Throughout his life James Joyce attempted to escape – from war, religion, convention, narrative structure, language…
“When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets.”
– from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Published in 1916.
James Joyce: 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941.
See also
Samuel Beckett’s last poem
Elsewhere
Brion Gysin website
Watch Anjelica Huston on James Joyce
Does escape=rebellion?