We read as far as "... on this side idolatry." (Gabler 9.45) (Penguin, 236.22)
After enjoying an easy episode characterized by Bloom's wanderings and musings, we have started an episode that is - to put it mildly - anything but easy to follow. As Bloom dominated that previous episode, Stephen is the person who is the major character here. Food was the staple factor there, literature here.
Gifford's introduction (page 192) to the episode in his 'Ulysses annotated' does offer some help in connecting Joyce's Ulysses with that of Homer. The essay on this episode by The Modernism Lab at Yale is a great help in understanding the episode. It is highly recommended. Read it here!
A shortened version of Gifford's introduction:
When Odysseus and his men return from the Land of the Dead to Circe's isle, Circe gives Odysseus 'sailing directions', telling him about the Sirens and offers him a choice of routes: one by way of the Wandering Rocks and the other by way of the passage between Scylla and Charybdis. The latter route, which Odysseus chooses, offers a second choice: the ship that sails the side of the channel overlooked by the six-headed monster Scylla, that lives on 'a sharp mountain peak', does so at the sacrifice of 'one man for every gullet'. The ship that chooses the other side of the channel risks being totally engulfed by the 'whirling / maelstrom' of Charybdis.
Let us try to remember the above story when we confront Scylla and Charybdis in this episode! Confront them, we will!
This episode takes place in the National Library of Dublin. On the first two pages of the episode we meet the Librarian, Stephen and John Eglinton. They are talking about, expressing their opinions of, the literary giants of yesteryears: Goethe, Shakespeare, Dante, Aristotle, Plato, Milton, Blake, Yeats, Ben Johnson, Synge. They allude to thoughts, symbols and scenes from Paradise Lost, Inferno and Hamlet.
The quaker librarian does not just walk. He comes a step a sinkapace (a five-stepped dance) and he corantoes (a running dance) off!
After enjoying an easy episode characterized by Bloom's wanderings and musings, we have started an episode that is - to put it mildly - anything but easy to follow. As Bloom dominated that previous episode, Stephen is the person who is the major character here. Food was the staple factor there, literature here.
Gifford's introduction (page 192) to the episode in his 'Ulysses annotated' does offer some help in connecting Joyce's Ulysses with that of Homer. The essay on this episode by The Modernism Lab at Yale is a great help in understanding the episode. It is highly recommended. Read it here!
A shortened version of Gifford's introduction:
When Odysseus and his men return from the Land of the Dead to Circe's isle, Circe gives Odysseus 'sailing directions', telling him about the Sirens and offers him a choice of routes: one by way of the Wandering Rocks and the other by way of the passage between Scylla and Charybdis. The latter route, which Odysseus chooses, offers a second choice: the ship that sails the side of the channel overlooked by the six-headed monster Scylla, that lives on 'a sharp mountain peak', does so at the sacrifice of 'one man for every gullet'. The ship that chooses the other side of the channel risks being totally engulfed by the 'whirling / maelstrom' of Charybdis.
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| Source: File:National_Library_of_Ireland_2011.JPG |
The quaker librarian does not just walk. He comes a step a sinkapace (a five-stepped dance) and he corantoes (a running dance) off!
