Sensory Overload in James Joyce's Ulysses In writing about the experience of reading Ulysses, one critic commented that "it's a bit like wearing earphones plugged into someone's brain and monitor an endless tape recording." of the subject's impressions, reflections, questions, memories and fantasies, as they are triggered by physical sensations or associations of ideas" (Lodge 47). In fact, the auditory sense plays a crucial role in much of the novel. But especially in section “Wandering Rocks,” we experience a kind of sensory overload as we are presented with nineteen hour-long vignettes into the lives of Dubliners that, while seemingly disparate, are cleverly linked events Parallax, a term found mostly in terminology photographic, refers to "an apparent change in the direction of an object, caused by a change in viewing position that provides a new line of sight" (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition). 19 different "live" shots in this chapter, moving between wide angles and zooms, going from an extreme close-up to a long, slow tracking shot. Visual acuity is often distorted by the simultaneous angles of Joyce's narrative. When one scene suddenly "switches" to the next via Joyce's literary remote control, the reader is bombarded with an increase in visual stimuli, not unlike watching a multi-channel television screen. What results is a sort of prose parallax, an interesting chapter in which Dublin society is presented as both connected and disjointed; as if imprisoned and yet wandering aimlessly along turgid streets. What seems to have special meaning in the "Wandering Rocks" section......middle of the paper......ays. trans. Justin O'Brien. New York: Vintage Books, 1991. Joyce, James. Ulysses. Ed. Hans Walter Gabler. New York: Random House, 1986. Kumar, Udaya. The Joycean labyrinth: repetition, time and tradition in Ulysses. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1991.Lodge, David. The art of fiction. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. McCormick, Kathleen. 'Just a Flash Like That': The Pleasure of 'Cruising' the Interpolations in 'Wandering Rocks.'" James Joyce Quarterly 24 (Spring 1987), 275-90. Power, Arthur. Conversations with James Joyce. Ed. Clive Hart. London: Millington, 1974.Williams, Trevor. "'Conmeeism' and the Universe of Discourse in 'Wandering Rocks.'" James Joyce Quarterly 29 (Winter 1992), 267-79.Winters, Kirk "Joyce's Ulysses as Poem: Rhythm , Rhyme and Color in "Wandering Rocks". State Research Studies Emporia 31 (Winter 1983), 5-44.