In my Joyce seminar, I presented on an essay of criticism for a chapter in Ulysses. The people that presented earlier in the semester included a picture of the scholar on their handout; pictures are a nice way to break up the monotony of text summarizing a dry critical essay. I decided to add a picture to my handout, and I unexpectedly experienced the most hilarious moment of my week. Just to clarify, this is an essay published and re-published in well-respected venues for Joyce scholarship. The essay was theoretically complicated--it was somewhat impressive. I googled his name and this is what I found:
Yes, yes, and yes! I laughed out loud. Then I thought it was a mistake. I looked at a faculty university website. Different picture with the same hat and jacket--it must be his picture day outfit. Talk about unexpected.
New pastime: look up profile pictures for all authors of critical essays I read.
Date him. He's better than Stevie, I'm sure. He's got what I like to call "character!"
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