Graphique tiré du site www.gamasutra.com

Rob Bridgett, Directeur Sonore chez Radical Entertainment, a écrit récemment un article sur l’importance du Sound Design dans la structure narrative d’un jeu vidéo (vous trouverez cet article sur le site www.gamasutra.com). Il me semble important de vous faire part de ce que dit Rob Bridgett, d’autant plus que cela fait suite à l’article que j’ai publié hier sur l’intensité scénaristique.

L‘environnement sonore d’un jeu vidéo doit être cohérent à l’univers créé par le Game designer. “The sound designer needs to sit down, over the course of many planning meetings, with game designers and plot out and map the intended experience from start to finish” explique Rob Bridgett avant de poursuivre, “it will dictate where music, fx and dialogue all need to work together with the game flow“. Encore une fois, nous retrouvons les principes de Flow, de narration et d’immersion. L’environnement sonore améliore grandement l’immersion d’un joueur au sein d’un jeu ou même d’une action et c’est pourquoi, le Sound Design doit être parti intégrante de la conception d’un jeu.

Selon Rob Bridgett, les designers sonore peuvent s’inspirer des films d’horreurs des années 80. Les mécanismes utilisés dans ce genre de film montrent bien les possibilités offertes afin d’immerger le joueur (ou le spectateur) dans une ambiance particulière. “A lone teenager creeps through a creaky house at night, high pitched strings in the musical score build, a creaky sound is heard, phew it was only a cat, the strings stop and for a brief moment there is the silence of relief, then, in that moment where the audience is catching it’s breath with relief, then the enemy strikes.” donne-t-il comme exemple.

Enfin, le sound designer doit jouer entre les moments de silence (qui doivent faire partie du sound design) et les moments de forte intensité sonore afin de créer une dynamique. “Something with no dynamic range cannot be experienced for very long before the viewer, or listener, becomes fatigued and reaches for the off-switch” explique Rob Bridgett.

Art Appreciation Lesson

Charlotte Mason recommends that children study an artist and several of  his works over a periodof weeks so that they can recognize his paintings and appreciate his style or subject.  After detailed observation they should  narrate all they remember seeing in the  painting they studied and this encourages detailed study!

We studied a famous South African artist Jacob Hendrick Pierneef and googled images of his works.  Each child selected their favourite painting I printed for them.  We measured and drew a grid on the printed work and sketched the painting.  We used acrylic paints to paint our pictures.  Here are our versions of Pierneef:

At work painting

painting by dd 14-years old

painting by dd 10-years old

painting by dd 7-years old

My eldest dd (14-years-old) is completing her Footprints Into The 21st Century (South African Literature-Based History Curriculum) and her last section requires the study of famous South African sports and arts personalities.  She selected Pierneef and wrote this essay:

South African Artist: Jacob Hendrik Pierneef

J.H. Pierneef is considered one of South Africa’s most talented and original artists. He enjoyed painting South Africa’s highveld landscapes and had a technique that was very stylized and graphic. His style was different from all other South African artists in his day, and his works greatly attracted attention.

Jacob Hendrik Pierneef was born in Pretoria in 1886 and he came from a Dutch background. He started studying art in high-school in South Africa, but due to the 2^nd Boer War, his family moved back to the Netherlands.

When he returned to South Africa, he met and learned much about graphic techniques from other great South African artists. In 1913, Pierneef held his first solo exhibition and his artwork was very well received. The viewers were all exceedingly impressed by his dramatic talent. From then on he became very well known and his works proved to be successes.

In 1918 Jacob Pierneef started a new a career and became an art lecturer and started to teach drawing in the Heidelberg Collage of Education. When he began to teach art, Pierneef discovered that most of the South Africa’s landscape artwork was drawn in the British style, an unrealistic and romanticized vision of South Africa. He then decided to draw attention to the uniqueness of South Africa’s highveld. He created a style that was dramatic, structural and graphic and was distinctively recognized as a South African style. He believed strongly in the cause of Afrikaner art and culture.

