Hi Saffron, I'm just replying now due to the transatlantic time difference.I had not come across the word "pandybat" myself, until now.I'm surmising from the story it's some kind of schoolboy slang from the time or maybe that college.He talks about getting pandied and a pandying ,which translates to smacked ,no doubt.As you say ,much of the charm of the story, is the way Stephen's thoughts flit like a butterfly ,here and there to related things. Related at least ,in his mind.I'm still not sure what his age is in the story. Perhaps around 12. Hardly the age of a "Young man" of the title.The whole Parnell/Kitty O'Shea debacle was explosive and divisive in the extreme, as exemplified at the Christmas dinner. An unpleasant Christmas cracker!Many former supporters like Dante, turned against Parnell encouraged by public denouncements from the Catholic clergy.It largely wrecked his political career and in the story you hear his supporters say "They killed him". An interesting character, Parnell.He came close to acheiving home rule for Ireland through Gladstone's attempts to persuade the British parliament to vote for it. Defeated.I don't want to weary readers with the whole historic saga.Like a lot of Irish history ,it's stormy and violent.Good to hear your thoughts on the book.I'm enjoying it.

Is anyone interested in being the discussion leader on this? DWill did a bang-up job leading us through Dubliners. Everyone familiar with Peter Pan? Maybe if we all chap our hands and say we believe, DWill will show up and agree to lead this discussion. I believe, I believe...

Why not?There's not much happening here at the moment.I snuck over to the Dawkins book and posted there with a silly one.Quite a bit of verbal pandying there when the rational lock horns!Back to this book.Hopefully you can get a discussion leader,Saffron.

Just finished first chapter. Language has taken a journey with stephen until its quite conventional although still walking the line between 1st and 3rd person narative. It gives a feeling of being inside stephen's head aswell as watching the action. I like the bit where he's filing out of a room and deciding whether to demand justice from the rector. His mind presents an unassailably convincing argument first one way then the other, i recognise that pendulum. Iit also reminds me of tge adolescents grappling with truth. He asks who is right when dante and co argue so powerfully for their opinion, when teased by the other boys wonders what would be the correct response. It is like a young teen unpicking the concept of certainty or singular truth and finding reality to be more complex. I wonder if this is how the certainties of his cultural upbringing will start to unravell.

I found this site: http://www.enotes.com/portrait-of-the-a ... g-man-text
which underlines unusual words and phrases and explains their meanings. Pretty useful!

I am enjoying this novel. The writing style is whimsical and I also enjoy Joyce's use of dialogue.

Themes and Symbolism

We should keep an eye out for some of the themes that Joyce seems to be establishing in this first chapter. A few that stood out to me in the first chapter:

- Meaning of Names; Stephen Dedalus, God, Dante, even the boys at his school, Nasty Roche (Roach),; Remember that Joyce loves wordplay. I am familiar with Spanish and Dolan sounds similar to the Spanish word for pain, doler. Joyce is probably thinking of Latin.

- The idea of two choices,

- Heaven vs Earth; Stephen remarks on Fleming's drawing of the green Earth and the maroon clouds. He wonders which is the right one of the two. Notice that Dante is frequently associated with these two colors and concepts. This theme also comes up during the argument at Christmas.

- Blindness; Stephen's eyes are frequently referred to as weak and therefore he must wear glasses. His father wears them too and as a child this stood out to Stephen. Stephen comes to understand injustice after his glasses are broken. Also recall Mr. Casey's story during Christmas. Is there a connection to ignorance or knowledge?

-The nature of Death; The field marshall, Parnell; When the talk of death occurs there is frequently reference to the sea. The Field Marshall suffers his wound overseas in Prague. Stephen has the vision of the ship when Parnell is proclaimed dead.

- Politics and Law; The argument again, the boys are referred to as the Roman Senate,

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Foreshadowing

Stephen is told never "to peach on a fellow" at the beginning of the chapter. This idea is mostly focused around Wells and the incident by the ditch. Yet, the chapter concludes with Stephen having reported the misdeeds of Dolan.

I believe!

There's also a fascinating passage during Stephen's fever visions.

"How pale the light was at the window! But that was nice. The fire rose and fell on the wall. It was like waves. Someone had put coal on and he heard voices. They were talking. It was the noise of the waves. Or the waves were talking among themselves as they rose and fell."

This is an interesting bit of rhetoric that Joyce employs. Using simile, Joyce equates fire and water. Yet their properties are diametrically opposed. Throughout the chapter, water connotes cold and darkness while fire connotes heat and light. Nevertheless, this chapter implies that fire and water in spite of their obvious differences are akin to each other on another level.

Joyce also plays with personification. It's not quite clear if the people or the waves are the ones talking in reality.

Im glad you mentioned the waves simile. Thyat stru ck me as interesting too and really let me visualise the shadows swimming on the walls. Great how when he gazes into the fire his mind drifts again in a fever and he sees a dream ship in another dream. I recognise this tendency of the mind to shift into another scene through a brief association. Shadows become waves, waves a sea, then a ship and a drama unfolds. Like my mind wandering this morning as i waited to become fully conscious.

Just finished the first chapter. This is my first encounter with Joyce found the writing style and the way Stephen's mind jumped from one subject to another a little disconcerting at first But really started to enjoy the writing style towards the end of the chapter.

As mentioned above I also particularly enjoyed the christmas dinner scene and the family argument surrounding religion and politics

Like Flann 5 I also wondered at Stephen's age in this chapter although in my head he was younger maybe 8ish but in retrospect I think Flann maybe closer to the mark as 12 seems more likely to be the age where he would be having christmas dinner with the adults while his younger siblings do not.

Another thing that struck me was Stephens seemingly inexperience compared to the other fellows but maybe it only seems this way as we get to hear his thoughts and doubts on what is right or wrong.

The other thing that struck me personaly was the mention of Napoleon saying that his frist holy communion was the greatest day of his life it made me think of mine and although I am not a traditionally religious person one of my greatest childhood memories is of my first holy communion.