James Joyce and the Occult
For many years readers and critics alike have puzzled at the extensive body of references to occult ideas and topics present in James Joyce's Ulysses. One aspect of the difficulty in understanding the references is the very nature of the word "occult" (Latin: occultus, ‘to hide' OED) and the area of knowledge it pertains to--mysticism, hermetism, esoteric Hinduism, and very many other subjects. Because there is no traditional basis for scholarly inquiry into these concepts, especially with regards to Joyce criticism, the implications of a directed research into the occult and how it operates in Ulysses have largely been ignored. It is therefore the aim of this thesis to analyze evidence of the occult in both Joyce's life and his works to investigate the extent to which the occult operates as a narrative and thematic device specifically in Ulysses.
1. introibo ad altare Dei:
Of the Roman Missal (Latin: Missale Romanum), the liturgical book that contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of the Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, which means 'I'm coming to the altar of God.'
2. Chrysostomos:
Greek: Χρυσόστομος, "golden mouthed" from chrysos, Χρυσός, "golden"; stoma, στομa, "mouth") was a common epithet for orators.
3. gunrest:
In Ulysses, it has to be a part of the staircase--either the top step or the hand rail at the top of the staircase. Since he writes that he skipped off of it and sat down on it, I assume that it's the top step in this case. It seems to be related to the term gunwale which is a part of a boat or ship. It's a very obscure term.
4. Dedalus:
A renowned craftsman, sculptor, and inventor and builder of the Labyrinth. He fashioned the wings with which he and his son Icarus escaped from Crete.
5. Malachi:
Malachi (or Malachias, Hebrew: מַלְאָכִי, Malʾaḫi, Mál'akhî) is the last book of the Neviim contained in the Tanakh, the last of the twelve minor prophets (canonically) and the final book of the Neviim. In the Christian ordering, the grouping of the Prophetic Books is the last section of the Old Testament, making Malachi the last book before the New Testament.
The book is commonly attributed to a prophet by the name of Malachi. Although the appellation Malachi has frequently been understood as a proper name, its Hebrew meaning is simply "My [i.e., God's] messenger" (or 'His messenger' in the Septuagint) and may not be the author's name at all. The sobriquet occurs in the superscription at 1:1 and in 3:1, although it is highly unlikely that the word refers to the same character in both of these references. Thus, there is substantial debate regarding the identity of the book's author. One of the Targums identifies Ezra (or Esdras) as the author of Malachi. St. Jerome suggests this may be because Ezra is seen as an intermediary between the prophets and the 'great synagogue'. There is, however, no historical evidence yet to support this claim.
6. Kinch:
a noose, a loop at the end of a rope in which the knot slides to make the loop collapsible. Knots used for making nooses include the running bowline, the tarbuck knot, and the slip knot.
7. a black panther:
A celebrated case of "sleep-related violence" occurred on Sept. 14, 1904, in Sandycove, Ireland, when a sleeping Samuel Chenevix Trench began firing shots from his revolver at a black panther about to spring at him. As Trench's nightmare continued, Oliver St. John Gogarty (more or less awake) assisted him in firing at the apparition, narrowly missing a third person who was trying to get a good night's sleep across the room.
This third gentleman -- no apparition or panther, really -- was James Joyce, reports Richard Ellmann in his 1982 book, "James Joyce." Had Trench and Gogarty been more expert marksmen, or more fully awake, they might easily have dispatched Joyce and deprived us all of his sleep-drenched "book of the night," "Finnegans Wake."
8. a jejune jesuit:
Jejeune, is pronounced ji-joon. It properly means 'meagre, scanty; dull or uninteresting' and is used primarily of ideas or arguments. It is derived from the Latin word jejunus meaning 'fasting', and originally meant 'without food' in English. The writer Kingsley Amis famously defended the traditional meaning of jejune against users of a newer meaning 'puerile, childish, naive', which first appeared in a play by George Bernard Shaw
(His jejune credulity as to the absolute value of his concepts—Arms and the Man, 1989).
This meaning may have arisen by a false association with juvenile, and it is now the predominant one:
Mother seemed jejune, at times, with her enthusiasms and her sense of mission—M. Howard, 1982
There's no passion in your jejune little world, is there?—weblog, British English 2005.
Despite currency, this is an awkward and cumbersome usage and it can usually be avoided in favour of readily available alternatives such as childish, infantile, or juvenile, and innocent, guileless, ingenuous, or naive. In some cases, it is impossible to tell which meaning is intended:
Perhaps your superiors realized that your rhetoric is sloppy, tendentious, jejune and banal—weblog, American English 2003.
As for jesuit, it is a member of a Catholic religious order, or a crafty, intriguing, or, here, refers to an equivocating person: so called in allusion to the methods ascribed to the order by its opponents.
9. mulligan:
Also called mulligan stew, a stew containing meat, vegetables, etc., especially one made of any available ingredients.
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