Hoshizaki Brynn (Sound)

The Ulysses EP

Rationale

My object is a collection of songs that I call “The Ulysses EP”. These three songs allude to the book Ulysses in some way, are from multiple different time periods (between 1967 and 2011) and are from an array of artists and styles. “Flower of the Mountain” by Kate Bush is a reinterpretation of the last page of the book, where she took the direct quotes and turned it into song. This song was originally produced in 1991 but unfortunately had to be released under a different name with different lyrics as her rights to Joyce’s property were denied. Finally in 2011, after fighting for 20 years, Bush was allowed to re-release the song in the way it was originally written. “Breathe” by U2 is a song that takes after Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness style and shows an “emotional outburst” on Bloomsday, (a.k.a. June 16th). Finally, “ReJoyce” by Jefferson Airplane is a nonsensical song that changes time signatures almost as many times as Joyce changes writing styles while also taking jabs at our heroes Bloom and Daedalus.

I specifically chose songs rather than other novels or films as the adaptation form because I think it fits nicely with the modernist theme of making something new of the old; The Odyssey was likely an oral tradition, so by changing Ulysses into musical pieces we’ve gone back to the original form, but with a fun twist. In a way, it also becomes a bit of a central myth itself. It is a larger story, an epic of modern day, that has continued to inspire other artists for the last century of its existence. T.S. Eliot’s explanation in his essay “Ulysses: Order and Myth” the importance of Joyce’s work with myth:

In using the myth… Mr. Joyce is pursuing a method which others must pursue after him. They will not be imitators, any more than the scientist who uses the discoveries of an Einstein in pursuing his own, independent, further investigations. It is simply a way of controlling, of ordering, of giving a shape and a significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history. (3)

To expand on Eliot’s work, I’d argue that because it is a story that is still relevant, and has inspired other works of art just as The Odyssey has for the last millennium, it has become a myth itself, the proof being in these songs.

As for the songs themselves, they serve the book in interesting ways that are not always clear. Are they meant to be exclusive, aimed at a very niche group, or were they written to make the book more accessible to a wider audience? Or was it simply the artist paying homage to a great writer and piece of literature? Either way, they all expand the Ulysses universe in different ways, whether it's through arguing the book itself has a hidden melody, exaggerating the socio-political atmosphere, or reminding us we're supposed to enjoy the art we experience, it is the musicality and reinterpretation that helps us understand the book at a deeper level.

Literature Review

Due to the nature of my object and thesis, my research is primarily in the “musicality” department, mostly to argue for my reasoning behind choosing songs as objects. Patrick Reilly argues how referencing popular songs, or writing a song itself within a book, adds to the emotional experience of reading Ulysses. For example, Bloom in Sirens and Molly in Penelope listen to songs about absence and loneliness as they reminisce about their past and each other. At the same time, there are “hidden melodies” hidden in the episodes, written in the semantics, rhymes, metre, and stream-of-consciousness style, that “enlarge particular significant moments in the book”(Reilly, 85). These two things together are the emotional connection that help the reader feel what these characters feel through their own siren songs. Similarly, Therese W. Vilmar argues that melophrasis—the verbal representation of musical representation—creates a reading experience that suggests “the feeling of hearing” (Vilamr, 281-282); literature musicalized is a unique experience all on its own. For example, Wolf’s theory that Sirens is a “literary fugue” (as Joyce described it) is supported by the social structure of the episode in which “the treble are the sirens (Douce and Kennedy), the tenor Bloom, and the bass all the other men” (Vilmar, 290). All the onomatopoeia sounds such as the “clap”, “jingle”, and connecting of words (Douce and Kennedy’s rant where “greasy eye” eventually becomes “greasabloom”) add to the musicality, but it is the content and repetitive sounds that makes the song of Sirens connect throughout the episode.

Specifically for the song “Breathe”, an article written by Sean O’Hagen in The Guardian explains exactly what the album and song are supposed to represent. O’Hagen is a journalist who spent the better part of 18 months shadowing U2, and specifically Bono, during their time writing their album No Line on the Horizon. Bono explains how his dedicated time to activism forced him to spend a lot of time out in the exterior world and how writing music with his band was a more self-reflecting experience; “I wanted to get to an intimate and inner place. I want to get away from the subject and subject matter into pure exchange. Not even a conversation. Often, it’s just like grunts or outbursts… [starts singing Breathe]… this album is very much about the interior world” (Bono). This style of writing is very similar to Joyce’s, where much of the important parts surrounding the story are in between the lines. Bono, in many of his songs, describes “…a world gone wrong. You can feel it at the edges - the war in Iraq, the dark clouds on the horizon. But there is also a deliberate shutting out of that in order to focus on the more personal epiphanies” (Bono).

Finally, Susan V. Scaff argues that the socio-political sufferings of the time encouraged a “rediscovery of myth” (Scaff, 2). She explains the world is in need of a new myth, and that “if we care about myth enough, we will reconstitute it for the present day” (Scaff, 4) as a way to invoke hope and inspire humanity once again. Joyce reestablishes Odysseus as Bloom, and Daedalus as Telemachus, and tells a story in which neither hero really “complete their story” (Scaff, 2), questioning the prevalence of the original heroes. This again brings into question the validity and relevance of the original myths in modern day. Perhaps Joyce found it necessary to write a new myth, one that didn’t necessarily focus on the heroes of the story, but on the world around them.

