We read as far as "... his mad crazy letters..." (Penguin 916.20), (Gabler 18.1176)
(The countdown has started in earnest. My Penguin edition has 17 more pages only. After we reach Molly's ultimate yes, we will all go for a drink at the James Joyce Pub on the Pelikanstrasse.)
By now all of us have got used to the unbelievable manner in which Molly opens her thoughts to us. There is no topic that is taboo, there is no thought that she does not share with us. If some readers squirmed at some of the topics we have so far read, these pages will take away the last vestige of any such uneasiness still remaining!
Molly thinks, with relief, of the wind she just released in pianissimo (who knows if that port chop ... was quite good...), of the rotten cold in Gibraltar and how she used love dancing about in a short shift then make a race back into bed with that fellow opposite ... there the whole time watching with the lights out, of their cat (what a robber too that lovely fish place - in non-Molly language, plaice - I bought...), of the fish she would like to buy in the morning ( I hate those eels cod yes Ill get a nice piece of cod...), a boat ride she had gone on with Bloom, of Milly and finally about her periods that just started. More significantly though, we start to get to know Bloom from her point of view, and we get to know the 'trouble' Molly had with Milly. As usual, her thoughts jump back and forth from one topic to the other.
It is back to Bloom again. Bloom with all kinds of plans including all those lovely places they could go for the honeymoon (Venice by moonlight with the gondolas, the lake of Como), and converting part of their house to a musical academy. Plans that remained merely plans. Molly, who is obviously left alone in the house for the better part of the day, is obviously uncomfortable being alone. She thinks of that hardened criminal who was in jail for 20 years (Odysseus was on his voyage for that length of time too), and who came out and murdered an old woman for her money. She knows that there isnt much to steal indeed the Lord knows still its the feeling especially now with Milly away.... Bloom differs from Odysseus in yet another way. One night when she was sure she heard burglars in the kitchen, he went down in his shirt with a candle and a poker as if he was looking for a mouse as white as a sheet.
And so we come to Milly. To the relationship between Molly and Milly. To Milly having been sent away to learn to take photographs like his grandfather (Bloom's grandfather, Virag, had a photo atelier in Hungary.) Molly thinks it was done on account of me and Boylan. Only he would get such an idea. Molly thinks of the stormy time they went through when Milly was home, of her tongue (to be) a bit too long, telling her (Molly), "your blouse is open too low." Molly even feels a bit "jealous" of the intimacy between Bloom and Milly, particularly as she notices he was always talking to her lately at the table explaining things. That feeling is compensated as she knows, if there was anything wrong with her (Milly) its me (Molly) shed tell not him (Bloom). Molly had tried to "teach" Milly proper manners, for example, not to leave knives crossed like that. She tells herself, "If he doesnt correct her faith (i.e., 'well', 'then') I will". She also knows that Milly is like what she herself was at that age.
Thoughts return to her current life. Molly wonders whether she is ever going to have a proper servant again. But having such a person in the house means that shed (the servant would) see him (Boylan) coming. They had a domestic servant, old Mrs Fleming, (who is leaving them), who had once dropped a rotten old smelly dishcloth that got lost behind the dresser, which Molly had luckily retrieved. Otherwise, imagine, what the visitors Bloom brings home unannounced would think! Like that previous night when he brought Stephen home, and took him to the dirty old kitchen, where, thank god, - it wasnt washing day - no old pair of drawers of Molly's were hanging. Molly is quite despondent, and thinks, "when Im stretched out dead in my grave I suppose Ill have some peace."
At that moment, her periods start. Molly spends the next moments wondering what am I to do (as Boylan is expected again on Monday), with this usual monthly auction (= action). She is reminded of one such experience when she and Bloom had gone to the Gaiety, (Bloom having been given free tickets by Michael Gunn, the manager of Gaiety), when she was very aware of her periods, when a gentleman of fashion was staring down at her, and Bloom was going on about Spinoza and his soul.
(Bloom had also thought of this moment in Sirens, episode 11, Penguin p. 367). The current feeling of inconvenience is compensated by the relief that he (Boylan) didnt make me pregnant as big as he is
Molly gets up, thinking, O Jamesy (Jesus or James J?) let me out of this, to use the chamber pot. How the waters come down at Lahore! (Typical of Molly to 'confuse' Lodore of the original poem by Robert Southey to be Lahore.)
We completed reading these pages with Molly's reminiscenses about a gynacologist, a Dr. Collinson Pembroke Road, she had visited. Next week, we shall deal with his mad crazy letters...
(The countdown has started in earnest. My Penguin edition has 17 more pages only. After we reach Molly's ultimate yes, we will all go for a drink at the James Joyce Pub on the Pelikanstrasse.)
