Reading Ulysses - Introductory Session, 9th December 2014

You may have heard of the Reading Ulysses course that we have successfully run in Blackrock Education Centre.  You may have even attended the course already but you know of someone who might enjoy it.  We are delighted to announce that Dr Seamus Cannon has offered to guide us again in the adventure that is to discover what has been described by many critics as ‘one of the greatest novels ever written'
Introduction to the course: Tuesday, December 9th, 7:30
Tuesdays in 2015, from 7:30 to 9:30

January 13th

February 10th

March 10th

April 14th

May 12th

June 9th
Please email adela@blackrockec.ie [1] If you intend to come on the 9th December,  just to make sure we have enough coffee and biscuits to welcome you.  And, if you are curious enough, go to the end of this item to read Carl Jung’s letter to James Joyce, presenting him with a copy of his article on Ulysses.

 
The course is not going to make you a world expert on the Ulysses but it will definitely put you in the category of those who know what the book is about. With six sessions, one per month, we will finish in time to enjoy Bloomsday 2015, with some walks and visits between sessions.  As before, we will have an introduction to the course on December 9th, at 7:30.  Come along, bring a friend, chat, ask, discuss… and decide whether you would like to register on the night (€60 for the course).
 
If you intend to come on the 9th December please email adela@blackrocke.ie [2] just to make sure we have enough coffee and biscuits to welcome you.  And, if you are curious enough, go to the end of this item to read Carl Jung’s letter to James Joyce, presenting him with a copy of his article on Ulysses.
 

September 27th, 1932
 
Dear Sir,
Your Ulysses has presented the world such an upsetting psychological problem that repeatedly I have been called in as a supposed authority on psychological matters.
Ulysses proved to be an exceedingly hard nut and it has forced my mind not only to most unusual efforts, but also to rather extravagant peregrinations (speaking from the standpoint of a scientist). Your book as a whole has given me no end of trouble and I was brooding over it for about three years until I succeeded to put myself into it. But I must tell you that I’m profoundly grateful to yourself as well as to your gigantic opus, because I learned a great deal from it. I shall probably never be quite sure whether I did enjoy it, because it meant too much grinding of nerves and of grey matter. I also don’t know whether you will enjoy what I have written about Ulysses because I couldn’t help telling the world how much I was bored, how I grumbled, how I cursed and how I admired. The 40 pages of nonstop run at the end is a string of veritable psychological peaches. I suppose the devil’s grandmother knows so much about the real psychology of a woman, I didn’t.
Well, I just try to recommend my little essay to you, as an amusing attempt of a perfect stranger that went astray in the labyrinth of your Ulysses and happened to get out of it again by sheer good luck. At all events you may gather from my article what Ulysses has done to a supposedly balanced psychologist.
With the expression of my deepest appreciation, I remain, dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
C. G. Jung