“My little farting Nora”: James Joyce’s erotic flatulence fixation
James Joyce, one of the most important writers of all time, left an impressive legacy by writing classic works of fiction like Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. He is regarded as a true master of his craft, working within the Modernist movement and pioneering techniques like stream of consciousness and formal experimentation.
Alongside these significant literary contributions, Joyce was pretty open when it came to sexuality, and not only did he explore such themes with frankness in his own work, such as through the character of Molly Bloom in Ulysses, but in his personal life, too.
With that being said, he wasn’t the biggest fan of using particularly strong language. Thus, it is truly bizarre that the letters he wrote to his wife, Nora Barnacle, were absolutely filthy. He didn’t hold back, exposing a strange flatulence fetish in minute detail. As a result, his letters to Barnacle have been as widely read as his novels.
Luckily, his reputation hasn’t been tainted, but it is curious to wonder whether Joyce would be mortified that scholars across the world have read about his wife’s farts turning him on or if he would take this in his stride.
Joyce met Barnacle in 1904 when he was 22, and they began a relationship that would result in marriage and the birth of two children – Giorgio and Lucia. The pair had their first date on June 16th 1904, and, as a testament to his love for her, the author used the exact date in Ulysses, which all takes place on one day. While Barnacle loved Joyce a lot, she found his writing hard to consume, and she even stated that she disliked Ulysses.
However, it seemed there was certainly plenty of passion in the bedroom. Joyce was obsessed with Barnacle’s farts, turning them into an erotic fixation. He began one of his infamous letters by writing, “My sweet little whorish Nora… You had an arse full of farts that night, darling… big fat fellows, long windy ones, quick little merry cracks and a lot of tiny little naughty farties ending in a long gush from your hole… I think I would know Nora’s fart anywhere.”
It’s hard to believe that the same man who wrote one of the most acclaimed novels in history also wrote “quick little merry cracks and a lot of tiny little naughty farties ending in a long gush from your hole,” but then again, it is very descriptive.
That’s not all he had to say, though. Joyce continued, “I think I could pick hers out in a roomful of farting women. It is a rather girlish noise not like the wet windy fart which I imagine fat wives have. It is sudden and dry and dirty like what a bold girl would let off in fun in a school dormitory at night.”
He concluded his letter with a hilarious end: “I hope Nora will let off no end of her farts in my face so that I may know their smell also. Goodnight, my little farting Nora, my dirty little fuckbird!”
