How do you write like James Joyce?

Question

We have to write a 3 page story in the vein of "Dubliners." Even though I read some of them, I would like advice.

Our instructor said something to the effect of paralysis, repressed tones, dull colors, escape, epiphany....seriously, could someone just tell me using words I might understand how one writes like James Joyce?

Answer 1

The stories in "Dubliners" begin and end with the city itself, which Joyce identified as a source of paralysis, an inability to break out of prescribed ways of thinking and feeling. Joyce felt that the Irish were bound by nets of culture, language and religion, linked to a history of invasion and repression. He saw the city of Dublin through the filter of this perspective, which he felt had been granted to him both by his artistic sensibility (his special ability to gain insight by seeing more deeply into the lives of his fellow Dubliners than they could themselves - i.e., through an epiphany or sudden artistic revelation) and the distance of "exile" which he had achieved by fleeing Ireland.

Obviously, this particular experience is unique to Joyce and his writing, but you might begin your exercise by picking just such a place for your character - a town or city steeped in tradition, and a character who is trapped by that tradition. Your protagonist may be offered the chance to escape, but will in all likelihood be unable to make the leap. Only one character in any of the stories in "Dubliners" manages some sort of imaginative breakthrough (Gabriel at the very end of "The Dead") but it is somewhat limited in its effectiveness. Gabriel is the character Joyce imagined he might have become had he remained in Dublin.

Secondly, Joyce was writing in a sort of lyrical version of naturalism at this point in his career, with special attention paid to the pointed and significant details that seemed to reveal so much about his characters and their environment, as in the opening description in "Araby": the street is essentially a dead end, but Joyce describes it as "being blind", and he adds, "The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces." Essentially the houses have taken on the characteristics of their inhabitants. I would try focussing on such details in your own attempt. Good luck.

Answer 2

Think of it this way: paralysis is the diagnosis and epiphany is the cure. I think that may be what your teacher wants, and not to write like Joyce! He probably wants to see if you understand the concepts of paralysis and epiphany as Joyce uses them in these stories.

Each story is about a different aspect of the people of Dublin: How each is paralyzed, and how *some* of them become unparalyzed via an epiphany.

I last read 'Dubliners' a few years ago, and can't find my copy with notes. So this is just from memory.

The very first few words tell how Joyce felt about Dublin and the people in it: "The was no hope for him this time." Look at all the things that are "grey" in that first story. Also, smoke is grey (gray) and it clouds things. The silence in the room forces a kind of paralysis. Don't the sisters give the boy crackers, but he's afraid to chew because it'll break the silence? I'm not sure.

In all the stories, look for how people are trapped (paralyzed) in their lives -- able but unwilling to move out of them. In one story, two guys walk around and around a park, going in circles, going nowhere; that's a type of paralysis. It's being stuck and not being brave enough to get unstuck. In "Little Man," understand how stuck and paralyzed Chandler is in his job & marriage. He thinks the answer lies with his friend who now works in London, but that guy, for all his brightness and loudness, is just as stuck as Chandler. Chandler's epiphany (look it up in the dictionary if you need to) -- his revelation that changes his life, which can only come from within, not from something or someone outside yourself -- comes at the end, but you have to read it carefully.

"Grace" explores the possibility of religion as a cure for Joyce's paralysis.

It's the longest story, but do read "The Dead." The ending (from the man singing the lullabye on) is beautiful, but you'll get it only if you've read the whole story. The last few lines, about the snow, is Gabriel's epiphany, but it grows out of his wife's story, and also (I think, not sure about this) Joyce's prognosis.

I'm not doing Joyce justice, but maybe this helps a little.

Answer 3

Henry Green once said "I think Joyce and Kafka have said the last on each of the two forms they developed. They're like cats that have licked the plate clean. You've got to dream up another dish if you are to be a writer."

No one can ever write like James Joyce. I'm sorry to see that your instructor is subjecting you to this painful (and most likely doomed) exercise.

Having said that; the best advice I can offer you is to look at some of the basic elements of how Joyce wrote. Try to capture some of the setting (the feel of a pub, a little Dublin side street, the feel of the damp Irish air in the morning, etc.); look at how the characters convey their inner thoughts and feelings (how their inner voice rings out); and finally maybe tone -- capture some of the bleakness, despair and loneliness Joyce touched on.

Ironic that this question came up on Bloomsday -- the day that all the action took place in Joyce's "Ulysses".

Take a look at the link below -- that might give you some additional ideas as well.

Answer 4

That is a tall order. James Joyce is absolutely one of a kind. I dont think anyone can write like James Joyce. Pax - C

Answer 5

My advice to you is to write in your own style what you believe the instructor specifically wanted to be reflected in the story. However, you can get the 'feeling' of dark literature and unconsciously start using dark words such as those you mentioned in your question, by just reading "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe, and / or "Ulysses", by James Joyce.

Answer 6

Denise T: Choose Diana P.

Answer 7

i think of Ulysses is pretentious self-indulgent crap, yet i like A Portrait Of The Artist and Dubliners... i assume he's in undemanding terms an extremely inaccessible author, and the customary public won't make the hassle to get into him.