# he reads to us from something called 'Ulysses'. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 9, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891 "2014-10-09T20:15:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/1 "2014-10-09T20:15:39Z")
\*And the head coach wants no sissies, So he reads to us from something called ‘Ulysses’. \* Thanks to Alan Sherman. But ‘Ulysses’? By James Joyce? Or Homer? And, why would that make boys less- “sissy-like”? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/2 "2014-10-09T20:26:26Z")
Click on “Censorship”: > **[Ulysses (novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel))** > > Ulysses is a modernist novel by Irish writer James Joyce. Parts of it were first serialized in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and the entire work was published in Paris by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, Joyce's fortieth birthday. It is considered one of the most important works of modernist literature and has been called "a demonstration and summation of the entire movement." According to Declan Kiberd, "Before Joyce, no writer of fiction had so f Uly... ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/3 "2014-10-09T20:29:02Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Click on “Censorship”: > > [Ulysses (novel) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel)) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ??? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/4 "2014-10-09T20:31:22Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > \*And the head coach wants no sissies, > So he reads to us from something called ‘Ulysses’. \* > > Thanks to Alan Sherman. > > But ‘Ulysses’? By James Joyce? Or Homer? And, why would that make boys less- “sissy-like”? I’m thinking [the poem](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174659) by Alfred Lord Tennyson. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/5 "2014-10-09T20:32:10Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Click on “Censorship”: > > [Ulysses (novel) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel)) [FTFY](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_%28novel%29#Censorship). Tennyson’s poem is more badass than JJ’s…odd novel; \*It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. \* ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/6 "2014-10-09T20:34:42Z")
Alan Sherman probably thought “Ulysses” was a better rhyme for “sissies” than “Homer” or “James Joyce”. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/7 "2014-10-09T20:52:24Z")
So, their naked ears were tortured, eh? ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/8 "2014-10-09T21:00:37Z")
I always thought the humor was in the boy’s deadpan reporting of things a parent didn’t want to hear their kids away at camp going through (getting lost, poison ivy, etc.) A creepy head coach reading them an obscene novel would seem to fit right in. A decade later, the coach might have read from _Hustler._ ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/9 "2014-10-09T21:22:26Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > So, their naked ears were tortured, eh? I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/10 "2014-10-09T21:33:49Z")
I was told as a kid in the 60s it was James Joyce’s Ulysses. I think most adults at the time took it that way even if there was some other meaning. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/11 "2014-10-09T21:43:34Z")
Allan Sherman. His parents divorced when he was very little, he moved around and changed schools a lot, and at one point spent time in a children’s home. He never went to camp, and the story about the coach is probably made up as well, so sub in whatever reading material makes the most sense to you. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/12 "2014-10-09T21:53:54Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ??? > > 🙂 This board will not properly auto-parse links which end in punctuation, which will always end up outside the closing tag and render the link virtually useless. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/13 "2014-10-09T21:59:47Z")
Here: > **[Ulysses (novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel))** > > Ulysses is a modernist novel by Irish writer James Joyce. Parts of it were first serialized in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and the entire work was published in Paris by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, Joyce's fortieth birthday. It is considered one of the most important works of modernist literature and has been called "a demonstration and summation of the entire movement." According to Declan Kiberd, "Before Joyce, no writer of fiction had so f Uly... I forgot about that annoying little feature; I’m surprised no one else knew about it. NOW you can click on “Censorship”! ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/14 "2014-10-09T22:04:43Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I was told as a kid in the 60s it was James Joyce’s Ulysses. I think most adults at the time took it that way even if there was some other meaning. I think **Spice Weasel** and **Mr. Kobayashi** got it right that it actually refers to [Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses”](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174659). > [@](#): > > Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’ > We are not now that strength which in old days > Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; > One equal temper of heroic hearts, > Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will > To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. That kind of earnest Victorian chest-thumping strikes me as much more in line with what a mid-20th-century summer camp head coach would have considered manly and tough than some weird-ass modernist novel. Remember, Sherman’s song came out in 1963. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/15 "2014-10-09T22:18:19Z")
But the James Joyce _Ulysses_ had been a banned book, and even (especially) people who hadn’t read it just knew it had to be dirty, like _Lady Chatterly’s Lover._ That’s just exactly what parents would not want to hear about summer camp. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/16 "2014-10-09T22:46:17Z")
In the 60s, the Joyce was in the news and well known. The Tennyson was an obscure poem known only to English majors. Further, Joyce had a reputation for being obscene and scandalous. Of course Sherman (whose book **The Rape of the A.P.E.** is a great discussion of sexual mores of the time) meant Joyce. No one would have gotten the reference to Tennyson. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/17 "2014-10-09T23:46:26Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > In the 60s, the Joyce was in the news and well known. The Tennyson was an obscure poem known only to English majors. Further, Joyce had a reputation for being obscene and scandalous. Of course Sherman (whose book **The Rape of the A.P.E.** is a great discussion of sexual mores of the time) meant Joyce. No one would have gotten the reference to Tennyson. Agreed. I was a kid in the 1960s when this came out^, and I knew even then that this line referred to Joyce’s book. It was, as RC says, still in the news. \*There was a Camp Grenada board game (my friend had it). Allan Sherman appear5ed in the commercial, playing it and singing bits from the song. [https://search.yahoo.com/search;\_ylt=Ah91i5aZ4r1b9x8R4piyBeebvZx4?p=Camp+Granada+game+commercial&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-703&fp=1](https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=Ah91i5aZ4r1b9x8R4piyBeebvZx4?p=Camp+Granada+game+commercial&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-703&fp=1) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/18 "2014-10-10T05:40:17Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > In the 60s, the Joyce was in the news and well known. The Tennyson was an obscure poem known only to English majors. Further, Joyce had a reputation for being obscene and scandalous. Of course Sherman (whose book **The Rape of the A.P.E.** is a great discussion of sexual mores of the time) meant Joyce. No one would have gotten the reference to Tennyson. But JJ version had been out of censorship for over 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/19 "2014-10-10T07:54:13Z")
The endless British-versus-American-pronunciation business: here in England at any rate, I’m used to the name being pronounced “YOO-li-seez”, as opposed to the American “Yoo-LISS-eez” – stress on different syllables. (Or maybe the way of saying it that I employ is peculiar to my particular circle, not my country as a whole.) At all events, because of this, the couplet in the OP feels to me, forced and “wrong”. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891/20 "2014-10-10T11:29:06Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But JJ version had been out of censorship for over 30 years. Yes, but it still had a reputation as a notorious book, and, more importantly, it was a short phrase suitable for a quick joke in a novelty song. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-reads-to-us-from-something-called-ulysses/700891.md?page=2)