(She then chose and printed 4 of paintings she most enjoyed.)

When children use Charlotte Mason’s approach, they almost “own” the painting they reproduce!  I have even heard them say, “There’s my picture of the … (Milkmaid by Vermeer)!” when they see the painting in a book or movie or magazine.

Has this form of Art Appreciation been a success for your children?

Synapses afire,

Empty spaces no more.

In danger of overload,

Teetering over that wire.

Oxygen low,

Her breathing slow,

Still a-smile,

Her brow furrowed,

The hand low.

Neurons barely touching,

Electricity on high.

Forced fusion,

Dancing in unison.

Ached moans,

As vessels groan.

A cascade of,

Mistiness, mixed together.

When the fog lifts,

Tension still sits.

Hiding behind longing.

What I don’t like about books in particular is extensive description: Where it takes a couple of pages to describe an area or an emotional state. Sure, it paints a vivid image and there’s probably something about a character that can be said if they are the one narrating but at some point the author should look at their text and say “You know, they should start doing some shit soon.”

- Quote from my upcoming book Spare Time: My Quest To Get A Break Once In A While, Damnit!

We use our laminated chart ~ Handwriting Cursive instead of books or programs.

Cursive upper & lower case

Most handwriting programs start with patterns, then teach similar letter shapes, then words with those letters and so on, but because we do copywork and narrations my children want to all their written work in cursive, I find these programs progress through the letters too slowly.

I introduce them to the alphabet chart, and teach the letters in the following order:

(you can download these letter groups here:  Cursive step-by-step )

Lower case letters ~

1. Find and copy over all round oval body letters ~ c, then a, d, g, and q
2. Find and copy over all the loop letters~ l, b, h, f and k
3. Find and copy over top curve letters ~ n, m, p and r
4. Find and copy over bottom curve letters ~ u, v, w and y
5. Find and copy over dot and cross letters (only letters to lift pen to complete!) ~ i, j and t
6. Find and copy over e, s, x and z
7. Find and copy over bottom loop letters ~ g, j, y and z

Upper case letters ~

1. Find and copy over oval letters ~ O, Q, A and X
2. Find and copy over loop letters ~ C, G, L, S, E and Z
3. Find and copy over curving over letters ~ N,  M, U, V, W and Y
4. Find and copy over straight shape letters ~ H, K, P, R, D and B
5. Find and copy over start @ top letters ~ T, F
6. Find and copy over loop from middle letters ~ I and J

This method helps children ~

• familiarize themselves with the entire alphabet
• recognize letters and find them randomly
• learn to form letter shapes correctly
• practice short, happy lessons as Charlotte Mason suggests
• run through the alphabet in sequence (when mom is sure they know how to form each letter)

Some more tips ~

• talk as you show the child how to form the letters
• watch closely and wipe any mistakes out immediately and correct the writing before bad habits or confusion is set
• First trace over, then copy, then refer to chart until they can write without references

We were too much worried about Sudhir. In history, there is not a single case of a schizophrenic who has recoverd from his illness and been rehabilitated. How can he be an excepton?
This was like a wound.Some slight touch and it hurts.
I never tried to hide this fact. All people in our cirle knew about it. I did not have the guts to ask for girl for my son. All are afraid of a mad man, though we are all mad to some extent.
There are millions of people seeking His intervention,to help them against their fate. Can we expect Him to favour us  against our enemy?
I decided to do shayanapradakshinam, of our Shiva, of CS puram village, where the temple compound is full of shrubs, to be cleaned once in a while, during festival. I did  not mind it.
In the morning I had a dip in the river and went to the temple, in the wet condition with the bath towel arond my waiste. I made only one round. The pebbles and thorny weeds hurt me, but it was all right. When Murugan, the poojary saw me, he just smiled.
I felt happy, as if He had actully seen me rolling in the ground, and felt pity for us helpless old father and mother.
I was ready to spend the rest of my life in the village, as a sincere devotee.

