26.10.2025 (1): The Still-Living

[sunshowerdandelion]

I read The Dead by James Joyce today, and gosh it really is different reading it as a standalone novella and as part of Dubliners. This was very helpfully pointed out to me by a paper. I do read the westward bent as an optimistic thing, and I do think it is about revelation, and I do think Joyce, when he wrote it, was able to view Ireland with a little more nostalgia. I think that's more a hope, though. It might just be that Gabriel is self-deluded still, but it's difficult to maintain when he's just met with his wife's dead former lover.