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Coming, though maybe not exactly soon. Maybe by summer. All the very best. Jeff

Ah yes, books, books, books. But referring to books, what could the young James Joyce be meaning when he has his alter ego Stephen in Ulysses think "coffined words?" One of the biggest reasons I contend that almost no one grasps what is actually taking place in the book is the fact that in Stephen Dedalus Joyce is really telling the world how he became the artist that he did. And when I say Artist I put him on a much profounder level than most of the so-called 'artists' of today. I believe that with this notion that Joyce is in reality sharing his own development, his own death and resurrection (just like Proust was in his mighty tome) into fully fledged Shaman/Buddha/Genuine Artist every single word and thought Stephen utters is absolutely crucial to understanding both what is going on in the novel but more importantly what we today are struggling to come to grips with. "Coffined words" are the dead remains of what once lived, just like seashells on a seashore. Unless we ourselves succeed in plumbing to the depths of life's essence and divine mystery within ourselves those words and those books remain up on a pedestal or shelf, or in the sterile confines of academia, to be 'tackled' by educated blowhards and parroted back for grades. (Haines the academic used that term 'tackled' when referring to his conversation with Stephen in the opening chapter. He was utterly incapable of grasping on an experiential level what the young Joyce was trying to say.) Good luck with all the books, books and more books, Linda.

Completely agree. Libraries have been hollowed out. The most profound books are largely unread and the budget constrained libraries of today haven't room for unread books. I still love perusing good used books stores, though even they are missing important works from the very top shelves of what I like to call 'The Pyramidal Bookshelf Of Life.' What do I mean by that? Well, occupying the top shelves on the PBOL are the wisest, most comprehensive, Life encompassing volumes. Krishnamurti is there, but each century might add one or two books, if that, to the shelf, and maybe just maybe create a tiny new shelf above the previous top. Below the top shelves are the larger and larger lower shelves of wannabes and derivatives. Here's the tricky thing today. As we as individuals seek to ascend the shelves, grow in wisdom, we sometimes peer upwards at a volume on the topmost shelves, say James Joyce's Ulysses. But seeing it is at that stage beyond the range of our experience and therefore comprehension, who do we consult? Academics and teachers? But what if they inhabit lower shelves? What if they have not undergone the personal experiences of the journey, difficult as they often are. How can they grasp what is beyond them? That was the point I was trying to make when I made my video James Joyce's Ulysses and the Failure of Our Academic System. That's where we're at today, and that is the point of many of my videos and the blog. Trust yourself, Connie. That is the ultimate measure. As Walt Whitman preached, "Take things from all sides and then filter them from yourself." All the very best, Jeff

Thanks for that, Connie. Episode one, gawd that was a while ago, and cringeworthy! The last one I did was about three or four years ago, titled James Joyce's Ulysses, Wake Up You Blockheads. By then I was tired of making them. Lately I've been moving toward making them again. First comes posting on my blog, at omphaloscafe.com, then the videos. I wish you the best and greatly appreciate your words, Jeff

You're right. Pure mistake on my part. Sometimes I conflate Joyce's June 16th with D-Day's June 6th.

@@theomphaloscafe3501 Not to mention Trump's birthday who has nothing to do with intellectual or lofty discussions. I found it distracting when the date was not what I expected.