 An old, pot bellied Krishna Iyer there, gave me a volume of Bhagavatam, with translation in simple Malayalam prose, in addition to the Samskritam text, which I was not very eager to read. Having nothing else to read, I began reading it and then found it very absorbing. The whole narration is in flash back. The motive is disenchantment with life.
There was no news of Krishna, who had gone back to Dwaraka, after the end of the horrible war.
Arjuna was sent to enquire about their savior, without whom, they would have lost the war. After six months, he returned, but could not face his brother.
Why, what happened?- enquired the elder brother.
Tears rolled down Arjuna’s cheeks. With much difficulty, he began;
When I was coming back, ordinary ruffians attacked me. I was helpless. When I tried to use my Gandeev (the famous bow) I was unable to lift it.

Dharmajan knew that Krishna was dead. 
This simple story contains the essence of the book. We are like earthen toys.
Or like a kite, soaring higher and higher, when the wind is favouurable. In a moment, we come down like a stone !
 Unable to understand this eternal truth, we go on wasting our energy in senseless quarrels.
I resigned to my fate. I closed my intellectual box and concentrated on bhakti marga.
Earlier, I had vainly tried to get some job, like that of the manager of a temple. The temple had plenty of assets, including rent of land etc. which they did not want to entrust to an audit man, who will definitely go into all the details, causing inconvenience to some of the committee members!
I even thought of becoming poojary of Ayyapa temple at Haridwar!

This morning Stiggy chose to read a book that was a little challenging. I encouraged him and helped him with the dificult words.  For some reason, after about 2 pages he got hung up on the word ‘looked’ (which he’s read several times before). I explained that the k-e-d is simply said ‘kd’ and then told him to sound the whole word out again. He wouldn’t. He slouched, he slumped, he pulled a face and whinged. Now, we’d already gone round this roundabout with about 4 other words, and I wasn’t going to allow him to give up. I then had him read the rest of the sentence and go back to ‘looked.’ Grudgingly, he eventually read the word.

Most of us teaching our children have days like this. And if you’re evil like me, one too many of these episodes will produce a ‘you’re-gonna-have-to-go-to-school-if-you-don’t-try’ lecture in the hopes of bringing about a change of attitude. I frequently remind Stiggy how lucky he is to be learning to read sitting on his own sofa with his blanket and doggy, the cat milling around, a warm drink at hand, etc, etc. I told him that he wouldn’t be able to say, ‘I can’t’ and just give up, and I’m not going to allow it, either.

I know, I’m so mean.

Now, some days it’s best to put the lesson away when things are going bad. But I knew this was simply a case of ‘I don’t wanna’ rather than ‘it’s just not a good time.’ And I want Stiggy to develop his will and self-discipline.

Anyway, we got through the lesson, but it had set me a little on edge.

We did a few other things, then moved on to our natural history lesson. We’re using The First Book of Birds, which is a lovely little book. I read a small section on birds at rest. The vast majority of these few paragraphs gave information on where birds sleep. When I’d finished, Stiggy looked at me and said, ‘But where do birds sleep?’

This isn’t the first time Stiggy has failed to take in a lesson, but lately it’s been happening more frequently than it should.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, but it didn’t help.

I was in full meltdown mode.

I put my head in my hands and fought back the tears. I asked him if he could tell me anything about Ancient China. Nope. Ancient India? Nothing. Ancient West Africa, which we’re studying now? Zilch.

Oh, God.

I excused myself and went upstairs so I could bang my head against the wall have my breakdown in privacy and went on a mental rampage about all the time, money, and energy I’m wasting on homeschooling…all the planning, all the excitement, all the hope…and it’s failed to produce any results…he’s learned nothing.

Ok, not nothing. He is reading well when he wants to, his math skills are excellent, his handwriting has improved by leaps and bounds, he can tell me a million things about ancient Egypt, gives great narrations, picks up his memory work with ease, he’s loving poetry, art, music, British history, grammar, Monet, Spanish, and he knows far more about plants than I did even when I graduated hight school…

…so it hasn’t been a complete disastrous failure, I suppose.

