Ulysses by James Joyce - Balancing Information in Ithaca "I consider this book [Ulysses] to be the most important expression that the present age has found; it is a book to which we are all in debt, and from which none of us can escape. excrement, in pounds, produced each year. the entire Irish population (p. 718). The type of information offered, however, is not the most shocking quality of the story. Instead, it is the amount of information Joyce presents to the reader that is a shock. “Ithaca” is the only episode of Ulysses that offers too much information. Other episodes present a glaring lack of information to understand the meaning of the text. In “Lestrygonians,” for example, recognizing Bloom's observation of Blazes Boylan is the key to understanding Bloom's feelings. Boylan, however, is only identified by his "straw hat in the sun", a reference to the description presented 100 pages earlier in the novel (pp 92, 183). The shocking wealth of information offered in "Ithaca" serves as compensation for the rest of the novel's ambiguity and difficulty. The information allows the reader to draw thematic conclusions that would not have been possible without an increase in the amount of information offered. However, not all of the information in “Ithaca” is useful. Although some information allows important conclusions to be drawn, most seems trivial and misplaced. Information like that offered regarding human feces serves two purposes. This adds immense pleasure to what could otherwise be a serious, serious episode. Perhaps more importantly, in the middle of the paper the reader can easily be drawn too far into the light of meaning. When too much information is presented, nothing is asked of the reader. This in turn diminishes the intensity of the reader's experience. In “Ithaca,” Joyce provides insight into a perfectly balanced narrative: one that offers enough information for comfortable understanding while still leaving space for intense, individual reading. Only when this balance is achieved, between information and its absence, can the reader benefit from the softest and most revealing light. Works cited and consulted Arnold, Armin. James Joyce, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., Inc, 1971. Gifford and Seidman. Notes for Joyce. New York: EP Dutton & Co., 1974. Joyce, James. Ulysses. New York: Modern Library, 1992. Loehrich, Rolf. Ulysses' secret. Folcroft, PA: Folcroft Press, 1969.