Which Dead Writer Would You Most Like To Meet?

Much as I love Ulysses, I can't feature spending time with Joyce. It doesn't seem too pleasant.

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Edgar -- I love the story about Joyce's shoes. Apparently, he had some sort of foot problem and he wore sneakers all the time. Nora hated those sneakers. He was sitting with two other writers -- one, I think, was the author of Tropic of Capricorn (I hate senior moments: that inability to retrieve names from the memory bank) and the other was either e. e. cummings or Ezra Pound (different sort of memory lapse here). He had some sort of story he told about the reason for his sneakers that made them seem an economic necessity.

Anyway, the next day, the three men met again and the other two presented Joyce with a brown paper parcel. Inside, were a pair of shoes they had decided to donate to Joyce. Very funny!

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edgarblythe wrote:

Much as I love Ulysses, I can't feature spending time with Joyce. It doesn't seem too pleasant.

It's very, very Irish.

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I have a tad of Irish blood, but not enough, I guess.

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Could be.

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The Romans hated the Continental Celts -- cousins of the Irish -- because they spoke in riddles and confused people and could never give simple answers to questions. Blarney.

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Could that be the reason, the Irish are so good at being lawyers?

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Back to Joyce, what have you heard, if anything about the rumor
that there was an incestous relationship between Joyce and his daughter?

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My list includes some choices also selected by others (interestingly some with whom I often disagree on political matters.) I have emphasized the "spend some time with" criterion in my selection.;

Honore Balzac
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Miguel Unamuno
Maxim Gorky
Albert Camus
Eugene O'Neill
Guy de Maupassant
Martial (Roman poet)

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Eugene O'Neil is an excellent choice.

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Balzac is better.

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George Eliot

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1.) I know nothing of Joyce having had an incestuous relation with his daughter.

2.) Aren't lawyers usually connected with another ethnic group and not with the Irish?

3.) I wouldn't mind meeting Balzac as he and I share a common birthday.

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Joyce hoped his daughter, Lucia, would marry Samuel Beckett, who worked for Joyce for a while. Beckett declined the opportunity.

Joyce was devoted to his wife. There's no evidence of incest in the family...

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plainoldme wrote:

1.) I know nothing of Joyce having had an incestuous relation with his daughter.

2.) Aren't lawyers usually connected with another ethnic group and not with the Irish?

3.) I wouldn't mind meeting Balzac as he and I share a common birthday.

If you counted up all the lawyers practicing in Chicago and Boston, you'd find that the majority are Irish.

Joyce and his daughter: I read an article in the NYTimes Book Review, about a book about his daughter, and in this review mention was made of an alleged incestous relationship between Joyce and his daughter, or between his son and his daughter.

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Dartagnan wrote:

Joyce hoped his daughter, Lucia, would marry Samuel Beckett, who worked for Joyce for a while. Beckett declined the opportunity.

Joyce was devoted to his wife. There's no evidence of incest in the family...

It's been speculated, that the daughter's mental decline was a result of an incestuous relation with either Joyce or his son.

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Miller wrote:

Joyce and his daughter: I read an article in the NYTimes Book Review, about a book about his daughter, and in this review mention was made of an alleged incestous relationship between Joyce and his daughter, or between his son and his daughter.

I read the same review. The author of the book under review pushed for the idea that Lucia was a big influence on her father's writing. I also recall reading that her parents weren't happy about her being a modern dancer.

As for incest, I guess you can speculate all you want. It's a nasty charge, though, to mention lightly.

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plainoldme wrote:

2.) Aren't lawyers usually connected with another ethnic group and not with the Irish?

Excuse me?

I believe that was uncalled for. Confused

If you had meant that as a compliment, you would have come right out and said it.......Many Jews are lawyers.

I suppose if you were in Ireland, many would be Irish.
I'll bet there's many Poles who are lawyers in Poland.

Don't pussyfoot around.

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Dartagnan wrote:

Miller wrote:
Joyce and his daughter: I read an article in the NYTimes Book Review, about a book about his daughter, and in this review mention was made of an alleged incestous relationship between Joyce and his daughter, or between his son and his daughter.

I read the same review. The author of the book under review pushed for the idea that Lucia was a big influence on her father's writing. I also recall reading that her parents weren't happy about her being a modern dancer.

As for incest, I guess you can speculate all you want. It's a nasty charge, though, to mention lightly.

Why did the author of this review make the charge?

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Chai Tea wrote:

plainoldme wrote:
2.) Aren't lawyers usually connected with another ethnic group and not with the Irish?

Excuse me?

I believe that was uncalled for.

If you had meant that as a compliment, you would have come right out and said it.......Many Jews are lawyers.

I suppose if you were in Ireland, many would be Irish.
I'll bet there's many Poles who are lawyers in Poland.

Don't pussyfoot around.

I have put up with you with graciousness and patience since you first drew my attention to yourself less than a month ago.

Because there are so many bigots on this forum, I avoided saying the word Jew to keep from someone from verbally flaying, as you attempted to do.

Your statement is beyond the pale.

Given that this is Boston, it is possible that Anglo-Saxons trump any other ethnic group.

FYI: My former brother-in-law is a Boston lawyer who is largely Irish. The family is so ashamed of being Irish that they pretend to be wholly Anglo-Saxon.

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Which Dead Writer Would You Most Like To Meet?

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