And then I reminded myself that it isn’t imperative that a child do history at this age. The point is to get a basic overview and develop an interest…which is what we’re doing, and doing well.

So, I went back downstairs and Stiggy and I went through our curricula, subject by subject, and I asked him what he likes and doesn’t like.

He likes everything except:

Birds

He’s just not interested in learning about birds right now. He wants to learn about reptiles, snakes in particular. Ok, fine. Great. We’ve got a book on reptiles, the library will have a ton of books on reptiles (I can’t seem to find a living book on reptiles, but I’ll keep searching), and I’ve ordered him a colouring book. Lovely.

Narration and Copywork in conjunction with traditional stories linked to history

He doesn’t seem to be enjoying most of the myths and traditional stories that we use to supplement history. He likes some of them, particularly the ones in Story of the World, and the nice picture book ones like Once a Mouse, and The Story about Ping, but he does not like the ones I read out to him from the Baldwin Project. I think they’re too advanced for him and there are few pictures.

I used these myths/stories for his Writing with Ease narrations, but he does enough narration with history, science, grammar, Shakespeare, art and even math. So, I will choose one suitable traditional story that I know he will enjoy each week (if I can’t find one, we’ll do an Aesop’s Fable).  As for the copywork, I will make this from poetry and he will do one line a day. Our schedule has been so jammed that we haven’t had time for poetry, which Stiggy has really missed. On Friday we will skip poetry, read the well-chosen traditional story, do a narration, and I’ll create a copywork page based on his narration for him to do (again, this format is taken from Writing with Ease). He’s happy with this arrangement. He gets his copywork, we’re still follwing Writing with Ease, and we can cut out the stories that no one was enjoying and weren’t enriching our history study anyway.

We can try them again during the next history rotation.

After beginning chapter 6 of my NaNoWriMo novel yesterday, I stopped short and read chapters 1-5 all together.

There is—intentionally—a great deal of dialogue. The action of this novel is driven by communication.

But I realized that in focusing on that element of the story, I had not yet given sufficient attention to establishing place: there isn’t yet “a there there.” In considering this, I looked at several beginnings of books that bear some resemblance to mine: multi-volume works for YA and up, and found them all very quick to establish place.

I also realized that in focusing on establishing characterization and setting the plot in motion, I hadn’t given the depth of thought necessary to establishing the persona of my narrator and attended consciously to choices about how the reader will encounter the story that currently resides in my mind and an odd collection of scraps of paper, computer files, and iPod notes.

So, today my plan is twofold: to find ways to incorporate setting detail and to begin reading (in one case) and rereading (in the other) Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative by Mieke Bal and The Rhetoric of Fiction by Wayne Booth.

• One’s waste becomes another’s resource

-         Bobby has a small banana farm in the city of La Flor and every harvest season there are waste produced such as: ground banana stems and organic waste, sawdust, and effective microorganisms. Bobby was not aware of the value of recycling the waste produced. After he joined the program of recycling organization, he is able to manage the waste properly and also get paid.

-         The organization collects wastes from different farms and reproduces them as useful farming resources such as fertilizer.

-         After fertilizers are produced they sell those to other farms in need at affordable prices.  

-         Other than fertilizer, they also distribute ground banana stems for people who need it such as for natural fiber paper production.  

• Selling products made by local artisans and craftsmen on-line

-         Sally and Sam are very interested in exotic culture. They just got married in Providence was looking for some exotic art pieces that could decorate their new home. However they could not find anything that attracts their eye in the city.  

-         Andrea who lives in small town of Costa Rica makes beautiful folk art paintings. However no one really knows about what she is making so she does not make a lot of money from selling her works.

-         Zappos decides to purchase works from artworks from all over Costa Rica including Andrea’s paintings.

-         Now many Costa Rica’s unknown great artworks are exposed to people in the U.S.

