“Welcome O’ World….”
Discovering your artistic spirit is like seeing a reflection of your true self. — photo: © Diane Mason
Reading James Joyce’s “Portrait of An Artist As a Young Man” changed my life.
At the time, I was a rube from the East Coast who crossed the country on a bus to get a free education courtesy of California. It was 1961, and the Golden State was an accessible paradise for young refugees escaping repressive home towns which had been used up years ago.
Although I was an “A” student in high school English, I ended up in the remedial English class my first semester. I was humiliated, but it was the best thing that could have happened to me. It was there that I learned to write a declarative sentence that clearly expressed my thoughts. I decided to major in English.
By the next year, I was steeped in the humanities and reading voraciously. And then, during the final weeks of an English Lit class, I read “Portrait of An Artist As a Young Man” and knew, at last, who I was. I completely identified with Joyce’s protagonist, Stephen Dedalus. The revelation came as a relief.
In his first novel, published in 1919, Joyce shares what it’s like to be an artist without realizing it, and then when Stephen does understand why he’s different, he leaps off the precipice and leaves his family and friends behind to pursue the life of an artist.
His departure is preceded by a profound statement: “Welcome, O’ World, I go forth for perhaps the millionth time to encounter the reality of experience, and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.”
At the end of the semester, a friend and I dropped out and hitchhiked to Carson City, Nevada, where we worked at a casino to earn the money we needed to go to Europe that summer, which we did.
Like a magical mantra, I have recited Joyce’s words ever since before embarking on a new venture. They are empowering for me. They give all my wanderings purpose, and always lead me to my new home safely—wherever it is.
Thank you, Mr. Joyce, for helping me find myself by sharing your journey.
—Stephen Newton