Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:
Stephen watched the three glasses being raised from the counter as his father and his two cronies drank to the memory of their past. An abyss of fortune or of temperament sundered him from them. His mind seemed older than theirs: it shone coldly on their strifes and happiness and regrets like a moon upon a younger earth. No life or youth stirred in him as it had stirred in them. He had known neither the pleasure of companionship with others nor the vigour of rude male health nor filial piety. Nothing stirred within his soul but a cold and cruel and loveless lust. His childhood was dead or lost and with it his soul capable of simple joys and he was drifting amid life like the barren shell of the moon.
— James Joyce
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
Funny how the moon turns up twice in that passage.
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Sounds like a guy to NOT have a beer with
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Stephen always struck me as about as interesting as Holden Caulfield. Good lord, the adolescent self-dramatization. Get back to me in ten or twenty years, dude — maybe then I’ll want to spend some time with you.
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A bit hard spending the full length of a novel with him, that’s for sure.
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Thank god for funky, rueful ol’ Leopold. Molly too. I wouldn’t have gotten thru the book had it been entirely lodged in Stephen’s head. Funny how few of the critics and profs will come out and admit that Stephen’s a tiresome (and banal) bore.
Though … Hmmm. Was he the first of the modern tiresome, self-dramatizing young bores? If so, maybe he’s some kind of creation worth noting.
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Oh, this is from ARTIST, not ULYSSES. Or are Molly and Leopold in ARTIST as well? I haven’t finished it.
I think I read about 2/3 of ULYSSES. Never consciously stopped reading it. Just put it down one day and never came back to it. Did I miss out on something major? I am something of a philistine, so who knows. Doing an audio version of ARTIST now. It is both impressive and dreary.
Maybe you’re right that Stephen is a forerunner of the angsty youth figure. Hmmm…
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