Today we stopped at: "... making him worse than he is ..." (Penguin p. 875.3) i.e., we finished the chapter Ithaca and have moved on to Penelope, the last chapter in Ulysses. Thus there will be two posts on today's reading!
Ithaca ends with Bloom musing over his marital relationship with Molly and at the same time telling her about how his day was. Bloom is too well aware of the fact that he and Molly have reached a point in their marriage where there are unmistakable signs of estrangement - both physical and mental - in their relationship. In fact they have not had proper sexual relationship for 10 years, 5 months and 18 days (ever since Milly had her first periods). Joyce describes in some detail the physical act of sex using a tone that is so dry that one is reminded of the ruling in the case, United States vs. One Book Called Ulysses, in which Judge John M. Woolsey ruled that Ulysses was not pornographic—that nowhere in it was the "leer of the sensualist".
Slowly though it is time for Bloom, lying in the direction of N.W. by W., to rest. He has travelled a lot that (nay, previous) day and night. As he drifts off into sleep, his thought about his having travelled a lot reminds him of another famous traveler, the incomparable Sindbad the Sailor. Names - distortions of Sindbad the Sailor (for example, Sinbad the Sailor, Tinbad the Tailor, Jinbad the Jailor, ...Xinbad the Phthailer) - float in and out of his mind lending a touch of Orient to this version of Odyssey. He even thinks of the Arabian mythical bird roc's egg that Sindbad once used to escape. The last thought he has is "Darkinbad the Brightdayler" (dark in bed, the day is bright or not far away), which is a foreshadow of the language of Finnegans Wake.
Thus we came to the end of a remarkable chapter. A chapter devoid of any emotion, a chapter in which Bloom spends some time with Stephen, sees unmistakable signs of his wife's affair with Boylan, ends up in the same bed as his wife, and a chapter which still screams of loneliness. (In fact, Ulysses in general is a lot about loneliness.)
Much has been written about the style of the chapter. It is said that Joyce utilized scientific, technical style in this chapter. One knows that Joyce wrote to Frank Budgen, "I am writing Ithaca in the form of a mathematical catechism..." With much respect to Joyce, I cannot help remarking here that mathematics is a very precise and a very concise language, something this chapter does not aspire to be!
The chapter ends - in the Penguin edition - with a question mark contrary to Joyce's instructions to the printer that the chapter should end with a fat full stop, printed in large font (larger than the text's font).
The full stop is precisely what is missing from the next chapter, Penelope.
Ithaca ends with Bloom musing over his marital relationship with Molly and at the same time telling her about how his day was. Bloom is too well aware of the fact that he and Molly have reached a point in their marriage where there are unmistakable signs of estrangement - both physical and mental - in their relationship. In fact they have not had proper sexual relationship for 10 years, 5 months and 18 days (ever since Milly had her first periods). Joyce describes in some detail the physical act of sex using a tone that is so dry that one is reminded of the ruling in the case, United States vs. One Book Called Ulysses, in which Judge John M. Woolsey ruled that Ulysses was not pornographic—that nowhere in it was the "leer of the sensualist".
Slowly though it is time for Bloom, lying in the direction of N.W. by W., to rest. He has travelled a lot that (nay, previous) day and night. As he drifts off into sleep, his thought about his having travelled a lot reminds him of another famous traveler, the incomparable Sindbad the Sailor. Names - distortions of Sindbad the Sailor (for example, Sinbad the Sailor, Tinbad the Tailor, Jinbad the Jailor, ...Xinbad the Phthailer) - float in and out of his mind lending a touch of Orient to this version of Odyssey. He even thinks of the Arabian mythical bird roc's egg that Sindbad once used to escape. The last thought he has is "Darkinbad the Brightdayler" (dark in bed, the day is bright or not far away), which is a foreshadow of the language of Finnegans Wake.
"roc's auk's egg": cf. bird on Sindbad the Sailor poster
Thus we came to the end of a remarkable chapter. A chapter devoid of any emotion, a chapter in which Bloom spends some time with Stephen, sees unmistakable signs of his wife's affair with Boylan, ends up in the same bed as his wife, and a chapter which still screams of loneliness. (In fact, Ulysses in general is a lot about loneliness.)
Much has been written about the style of the chapter. It is said that Joyce utilized scientific, technical style in this chapter. One knows that Joyce wrote to Frank Budgen, "I am writing Ithaca in the form of a mathematical catechism..." With much respect to Joyce, I cannot help remarking here that mathematics is a very precise and a very concise language, something this chapter does not aspire to be!
The chapter ends - in the Penguin edition - with a question mark contrary to Joyce's instructions to the printer that the chapter should end with a fat full stop, printed in large font (larger than the text's font).
The full stop is precisely what is missing from the next chapter, Penelope.
