4 days ago
14
I was rereading portions of the Proteus chapter and came across this passage:
His shadow lay over the rocks as he bent, ending. Why not endless till the farthest star? Darkly they are there behind this light, darkness shining in the brightness, delta of Cassiopeia, worlds. Me sits there with his augur's rod of ash, in borrowed sandals, by day beside a livid sea, unbeheld, in violet night walking beneath a reign of uncouth stars. I throw this ended shadow from me, manshape ineluctable, call it back. Endless, would it be mine, form of my form?
What struck me was the phrase "violet night", because the only other time I came across it is in the title of a Wallace Stevens' poem : Two figures in dense violet night/Two_Figures_in_Dense_Violet_Night)
At first I interpreted "two figures" to mean a couple, but, if the poem alludes to this portion of Ulysses, then "two figures" could refer to Stephen and his imagined alter-ego "I, a changeling" as he mused about: "Me sits there...", "manshape ineluctable", "form of my form?"
Additionally, there are multiple imageries in the poem that seem to echo Stephen's thoughts:
From Proteus:
You find my words dark. Darkness is in our souls do you not think?
From the poem:
Use dusky words and dusky images. Darken your speech.
And many more: "the livid sea" and "sea-sounds", "delta of Cassiopeia" and "watching the stars fall", " , the color blue ("Now where the blue hell am I bringing her beyond the veil?" vs "Say that the palms are clear in a total blue")...
Is this too farfetch an idea? I dont hv a thesis for this, just some random observations. A quick google returns nothing, but I think it would be cool if there's a possible connection between Stevens and Joyce.
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