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Archive for the ‘Donal Donnelly’ Category

James Joyce–Ulysses 16 (1922) [audiobook 2013–Donal Donnelly and Miriam Healy-Louie]

Posted in Big Books, Donal Donnelly, Drinking, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), History, Irish Writer, James Joyce, Marriage Trouble, Miriam Healy-Louie, Prostitution, Sex on September 20, 2010| 1 Comment »

[LISTENED TO: Week of September 13, 2010] Ulysses

Episode 15 is a huge one, so I finished up that and 16 this week.

One thing I noted about Episode 15 is that in this section:

THE VOICE OF ALL THE DAMNED Htengier Tnetopinmo Dog Drol eht rot, Aiulella!
(From on high the voice of Adonai calls.)
ADONAI Dooooooooooog!
THE VOICE OF ALL THE BLESSED Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!
(From on high the voice of Adonai calls.)
ADONAI Goooooooooood!

the texts that are printed backwards are played as the forward recording flipped in reverse.  It was a cool effect.

I really didn’t enjoy Episode 16 while I was reading it.  I felt it was overly long and perhaps too focused on the mis-named sailor.  Plus, I was really looking forward to Episode 17 (which is my favorite).  But this time, with someone else reading the hard words, I was able to appreciate quite a lot more about this Episode.

Lar’s comments about Skin-the Goat also helped to give some background to this odd character.  And this leads me to a question that I sort of thought about while reading, but which comes up a lot more for me in this listen:  Joyce’s opinion of Ireland and of Irish independence.  The Citizen in the earlier episode was all about the Irish language and Gaelic sports.  And now in this Episode there is a lot of talk about Parnell returning.  Was this all included because it is what old men in Dublin talked in Dublin in 1904, or was it something that Joyce had a vested interest in (even while he was living in Paris where he wrote the book).  [I could investigate this, but that seems like an awful lot of work.] (more…)

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James Joyce–Ulysses Episodes 13-15 (1922) [audiobook 2013–Donal Donnelly and Miriam Healy-Louie]

Posted in Big Books, Donal Donnelly, Drinking, Dublin, Ireland, Huh?, Humiliation, Infinite Zombies, Irish Writer, James Joyce, Language, Prostitution, Sex, Unreliable narrator, Violence, Yuck! on September 13, 2010| 2 Comments »

[LISTENED TO: Week of September 6] Ulysses

This week I almost finished Episode 15.  I’ve just finished where Bella turns into Bello and things get really weird.  And I have to say that this Episode, for all of its craziness, is masterfully handled by Donal Donnelly.  I’ve already raved about his vocal stylings in the earlier chapters, dealing with so many different men.  But in this chapter he proves to be very dextrous at male and female voices, with a very delicate voice for some and an incredibly masculine woman’s voice for Bello (very well done indeed).  He has also proven himself to be a treat with sound effects (of which there are many here).  I won’t say for certain that it makes this insane Episode a lot clearer, but it certainly makes it easier to follow.

Back to Episode 13. The Gertie section is written in a style that is supposed to be romantic, very quick and flowy.  And Donal really nails it.   After the business of Episode 12, the lightness of 13 is wonderful, and it really brings to life the scene, especially when the rockets go off.

One thing I picked up this time is that Bloom assumes that he knows exactly when Blazes and Molly consummated their affair.  Even re-reading it now, it wasn’t quite as clear as the way he read it aloud:

Funny my watch stopped at half past four. Dust. Shark liver oil they use to clean could do it myself. Save. Was that just when he, she?
O, he did. Into her. She did. Done.
Ah!

So, yes I suppose it’s obvious, but sometimes reading along you just don’t pick things up.  And it took the way he read it for me to realize just what those short sentences meant. (more…)

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