IMPORTANT: There will be no reading of Ulysses on Tuesday, the 26th of May due to the general body meeting of the Friends of the Zürich James Joyce Foundation starting at 18.30h.
We are in a new episode, Eumaeus, Fritz Senn's favorite episode. Stopped our reading with the sentence, "Stephen anyhow lent him one of them." (Penguin 711.15), (Gabler 16.196)
We are in a new episode, Eumaeus, Fritz Senn's favorite episode. Stopped our reading with the sentence, "Stephen anyhow lent him one of them." (Penguin 711.15), (Gabler 16.196)
Eumaeus is the first episode of the last book (consisting of 3 episodes) of Joyce's Ulysses. It is also the first of the three homecoming episodes. As Eumaeus is faithful to Odysseus, Bloom is faithful to Stephen.
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| (Painting by Bonaventura Gemelli) |
After having rescued Stephen from the soldiers and the police, Bloom is taking him home. It is 1 am. Both are tired after a very loooong day. Stephen has been quite drunk, and is slowly sobering up. Bloom is not really drunk but is obviously exhausted.
What an unexpected change in style awaits us in this episode! If the two preceding episodes - Oxen of the Sun and Circe - felt like a ferocious thunderstorm in monsoon, this one feels, at first, like a gently flowing, calm stream. At first I felt almost betrayed by the absence of fireworks in the style and language. It was so non-Joycean! But soon Joyce's new technique becomes obvious. He uses lots of cliches, many idioms and proverbs, writes long-winded sentences, takes us on a literary ride in which he demonstrates how to write something that in a way is somewhat pompous, quite a bit rambling. In his scheme, Joyce describes the technique he uses here as 'narrative (old)'. Contentwise not much happens.
For instance, the first page of the episode tells us about Bloom, rather Mr Bloom, cleaning up Stephen a bit, handing him his hat and walking stick. Both walk homewards. Stephen would like to drink something. As there was no water pump in the vicinity, Bloom suggests that they go by the cabman's shelter, where they might get something to drink in the shape of a milk and soda or a mineral. As they are both tired, Bloom thinks of getting a vehicle, provided one is available. The remaining pages we read today recount them continuing on foot, but by the time we stopped the reading after 7 pages, they still had not reached the cabman's shelter, which should have been hardly a stonesthrow away. It is not that they are rambling. It is the language that does.
The happenings on the way scores the difference in the characters of the two men. As they pass Baird's stonecutting works, Stephen thinks of Ibsen (an echo of A Portrait of he Artist as a Young Man), whereas Bloom is busy enjoying the smell of freshly baked bread at James Rourke's city bakery. Bloom talks and talks, trying to make Stephen aware of the dangers of nighttown, consequences of drinking ('You frittered away your time, he very sensibly maintained, and health and also character besides which,...), and of being friends with those who deserted him. Bloom admits that he himself relished a glass of choice old wine in season ... still never beyond a certain point. Stephen though is silent.
There are these and much more to discover on these pages. The first sentence - 'Preparatory to anything else Mr Bloom brushed off the greater bulk of the shavings ... and bucked him up...' reminds us of the beginning of the novel, which starts with Buck Mulligan coming up the stairhead with a bowl of lather, a mirror, a razor, and a brush to shave.
