‘The interior monologues illustrate that the idling mind is not all vacancy and nothingness.’

20 Jun 2019 | by Jonathan Wooding

Is Quaker ministry like poetry? Jonathan Wooding, taking a further look at the author James Joyce, thinks it might be

'You see, we don’t seek merely to recite what has already been composed, however august and authoritative that may be.' | Photo: Álvaro Serrano / Unsplash.

The literary ‘interior monologues’ of James Joyce’s characters have something to tell us about the nature of the idling mind. The idling mind during, say, a silent Meeting is not necessarily idle, in fact, but may well be a crucible of antagonymic thoughts and images – ones that might contain oppositional meanings (see 17 May). Just how creative is this state – this modality, as Joyce’s highfalutin’ Stephen Dedalus might say?

You need to login to read subscriber-only content and/or comment on articles.