Ah yes JVD, distractions. There are so many distractions in our world today, to the point where it is very hard to distinguish the proverbial wheat from the chaff. Many commenters have taken me to task for minor errors, oversights, or mispronunciations. 'Details' I say to myself, but what about the underlying patterns I am aiming at? Do they come across? Because for me and what goes on at the Omphalos Cafe, here and on my blog at Omphaloscafe.com, Life is not about ideas, which of course we are all taught a great deal about from very early on in our live's, it is about patterns. Ideas are static and dead, whereas patterns attempt to capture the wonder and mystery of the Flow that is Life. For instance, has anybody in academia ever drawn together the pattern of death and resurrection at the heart of both Ulysses and say Moby Dick? The same pattern that Miller writes of in his Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, how he (the gestating artist) died to the values and customs of the world into which he was born (New York) and ended up reborn into a new awareness and relationship with Life? Not that I am aware of, and yet could that pattern possibly have some relevance or even importance to what we face today, with our ageing civilization and its increasingly rigid and hard line ways and beliefs? Then if we look at the decaying Roman Empire, also increasingly rigid, static, corrupt, can the message of Christianity, a new take on the ancient death and resurrection theme, resonate and reverberate with the above works and the spirit of them? Might they represent variations on a similar pattern? Anyway, I walk the streets of Montreal noting instances of this sort of thing, a breaking from the old time ways, magnificent churches everywhere but scarcely attended, and young people everywhere searching for a new relationship with themselves and society at large. Everything is being questioned; where are the answers to be found? So that's it JVD. It's not easy today to talk, or perhaps sing, about these things. People seem to want the comfort and security of static ideas, for they are easier to hold on to in our heads. The young pile into schools to be fed a steady diet of ideas and concepts, but do they truly capture what is going on? Are they enough, or is something profound left out of all the equations? Something vital and dynamic? Life? It is stuff such as this which I strive to address in my videos, such as 'James Joyce's Ulysses And The Failure Of Our Academic System', 'James Joyce's Ulysses, Awakening To The Wonder', and 'James Joyce's Ulysses: Wake Up You Blockheads.' All the very best, Jeff

Ah yes, Dedalus Day! A day to celebrate a rare breed, those who would strive to restore the balance we've all lost, those who would go on the Hero's Journey (that's from Joseph Campbell) and rediscover the essence of Life lost in the tangle and confusion of ongoing history (that's actually what Stephen means when he says 'history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake), our individual relationship to Life, to one another (in community), and the community as a whole's (now comprising the entire planet) essential relationship with the Life. The celebrant of Dedalus Day seeks to transcend his parochial upbringing and the conditioning involved in order to tap into the universal flow that is Life and then share that awakened wisdom with all his brothers and sisters. There is a oneness to ALL Life which the celebrant of Dedalus Day is seeking out, and it is only in the awareness of that Oneness that our collective salvation resides. Happy Dedalus Day, Kristine, Jeff

Not sure where I'll be, but probably either Montreal or Toronto, Canada.

@@theomphaloscafe3501 I will be travling with my fellow Joycian Rinzai peer through Toronto on June 9th and we could consider it an honor to so much as tip our hats to you or supply you lunch should it fit in your schedule.

Not exactly sure what you are talking about. My name is Jeff, I live in Canada, and the videos are an outgrowth of a blog at omphaloscafe.com I worked on for ten years or so. Grown bored with blogging too. Moving to Montreal, Canada in a few months and plan to move forward, perhaps with blog and videos, and maybe even the writing of a book too. Thanks for the comments Anatoly, wish you the best, Jeff

My last video, sort of summing up my thoughts on the book, was titled: James Joyce's Ulysses: Wake Up You Blockheads. I also am rather proud, though it's a bit wordy, of: James Joyce's Ulysses and the Failure of our Educational System.

@@theomphaloscafe3501 мне близка идея Кэмпбелла о необходимости новых мифов в современном мире

@@anatolyyurkin6635 Melville in Moby Dick tells the story of a man who leaves his community, convention, the system of values he was born into, his God so to speak, and goes on a voyage. He undergoes a symbolic death and resurrection, a dying to the old way and rebirth into a new (his narrator is rescued as the last survivor of the Pequod floating on a coffin.) Dostoyevski's works are shot through with that theme, after he too returns as if reborn from his exile in the House Of The Dead, and doesn't Raskolnikov accept his guilt and go off to a death like imprisonment in order to be reborn? In The Brothers Karamazov The Grand Inquisitor, the custodian of the established religion tries and condemns the Christ for attempting to spread the word of a new God, and one of the brothers wrestles over the knowledge that 'if there is no God then all is permitted,' meaning therefore if the old one has died we need discover a new one. Tolstoi has a book titled 'Resurrection,' and spent his whole life struggling towards a new relationship with God, always pulling away from his wife who would drag him back to convention and Orthodox Christianity. Nietzsche pronounced the death of God and moved towards a 'transvaluation of all values,' (again a new conception of God and Life). And in Ulysses Joyce is telling the story of his own (in Stephen Dedalus) death and resurrection, his death to Dublin, to Ireland, to western civilization in fact, and rebirth into world citizenship as shaman/artist and in a way new priest in the Church of Life! He's saying this is the road I took. Just like Henry Miller recounted his own transformation from New Yorker to artist in his Rosy Crucifixion trilogy. All the same tale, all a striving towards a new myth, a new relationship with ourselves and all life. And yes, Campbell describes that journey in The Hero With A Thousand Faces, and then writes the most profound comprehensive history of the human race I've ever come across in his four volume Masks of God series. The masks change, and must change, as we and our environment changes in order for us to remain balanced and whole. And it is the artists who must lead the way.