-         Sally and Sam, through Zappos, found about Andrea’s beautiful paintings and purchase her paintings.

-         Andrea’s paintings were very popular so Zappos asks Andrea to produce more paintings.

-         Andrea makes a fortune and customers in U.S. are happy to get those exotic paintings.

• Art Lessons for visitors to Costa Rica

-         Emily is visiting Costa Rica from a school tour.

-         She wanted bring home some special souvenirs.

-         So she and her classmates visit a workshop that provides lessons about how to make some of Costa Rica’s beautiful folk artworks.

-         The studio teaches people some basic craftsmen skills like painting, wood carving and ceramics.

-         Emily decides to learn about wood carving and have lessons.

-         The workshop charges Emily and her friends for the cost of material and the lesson.

-         After the lesson is finished, Emily now has her own DIY souvenir to bring back home and the local town has great business by sharing their culture and makes some money from it.

• Certification program to encourage farmers to maintain sustainability of the cattle farms

-         Katie who has healthy eating habit likes to go to Whole foods for her grocery shopping because Whole foods provide a lot of organic products that can be trusted.

-         Through Whole Foods Market’s Whole Trade Guarantee program, customers are guaranteed to purchase safe and fresh products. This program has attracted a lot of people and more people are going to Whole foods for their grocery shopping.

-         In order to make a business with Whole Foods, the farmers are encouraged to care more about organic farming.

-         If your product is very popular, your product will be also introduced in other branches of Whole Foods so more people have access to it.

• Allowing companies to come in to campus and join the research

-         Dole is one of the largest produce and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables.

-         EARTH University has large tropical lands that are dedicated for experimenting with new methods of growing fresh fruits in more sustainably and more efficiently. Also they have faculty who are profession in farming technology. However, the school does not have enough money to provide student and faculties with enough equipment for research and to pay for its faculties.

-         With the funding from Dole, EARTH University can make use of their great resources such as the great plantation area in La Flor.

-         While EARTH University is benefiting from Dole, the company sends their researchers to the site at EARTH University to have close access to the new technology that could be adapted to their own farm.

-         Dole also offers internships for students of EARTH University so the students can experience the business and learn about entrepreneurship.

-         The EARTH brand makes partnership with Dole and enhances the reputation and also it is easier for EARTH to expand their market and be exposed to foreign markets.

• To connect foreigners better with locals

-         Joshua who lives in a small town owns a small restaurant in Costa Rica. He is very proud of his town and he is very enthusiastic about foreign tourists to his town also he wants to draw more people into his town.

-         So he applies as a volunteer tour guide through a program that is set up by Costa Rica Government. He gets approved by the government that he is safe and trained personnel.

-         Every time he guides a group of people who visit his town, he receives 5% of the tour fee.

-         A group of tourists who are interested in having local tour guide and experience local culture participated in this eco-friendly local tour in Costa Rica. They travel by bus from town to town but they participate in bike tour within small towns.

-         When a group of people visited the town where Joshua lives, Joshua brings them to visit local family to see how Costa Ricans live and also eat very traditional local food. They are also introduced to unique and non-tour site.

-         After the tour, the group of can rate the tour guide the government is sure that the tour guide is doing the right job.

Et bien voilà, certains diront que j’aurais peut être dû commencer par ça, mais mieux vaut tard que jamais! Alors posons nous cette question, chers lecteurs : qu’est ce que la scénarisation interactive? Définissons et illustrons donc ce principe!

La scénarisation, tout le monde sait à peu près ce que c’est. Mais pour être sûr, il s’agit du déroulement d’une histoire qui part d’un point A (début) à un point B (fin) en passant par plusieurs paliers. Lorsque l’on parle de scénarisation,  on touche également à la narration (voir article “Les différents types de scénarisation“) de l’histoire. De quelle manière va-t-on mettre en scène cette histoire? Que ça soit dans le jeu vidéo ou dans le cinéma le principe reste le même. Mais la narration d’un scénario multimédia est différente puisque l’utilisateur n’est pas passif mais actif. C’est à ce moment que l’on parle d’interactivité.

