Stopped at "... her tissue papers." (Penguin 796.29), (Gabler 17.508)
The 'mathematical' catechism style of writing continues. Bloom has filled the kettle with water from the tap and has lit the gas. That, as a result, water starts to boil - being the concomitant phenomenon that takes place in the vessel of liquid by the agency of fire - is explained in mere 155 words!
It is not the steam coming out of the kettle which indicates that water is boiling but what proves that water is boiling is a double falciform ejection of water vapour from under the kettlelid at both sides simultaneously. And so it goes on...
The other topics of meditation - (a) what else could Bloom have done with the hot water, (b) what are the advantages of shaving at that time of night instead of in the morning - are followed by a long list of things (including Plumtree's potted meat) kept on the shelfs of the kitchen dresser that is opened by Bloom. After all - (Penguin, p.91)
Four fragments of betting tickets, for that afternoon's Golden Cup Ascot race in which the dark horse Throwaway unexpectedly had won, catch Bloom's attention. These have been left lying on the dresser by Boylan. The sight of the tickets make Bloom trace in his memory all the occasions that day he had come in contact with the news of the horse race and of the throwaway he had got about Elijah. This retracing of the days happenings is related in a reverse order. All the while, Bloom is in a good mood because he had not risked (betting on a horse?), he did not expect, he had not been disappointed, he was satisfied. Was he satisfied because he had brought light to the gentiles (taken care of Stephen)?
Bloom prepares cocoa using Epp's soluble cocoa, hands over his personal cup (the moustache cup) to Stephan and drinks from the other. He would readily have done more like repairing a tear in Stephen's jacket or gifting him a handkerchief. But he refrains from doing so. Naturally, he does not know that that morning Buck Mulligan had borrowed Stephen's noserag.
Stephen has been silent while Bloom is occupied with preparing cocoa. In general, they do seem to talk little with each other. Bloom thinks that Stephen is occupied with literature, with Shakespeare, which thought brings to his mind his own efforts at writing poetry while he was a kid. Of course, there are differences between this odd couple, differences relating to name, age, race and creed. What follows is a detailed description of these four differences: anagrams Bloom had created using his name, their respective ages, the mathematical relationship between their ages, and the previous occasions on which Bloom had met Stephen earlier (once when Stephen was just 5 years of age, and once when he was 10). They also had a common link in Dante, Mrs. Riordan. Bloom had known her when both used to stay at the City Arms Hotel. Dante, Mrs. Riordan is dead eight years. Whereas Bloom thinks of her wealth, her deafness, Stephen thinks of her based on the things he associated with her in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: her statue of the Immaculate Conception, her lamp of colza oil before the statue, her two brushes - green and maroon - and her tissue papers. The Portrait says that Dante gave him (Stephen) a cachou every time he brought her a pice of tissue paper.
The 'mathematical' catechism style of writing continues. Bloom has filled the kettle with water from the tap and has lit the gas. That, as a result, water starts to boil - being the concomitant phenomenon that takes place in the vessel of liquid by the agency of fire - is explained in mere 155 words!
It is not the steam coming out of the kettle which indicates that water is boiling but what proves that water is boiling is a double falciform ejection of water vapour from under the kettlelid at both sides simultaneously. And so it goes on...
The other topics of meditation - (a) what else could Bloom have done with the hot water, (b) what are the advantages of shaving at that time of night instead of in the morning - are followed by a long list of things (including Plumtree's potted meat) kept on the shelfs of the kitchen dresser that is opened by Bloom. After all - (Penguin, p.91)
What is home without
Plumtree's potted meat?
Incomplete
With it an abode of bliss.
 |
| (Source: http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/8110pottedmeat.htm) |
Bloom prepares cocoa using Epp's soluble cocoa, hands over his personal cup (the moustache cup) to Stephan and drinks from the other. He would readily have done more like repairing a tear in Stephen's jacket or gifting him a handkerchief. But he refrains from doing so. Naturally, he does not know that that morning Buck Mulligan had borrowed Stephen's noserag.
Stephen has been silent while Bloom is occupied with preparing cocoa. In general, they do seem to talk little with each other. Bloom thinks that Stephen is occupied with literature, with Shakespeare, which thought brings to his mind his own efforts at writing poetry while he was a kid. Of course, there are differences between this odd couple, differences relating to name, age, race and creed. What follows is a detailed description of these four differences: anagrams Bloom had created using his name, their respective ages, the mathematical relationship between their ages, and the previous occasions on which Bloom had met Stephen earlier (once when Stephen was just 5 years of age, and once when he was 10). They also had a common link in Dante, Mrs. Riordan. Bloom had known her when both used to stay at the City Arms Hotel. Dante, Mrs. Riordan is dead eight years. Whereas Bloom thinks of her wealth, her deafness, Stephen thinks of her based on the things he associated with her in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: her statue of the Immaculate Conception, her lamp of colza oil before the statue, her two brushes - green and maroon - and her tissue papers. The Portrait says that Dante gave him (Stephen) a cachou every time he brought her a pice of tissue paper.
