If parody is a form of imitation, and if imitation is a form of
flattery, then by my loopy logic James Joyce should be honored by the “comedic recontextualization” that we’ve put him through over the last
month-and-a-half.
Many of you will have seen the museum’s appearance on Comedy
Central’s Colbert Report last month,
in which host extraordinaire Stephen Colbert pit his “children’s book” I Am A Pole (And So Can You!) against
Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses.
Central’s Colbert Report last month,
in which host extraordinaire Stephen Colbert pit his “children’s book” I Am A Pole (And So Can You!) against
Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses.
As with all such film and TV productions, a lot got left on
the cutting room floor. We thought we’d share some of our unaired (some
might say, unasked for) observations about the books’ similarities here. This
is deep stuff, as you’ll see. Thanks to Director Derick Dreher, and Joyce scholar Dr. Melanie Micir, for many
of these references!
the cutting room floor. We thought we’d share some of our unaired (some
might say, unasked for) observations about the books’ similarities here. This
is deep stuff, as you’ll see. Thanks to Director Derick Dreher, and Joyce scholar Dr. Melanie Micir, for many
of these references!
- The story arcs of both stories
have to do with odyssey, self-examination, and awakening. Leopold Bloom’s wanderings throughout Dublin end
with certain realizations about the dynamic of his marriage, and his
relationship to both his wife and his friend, Stephen Dedalus. The titular pole from Colbert’s book goes
through various trials until it embraces its true “pole role” thanks to a
troupe of boy scouts. - Joyce’s novel has 18 episodes
and Colbert’s Pole character goes through 18 different incarnations before it
finds its true calling. - National contexts are at
the center of both books: the struggles of the Irish nation in Joyce’s novel,
and the very Americanness of America in I
Am A Pole. - Both Joyce and Colbert provoked
controversy in their works: Ulysses
for its supposedly ‘obscene’ descriptions of urination, defecation, and
masturbation; I Am A Pole for being
the only “children’s book” to include an illustration of a stripper. - Both books were issued in
large editions with blue bindings—Joyce’s novel with an austere yet iconic
blue/green cover (“Aegean blue,” in homage to Joyce’s own recontextualization
of Homer’s Odyssey), and Colbert’s
book with a deeper “American flag” blue.
- A number of characters and
scenes from Ulysses seem to have
found their way into Colbert’s book.
Early in I Am A Pole, the pole
is seen reading a newspaper, which brings to mind the ‘Aelous’ episode of Ulysses, which takes place in a newspaper office. A barber who also appears early in the book may
be an homage to Buck Mulligan’s appearance on the first page of Ulysses bearing a razor and bowl of
lather. And could those blooming flowers
on the first pages of Pole reference
a certain other Bloom? Leo-pole Bloom? - Both books are based on
true stories: The day on which Ulysses
takes place, June 16, 1904, was actually the day that Joyce met the woman who
would become his wife, Nora Barnacle. We
know I Am A Pole is based on a true
story because it says so on the last page of the book, and if the world has
learned one thing from Stephen Colbert, it’s always to take him at his word.
That’s our list of
similarities – can you think of more?
similarities – can you think of more?
Patrick Rodgers is the Traveling Exhibitions Curator at the Rosenbach Museum & Library.
🙂