A Portrait of the Artist: James Joyce on the difference between tasteful nudes and porn

This week we're reading James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, published in 1916.

Moments of adolescent significance: on heated dinner-time conversations, a child's keen sense of injustice,  the fear of burning in Hellfire, contemplating eternity, sexual guilt, and teenage rebellion. Which did we relate to the most? 

Theory of aesthetics: why are evo psych explanations distasteful? Do Aquinas' three criteria give us an objective description of art? How about Stephen's 'impelled action' theory? can we tell propaganda, pornography and sermonising apart from the real deal? Does Joyce's novel kinda fail by its own lights?

Overall vibes: What did we think of the prose style evolving in line with Stephen's maturation? Is Joyce fully sincere here or kinda making fun of himself? Is Stephen Dedalus a romantic hero or a teenage blowhard? Dare we tackle Ulysses or Finnegan's Wake?

 

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) intro
(00:05:54) Baby tuckoo and the moocow
(00:14:35) Dinner time convos and unjust punishments
(00:23:18) Hell and the true nature of eternity
(00:33:38) Epiphany (seeing a hot girl at the beach)
(00:40:15) Stephen’s theory of beauty and aesthetics
(00:56:40) Did we like the book?

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NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

• Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood
• Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein
• Gravity's Rainbow — Thomas Pynchon