'Sup homeslice!
This week we flying high with The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.
Aight, slick.
Let's get something straight up in here.
This book flowin' about one main thing: the development of the artist, Stephen Dedalus.
And we jumpin from one episode to another as he grindin' through all sorts of sh*t from
his time as a young thug.
At the start, we checkin his only memories from the baby days: smells, sensations, and
a story his Pops once told him about a moo cow.
Hmmhmm.
Later, Stephen gets sent to Clongowes Wood College.
And even though he just a little G gettin schooled with other homies, he realize he
ain't like the rest of these simple scrubs.
But soon Stephen don't gotta go back to that trap no more.
His Daddy been acting a straight fool and the family all outta that cash money.
So the Dedalus crew high-tail it to Dublin, and Stephen starts thuggin in a new school.
One night, Stephen starts wandering around town and peeps a fine lil' number turning
tricks, so he throws her some dough and ends up dippin his pen in more than just ink, nah
mean?
Yeah!
Stephen starts chasin' tail and rubbin' it raw on the reg, until one day he hears some
tight ass preacher rhymin' about fire and brimstone.
Stephen just about sh*ts his pants and decides it's time to hit that Bible HARDCORE.
Our boy keepin' it so church that one of the priests ask him to join up with his holy posse
and enter the priesthood.
Eventually, Stephen all like 'nah, priest blood, but that ain't my style.
Then one day while Stephen lurkin round the beach, he catches a glimpse at one of the
finest asses he's ever seen.
A ass so fine that it changes a brother's life FOREVER.
After that, he decide he gonna spread those wings and create like a true blue artist with
a free and proud soul.
Like a boss.
But all the cats he kickin' it with- family, friends, religious peeps, they all just crampin'
his style.
So Stephen keeps it real and chucks up the deuce to the world he know.
Let me lay this game on you, B.
This book about a sensitive little G, comin up in a family, religion, and country that
tryna drill a certain view of the world in his head.
But as he grow up, Steve-O decide he just can't flow with that mess.
Like Cranley say, Stephen wanted
And the only way to keep it that trill is to throw up your middle finger to all that
sh*t that's holdin' you back.
Now if you goin' hard in the paint, you gots to peep Joyce's mad artistry up in here.
See this sh*t right here is one of the first books in which the motifs are the most important
element of the text.
And Joyce flippin' them literary devices like a mothaf*ckin' hustler.
This cat packed just about all the novel's images, motifs, and symbols in the first few
pages: daddies, roads, water, ladies, roses, birds...
I could go on, playa!
Matta fact, some of this sh*t so similar to old Jim Joyce's life that some cases think
this book is straight up autobiographical.
And that Stephen reppin' Joyce himself.
See, like Stevie, Jimmy J had the balls to stick it to his upbringing and define himself
outside his country and religion.
Even though Stephen's story starts off with his biological Daddy tryna school him by dropping
some verses about how the world be, our main man ends up gettin learned by a different Pops,
the one he's named after...
Stephen actually goin' off about a character in Greek myth named Daedalus, and Daedalus
is one of the baddest mothers you ever seen.
Fool could invent like nobody's business.
Matta fact, he and his son, Icarus, actually busted out of the slammer, by ghetto-riggin'
some DIY wings.
Just like the Greek Daedalus, Stephen just wanna create and be free.
But before he can fly high, he gotta grind through an earthly prison full of weak ass
chumps.
And they ain't no better way to stay fly than hittin' that subscribe button and gettin'
you some Thug Notes threads!
See you next week, playa!
Peace!