James Joyce Bloomsday Magazine 2000 [antikvár]

ííiíi Editorial--- 'Look, here, Cranly he said. You have asked me what I would do and what I would not do. I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use-silence, exile and cunning.' —A Portrait ofthe Artist as a Young Man This quote, often seen on posters, calendars and mugs, is one that will be familiar to many people. My first encounter with it was when I read A Portait of the Artist as a Young Man during an unsuccessful sojourn in Bratislava, capital of the Slovak Republic. It was January 1994, I was 23 years old and alone in a strange city. I had chosen at that time to be away from Ireland and I remember reading these words and writing them into my diaiy. When Joyce wrote these words, and made Stephen Dedalus say them, he was himself in exile. Given the autobiographical verity of much that is in the novel, it is tempting to believe that these words expressed Joyce's own point of view. Joyce, the artist, could not have stayed in Ireland. There was too much here that troubled him. There was too much that stood in the way of his work. A good proportion of these obstacles may well have had their origins in his own at times crazed paranoia, but they were no less real (to him) for that. In leaving Ireland, he was escaping the impoverished circumstances of his large family; the restrictions of Irish society; the limitations of a cautious, inward-looking literary scene. The words are, however, as much the words of a young man as they are the artist's. They topple out in the heat of a debate and are too strident; whereas life and experience have a way of breaking your stride, of teaching you different ways to walk. Joyce's exile from Ireland became in many ways like another man's emigration: he had brought Nora with him, and various family members followed; he celebrated Christmas and St Patrick's Day in traditional Irish fashion; he sent money home. There is a good chance that he could have moved hack here after Ulysses had been written—had the circumstances been right. Exile, of course, means more to the writer than leaving his or her country behind and I am grateful to the various contributors who have taken up this year's theme and delivered such thought-provoking and entertaining responses. As always in matters Joyce, there was plenty of material to choose from. I can only hope we have chosen well and that you will find much to enjoy in this year's magazine. Decían Meade Editor Cover Art: Joseph McWilliams was born in Belfast in 1938. An award-winning artist, his work has been exhibited in Dublin, Belfast, London and Boston. He is a director of the Cavehill Gallery, Belfast. Joyce Images: Tom Mathews was born in Dublin in 1952. His cartoons have appeared in numerous publications and he has exhibited his work in Ireland and abroad.