Today we completed the episode 4, and started with the episode 5, stopping at "... earth is the weight." (Gabler 5.46) (Penguin 87.22)
Note: Related posts are in two parts: Part 1 deals with episode 4 & Part 2 with episode 5.
Part 2:
Having found out when the funeral of Dignam is to take place, Bloom leaves home at quarter to. What follows is like a guide to walk through Dublin.
From Sir John Rogerson's quay, Bloom turns into Lime street. In a couple of sentences, Joyce sketches the face of abject poverty, abundant there at that time. Bloom sees a boy carrying a bucket of offal, smoking a chewed fagbutt. He sees a smaller girl with scars of eczema. At first Bloom thinks of telling the boy that if he smokes he won't grow but refrains himself because his (the boy's) life isn't such a bed of roses. Bloom passes many landmarks of the time including the Bethel, Nichols' the undertaker, thinks of the funeral (scheduled for 11) again, of O'Neill, another undertaker, of Corny Kelleher who had got a job at O'Neill's, and of Tom Kernan (a real tea merchant from Dublin and also a character we know from Dubliners).
Stopping in front of the window of The Belfast and Oriental Tea Company, he reads the labels on tea packets in the window. Choice blend, made of the finest Ceylon brands. Bloom's imagines how life could be in Ceylon (Dolce far niente / pleasant idleness). Sleep six months out of twelve. Too hot to quarrel. He remembers seeing a picture with a chap floating on his back in the dead sea. Wondering why the chap could float without sinking, Bloom tries to recollect, as answer, Archimedes Principle, and is confused about volume and weight. His questioning mind asks him what is weight after all? The answer: It is the force of gravity of the earth is the weight.
Note: Related posts are in two parts: Part 1 deals with episode 4 & Part 2 with episode 5.
Part 2:
Having found out when the funeral of Dignam is to take place, Bloom leaves home at quarter to. What follows is like a guide to walk through Dublin.
Stopping in front of the window of The Belfast and Oriental Tea Company, he reads the labels on tea packets in the window. Choice blend, made of the finest Ceylon brands. Bloom's imagines how life could be in Ceylon (Dolce far niente / pleasant idleness). Sleep six months out of twelve. Too hot to quarrel. He remembers seeing a picture with a chap floating on his back in the dead sea. Wondering why the chap could float without sinking, Bloom tries to recollect, as answer, Archimedes Principle, and is confused about volume and weight. His questioning mind asks him what is weight after all? The answer: It is the force of gravity of the earth is the weight.