@@theomphaloscafe3501 мой роман фэнтази Пророк, изданный в 1997 году, написано по Кэмпбелле и мономифу. Хорошо бы роман перевести на английский язык как гимн Кэмпбеллу и его концепции!

I would say only an outsider would be capable of grasping Ulysses and Joyce, as Joyce/Stephen became an outsider as he opened up to the mystery of Life and strove to share it with others. In Ulysses Stephen has become the arch outsider, but he meets another outsider in Bloom and is accepted by him.

@@theomphaloscafe3501 почему нет обновлений?

@@anatolyyurkin6635 Thanks for messages Anatoly. Frankly, I grew bored of making videos. Thought I would be connecting with other interested and interesting people deeply committed to learning and growth, but it just became something of a hassle. I continue to pursue the line of learning indicated by the videos and will probably resume sometime later this year after I move and retire from money earning job.

@@theomphaloscafe3501 I'm doing a Multimedia teaching of "War and Peace in the Global VIllage" from Canadian / Toronto Professor Marshall McLuhan on Joyce.... WWW Opera, Google it!

Your videos are great teaching material for McLuhan English literacy. Maybe contact McLuhan foundation?

Bloom himself, in the book, talking to Stephen in the cabman's shelter (episode 16?) says "Actually, I'm not really a Jew." Very important to understanding the true depth of Ulysses. Stephen is no longer Roman Catholic, Bloom is no longer Jewish, and Molly (modelled after Joyce's wife Norah) never was anything at all (except a devotee of Life!). All three are beyond 'religion', but beyond organized religion what is there? You could even say what is there for us today, having largely gone beyond the religions bequeathed to us from the past (which Stephen is trying to awaken from.) That is what the book is really about: what there is beyond, what there is to wake up to, and not coincidentally what Stephen is waking up to following the breakdown of the brothel episode. And what does Stephen/Joyce title his last book? Finnegans Wake! Wake up to something new folks, wake up to all of Life!

@@theomphaloscafe3501 я буду пропагандировать Вашу версию, что Молли не изменяла. Раскольников у Достоевского не убивал ростовщицу, но взял вину на себя как юродивый.

@@theomphaloscafe3501 Бойлан - сын торговца лошадьми, а они обманщики: он всех обманывает, что Молли доступна. Джойс любит запутать

@@anatolyyurkin6635 Molly only 'cheated' in a conventional sense, one based on the morality of the time and upheld by the religion of the age. But Stephen, Bloom, and especially Molly have gone beyond the religious morale of the age. Think of it, Bloom has not made love to Molly for nearly 10 years due to setbacks and pressures in his own life. Molly is 33 years old and has remained 'faithful' to him for ten years. Is she 'cheating' when she, the most living of all the characters in the book, finally takes a lover, or is she being true to Life? Bloom has been the typical modern man who has lost his purpose and in a sense manhood in life, undermined by many things. However, in meeting Stephen (and were you aware that Stephen though being totally cut off from the world of Dublin, utterly severed from any vital connection to the people and their ways, actually dreams of meeting Bloom the night before the action of the book takes place?) Bloom retrieves a sense of purpose and begins to take control of things again in his life and in a way retrieves his manhood. I love the fact that when we first meet him he is making breakfast for Molly in bed, back in the day a reversal of male-female roles; and then read the first line of Molly's amazing chapter 18: she's outraged because Bloom has told her he wants his breakfast in bed when he wakes! That fact, which so upsets Molly at first, sets in motion her own reappraisal of things and brings home to her a sense that Bloom as a man is back and there might just possibly be a future again with him.

