Wednesday 9 November 2016

Tuesday, 8 November 2016, Pages 887 - 893, Penelope, Episode 18

We stopped at "... all for his Kidney...." (Penguin 893.10), (Gabler 18.568)

The pages, rather Molly's nocturnal thoughts, are getting quite a bit explicit. That Joyce put such candid thoughts into the mind of Molly, an Irish Catholic woman, in the early part of the 20th century is incredibly remarkable. I cannot help wondering where they originated. We all know that Joyce wrote explicit letters to Nora when he was away in Ireland in 1909. These letters known as James Joyce's 'Dirty Letters' to his wife, are now at Cornell University. Though Nora herself is said to have initiated such correspondence, none of her letters have been found. Yet. In any case, a glance at the 'dirty letters' do show that much of what we read on these pages does originate in this correspondence.

Last week, we had left Molly thinking of her trip to Belfast with Boylan. She knows that Boylan has plenty of money (his father supposedly made his money by selling the same horses twice to the cavalry; Penguin, p. 414; Gabler 18.403), and hes not a marrying man. So it is as well,  Molly thinks, if she gets some out of him, going round with him shopping buying those things in a new city (Belfast).

Molly thinks of her love making with Boylan (... hes heavy too...) and how she would prefer for him to put it into her from behind the way Mrs Mastiansky said her husband does it. That afternoon, stylishly dressed Boylan was in blazing anger when he read in the stoppress that he had lost twenty quids by betting on the wrong horse, following the tip given by Lenehan. (This horse race and the fact that Throwaway, an outsider horse, had won the race, has accompanied us since Lotus-eaters, episode 5.) The name Lenehan acts like a cue to remember the Glencree dinner, and how he (Lenehan) was making free with her, and how too the lord Mayor was looking at her with dirty eyes.

Thoughts of fine linen in Belfast have not left Molly. She would like to have at least two other good chemises and one of those kidfitting corsets, as they are praised in advertisements that they give a delightful figure line ... obviating that unsightly broad appearance across the lower back to reduce flesh. The idea of delightful figure recalls to her mind that her figure is not all that ideal (my belly is a bit too big).

Unlike Bloom whom she considers quite frugal and careful with money, Molly wishes that she could be a bit more free in spending (... I always want to throw a handful of tea into the pot ... instead of measuring and mincing ...). With her three dresses and an old hat, she knows that not only men wont look at her but women also try to walk on her.

She will be 33 in September. Women at that time seem to age fast. Like Mrs. Galbraith, who was much older than Molly, who had a magnificent head of hair that she used to toss back like Kitty OShea, but whose beautys on the wane. What about that Mrs Langtry the jersey lily the prince of Wales (King Edward) was in love with,  whose jealous husband is said to have made her wear a kind of tin thing (a chastity belt), something that is as "true" as the things (such as drinking the champagne out of her slipper after the ball was over) in some of the books that Bloom brings for her. She wishes that Bloom would chuck Freeman and would go into an office or something where hed get regular pay, and would even smoke a pipe like father to get the smell of a man...

Shopping is still on Molly's mind. She thinks of one such event where she went shopping with Bloom, who thinks he knows a great lot about a womans dress, whereas whenever she asked him does that suit me, whether the hat looked like a weddingcake standing up miles off her head or like a dishcover, he would say yes.

At this point, Molly's musings get quite explicit. She thinks of her breasts in particular and breasts in general (... curious the way its made 2 the same in case of twins theyre supposed to represent beauty...). She thinks of the breasts of those (Greek) statues in the museum (where Bloom had gone in the afternoon to examine their rear parts! See Lestrygonians, episode 8). In any case, it is obvious that Molly does not care much for the anatomy of the male either (... they hide it with a cabbageleaf...). And she thinks of the dirty bitch in the Spanish photo Bloom has in his drawers (Ithaca, episode 17).  Her thoughts remain with Bloom, who can never explain a thing simply the way a body can understand (met something with hoses in it; see also Calypso, episode 4), and burns the bottom out of the pan all for his Kidney, ...