Quinton Ruth (Sound)
Rationale
The object I chose to compare to James Joyce’s Ulysses is an audio recording of the text produced by Naxos and Motivation Sound Studios. These audio texts are compacted into four separate discs, narrated by Jim Norton and occasionally Marcella Riordan. Each disc ranged in length but contained a combined total of about 5 hours. I knew I wanted to take on an audio recording as soon as I witnessed a vinyl edition of the book. However, I could not get my hands on a copy of the vinyl, so I decided to try something a little more modern in the form of these CDs. I still wanted to use an audio variation, as I hoped to experience how characters interacted with one another and what tones of voices each character was given.
The main draw to these discs was the content on each one. It would have been absurd to assume that Naxos had fit a 732-page book, whose unabridged audio book on Kobo extends to 27 hours, onto a four-disc set. Even with cuts, how could they possibly provide all the information they needed? Especially when the four discs only spanned about 1-1.5 hours each. While I assumed that much of the text would have been removed, I was not expecting which parts were deemed unnecessary. Just looking at the first disc in the collection, only Telemachus remains of the first three chapters. These cuts greatly piqued my interest to see if their abridged version did, in fact, stay true to the narrative of the original text. The remainder of the first disc did remain primarily true to Calypso and the Lotus Eaters, but the second disk skips the funeral entirely.
The one thing I found frustrating with this abridgement was that there were no pauses or breaks between the chapters. Despite the table of contents in each disk's respective library, once one tale had ended, another took its place. Without breaks, it became hard to distinguish when a scene had changed or if I had simply missed an entire passage. By removing any pause or notation that a scene was changing, we also begin to lose the Greek-styled chapters, as all the chapters start to blend into one unless distinguished by the time of day.
I believe this rendition of Ulysses may actually help to entice readers to listen to the text. With many of the dry and challenging chapters removed, these discs create a manageable piece for those who may not be ready for the entire text. The use of only the two narrators added to the comedic parts of the texts, with Norton voicing even the non-anthropomorphic creatures such as the cat or when Riordan grunts as Molly is awakened by her husband. The two brighten and help bring to life the multitude of characters within the text. As such, my works throughout this project will argue that due to the editing and variation of this edition, Naxos has created an undemanding snapshot into the life of Mr. Bloom while still maintaining the allusion to the original Odyssey.
Lit Review
Within this story produced by Naxos, we see the entwinement of two different storytelling methods that allow for growth and expansion into the context of the story. However, creating such a feat is never without its difficulties. The editor of an abridged version must pick and choose the pieces that will complete the story, despite context being excluded. Because the essence of the story is not touched, abridged variations are ideal for younger learners to take on more challenging books or those wanting to save time when reading a large text. Then with the addition of audio, the producer must understand the context of the story or else their narrators could add different meanings to the words. Thanks to Naxos and Motivation, there is a compact audiobook version of Ulysses, this complicated story, that manages to refine and compile the piece’s essence.
While there appears to be little research on this particular audiobook, some reviews describe how Norton and Riordan have reinvented the text, allowing for a broader range of listeners. According to critic Wilma Longstreet, “the sense of incompleteness and the characteristic choppiness of shortened works have been overcome. The readings flow smoothly, and brief musical excerpts note significant omissions. All these readings are excellent” (1996). By shortening the length of the text, Naxos enabled Norton and Riordan to immerse themselves in the characters, creating smoother transitions and a better insight into each persona.
However, not all abridged versions are treated the same way. When looking at the original 1911 edition of Peter Pan, compared to the 2000 abridged version, Scarlet Pui Wah Lee and Anna Wing Bo Tso found that “while […]the abridged text makes reading easier for learners, [characters] have largely been flattened,” allowing the two to argue that “abridgement should be executed and refined not only for the advantage of lightening the linguistic burden but, more importantly, of nurturing the imagination in the young minds” (2014). This idea can also be applied to Ulysses as characters within a 700-page text would be heavily flattened alongside these changes; however, the imagination aspect of readers has not been diminished, thanks to the vocal work of Norton and Riordan. The two voice actors give life to each character, whether human or not, and I believe this gives listeners a better sense of the humour that Joyce intended.
Audiobooks are just one version of abridgements that must deal with Ulysses, as seen by the film adaptations produced by Joseph Strick (1967) and Sean Walsh (2003). In an article by Maximilian Feldner, Feldner states, “literature and film have different ways of achieving narrativity, as they use different semiotic systems… [which] means that a story is necessarily told differently in film than in fiction” (p.200).
Daniel Morse also emphasizes this idea of two different stories telling the same tale while comparing Ulysses and the impacts on readers with disabilities. Morse writes that as the text has been “dictated by Joyce to recording mediums that range from the phonograph to the human scribe, and enjoyed a century later in digital audio files, Ulysses has always already been an audiobook” (2018). By creating the transition into audio, Ulysses is told in its true form and able to be read by a wider variety of people. The explanation Morse gives seems to intertwine with an idea brought up by Matthew Rubery. He believes that “the recorded version of a printed text might be said to replace one kind of complexity with another. The challenge of aurally rendering visual effects has in some cases been responsible for generating its own formal innovations” (p.15) When creating an abridgement of a story, you create your own challenges over what is deemed essential or not.
