Off the Road - 03
a jazz novel on a typewriter
3
We were in Portland, Maine and Dean was talking about James Joyce’s Ulysses in great detail and I was of course listening because I knew that a section would have on why Ulysses is one of the greatest novels of the 20th century even though I did not really believe that in my cotton socks.
“The first thing you have to realize is that Ulysses is not just a novel but a complex of interweaving points where academics who have new creativity right down what they think is going on in the novel. That means that you need to read not only Ulysses but Gilbert’s rendition of the layout of the novel and then go on from there because that is what Joyce felt immortality was meant to be: the novelist writes the text and then has academics guess as to what it all meant in the larger scheme of literature, with a capital L.”
I just sat there absorbing all of this while thinking of various current events that had immediate meaning to me: it was mixed into a slurry of events plus parts to calm out as a cocktail of slevpas with a slice of mint.
Downtown Portland is extremely small, but it is crowded with colonial and colonial ask buildings that crowd in from every side with bricks and mortar being a real thing.
“So, Gilbert starts out with a schema of the novel taking in the scene, the clock, whatever organ of the body lies behind the text, any color which is used, any symbol that is predominant over the entire part, as well as the art that is mentioned and the technique that is used.”
“Tell me again why we should listen to Gilbert on this subject?”
“He was getting it from the nearest thing to God, which is what James Joyce thought of himself as a God for academics to write on.”
“So, Gilbert is enunciating the visions from Joyce?”
“Isn’t that what every founder does? Speak as if you were the God himself and reveal to others the ladles that all knowledge is derived from. That means you can point out that the first three and the last three are mirror images whether of Jesus or Mulligan. Only Mulligan is in dactyls which is the language of Homer. And Joyce emphasizes that he too uses dactyls from the very beginning when the cross is mentioned by the mirror and the razor.”
“So as Paul from Jesus then Gilbert from Joyce?”
“Exactomundo.”
And I realized that the song was over with that beat so looked around to see what there was to be in this small town that Northeastern set up a center to take in graduates and put out products from the supporters. In other words, Portland was a scam for getting someone to spend money to make a product and then spend out the wetware with a sort of degree for their compensation.
My phone buzzed because I had once given $10 to Kamala Harris for president and that made me a target for every person running for office to ask for money in a pinch.
Instead of reaching for my phone, I spun the car into an alley which I knew that the police did not ticket cars. It had been one of the few things that I learned from a girlfriend many years ago before I was married. Then we got out of the car because there was a sub shop that put the wares that they did not sell during lunchtime at half price if you don’t mind leftovers as your meal. We walked down the main street a little ways until we found the sub shop and had tuna fish sandwiches as the smorgasbord du jour with plenty of lemons to make them wet.
Then Dean started because he had finished the last cigarette of the roll and was waiting to devour the last half of the sandwich.
“I noticed that you had given money to the Donk running for president.”
“My girlfriend at the time harassed me to give money even though I didn’t really understand the difference between the two candidates. But I admit I am dumb on these matters.”
“If you have money in the old economy vote for Trump otherwise vote for Harris.”
“You seem rather sure of yourself on that.”
“I only know what I read in the papers even though there is no longer so much paper extended to get the news out to the masses.” Then he munched on his sandwich while a Serbian folk tune played on the restaurant’s radio. Ajde Jano. Then a short news bulletin came over the radio saying not much of anything with a side of nothing. We have a news system that is able to alert everyone even though there is little that could be of interest to the masses and the mob. But today’s theme was the attacks on Lebanon and how the He’s a Yahoo and Hizbowlyah both say that there will be more attacks until whenever they run out of missiles.
Then I turned to back to Dean:
“So, what does Joy’s have to say about the news?”
“In the section labeled Aeolus, the newspapers interject words that are grist for the mill of everyone’s thinking. And since most people don’t have much in the way of things to think about if they can avoid it, the news serves up the same sandwiches with a slice of lemon to wash it down for the wearer of the crown and the gentleman of the press in the heart of the Hibernian strapless with the creditor and the pen.”
Then we just left leaving the paper plates and brown napkins on the yellow mica table zigzagging our way to the side doorway. I left a small tip out of the small number of dollars in my left pocket. I noticed that I had paid for the sandwiches and left the tip because Dean didn’t spend any money if he did not have to. Katyusha. Katyusha. Katyusha. And the colored girls sing: “Doo, do-doo, do-doo, do-do-doo.”