Few words about Joyce
I remember my first impression from the James Joyce’s book. It’s something transcendental. May be it would be more correct to take some other book… I took the ‘Ulysses’. Joyce described one day of Leopold Bloom, one Dublin Jew. It was one day - June 16, 1904 - which contained a whole epoch.
Reading Joyce I’m surprised again - how man can know so much! And I make sure again - great knowledge is not the guarantee for happiness. But it probably gives a bigger proof to life. ‘Probably’ - because it’s only a potency which can be and should be (in normal case) realized in the some fruit sort. In the case of Joyce there was fruit. Fruit is evident but may be not so simply kind. In his life and literature one can see number of conflicts, and one of the main was ‘fathers-sons’ conflict. Others: England - Ireland, religion - self-will (своеволие) or better human freedom, friendship - gratitude (признательность). His prose becomes more coherent (связный, понятный) only if to take into account these internal conflicts.
I remember how harsh and accusatory (обвинительный) there were his words about God and Christianity - even at that time when I was far from religion. Joyce studied at Jesuit College and apparently (по-видимому) faced with evident diversity (различие, несходность) between studied subject and real life. His disability to fit his mentality and internal convictions to the rules of external world brought to breaks in life and accordingly in literature.
Interesting fact - geniuses seldom find calmness and harmony in the society and family: their spirit outgrows (перерастать) the common frames, it searches something high, something beyond. To give peace - it can be given only by highest spirit, that spirit which you admit higher then yours. Thus your spiritual state can inspire somebody who is only at the beginning. To somebody there is given a bigger insight (проницательность, проникновение в суть), bigger talents. And no every man can manage with that. We can like masterpieces of these or those geniuses but we’d prefer not to have close relations with some of them. Joyce was complex man, complex in communion, but his influence to literature is doubtless. He searched through his heroes a kind of man who would be integrated in spite of his trifle (малость). And he wanted to adjust his man to life in society and internal life and more in internal one as Joyce himself was stray (одинокий,покинувший) maverick. Genius in literature he was broken in life.
I remember K.S.Lewis… internal dissonance after loss his wife didn’t break him. He retained (сдерживать) an attack of despair. “I’m in peace with God” he remembered these words of his wife at the end of life, “Non serviam” - Joyce’s words before any losses. Whose life was fuller?
Joyce was great author and not great human. His searching was sincere, fascinating; his protest was sincere and destructive… knowledge is not always way and light.