16.
May 1st, 1906
Dear Mr. Joyce,
Either I must have expressed myself carelessly in my letter to you or
you must have misunderstood what I said. I told you what the printer had
said not because I cared about his opinion as his opinion, or cared a bit
about his scruples, but because if a printer takes that view you can be quite
sure that the booksellers will take it, that the libraries will take it, and that
an inconvenienly large section of the general public will take it. You have
told me frankly that you look to your future being helped by your literary
work. The best way of retarding that result will most certainly be to persist
in the publishing of stories which — I speak commercially, not
artistically — will get you a name for doing work which most people
will
regret. You will understand that it is not my view which has to dictate our
conduct in this matter. It is both the effect which your persistence would
have on the commercial possibilities of the book, and the effect that the
publication of that
book as it now stands in manuscript would have on our business generally.
It would be easier to explain to you why I think you are taking a wrong
course when you refuse either to make any alterations or to suppress the
stories if I could have the opportunity of talking the matter over with you.
I hope, however, that this letter will show you that from
the point of view of policy there are two sides to the matter, and that you
will see your way to alter the position you have taken up. In any case,
please put on one side the idea that you seem to have, that I am at all
interested in our printer's conscience. Sincerely yours,
For Joyce's elaborate and witty defense of the "objectionable"
passages in his two stories and the word "bloody" see his letter of 5 May
(Gorman, p. 159). This letter also contains Joyce's own explanation of his
purpose in writing the stories, his method of arrangement, and his estimate
of their special quality.