#then he acknowledges his relation to Daedalus when he calls him father — which would make Stephen Icarus
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#New Beast#writing#poetry#2024#December 2024#December 15 2024#one of my favorite lines of literature is the last line of Portrait of The Artist#its “Old artificer old father stand me now and ever in good stead.” (the orginal has commas but you cant do that in tumblr tags…)#the line gives a satisfying conclusion to the books Icarus metaphor#and acts as a good segway into the uncertainty of Stephen’s life after he finishes school and leaves Ireland and the church#everything about it is brilliant down to the exact phrasing#first Stephen addresses who he is talking to as “old artificer” and thus we instantly know he is talking to Daedalus#then he acknowledges his relation to Daedalus when he calls him father — which would make Stephen Icarus#the fact that father is second to artificer portrays a favoring in one of Daedalus’ titeles over the other#and a reluctance to acknowledge Stephen’s place in the story as Icarus#after all this line is him asking that he does not fail in his attempt to be an artist and discover the purest mode of life#this line jerks identity around a bit and implies identity by context but not very directly#we only know the artificer to be Daedalus of course due to Stephen’s last name and the book’s subconscious Icarus metaphor#it isn’t directly stated who’s who and why. you just have to put it together yourself#I wanted to do that here#there’s this thing at the end where it calls the reader Daedalus then the minotaur right after talking about the monster in the labyrinth#the assumption is that the monster is the minotaur#but now its been established that the reader could be either and that it doesn’t seem to matter which name they answer to#now who the monster is is less clear#and given the talk of mirrors earlier it could be a reflection#all sense of identity and place in the story has been lost#I could go on but I don’t want to explain TOO much#anyways hope I succeeded in doing what I wanted with this one#which this one is mainly about how I realized recently that I am not exactly who I thought I would be at the start of high school#not really in a bad way or anything more like I looked at who I was and who had thought I’d be one day and was like “huh! neat”
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