Essay
Though an abridged audio version of Ulysses may seem like it remains in a constant struggle with itself, Naxos has managed to intertwine the two methods to create an undemanding glimpse of life through Mr. Bloom's eyes while still capturing the intent behind the original novel. Ulysses's abridged variation helps pinpoint the main points required for understanding the story. Though many parts of the story have been omitted, key features are still re-introduced throughout the story to give context to listeners. The benefits of this audiobook create a more accessible and realistic interpretation of June 16th through the eyes of Bloom, Molly and Stephen.
Despite being a book of ~700 pages, Joyce has lined his text with nuances, musical notations and subtle allusions to Greek tragedies, which can often make it difficult for the reader to follow along with the perspective of two characters. However, the audiobook includes music additions throughout, including the song by J.J. Molloy, "Love's Old Sweet Song," which was specifically recorded for this rendition. The musicality of the audiobook helps not only draw in listeners but to keep them entertained throughout.
While at first, the abridgment took away from the book's complexity, it ended up adding to the overview instead, as I was able to hone in on specific details that I had missed while following the written text. More difficult chapters, such as "Proteus," were removed, allowing the text's focus to remain on Bloom's perspective of the day. Then throughout the text as an audiobook, we can also gain a better sense of the inner monologue of characters through their stylization and intonation. This even applies to non-anthropomorphic characters seen when Bloom is responded to with “Mrkgnao” (Calypso) repeatedly by his cat, voiced by Norton.
The audio features of the book also allow the listener to understand situations better than just reading Bloom's actions off the page. As the text is seemingly written in the third person omniscient view, we get insights into some characters, but we have to accept what happens around the protagonists as fact. As such, during the conversation between Bloom and Molly, when she asks for the definition of “metempsychosis,” Bloom responds in a way that he knows is not helpful to molly. He even knows that this bugs her as he “glanc[es] askance at her mocking eye.” However, in the Naxos edition, we can hear Riordan put more emphasis on the word plain, which signifies her annoyance at Bloom. What he perceives as mocking is, in actuality, her telling him to stop bragging.
In my opinion, I agree with Daniel Morse that "Ulysses has always already been an audiobook" (2018) and listening to Jim Norton and Marcella Riordan narrate the events of the day have solidified this for me. As stated, the text has often been identified as being dry and challenging, but that could be because they need this inner perspective through audio to allow them to contextualize the book better. These narrations provided by Norton and Riordan allow for a smooth transition between pieces and ideas, all while incorporating the necessities set out by Joyce. Often this can lead to problems in formatting the audiobook.
Many chapters are broken up into different sections but do not contain any distinction between them. In one scene, the only notion of transition comes from the clock that strikes nine just before Bloom sets out on his day. During the "Penelope" chapter that brings to light the beautiful soliloquy by Molly, the Naxos abridged version has split it into nine parts. However, it utilizes a flawless transition that most listeners would only notice if looking at the audio file directly. Riordan breathes life into the character, not only by speaking her lines but also conversing in Spanish, "como esta usted muy bien gracias y usted," and singing the classic opera "presto non son piu forte." These small details can be easily missed while reading the main text. For these reasons, it becomes clear that the use of audio, has helped create a more welcoming environment, which allows for a broader audience for the text.
Lit Review Works Cited:
Feldner, Maximilian. “Bringing Bloom to the Screen: Challenges and Possibilities of Adapting James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses.’” AAA: Arbeiten Aus Anglistik Und Amerikanistik, vol. 40, no. 1/2, 2015, pp. 197–217. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24722046.
Lee, Scarlet Pui Wah, and Anna Wing Bo Tso. “Delimit Imagination? A Comparison of Unabridged and Abridged Versions of Peter Pan.” Interlitteraria, University of Tartu Press, 2014, http://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/IL/article/view/IL.2014.19.1.10.
Longstreet, Wilma. "Ulysses." Booklist, vol. 92, no. 14, 15 Mar. 1996, p. 1306. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A18161774/LitRC?u=uvictoria&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=e3edbaef.
Morse, Daniel Ryan. “Sounding Dismodernism in James Joyce’s Ulysses.” Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, vol. 12, no. 4, 2018, pp. 459–75, https://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2018.36.
Rubery, Matthew. Audiobooks, Literature, and Sound Studies, Routledge, New York, 2014, p. 15.
Walsh, Brandon. "The Joycean Record: Listening Patterns and Sound Coteries." James Joyce Quarterly, vol. 53 no. 3, 2016, p. 235-250. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/jjq.2018.0006.
Essay Works Cited:
Joyce, James. Ulysses (Abridged). Narrated by Jim Norton and Marcella Riordan., Naxos, 1994. Audiobook.
Joyce, James. Ulysses. E-book, ClassicBooks