Whitman’s Secret Staircase at Howth

＂Whitman’s Secret Staircase at Howth＂ is the sixth and final outing under the JayJay Jouissance Series by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé. The JayJay Jouissance Series is composed of several conceptualist novellas, each taking on an image from an episode in Joyce’s Ulysses for its title. This installment takes its image from ＂Penelope＂. For Jacques Lacan, ＂jouissance＂ is not mere ＂enjoyment＂, but rather ＂painful pleasure＂. JayJay is ＂the funny and lovable person in the room everyone can’t help but adore＂. Its initialized form ＂JJ＂ means ＂Just Joking＂. It is also a pseudonym for the modernist writer James Joyce. This book has its text written on texture, the visual or implied texture of one empty page after another. It is an invitation to fill in the blanks.