James Joyce (post 4): Severe fear of thunder, starting in childhood, continuing as adult, is connected to his obsession with body and words.

Body

“ ‘Among other things,’ he [Joyce] said, ‘my book is the epic of the human body…The words I write are adapted to express first one of its functions then another. In Lestrygonians the stomach dominates and the rhythm of the episode is that of the peristaltic movement’ ” (1, p. 21).

See the column for organs of the body in Joyce’s schema for Ulysses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_schema_for_Ulysses

Words

Stephen, one of the main characters in Ulysses, “first appears as a named person in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man…The story of Stephen’s early years has one peculiarity that marks it off from the general experience of boys…that is his intense preoccupation with words…to Stephen they were mysteriously alive. In a sense, they were much more potent than the objects, actions, and relations they stood for. You say a word or think of its shape and sound and it makes you unhappy or afraid. You say another and a feeling of peace and joy comes to you” (1, p. 58).

Thunder

“Until he was twelve or thirteen, my brother was always beside himself with fear during thunderstorms…He would take refuge in the cupboard until the storm was over…It was a direct result of the religion of terrorism that Dante [a childish mispronunciation of Auntie, whose real name was Mrs. Conway, and who was called Mrs. Riordan in A Portrait of the Artist] had instilled into him…His fear of thunderstorms never quite abandoned him…In the early bohemian days in Trieste…when a thunderstorm came on, he quite lost self-control. He became irresponsible and gave way to acts of cowardice like a child or silly woman. Panic-stricken, he would clap his hands to his ears, run to crouch in some cupboard, or cuddle up in bed in the dark in order not to see or hear” (2, pp. 18-19).

Correction added 5:40 pm: In the next sentence in the biography, the words about Trieste, quoted from someone else, are debunked by Joyce's brother, who denies Joyce still had such fear of thunder as an adult. However, that still leaves the following (see below) about "thunder words" in Finnegans Wake. And after all, if the childhood scenario I speculate about—its causing multiple personality—has any validity, its psychological purpose would have been to prevent the severe fear of thunder from continuing into adulthood. Multiple personality is a way to cope with trauma; it is a dissociative psychological defense.

Thunder Words

On the first page of Finnegans Wake (1939), Joyce (1882-1941) coins a 100-letter word to refer to a thunderclap. It is one of ten “thunderwords” in the book: http://www.finnegansweb.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Thunderwords. The story of Finnegans Wake may involve getting to, or being, asleep. So it is possible that magical words are being used to fall or stay asleep (and protect Joyce from thunder?).

Comment

Thunder (and whatever it might have represented to him) caused James Joyce severe fear, beginning in childhood. Severe fear involves an effect on various body organs, such as the stomach and intestine. When, as a child, he was hiding from the thunder in a cupboard, it is possible that Joyce thought of words that magically seemed to ease his fear. And so words became his magical protector and obsession.

Since all this started in childhood—the developmental stage featuring imaginary companions and, with trauma, the onset of multiple personality—his way of coping with the thunder (and whatever else the thunder may have represented in his relationship with Auntie Dante) may have involved alternate personalities who protected him with the magic of their words.

1. Frank Budgen. James Joyce and the Making of ‘Ulysses’ [1934]. London, Oxford University Press, 1972.

2. Stanislaus Joyce. My Brother’s Keeper: James Joyce’s Early Years [1958]. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Richard Ellmann. Preface by T. S. Eliot. Da Capo Press, 2003.