We stopped at the end of yet another list of names, this time of clergymen (!), at "... etc., etc." (Penguin 412.10) (Gabler 12.438)
The reading will continue on Tuesday, August 11th. i..e., there is no reading on August 4th because of the annual workshop at the Foundation.
We had concluded our last session with the longest interpolation about an execution. This interpolation was triggered by a song quoted by the citizen. The execution looked at first like a hanging, then like a beheading. In any case this was yet another case of gross exaggeration.
Now our narrator continues talking about what was happening then in Barney Kiernen's pub: the citizen talking about the Irish language and the corporation meeting, Joe Hynes chipping in as he had got a quid from someone, Bloom - with a cigar in his mouth - lecturing about Gaelic league and the antitreating league, his own experience on one of the musical evenings, and the citizen's old dog,... Again much of this (particularly the part about Bloom) does not correspond to the facts. And obviously the narrator is uncomfortable with this huge, growling and grousing beast. (I'd train him by kindness, so I would, if he was my dog. ... his eye all bloodshot from the drouth is in it and the hydrophobia dropping out of his jaws.)
This talk about the dog triggers off another interpolation of the episode. This time it is in the style of a newspaper article authored by a dog, the famous old Irish red setter wolfdog! (As should be expected in this book by Joyce, there is much going on in this interpolation that is not mentioned in this post.)
Another round of drinks is ordered by Joe. His offer of a drink is again refused thankfully by Bloom, who says that he came in just to meet Martin Cunningham, about this insurance of poor Dignam's. There is a Freudian slip here with Bloom saying 'wife's admirers' when he actually means ' wife's (Dignam's wife's) advisers'. Bloom starts off again 'boringly' on insurances, mortgages, etc, and is interrupted by Bob Doran drunkenly (he does not even remember Dignam's first name) asking Bloom to pass on his condolences to Dignam's wife. At this point, we are taken back to the story, The Boardinghouse, in Dubliners, in which Bob Doran gets trapped to marry the daughter of the house.
The pints ordered are downed, the narrator continues about how they started talking about the foot and mouth disease, with Bloom chipping in with his tips for treating cattle. The mention of two M.P.s, Field and Nannetti (William Field and Joseph Nannetti) going that night to London to participate in the (discussion) in the house of commons is the green signal for one more interpolation, this time about the proceedings in the parliament. This quite a long interpolation ends with a list of (real) prominent members of the clergy in the audience.
Finally, I must admit that I am uncomfortable with these interpolations as I do not really get in whose mind these thoughts occur. Thoughts are after all just neural activities, and exist in the brain of a person. Even in a novel. As enjoyable as these interpolations are, particularly stylistically, I would have loved to have some hints as to who is thinking these thoughts. None but Joyce?
(Those who missed the reading this week also missed the parallels drawn by Fritz Senn between Homer's Cyclops and Joyce's. It was great to hear it straight from the horse's mouth!)
The reading will continue on Tuesday, August 11th. i..e., there is no reading on August 4th because of the annual workshop at the Foundation.
We had concluded our last session with the longest interpolation about an execution. This interpolation was triggered by a song quoted by the citizen. The execution looked at first like a hanging, then like a beheading. In any case this was yet another case of gross exaggeration.
Now our narrator continues talking about what was happening then in Barney Kiernen's pub: the citizen talking about the Irish language and the corporation meeting, Joe Hynes chipping in as he had got a quid from someone, Bloom - with a cigar in his mouth - lecturing about Gaelic league and the antitreating league, his own experience on one of the musical evenings, and the citizen's old dog,... Again much of this (particularly the part about Bloom) does not correspond to the facts. And obviously the narrator is uncomfortable with this huge, growling and grousing beast. (I'd train him by kindness, so I would, if he was my dog. ... his eye all bloodshot from the drouth is in it and the hydrophobia dropping out of his jaws.)
This talk about the dog triggers off another interpolation of the episode. This time it is in the style of a newspaper article authored by a dog, the famous old Irish red setter wolfdog! (As should be expected in this book by Joyce, there is much going on in this interpolation that is not mentioned in this post.)
 |
| "Irish setter head" by Ehog.hu - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Irish_setter_head.jpg#/media/File:Irish_setter_head.jpg |
The pints ordered are downed, the narrator continues about how they started talking about the foot and mouth disease, with Bloom chipping in with his tips for treating cattle. The mention of two M.P.s, Field and Nannetti (William Field and Joseph Nannetti) going that night to London to participate in the (discussion) in the house of commons is the green signal for one more interpolation, this time about the proceedings in the parliament. This quite a long interpolation ends with a list of (real) prominent members of the clergy in the audience.
Finally, I must admit that I am uncomfortable with these interpolations as I do not really get in whose mind these thoughts occur. Thoughts are after all just neural activities, and exist in the brain of a person. Even in a novel. As enjoyable as these interpolations are, particularly stylistically, I would have loved to have some hints as to who is thinking these thoughts. None but Joyce?
(Those who missed the reading this week also missed the parallels drawn by Fritz Senn between Homer's Cyclops and Joyce's. It was great to hear it straight from the horse's mouth!)
