Great addition to the thread paddymac.

I think the sort of rebelliousness you talk about is the luxury that the artist awards himself, and maybe needs to achieve the isolation and distance.

Theres a nice bit in The Road to Wigan Pier, where Orwell talks about how, as a young man, he saw himself superior to everyone else on the bus - but definitely a rebel, a jacobite prince in exile, a communist, or a socialist.......

I think it must be Joyce's mention in the poem of the poor old Stuarts being sold out by the Scots that triggered off that memory.

Anyway, although Joyce was rebellious; I cannot see him as embracing the necessities of torture, murder and maiming that go concommitant with the serious business of waging war.

Just think for a moment of the revulsion that must have been at the seat of his heart when he wrote that passage in Portrait about his 'retreat' where the priests told him about the terrors awaiting the youngsters in the afterlife. There is real cold anger at the violence being done to young minds. The change of gear from the innocent prattle of young people to the manipulative intimidation of the trusted old priest is masterly.

As someone said, Joyce would have been very aware of the situation, but surely this is too gentle a soul to be on the barricades dispensing out death and injury to his fellow man.