By now all of us have got used to the unbelievable manner in which Molly opens her thoughts to us. There is no topic that is taboo, there is no thought that she does not share with us. If some readers squirmed at some of the topics we have so far read, these pages will take away the last vestige of any such uneasiness still remaining!
 |
| Plaice, not place |
At the start, she is occupied with thoughts of Gibraltar but soon they turn to Bloom. She hopes that hes not going to get in with those medicals leading him astray to imagine hes young again. (... squandering money and getting drunker and drunker couldn't they drink water....). She recollects a boat trip with Bloom. It must have been a rough ride, and Bloom was not an experienced boatsman (definitely no Odysseus!), as Molly thinks its a mercy we werent all drowned. She would have liked to have tattered his (Bloom's) flannel trousers down off him but for that longnosed chap and Burke (mentioned also in Cyclops, episode 12, Penguin p. 395) out of the City Arms Hotel, who were watching. There was no love lost between Blooms and that longnosed chap. This thought makes Molly shortly remember the book, Sweets of Sin, by some one like Mr de Kock. She wonders whether he was given that name (as he was) going about with his tube from one woman to another. Soon she is back with her thoughts of the boat trip, when her new white shoes were all ruined with the saltwater. 'Saltwater' is a cue to think of Gibraltar, and of some people (Luigi, for one) she knew there.
It is back to Bloom again. Bloom with all kinds of plans including all those lovely places they could go for the honeymoon (Venice by moonlight with the gondolas, the lake of Como), and converting part of their house to a musical academy. Plans that remained merely plans. Molly, who is obviously left alone in the house for the better part of the day, is obviously uncomfortable being alone. She thinks of that hardened criminal who was in jail for 20 years (Odysseus was on his voyage for that length of time too), and who came out and murdered an old woman for her money. She knows that there isnt much to steal indeed the Lord knows still its the feeling especially now with Milly away.... Bloom differs from Odysseus in yet another way. One night when she was sure she heard burglars in the kitchen, he went down in his shirt with a candle and a poker as if he was looking for a mouse as white as a sheet.
And so we come to Milly. To the relationship between Molly and Milly. To Milly having been sent away to learn to take photographs like his grandfather (Bloom's grandfather, Virag, had a photo atelier in Hungary.) Molly thinks it was done on account of me and Boylan. Only he would get such an idea. Molly thinks of the stormy time they went through when Milly was home, of her tongue (to be) a bit too long, telling her (Molly), "your blouse is open too low." Molly even feels a bit "jealous" of the intimacy between Bloom and Milly, particularly as she notices he was always talking to her lately at the table explaining things. That feeling is compensated as she knows, if there was anything wrong with her (Milly) its me (Molly) shed tell not him (Bloom). Molly had tried to "teach" Milly proper manners, for example, not to leave knives crossed like that. She tells herself, "If he doesnt correct her faith (i.e., 'well', 'then') I will". She also knows that Milly is like what she herself was at that age.
Thoughts return to her current life. Molly wonders whether she is ever going to have a proper servant again. But having such a person in the house means that shed (the servant would) see him (Boylan) coming. They had a domestic servant, old Mrs Fleming, (who is leaving them), who had once dropped a rotten old smelly dishcloth that got lost behind the dresser, which Molly had luckily retrieved. Otherwise, imagine, what the visitors Bloom brings home unannounced would think! Like that previous night when he brought Stephen home, and took him to the dirty old kitchen, where, thank god, - it wasnt washing day - no old pair of drawers of Molly's were hanging. Molly is quite despondent, and thinks, "when Im stretched out dead in my grave I suppose Ill have some peace."
At that moment, her periods start. Molly spends the next moments wondering what am I to do (as Boylan is expected again on Monday), with this usual monthly auction (= action). She is reminded of one such experience when she and Bloom had gone to the Gaiety, (Bloom having been given free tickets by Michael Gunn, the manager of Gaiety), when she was very aware of her periods, when a gentleman of fashion was staring down at her, and Bloom was going on about Spinoza and his soul.
(Bloom had also thought of this moment in Sirens, episode 11, Penguin p. 367). The current feeling of inconvenience is compensated by the relief that he (Boylan) didnt make me pregnant as big as he is
Molly gets up, thinking, O Jamesy (Jesus or James J?) let me out of this, to use the chamber pot. How the waters come down at Lahore! (Typical of Molly to 'confuse' Lodore of the original poem by Robert Southey to be Lahore.)
We completed reading these pages with Molly's reminiscenses about a gynacologist, a Dr. Collinson Pembroke Road, she had visited. Next week, we shall deal with his mad crazy letters...