Short Paper

This “new myth” and is investigated by modern artists who have many different interpretations on the book. Many songs since the release of Ulysses have been inspired by this work, including “Flower of the Mountain” by Kate Bush, “Breathe” by U2, and “ReJoyce” by Jefferson Airplane. Kate Bush’s song is an interpretation of Molly’s chapter “Penelope”. She wrote this song as an almost word-for-word recreation of the end of the book, directly quoting the last pages starting from the line “Yes I gave him the bit of seed cake out of my mouth…” (Joyce, 931). This song is a fantastic interpretation of Molly as both a sexual character and as a singer. The voice Kate Bush gives her is sensual, which is also matched with the tone of the song. It’s lyrical contents surround her relationship with Bloom, as it starts with church bells that represent their marriage, and uses the lines about his proposal. Considering Molly is a singer and performer, it is interesting Kate Bush turned her stream-of-consciousness dialogue into a melody, but is honest to the character. Bush’s ability to hear the melody Joyce wrote in this episode, interpret it and make it sound exactly as it should be is amazingly creative, and encourages the question whether the whole episode, or even the whole book, has a hidden melody that could be sung.

In U2’s song “Breathe”, the narrating voice or “character” makes many references to the day in Ulysses, though with a more relatable modern twist. The song seems to follow the basic plot line of the book, starting with a sales pitch of sorts on the 16th of June. The narrator “[comes] from a long line of travelling sales people on [their] mother’s side”, and doesn’t buy into it; this is most likely connecting Bloom’s job in sales to the Wandering Jew archetype. It references the episode “Circe” and the weird sleep-deprived state he’s going through, “running down the road like loose electricity/while the band in [their] head plays a strip tease”. It is also about being unafraid of the crap that exists in this world, “to find the courage/to walk out into the street” with a love for humanity even when it doesn’t love you back. Bono describes this song as being a glimpse into “an outburst” of this angry character he’s created. Maybe this is crazy, but perhaps the outburst of his song is not so much related to the “subject or subject matter” that Bono does write about, but just in the feeling, and the idea of hearing what an outburst feels like on the inside. Music has always been good at that, which is something Joyce was trying to achieve. I think this song helps us gravitate towards that, the feeling of hearing what this day felt like - a complete chaotic mess, with no real plot line and only at the conclusion being able to breathe. When one struggles to read what they are better at hearing, this song is a fast-track way to understanding the subtle anger about poverty, racism, false-advertising, and issues with colonialism in Ireland that are far more subtle in the book than in this song. If it’s hard to hear the outpouring tension and/or anger in the voices of Bloom or Stephen, then hear it from the character U2 has created that screams a similar message.

Finally, we’ve got “ReJoyce” by Jefferson Airplane. This song differs slightly from the others as it’s lyrics don’t seem to help the understanding of the book. When only looking at the lyrics, it’s really just a bunch of nonsense with the occasional relation to the book’s characters. The lines “Molly’s gone to Blazes/Boylan’s crotch amazes/any woman whose husband sleeps with his head/all buried down at the foot of his bed” has amazing enjambment which is very reminiscent of the book’s style, and makes great commentary on Boylan’s affair with Molly, but overall the song really has no organized story, if it’s even a story at all. However, this technique does highlight a different perspective by showing up in the music composition as well. In most pop or rock songs, bass lines stay consistent on a 4, 8, or 16 bar repeat; this song has a new baseline every new verse or chorus. It also changes time signature five times, bouncing between 4/4, 6/8, and a bar of 7/4 (according to the nerd on Ultimate Guitar who figured that one out somehow). The changing beat seems to relate to Joyce’s constantly changing style of writing, throwing us off the second we get used to it. However, this technique is genius as it keeps us genuinely listening rather than treating the song as white noise; it jumps around and demands attention even of the listeners who can’t name exactly what is going on. Another example of a song that does this is “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Perhaps what this song is saying about Ulysses is that sometimes the content or concept is impossible to understand. It is a book that requires much filtering and close, hard reading in order to catch all the Easter eggs and make sense of it. Perhaps, sometimes art is about trusting the artist, that they will find a way to get their consumers to absorb something, even if it’s subconsciously. Nonsense can be fun; this is the reminder to let go of the idea that everything must be understood, go with the flow, and enjoy the experience; as long as the book gets read or the song gets listen to, something will stick if we’re open to it (hehehe, see what I did there? Full circle baby!)

Works Cited:

Eliot, T.S. “Ulysses: Order and Myth” The Dial, 1923. https://www.frrobert.net/x/nnix.com/ulysses/pdf/ulysses_order_myth.pdf

Herren, Graley. “Mythic Quest in Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde.” Rock Music Studies, vol. 5 no. 2, 2018. pp.124-141. DOI: 10.1080/19401159.2018.1446246

Joyce, James. Ulysses. Penguin Modern Classics, 2000.

O’Hagen, Sean. “The Wanderers” The Guardian. 2009 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/feb/15/u2-no-line-on-the-horizon

Reilly, Patrick. "Love's Old Sweet Songs: How Music Scores Memory in the "Sirens" and "Penelope" Episodes in Ulysses." Joyce Studies Annual, 2019. pp. 74-91. muse.jhu.edu/article/746917

Scaff, Susan V. "The Meaning of Myth in Ulysses and The Magic Mountain." Comparative Literature and Culture, vol. 11 no. 2, 2009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1473

Vilmar, Therese W. “It’s in the Silence You Feel You Hear.” Orbis Litterarum, vol. 75 no. 6, 2020. pp.281-297. DOI: https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1111/oli.12276b

Contributor. ReJoyce Chords, Jefferson Airplane. Ultimate Guitar. https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/jefferson-airplane/rejoyce-chords-884843

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