Ulysses for Psychonauts

Event

Venue: Scalateatern, 32 Wallingatan, Norrmalm, 111 24 Stockholm, Sweden

It’s no secret that Joyce’s masterpiece is praised more often than it’s read. People want to know if a massive book like Ulysses, notoriously difficult, is worth it. What does a reader gain from reading a book with such a dizzying, obscene, and baffling style?

Ulysses moves in and out of thought and action and object and narration, and doesn’t distinguish between what is what for you. Why? Because this is how we experience life.

For example, when you see someone you know, you bring your memories to the experience. You bring your feelings. You bring scraps of dialogue. You fade in and out of attention as what they say sends you towards new thoughts. The room around you appears momentarily and then recedes.

This is Ulysses’ gift to us: It calls all of this to attention. And by revealing this to us, it changes us.

“Ulysses was designed to produce readers capable of reading Ulysses,” stated Joyce scholar Declan Kiberd.

Another way of putting this is that Ulysses is an exploration of consciousness, and by reading it, we become better at understanding ourselves and our own experience.

Join podcaster and author Conner Habib for your pathway into Ulysses as a first time or seasoned reader. In this interactive talk, we’ll leave aside the “right” and “wrong” ways to interpret the book, and instead use the book to interpret ourselves, and to explore experience and consciousness.

The event takes place at Scalateatern, Wallingatan 32, Stockholm and begins at 18.30 sharp.

Booking via Eventbrite is essential and tickets must be presented at the door. For queries contact EventsStockholm@dfa.ie