Une scénarisation interactive est donc différente d’une scénarisation cinématographique. L’utilisateur-joueur joue un rôle au sein de cette histoire. Dans un jeu vidéo, le joueur est l’acteur principal. Il va donc influer sur l’histoire et faire des choix qui auront un impact.

L’exemple de Fallout 3 (jeu développé par les studios Bethesda) est sûrement le plus probant lorsque l’on parle de scénarisation interactive. Dans ce jeu, l’utilisateur-joueur peut (à peu près) tout faire. Il peut mentir, tenter de convaincre des personnages non joueurs (ou PNJ) et l’ensemble de ses actions dépend de la manière dont il a “monté” son personnage (le jeu permet en effet de faire évoluer son personnage, de lui attribuer des statistiques en force, négociation, armes…). Pour vous donner un exemple concret : peu après avoir commencé le jeu, on arrive dans une ville nommée Mégaton au centre de laquelle se trouve une bombe nucléaire qui n’a pas explosé. Peu de temps après, un homme vient nous voir et nous propose de faire exploser la bombe. Le joueur se retrouve alors confronté à un choix : détruire définitivement la ville, dénoncer cet homme au shérif ou laisser couler l’affaire. Quelque soit son choix, il affectera définitivement l’histoire.

Vous l’aurez compris, une scénarisation interactive donne la possibilité au joueur de faire des choix dans le déroulement de l’histoire. Tout ceci dans le but que le joueur se sente libre dans l’univers.

Mais que vient donc faire un philosophe grec dans un blog de jeux vidéo? C’est la question que vous vous posez tous, n’est ce pas? Et bien laissez moi vous expliquer ce qu’a apporté cet homme au 4ème siècle avant J.C et qui est encore vrai aujourd’hui.

Ainsi Aristote a défini les règles de base du déroulement d’une narration. Il s’agit, bien entendu, des trois actes. Une bonne narration se divise en trois parties distinctes : Exposition, complication, résolution.

Détaillons maintenant ces trois parties :

• Exposition : cet acte met en place l’histoire, ses principaux personnages, son décor et son intrigue. Il sert en quelque sorte d’introduction. On prend connaissance de l’univers et de ce qui sera nécessaire pour comprendre le déroulement de l’histoire. A la fin de l’exposition, un évènement bouleversant arrive. Cet évènement va amener l’intrigue principale et va motiver le joueur pour les prochains actes. Par exemple, dans Fallout 3 (jeu développé par les studios Bethesda), on commence dans l’abri 101 (sorte de bunker anti-atomique construit pour survivre à une guerre nucléaire). Après quelques pérégrinations au sein de l’abri qui nous permettent de prendre le jeu en main, on apprend que notre père s’est enfui et qu’il existe des villes humaines à l’extérieur. Cet évènement va nous amener à nous enfuir à notre tour et à rechercher notre père. Le premier élément de l’intrigue principale est donc lancé.
• Complication : comme son nom l’indique clairement, il s’agit ici de la complexification de l’intrigue. Cet acte mène au point culminant de l’histoire : le climax. C’est dans cet acte que le joueur devra faire des choix qui influeront sur la suite de l’histoire. Cette prise de décision va amener à la résolution.
• Résolution : la résolution met un terme à l’intrigue. Elle peut également laisser un certains nombres de points d’interrogation afin que le joueur (ou spectateur) s’imagine une suite. Aristote précise qu’il faut absolument que la résolution soit faite par les éléments déjà présents dans l’histoire. Il ne faut pas qu’un élément inconnu de tous vienne, comme par magie, mettre fin à l’intrigue.

En d’autres termes, Aristote a posé les bases du développement narratif qui s’appliquent aujourd’hui encore dans le monde du cinéma et du jeu vidéo.

Lorsque l’on écrit une histoire, il existe plusieurs possibilités au niveau du déroulement de celle-ci. A cette fin, il est très important de distinguer  histoire et narration. Cet article a pour but de clarifier les différentes possibilités offertes.