@@anatolyyurkin6635 I don't agree that Joyce 'loves to confuse.' I believe people don't truly understand what the book is about and therefore miss what is taking place and the profound import of it. Boylan is a player, boastful and vain, like so many people these days. For want of anyone else to make love to her Molly chooses him, but aside from the fact that she was well shtumped it was an unsatisfying experience.

Hi Brian, thanks for the comment. I particularly liked the 'What on earth...' part. Very good question. I'd amplify it though: 'what on earth does anything academia has to say about Ulysses have to do with the actual book Ulysses?' And the answer is, very little. Why? Because they plain and simply don't get that Ulysses is actually James Joyce telling the world "this is my journey, This is how I came to be the artist I am. This is my story." It is a transformative tale. His alter ego (and right into Ulysses Joyce is more autobiographical than fictional with Stephen) is undergoing the death to the everyday world of Irish and Dublin concerns that Joyce himself went through, in order to be born again as the universal artist Joyce became. Dedalus, just as Joyce did, will indeed 'wake from the nightmare of history.' My last video on the subject is 'James Joyce's Ulysses: Wake Up You Blockheads.' That, in short, is what is truly taking place in the book. However, no academic has made that journey, nor undergone such a transformation, indeed they remain veritable pillars of the status quo, which is the reason why they entirely miss the point, as well as why our entire educational system incur much scorn and derision from Joyce in both Ulysses and The Wake. Episode two spells out Joyce's attitude to our educational system. 'The futility' Stephen thinks, drumming inanities into Irish kids heads they cannot understand nor should they. Joyce will not be a 'teacher' in that sense, but one in a shaman/buddhist sense.

That's a simple enough question, Eli, and the answer is pretty simple too, but it depends on you. Why do you feel compelled to 'tackle' Ulysses? Is it a school project, or do you feel a desire to appear 'literate' in front of others? Have you done some homework and now feel ready for the challenge everyone claims the book is? And what else have you read up to this point in your life, and more importantly, why did you read them? I ask these questions because for the vast vast majority of people the answer is of course yes, read Dubliners and then A Portrait, and then if you're really serious you can look into Homer, naturally, and then Hamlet amongst a slew of others referenced in Ulysses. And of course you can watch every video on RUclips, they all more or less say the exact same thing (I go over this in my video 'James Joyce's Ulysses And The Failure Of Our Academic System.') It's a great way to fit in with the faculty club crowd patting each other on the backs while quaffing a beer on Bloomsday, June 16th. However, if you feel slightly maladapted in this world of our's and deep down inside there's a profound craving for something more, a vague sense that all is not as it should be and the things your parents and society have taught you as you've grown into young adulthood simply don't jive with either your inner being nor the outer world and you crave in your heart a new relationship with yourself and the world about, that route probably won't satisfy you, in fact you'll end up wondering 'what was the point' after the 644 page ordeal, just as I did. This latter road, an arduous journey of discovery, not unlike that undertaken in The Razor's Edge, Miller's RosiCrucifixion Trilogy, the works of Hesse and Mann, Proust and many more, as summarized in Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces, is a longer voyage and it pretty much guarantees a break from the school route and conventionality, but it is well worth it and you might even end up with something worthwhile to share with others when you're done. The choice, as they say, is your's, and like I've said: 'Bloomsday is for the masses, Dedalusday for the few.' Good luck.

These are not comments, they are just bile. Good work there, Haines.

Yup, I'm as convinced as ever 'Daedulus Day is for the few.' Keep runnin' with the Blooming herd there, Haines, your contributions, and how they are expressed, say a great deal about who you are and what you value.

"How long is Haines going to stay in this (ivory) tower?"

Great comments, Haines, though I don't know why you bother to watch any of these videos. Have you read any Joseph Campbell? From his biography it is clear he endured a great many comments and criticisms by hard reasoning 'critically' minded people such as yourself. Granted, the two videos you have commented on were the first I produced on the topic of Ulysses, and were I to do them again I would certainly have done them differently, but I am curious to know what you would make of my later one's, such as James Joyce's Ulysses And The Failure Of Our Academic System (which you appear to be a shining example of), and James Joyce's Ulysses, Wake Up You Blockheads. (pretty much my final word on the matter.) Though the truth is I hold out little to no hope for a viewer of your calibre and closedness of mind. All the best, and keep up the high quality of contribution on the subject of Joyce, and pretty much everything else for that matter. Jeff

Modernism had that “elitist” slant though. TS Eliot would tell people who didn’t understand The Wasteland that it was written for a more cultured readership.

