The first day of 729 days of writing Ulysses by hand.

• “I cannot dictate to a stenographer or type,” Joyce wrote to John Quinn in May 1917. “I write all with my hand” (LII: 396). Three years later the manuscript of the “Wandering Rocks” episode, sent to Quinn from Paris, was to refute this claim, as it is written in both Joyce and Frank Budgen’s hands.  – From “The Hand that Wrote Ulysses’ and the Avant-Texte of ‘Wandering Rocks by Ronan Crowley

• Ulysses is approximately 265,000 words in length, uses a lexicon of 30,030 words (including proper names, plurals and various verb tenses),[6] and is divided into eighteen episodes -wiki

• Joyce set himself to finishing Ulysses in Paris, delighted to find that he was gradually gaining fame as an avant-garde writer. A further grant from Miss Shaw Weaver meant he could devote himself full-time to writing again, as well as consort with other literary figures in the city. During this era, Joyce’s eyes began to give him more and more problems. He was treated by Dr Louis Borsch in Paris, undergoing nine operations from him until Borsch’s death in 1929. Throughout the 1930s he travelled frequently to Switzerland for eye surgeries and treatments for Lucia, who, according to the Joyces, suffered from schizophrenia. Lucia was analysed by Carl Jung at the time, who after reading Ulysses, concluded that her father had schizophrenia.[26] Jung said she and her father were two people heading to the bottom of a river, except that he was diving and she was falling. -wiki

• As he was completing work on Dubliners in 1906, Joyce considered adding another story featuring a Jewish advertising canvasser called Leopold Bloom under the title Ulysses. Although he did not pursue the idea further at the time, he eventually commenced work on a novel using both the title and basic premise in 1914. The writing was completed in October 1921. Three more months were devoted to working on the proofs of the book before Joyce halted work shortly before his self-imposed deadline, his 40th birthday (2 February 1922). -wiki

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As per last week’s post upon finishing my retype of Joyce’s Portrait Of The Young Artist As Young Man, today I began writing the entirety of Ulysses by hand into a paper journal. I’ve included here the first two pages.  Scans of all my writing for it will be posted up at the blog: Getting Inside James Joyce’s Head.

I am copying the 1993 Oxford Press of Ulysses which I bought for my English Modernism & Post-Modernism 2nd year university class at the University of Toronto. I’ve carried this copy for many years with me. It’s torn up and written on. I’ll be playing with the text. I won’t be changing the words or diverting from what is written in the original copy. I want to experiment with the letters and the words as visual mediums. It is 729 words long, therefore, it will take me 729 days to complete my writing.

Looking forward to the adventure.

For now, here’s my Pulp Hero Micro-Fic: Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus are two lost souls who are unaware of their powers. Bloom is an introvert who brings truth in the definition of self. Dedalus moves mountains in his search for identity. Together these two heroes forge freedom to a world in transition. However, it is one woman, Molly, who exposes Bloom for who he really is: the one and only, ULYSSES!

UPDATED SCANS: http://gettinginsidejamesjoyceshead.blogspot.ca/