Today we stopped at "who made toys or airs and John Bull"
16.1769 (Gabler), p. 771 (Penguin)
16.1769 (Gabler), p. 771 (Penguin)
Bloom is still silently enjoying, with some self-satisfaction, the
retort he snapped at the fanatical nationalist in Cyclops. He dislikes the way
the cabmen talk about and laugh at Parnell, though, and he also regrets that
Stephen should waste his time in brothels and risk catching venereal disease.
Many of Bloom's thoughts about Stephen and his words to him are inspired by his
mistaken interpretation of him, though. We continue
to see and enjoy various (failed) attempts by Bloom (but also by Stephen) to
sound original, as e.g. in the following muddles:
But something substantial he
certainly ought to eat, were it only an eggflip made on unadulterated maternal
nutriment or, failing that, the homely
Humpty Dumpty boiled.
(Bloom's inventive wording for
"egg")
-- At what o'clock did you dine? he questioned of the slim form and
tired though unwrinkled face.
(Bloom's alternative to a simple
"when?")
Stephen:
-- One
thing I never understood, he said, to be original on the spur of the moment,
why they put tables upside down at night, I mean chairs upside down on the
tables In cafes.
Bloom:
At least he would be in safe hands and as warm as a toast on a trivet.
(Bloom's muddle out of as warm as toast and as right as a trivet)
It gets late, time to retire, Bloom would like to take Stephen home with
him but doesn't know how to word his invitation and turns around various
possible phrasings in his head (and he also remembers that, the last time he
took a lame dog home for the night, Molly got rather angry). He would also like
to help Stephen materially. Finally, he manages to make him leave the shelter
with him in what is made to look like a mysterious, high tension, gangsteresque
paying-for-the-drinks-and-leaving-swiftly-scene.
Outside, talk turns to the subject of music and Stephen, who has been rather
silent, loosens up a little. He is not very firm on his legs, though,
and Bloom goes to his side to support him. He says to him, "The only thing is to walk then
you'll feel a different man. It's not far. Lean on me". He passes his arm
in Stephens and leads him on. Stephen replies "Yes", uncertainly,
"because he thought he felt a strange kind of flesh of a different man
approach him, sinewless and wobbly and all that". Stephen, who rather
dislikes physical contact, does feel a different man, but that different man is
Bloom. Bloom and Stephen are talking at cross purposes all the time here - Bloom wanting to show that he
knows, Stephen talking without explaining or caring. Incidentally,
"sinewless" and "wobbly" are adjectives that would describe
rather well the way in which this chapter is written.
