Medievalism: The Future of the Past

This book is another treasure from the University of Toronto. It was published by LEGAS in 2000 and is a record of the proceedings of the St. Michael’s College Symposium of 1999. As the fantastically dated cover image implies, the purpose of the symposium was to discuss medievalism and its progression in academe. From a piece deconstructing medieval imagery in mass media and contemporary advertising to a history of Victorian medievalism and medievalism in McLuhan, the text is both entertaining and illuminating. One essay of particular importance is Mediaevalism in Toronto: Etienne Gilson’s Vision, which recounts how and why Gilson established the Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto. To understand the circumstances surrounding the Institute’s foundation and observe what it has grown to become today is to appreciate the vision and foresight of Gilson and be grateful that this Immortal of the Académie français saw fit to lay these roots at St. Michael’s College. The University of Toronto is now a global leader in medieval studies and in 2014 it is important to remember on what this reputation was built.

The Special Collections and Archives of the Kelly Library at St. Michael’s College has more information and related links here.

“the sacred vessel everyone was seeking”

James Joyce and Heraldry

James Joyce & Heraldry

Joyce scholarship is compelling because it is a process of untangling rather opaque riddles and attempting to provide as many solutions as possible. After years of reading Joyce I hadn’t thought for a moment that heraldry might be of any significance, but I found this book by Michael J. O’Shea and it provided me a new way of looking. Published by SUNY Press in 1986, it combs through Joyce’s corpus to demonstrate that heraldry is an essential key to the symbols therein. Full of heraldic language and illustrations, the book provides the reader with a history of heraldry in literature and is exhaustive in its presentation of how heraldry functions in Joyce. I look forward to acquiring a copy of David Gordon Butler’s Bishop John Strachan and Heraldry in the University of Trinity College, Toronto (Stratford Herald Publishing) and reading it in tandem with O’Shea because I’m certain they will compliment each other in a manner befitting the subject. 

Joyce and the Law

Joyce and the Law

The ongoing Clowes v. LaBeouf copyright scandal has reminded me how much I enjoy the intersection of art and law. Despite the disturbing nature of LaBeouf’s transgressions, this combination of intellectual property law and the work of a cartoonist I admire is fascinating. (I say this with apologies to Mr. Clowes, and with my sympathies for his having to endure this nonsense.) If the case goes to court it will doubtlessly be open-and-shut, and it’s barely worthy of commentary from a legal perspective. The gossip blogs have already exhausted the story. Although the ordeal might not be setting precedent, it nevertheless reminded me of Snow v. The Eaton Centre Ltd. and the Ulysses censorship debacle. These cases are the kind that keep students of intellectual property excited about their studies, the kind that exhibit the intricacies of art and law when the disciplines come together. Some case studies are devoured as great literature, and in reading them as superb literary non-fiction I have long felt that Joyce would understand this perspective. For that reason I was especially excited to find the above-pictured copy of James Joyce Quarterly vol. 37, ‘Joyce and the Law‘, at a University of Toronto used-book sale-table. The pieces contained vary from readings of Joyce’s actual and fictional legal issues to contemporary copyright disputes being dealt with by the Joyce estate. Both legal and literary, the entire volume is an exciting read, an entertaining reminder that to read the law through a lens Joycean is to read it in a gleaming new light. 

Dragon City Mall

Joyce on a billboard in China, via

Aidan Johnston recently did a piece for Vice about Toronto’s Chinatown, presenting some pet shops and supermarkets as comic alternatives to Toronto’s new aquarium. His spoof begins at Dragon City Mall and it reminded me of my own exploration of that surreal Spanina landmark.

Last January I read a Toronto Star article about Dai Congrong’s translation of Finnegans Wake that immediately sold out in China. I knew it was unlikely that I’d find a copy in Toronto but I went down to Dundas and Spadina for a bit of Sino-Joycean flânerie. There were a few bookshops around there and it would be fun to poke around with purpose. I started at the little bookshop and stationer’s with the Canada Post outlet at Dragon City Mall (the place isn’t as desolate as Johnston makes it out to be in the Vice bit. When I explored the pet shop I didn’t see any homeless people. Just saying.) People were getting passport photos taken in the shop and the new Year of the Snake stamp sets and silver coins were being pushed hard. The shelves had some interesting translations but no Joyce. Unsurprised, I moved on.

Next was Chan Sheung Kee Book Company on Dundas. I didn’t know Dai’s Chinese title so I showed the shopkeeper the photo from the Toronto Star article (I had it on my BlackBerry) and said “I’m looking for this book, whatever the billboard says.” Apparently it included a transliteration of “Finnegans Wake” but I don’t remember what the rest of the billboard said. Was it a quote from the book? Something about lightning? Why do I seem to recall that? Can someone translate the billboard in the comments section? Anyways, I walked around and visited a few more shops. Some had zany programming playing on TVs and I saw some cool Japanese fashion mags and DVDs I wasn’t familiar with but obviously didn’t find the translation I was looking for. Did I ever really expect to? No. But it’s like I said, I just wanted an excuse to explore Chinatown.

From Chinatown I went to Hart House at U of T for chess club. I think my only opponents that evening were computer engineers from China so I got some of them to translate and phonetically transcribe the billboard image for me (I lost the transcription and have since forgotten what they told me). With the information they provided I called a couple Chinese bookshops in Mississauga and Markham, I think, but the ladies on the other ends of the lines couldn’t understand what I was trying to say. Neither could I. The search ended there.

freitag 13. dezember mmxiii

 

rectoverso.jpg

Yesterday I googled “james joyce message board” in search of some Joycean conversation. I didn’t see what I was looking for so this blog has been created to initiate the dialogue. It’s not going to be a strictly Joycean space, but he has engendered it and that’s important to note. He’s its base.

The November before last was the Beguiling‘s 25th anniversary celebration at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto. Charles Burns, Adrian Tomine and Chris Ware were there and Seth was emcee. At the autographs table I pulled a detached bookcover out of my rucksack for them to doodle on. I asked each cartoonist to draw the first image that came to mind. Burns was first and provided an illuminated bone in pencil. He asked if I wanted him to sign his name and I said “I don’t care” and he wrote it. Adrian Tomine was next, pigment-lining the fat kid taking a bite out of food for thought. Chris Ware was third and he started talking about his admiration of Joyce before giving me the eyepatch with what must have been a 0.05mm.  As I exited the cinema Seth and Chester Brown were sitting beside the concessions stand. For good measure I asked the same from them and received a hat and a pair of underwear.

Envoy, a Review of Literature & Art was published out of Dublin in 1951. I bought this collection of superb Joyce essays that morning at a university booktable. Someone had written the Joyce family motto in ballpoint beneath his name. It reads Mors Aut Honorabilis Vita which translates to something about death or an honourable life. My Virgil scribbling from that morning at the library, Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causus, says that a person who knows the causes of things is fortunate.

Look at this work as a very small web-lit supplement to the works of these artists. A collab impromptu. Maybe now you’ll notice a little Joycean lilt in something like Jimmy Corrigan. Maybe you won’t. Either way it’s fun to think about.

NEXT TIME…

I’ll start telling you about my literary pilgrimage through South America to Buenos Aires. ¡promo teaser below!