But we are living in a sceptical and, if I may use the phrase, a thought-tormented age: and sometimes I fear that this new generation, educated or hyper-educated as it is, will lack those qualities of humanity, of hospitality, of kindly humour which belonged to an older day.
— James Joyce, born on this date in 1882
The sentence quoted is taken -- sonorous words and noble sentiment -- from the speech of a fictional character (Gabriel's introductory remarks to his Christmastime toast at Aunt Julia's dinner party in "The Dead"). Not that Joyce himself wouldn't in some measure agree: but, as "in some measure" suggests, the maps of fictional and author's-own thoughts stand in a complicated relation, not one-to-one. For his birthday remembrancer, I'd rather see them wearing quotation marks than, as here, directly attributed to James Joyce.
ReplyDeleteScrupulously, but not over-scrupulously (or am I?) yours,
--Bac.