On a very basic level, this book is really just one big puzzle. The mother of all puzzles. The greatest puzzle ever told. So, in honor of this, I think I am going to start researching each episode a little bit before reading it. I have done this with Episode 7, Aeolus, and it has paid off. You see, Aeolus is the Greek god of the winds and Joyce sprinkles many clever references to wind throughout the episode. There is no way I would have caught this without knowing this beforehand. I’m just not that smart. So, research then read, in direct contradiction to one of my previous posts. Oh well. This book requires it. Spoilers be dammed.
Thinking about the book as nothing more than a big puzzle got me thinking. What is Art, really, outside of just being a mechanism for presenting a puzzle for the audience to decipher, the more ambiguous and clever, the better? We are a figurin’ sort, us humans. Is the aim of Art simply to invoke this desire in us, to appeal to our deductive sensibilities? Of course it’s more than that but I think that this can be (and usually is) a main component of Art, a fundamental truth, complexity and deep layers a goal in and of itself. Face it, we like puzzles, and Joyce knew this for sure.
“I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality.” – James Joyce
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