Comments on: tramarbeit http://adswithoutproducts.com/2008/04/28/tramarbeit/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:00:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: SEK http://adswithoutproducts.com/2008/04/28/tramarbeit/#comment-704 SEK Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:09:42 +0000 http://adswoproducts.wordpress.com/?p=401#comment-704 At the time, I argued that he connected the trams to the newspaper industry in order to condemn them both. (As well as a certain form of modernization generally.) But the argument's a mess, really, because it's built on some naive assumptions about what would constitute oppositional thought. (Think, like, something Craig would write. It's about that bad.) Looking back on it now, I'd say that Joyce condemned Murphy (owner of both the press and the trams) in the same way he condemned Guinness, <em>i.e.</em> he accepted them as belonging to the warp and woof of Irish society but was bitter about it. To be honest, I'd need to re-read <em>Ulysses</em> to figure it out ... and that's something I've been thinking of doing as soon as I finish the dissertation. Which means soon. Since the paper was accepted with a revise-and-resubmit a few years back, but then, mysteriously, never published, nor were my many emails as to why ever answered, it might not be a bad idea for me to revisit this all and try to get it published elsewhere. At the time, I argued that he connected the trams to the newspaper industry in order to condemn them both. (As well as a certain form of modernization generally.) But the argument’s a mess, really, because it’s built on some naive assumptions about what would constitute oppositional thought. (Think, like, something Craig would write. It’s about that bad.) Looking back on it now, I’d say that Joyce condemned Murphy (owner of both the press and the trams) in the same way he condemned Guinness, i.e. he accepted them as belonging to the warp and woof of Irish society but was bitter about it. To be honest, I’d need to re-read Ulysses to figure it out … and that’s something I’ve been thinking of doing as soon as I finish the dissertation. Which means soon. Since the paper was accepted with a revise-and-resubmit a few years back, but then, mysteriously, never published, nor were my many emails as to why ever answered, it might not be a bad idea for me to revisit this all and try to get it published elsewhere.

]]> By: adswithoutproducts http://adswithoutproducts.com/2008/04/28/tramarbeit/#comment-701 adswithoutproducts Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:10:26 +0000 http://adswoproducts.wordpress.com/?p=401#comment-701 Innaresting, SEK. Do / did you get the sense that Joyce was in tangible way invested in the nationalization of these trams, their transformation into a public utility rather than a wholly owned business? Innaresting, SEK. Do / did you get the sense that Joyce was in tangible way invested in the nationalization of these trams, their transformation into a public utility rather than a wholly owned business?

]]> By: SEK http://adswithoutproducts.com/2008/04/28/tramarbeit/#comment-700 SEK Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:37:28 +0000 http://adswoproducts.wordpress.com/?p=401#comment-700 My master's thesis is 1) not very good, but 2) all about the trams in <em>Ulysses</em>. To wit: <blockquote><em>Ulysses</em> demystifies this imperial ideology of progress and productivity through a series of allusions to the Lockout of 1913, condemning Murphy’s earnest nationalist endeavors as unintentional corollaries of his exploitation of the common Irish laborer. By interweaving references to Murphy’s tramcars and newspapers with images of the Irish <em>flâneur</em> and fantasies of masturbation, Joyce offers a critique of the imperial project by means of its ironic, unintended results: the Irish <em>flâneur</em> signifies the suppression of alternative (and unprofitable) order of transportation, and the fantasies of masturbation an immanent critique of capitalism’s “reproductive” capabilities. In concert, these minor critiques, connected not thematically but by the crisscrossing of tramcars and railways, amount to an argument calling for the reorganization of Dublin’s social and economic orders along lines not owned and operated by William Martin Murphy. </blockquote> I really hope someone called me out on "the ideology of progress and productivity," but it's been so damn long I can't remember. My master’s thesis is 1) not very good, but 2) all about the trams in Ulysses. To wit:

Ulysses demystifies this imperial ideology of progress and productivity through a series of allusions to the Lockout of 1913, condemning Murphy’s earnest nationalist endeavors as unintentional corollaries of his exploitation of the common Irish laborer. By interweaving references to Murphy’s tramcars and newspapers with images of the Irish flâneur and fantasies of masturbation, Joyce offers a critique of the imperial project by means of its ironic, unintended results: the Irish flâneur signifies the suppression of alternative (and unprofitable) order of transportation, and the fantasies of masturbation an immanent critique of capitalism’s “reproductive” capabilities. In concert, these minor critiques, connected not thematically but by the crisscrossing of tramcars and railways, amount to an argument calling for the reorganization of Dublin’s social and economic orders along lines not owned and operated by William Martin Murphy.

I really hope someone called me out on “the ideology of progress and productivity,” but it’s been so damn long I can’t remember.

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