his details are so exacting and specific. I wouldn't say his sonic imagery is the best I've ever read, but he describes music in that classical way, using the actual structures and language of music theory to illustrate the sound of character voices, and I find that interesting. I don't think a modern author could get away describing things in the way Joyce does, but his technique is very reflective of the time period he inhabits and what he wants to respond to in a specific historical moment.