An Addendum: Gordon

In [A Few Ulysses Supplements] I mentioned a handful of good commentaries of Joyce's work, especially of Ulysses; these were the few I relied on and thought would be the most helpful to anyone trying for a better grasp of Ulysses. I recently finished "Joyce and Reality" and "James Joyce's Metamorphoses" by the Connecticut College professor John Gordon--whom I have never heard even a mention of before three weeks ago--and I want to tell all of Joyce's readers out there to read Gordon's work. His own theories on Joyce's work are spot on and oh so obvious when he walks through the arguments. And he has kindly euthanized the stubbornly held beliefs of the old guard.
The most important ideas are:

1. Joyce was a realist in the strict sense of the word.
2. The chapters 10-18 are progressively more "real" than 1-9.
3. The identity of the Man in the Makintosh and other puzzles have real solutions, and these solutions are found in the text of Ulysses (go figure, right?).
4. The Oxen and Circe episodes run far deeper than previously thought.
5. Finnegans Wake is just as real an account as Ulysses, as Portrait, as Dubliners,...

It would be easy to propose these theories as interesting fantasies, and indeed some have been proposed before; proving them, on the other hand would be extremely difficult. But Gordon gives his proofs with scientific rigor and clarity. This is the kind of criticism literature needs.

Anyway, start out with "Metamorphoses" before hitting the more complex "Joyce and Reality".