Dans un premier temps, commençons par différencier narration et histoire. L’histoire représente ce qu’il se passe concrètement. On peut représenter de manière chronologique cette histoire en décrivant les différentes actions. La narration est la façon dont va être racontée cette histoire. Une histoire intéressante peut vite devenir ennuyante si elle est mal racontée et une histoire tout ce qu’il y a de plus banale peut devenir captivante si elle est bien racontée.

Ainsi il existe différentes façons de raconter une histoire :

• Narration avec plusieurs points d’entrée : Ce type de narration permet à l’utilisateur de choisir différents débuts possibles pour l’histoire. La fin reste la même, mais l’histoire est alors racontée différemment en fonction de l’entrée choisie.
• Narration multifocalisée : cela permet d’avoir plusieurs points de vue différents sur une même histoire. On peut alors passer d’un point de vue à un autre et découvrir l’histoire sous un autre angle de vue.
• Scénarios à tiroirs : on dévoile peu à peu les informations de l’histoire. Au fur et à mesure que l’on progresse dans l’histoire un tiroir s’ouvre et nous délivre une nouvelle information. Ce type de narration est la plus commune.

En d’autres termes, peu importe l’histoire que l’on raconte, le plus important est de la raconter avec brio. C’est ce qui fait le succès de beaucoup de films et de jeux vidéos.

My blog today will focus on Weldon Thornton’s Voices and Values in Joyce’s Ulysses. The book in general focuses on Joyce’s narrative and literary forms, their connotations, historical underpinnings, and whether or not Joyce is promoting certain narrative/literary modes over others. The general argument given is that Joyce was not “in-line” with the modernist themes of the “realist” novel or the contemporary perspective that the omniscient third-person narrative was archaic in novel writing.

In particular, I focus on chapter 5 “Voices and Values in Later Episodes,” as each of the episodes after 6 (excluding 8 and the last half of “Nausicaa”) are related in that they exhibit literary and narrative forms that Joyce disapproves of for one reason or another. In the section “Penelope,” the feminine interior monologue creates “the only moment in the novel where a figural voice totally obliterates the authorial narrative voice throughout the entire chapter.” Thornton claims that Joyce’s use of the monologue is to exhibit both its strengths and short-comings, and that he has set up the episode for the best possible scenario, having it come at the end (i.e., letting us get acquainted with Molly’s relationships with others and her general situation for an entire book before dropping us in) and allowing zero interactions to occur with the outside world during the monologue. For Ulysses, the form is deftly handled.

There are, however, obvious problems with it. The lack of punctuation makes sense when depicting the wandering un-punctuated thoughts of Molly, but the speaker (thinker?) surely has pauses of thought, changes in inflection, that cannot be conveyed without punctuation. Moreover, this absence of punctuation highlights puzzles and confusion, and actually makes the reader more aware of the author. As Thornton quotes one E. R. Steinberg: “Constantly feeling for the ends of the sentences as he progresses, the reader is continually aware of the difficulty of the reading and conscious of the fact not only that he is reading but that he is solving a puzzle. This awareness, of course, keeps him aware of the author, who presented the difficulty. As well, by completely effacing the narrator the ability to build a “world” examining self and society, Ulysses’ Dublin, breaks down.

I’m not entirely sure I agree with Thornton, in terms of this chapter at least. Afetr reading the chapter, I can agree that occasionally I despised Joyce for putting me into this puzzle, but a lot of the time I was lost in Molly’s thoughts, and keenly aware of only the “Molly” part of that phrase.

Alright, so I’m so far behind on my NaNoWriMo that I’m going to have to write all day today to catch up. I wrote for a long time yesterday though, and I’ve found that because of this I’m actually narrating  myself as I go about my daily life. Even the most mundane things are not safe from my constant self narration. It makes me wonder if I’m going to start talking like that too. I guess only time will tell.

-Rich

Le curieux