[James Joyce, who said he was "loonely in me loneness" at the end of
FINNEGANS WAKE, wasn't quite alone]
-- Focus on human condition.
-- Focus on language (Joyce sees potential, Kubrick sees
problems);
-- Left their home country (Joyce to France, Kubrick to England);
-- Integrative art (compiling from wide variety of sources master
myths, then integrating these myths into super-myths which
encompass the others);
-- Desire for perfection (and time spent on crafting art);
-- Belief in Infinity, historical cycles, spiraling recurrence,
male/female principle, duality.
-- Use of puns.
-- Compression of several meanings into one; "portmanteau" word,
Joyce, "portmanteau" image, Kubrick.
-- Encoding meanings so that they reveal themselves only if
the proper decoding schema is used.
Joyce: FINNEGANS WAKE (idea of the birth/death/resurrection
cycle)
FINN = end
EGANS = again
WAKE = a) wake up
b) Irish death celebration
Kubrick: HAL = IBM
POE = a) Peace On Earth
b) Code to bring back planes
Date on picture in THE SHINING: July 4, 1921
-- Forcing reader to go beneath the surface to get meaning.
-- Joyce: ULYSSES
Kubrick: ODYSSEY
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