We have now read up to: "a mighty cudgel rudely fashioned out of paleolithic
stone" (12.205). The next paragraph starts: "So anyhow Terry".
The
language can become rather violent, which is reminiscent of the big uncouth giants in Homer. But, at the same time, it drifts into
parody: It is as
though the narrating voice had to pile things up, as if there was an urge to
say it over and over. Like in Homer, adjectives are
piled up, the language becomes cumulative, hyperbolic.
The 12th episode, also called Cyclops,
opens with someone in the role of the narrator but who is himself nameless. It is five o'clock in
the afternoon, and he says he was just talking to Old Troy of the DMP (Dublin
Metropolitan Police) when a chimney sweep passed by and nearly put out his eye with
his broom and ladder. He then says how he has been trying, without success, to
collect bad debt from a plumber called Geraghty, who had bought tea and sugar
from a Jewish dealer and then failed to pay. He sees Joe Hynes coming down from
a meeting of the Cattle Traders Association in the City Arms Hotel. Joe Hynes
feels he has to tell someone called the Citizen (for reasons we are not told)
what went on at this meeting, and he suggests that they go for a drink. They
walk round to Barney Kiernan's, a pub in Little Britain Street (i.e. Britanny
Street), near the Court House. Indeed, barristers from there used to adjourn to
Barney Kiernan's to drink and discuss cases.
On a geographic level, we leave Bloom, who is coming out of the
Ormond Hotel (10), and go up to Britanny Street (15):
(James Joyce's Dublin: A Topographical Guide to the Dublin of "Ulysses" by Ian Gunn, Clive Hart, Harald Beck, p. 61; with thanks to Bill Brockman for finding this map for the blog)
For historic maps (e.g. the zoomable ones
from 1885 or 1935) go to: http://www.swilson.info/mapsdublincity.php
When the nameless narrator and Joe Hynes go
into the pub, they find the Citizen sitting there with a sheaf of papers,
waiting for someone to buy him a drink, and a rather fearsome dog called Garryowen sitting at
his feet. The Citizen is said to be working for "the
cause" (which could refer to the revival of Irish or to Irish independence)
(12.123). The Citizen is a rather narrow minded nationalist, modeled on
Michael Cusack (1847-1907), founder of the Gaelic Athletic Association, which
was dedicated to the revival of Irish sports such as hurling, Gaelic football,
and handball. The Irish Revival was very topical at the time our story takes
place. Cusack styled himself "Citizen Cusack" (Gifford on 12.58).
The narration in this episode can be
described as being made of two strands: the account of a talkative eyewitness alternating with parodic insertions (the word
Fritz Senn often uses is "interpolations"). These interpolations are not
interruptions, however. They rather take the action to an extreme: e.g. the various
lists that go on and on and get out of hand, turn into something unexpected,
suddenly inserting elements that do not fit; or e.g. the reference to a debt,
which triggers the description of a purchase in the legal language of a
contract. Or mention of the Citizen who, in the second, parodic voice, is described
as a sort of prehistoric Irish warrior, adorned with tribal figures: these are
given in a list of Irish heroes, some genuine, some fake, which grows
completely out of proportion ("The figure seated ... stone" 12.151
ff.)