Thanks Marcus, it's much appreciated. More is coming, though very slowly. At this stage I have no other choice, for as much as I look around no one is conveying the message that needs to be conveyed... the eternal message: that Life is one and we the living are a part of its living flow, and that if we can only tap back into that flow we will know Satori, know oneness, know what Joyce was ultimately getting at as Stephen EXPERIENCED the oneness in Ulysses and then what Joyce spent the remaining twenty years or so of his life attempting to convey in Finnegans Wake. Hundreds of voices are pointing in that direction in their own unique way, if only we can open our hearts and souls to realize that fact. Different languages, different mediums, same message. Thinking divides in order to conquer and utilize, but in awakening we come fully to understand what Life truly is and then can work towards its reverence and nurture, utilizing what tools there are at hand for that goal alone. I expect to resume the song sometime perhaps in the fall with shorter, less scripted videos celebrating those who heard the call and responded, often to their wonderment, joy, solitude, and suffering. There is only one manifold message left to learn now, transcending all the old parochial visions and testaments. Life is one, thinking divides it. Thanks again, Jeff

Hi Alex, I appreciate the comment. Haven't made a video in a couple of years now but contemplating getting back at it. My summary of the book is in my video James Joyce's Ulysses: Wake Up You Blockheads. Also there's James Joyce's Ulysses And The Failure Of Our Academic System. Not to mention a sort of chapter to chapter summary up to about nine or ten when I tired of the exercise. As far as Hamlet is concerned, I personally wouldn't bother. The real key to why no one understands the book is in the FACT that Joyce (as Dedalus) is telling the world exactly how he underwent a death to the modern world of Dublin and an artistic rebirth or awakening as the man of the world, under the (Buddhistic) 'heaven tree of stars' he writes of in episode 17, just as foreshadowed in the first chapters of A Portrait with his locating himself in the present and the universe. I am always reminded of Henry Miller's retelling of his own artistic death and resurrection in his Rosy Crucifixion Trilogy. Other parallels are Mann's Magic Mountain Odyssey through the land of the dead and Proust's death to the world and artistic birth in his cork lined room recapturing the significance of all that time lost. Regards, Jeff

Hmm, yes, all the writers I've learned from over a long career of reading have been tremendously well-read themselves. Frankly, I do not see any other way of surmounting this era of supposed reason, but subtle superstition, fantasy, and (self-serving) willful ignorance. And in fact my blog and then these videos, including 'James Joyce's Ulysses: Awakening to the Wonder', 'James Joyce's Ulysses And The Failure Of Our Academic System,' and my last word on the subject, 'James Joyce's Ulysses; Wake Up You Blockheads,' is the fruit of nearly 35 years of largely solitary reading. Just finished a fun read titled 'Fantasyland, How America Went Haywire,' by Kurt Anderson. Best of luck in your journey, Phil.

Hiya Rob, to answer the questions: I've gone to the mountains of south western Alberta, Canada; and although I play with the notion of creating more content, even to the point of recording an episode, I'm just not there yet. However, I am slowly getting back involved, albeit somewhat sporadically, in the blog at omphaloscafe.com, which was a forerunner of the videos. Time will tell I suppose. All the best, Jeff

Joseph Campbell met Krishnamurti as a young man and they became life long friends. A Fire In The Mind, the biography of Campbell, is a wonderful example of the Hero's Journey in our modern age. I'll always cherish Miller for the sheer life exuberance, and Campbell for the wealth and breadth of his learning and experience. Both in the end arrived at their blissful place, and isn't that after all what we are all, or some of us at any rate, moving towards?

Gaudy promises? Me? You're talking literary analyses and I'm talking personal growth in this troubled modern world we find ourselves trying to navigate. Two completely different things, and probably mutually incompatible.

I visited Dublin and the James Joyce Centre a couple of years ago now. It was the inspiration for my last viral smash of a Joyce video: James Joyce's Ulysses, Wake Up You Blockheads.