A Lawyer's List of Joyce's Obscure Words & Incomprehensible Paragraphs from James Joyce's Ulysses
From the brief of Morris Ernst for Random House in U.S.A. v One Book Entitled Ulysses
In his brief for Random House, Morris Ernst makes the argument that Ulysses is just “too tedious and labyrinthine and bewildering for the untutored and the impressionable who might conceivably be affected by it. Such people would not get beyond the first dozen pages.” He described the language of the book as “baffling” and its construction “almost unbelievably involved.” He pointed in his brief to “incomprehensible paragraphs” and listed words selected from the book to represent its difficult vocabulary. Basically, Ernst made the argument that Ulysses was such a tough slog that hardly anyone could be sexually excited by it—either they wouldn’t make it through to the more graphic passages or they wouldn’t understand them when they got to them!
Some obscure words, chosen almost at random by Ernst, to illustrate the book’s difficulty:
whelks
WHELKS [a predatory marine mollusk with a heavy pointed spiral shell]
PARALLAX [the effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions]
CYGNETS [young swans]
ENELECHY [the realization of potential]
YOGIBOGEYBOX [The OED regards it as a “nonce-word”, occurring only once, and cites Joyce. It offers the definition “the paraphernalia of a spiritualist”]
illustration of houyhnhnm in Gulliver's Travels
HOUYHNHNM [a member of a race of horses endowed with reason in Swift's Gulliver's Travels]
APOCRYPHA [biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of Scripture]
TYMPANUM [the tympanic membrane or eardrum]
DEMISEMIQUAVER [in music, a thirty-second note]
VIDELICET [that is to say; namely (used especially to introduce examples, details, etc.)]
corned crubeens
CRUBEEN [a pig’s trotter, especially one that has been cooked]
CRUISKEEN [a small pitcher or jug for holding liquor]
OXTER [a person’s armpit]
EPICENE [having characteristics of both sexes or no characteristics of either sex; of indeterminate sex]
As an example of an “incomprehensible paragraph,” Ernst offered this:
Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read, seapawn and searack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot. Snotgreen, bluesilver, rust: colored signs. Limits of the diaphane. But he adds: in bodies. Then he was aware of them, sure. Go easy. Bald he was and a millionaire, masestro di color che sanno. Limit of the diaphane in. Why in? Diaphane, adiaphane. If you can put your five fingers through it, it is a gate, if not a door. Shut your eyes and see.