![My abstract for 'Weird Modernisms', the MSA 2026 Annual Conference:
While Joyce’s first major texts are largely in the realist mode [i.e. Dubliners (1914), and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)], sections of Ulysses (1922) and the whole of Finnegans Wake (1939) might classed as texts of weird modernist literature, interested in altered states (hallucination, druggy visions, dreams), in reworking or parodying aspects of ‘alternative’ spiritual culture (esotericism, hermeticism, magic, myth, the occult, and Theosophy), and in creating techniques of literary and linguistic defamiliarization. In turn, Joyce’s texts have attracted members of what Erik Davis has termed the culture of ‘high weirdness’, especially in 1970s California, namely Terence McKenna, Philip K. Dick, and Robert Anton Wilson.[1] Terence Mckenna (philosopher, ethnobotanist and advocate of psychedelic drugs), gave lectures on Joyce and took a copy of Finnegans Wake to the jungles of La Chorrera in Colombia in 1971 to read while researching and experimenting with psilocybe mushrooms. Philp K. Dick refers to Joyce’s work on a number of occasions in his gnostic science fiction VALIS trilogy (1978-82). And the countercultural figure Wilson discusses Joyce, synchronicities, and coincidences in Coincidance: A Head Test (1988) and in a number of lectures. This talk will assess Joyce’s engagement with a variety of ‘weird’ sources and examine his influence on twentieth century American weird cultures. This paper will also attempt to answer the following questions: Was Joyce serious or dismissive regarding weird experiences, sources, and cultures? What was it about Joyce’s work that attracted figures of 1970s American counter culture/weird culture? Can ‘high weirdness’ help us to understand Joyce? Can Joyce help us understand to ‘high weirdness’?
[1] See Davis, Erik. High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. Strange Attractor Press and the MIT Press, 2019.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ik3jam6cfmgvqrv5vpt6zulp/bafkreig5n523muba35v4ups5cgjaktkf444ynobla4k2bfeppclqa2ae5q)
My abstract for 'Weird Modernisms', the MSA 2026 Annual Conference: While Joyce’s first major texts are largely in the realist mode [i.e. Dubliners (1914), and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)], sections of Ulysses (1922) and the whole of Finnegans Wake (1939) might classed as texts of weird modernist literature, interested in altered states (hallucination, druggy visions, dreams), in reworking or parodying aspects of ‘alternative’ spiritual culture (esotericism, hermeticism, magic, myth, the occult, and Theosophy), and in creating techniques of literary and linguistic defamiliarization. In turn, Joyce’s texts have attracted members of what Erik Davis has termed the culture of ‘high weirdness’, especially in 1970s California, namely Terence McKenna, Philip K. Dick, and Robert Anton Wilson.[1] Terence Mckenna (philosopher, ethnobotanist and advocate of psychedelic drugs), gave lectures on Joyce and took a copy of Finnegans Wake to the jungles of La Chorrera in Colombia in 1971 to read while researching and experimenting with psilocybe mushrooms. Philp K. Dick refers to Joyce’s work on a number of occasions in his gnostic science fiction VALIS trilogy (1978-82). And the countercultural figure Wilson discusses Joyce, synchronicities, and coincidences in Coincidance: A Head Test (1988) and in a number of lectures. This talk will assess Joyce’s engagement with a variety of ‘weird’ sources and examine his influence on twentieth century American weird cultures. This paper will also attempt to answer the following questions: Was Joyce serious or dismissive regarding weird experiences, sources, and cultures? What was it about Joyce’s work that attracted figures of 1970s American counter culture/weird culture? Can ‘high weirdness’ help us to understand Joyce? Can Joyce help us understand to ‘high weirdness’? [1] See Davis, Erik. High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. Strange Attractor Press and the MIT Press, 2019.
Really looking forward to discussing ‘Weird Joyce’ at 'Weird Modernisms', the @moderniststudies.bsky.social 2026 Annual Conference, being held with @modernistudies.bsky.social.
www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
#JamesJoyce #WeirdModernisms #BAMS2026 #MSA2026
@standrewsenglish.bsky.social
