[ExI] John C. Wright Interview

[Damien Broderick]

At 04:12 PM 1/25/2008 -0800, Lee quoted Wright:

>It ["Ulysses"] has the same relationship to a real novel as a Rorschach
>     blot has to a real painting. As in a Rorschach blot, any meaning,
>     including parallels to the Odyssey, can be invented freely by critics
>     and students of literature and shoehorned to fit.
>
>I'd really appreciate the opinion of anyone who's read the book, or has some
>independent knowledge about it.

Does this look like gibberish to anyone except a Philistine? It might 
be *rude* and *awful* and *degraded* (and realistic), but it's 
wonderful--and it helps to have a brilliant woman actress read it in 
an Irish accent:

"not too much singing a bit now and then mi fa pieta Masetto then Ill 
start dressing myself to go out presto non son piu forte Ill put on 
my best shift and drawers let him have a good eyeful out of that to 
make his micky stand for him Ill let him know if thats what he wanted 
that his wife is I s l o fucked yes and damn well fucked too up to my 
neck nearly not by him 5 or 6 times handrunning theres the mark of 
his spunk on the clean sheet I wouldnt bother to even iron it out 
that ought to satisfy him if you dont believe me feel my belly unless 
I made him stand there and put him into me Ive a mind to tell him 
every scrap and make him do it out in front of me serve him right its 
all his own fault if I am an adulteress as the thing in the gallery 
said O much about it if thats all the harm ever we did in this vale 
of tears God knows its not much doesnt everybody only they hide it I 
suppose thats what a woman is supposed to be there for or He wouldnt 
have made us the way He did so attractive to men then if he wants to 
kiss my bottom Ill drag open my drawers and bulge it right out in his 
face as large as life he can stick his tongue 7 miles up my hole as 
hes there my brown part then Ill tell him I want LI or perhaps 30/- 
Ill tell him I want to buy underclothes then if he gives me that well 
he wont be too bad I dont want to soak it all out of him like other 
women do I could often have written out a fine cheque for myself and 
write his name on it for a couple of pounds a few times he forgot to 
lock it up besides he wont spend it Ill let him do it off on me 
behind provided he doesnt smear all my good drawers O I suppose that 
cant be helped Ill do the indifferent l or 2 questions Ill know by 
the answers when hes like that he cant keep a thing back I know every 
turn in him Ill tighten my bottom well and let out a few smutty words 
smellrump or lick my shit or the first mad thing comes into my head 
then Ill suggest about yes O wait now sonny my turn is coming Ill be 
quite gay and friendly over it O but I was forgetting this bloody 
pest of a thing pfooh you wouldnt know which to laugh or cry were 
such a mixture of plum and apple no Ill have to wear the old things 
so much the better itll be more pointed hell never know whether he 
did it or not there thats good enough for you any old thing at all 
then Ill wipe him off me just like a business his omission then Ill 
go out Ill have him eying up at the ceiling where is she gone now 
make him want me thats the only way a quarter after what an unearthly 
hour I suppose theyre just getting up in China now combing out their 
pigtails for the day well soon have the nuns ringing the angelus 
theyve nobody coming in to spoil their sleep except an odd priest or 
two for his night office or the alarmclock next door at cockshout 
clattering the brains out of itself let me see if I can doze off 1 2 
3 4 5 what kind of flowers are those they invented like the stars the 
wallpaper in Lombard street was much nicer the apron he gave me was 
like that something only I only wore it twice better lower this lamp 
and try again so as I can get up early Ill go to Lambes there beside 
Findlaters and get them to send us some flowers to put about the 
place in case he brings him home tomorrow today I mean no no Fridays 
an unlucky day first I want to do the place up someway the dust grows 
in it I think while Im asleep then we can have music and cigarettes I 
can accompany him first I must clean the keys of the piano with milk 
whatll I wear shall I wear a white rose or those fairy cakes in 
Liptons I love the smell of a rich big shop at 7 1/2d a lb or the 
other ones with the cherries in them and the pinky sugar 11d a couple 
of lbs of those a nice plant for the middle of the table Id get that 
cheaper in wait wheres this I saw them not long ago I love flowers Id 
love to have the whole place swimming in roses God of heaven theres 
nothing like nature the wild mountains then the sea and the waves 
rushing then the beautiful country with the fields of oats and wheat 
and all kinds of things and all the fine cattle going about that 
would do your heart good to see rivers and lakes and flowers all 
sorts of shapes and smells and colours springing up even out of the 
ditches primroses and violets nature it is as for them saying theres 
no God I wouldnt give a snap of my two fingers for all their learning 
why dont they go and create something I often asked him atheists or 
whatever they call themselves go and wash the cobbles off themselves 
first then they go howling for the priest and they dying and why why 
because theyre afraid of hell on account of their bad conscience ah 
yes I know them well who was the first person in the universe before 
there was anybody that made it all who ah that they dont know neither 
do I so there you are they might as well try to stop the sun from 
rising tomorrow the sun shines for you he said the day we were lying 
among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his 
straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the 
bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 
years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he 
said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a 
womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the 
sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I saw 
he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get 
round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till 
he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only looked out 
over the sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt 
know of Mulvey and Mr Stanhope and Hester and father and old captain 
Groves and the sailors playing all birds fly and I say stoop and 
washing up dishes they called it on the pier and the sentry in front 
of the governors house with the thing round his white helmet poor 
devil half roasted and the Spanish girls laughing in their shawls and 
their tall combs and the auctions in the morning the Greeks and the 
jews and the Arabs and the devil knows who else from all the ends of 
Europe and Duke street and the fowl market all clucking outside Larby 
Sharons and the poor donkeys slipping half asleep and the vague 
fellows in the cloaks asleep in the shade on the steps and the big 
wheels of the carts of the bulls and the old castle thousands of 
years old yes and those handsome Moors all in white and turbans like 
kings asking you to sit down in their little bit of a shop and Ronda 
with the old windows of the posadas 2 glancing eyes a lattice hid for 
her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and 
the castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the 
watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown 
torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the 
glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all 
the queer little streets and the pink and blue and yellow houses and 
the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and 
Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I 
put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I 
wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I 
thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes 
to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my 
mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him 
down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart 
was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."

Damien Broderick