Tuesday, 17 December 2019 (4.190)

The last reading stopped at: “What matter?” (4.190)


Please note: There will be no reading over the holidays. 

We are looking forward to gathering with you again at the next reading on Tuesday, 7 January 2020.

Tuesday, 10 December 2019 (2.345)

This week's reading stopped at: “his voice spoke” (2.345); Penguin p. 41

Summary:

Immersed in his own thoughts while walking on Sandymount Strand, Stephen, realises that the grainy sand had gone from under his feet (3.147). The strand there is highly polluted, smelling of sewage. When he understands that he had passed the way to his aunt's house, Stephen turns and walks towards the Pigeonhouse (a power station). The name makes him think of not only the book La Vie de Jesus by M. Leo Taxil (3.167) in which Joseph asks Mary who put her in that state, and gets the answer, "It was the pigeon, Joseph" (3.162) - after all according to the Ballad of the Joking Jesus, his father was a bird - , but also of Kevin Egan and his son, Patrice as well as of his own days in Paris. Stephen recalls his returning from Paris after getting a telegram from his father that said, Nother dying come home father (3.199). This thought inevitably leads to memories again of his mother's death.

Paris, Rodot's (a patisserie), Kevin Egan sipping his green fairy (absinthe), having food, their conversation, his words ("You're your father's son", 3.229), Irish history, his own thoughts that they have forgotten Kevin Egan, not he them (3.263) - all these pictures tumble around in Stephen's mind. Without his realising it, Stephen [has] come nearer the edge of the sea and wet sand [slaps] his boots, (3.265). He turns back, climbs over sedge and sits on a stool of rock (3.284). He sees a dog's carcass, a real dog running across the sweep of sand (3.294), then two people walking towards the shore. (Just as Joyce was, Stephen is also scared of dogs but he decides to sit tight.) This sight triggers in his mind pictures of the Norwegian invaders (Lochlanns), of Dubliners running to the strand to hack the green blubbery whalemeat (3.305) in what would have been a time of famine in Ireland . . . Similarly the dog's bark running towards him (3.310) makes him aware of his fear of dogs, when he (Mulligan) saved men from drowning (3.317) and then the thought of the drowned man takes his mind back to his mother's death (I could not save her; 3.329).

The two people walking shoreward are a woman and a man (3.331). The dog is their's. As the dog suddenly runs off, the man whistles, calling the dog back.  The two people are cocklepickers (Cocklers gather shellfish (cockles) from the sand at low tide; Oxford Reference Dictionary). They wade into the water, dip their bags in the water, before lifting them again and wading out.

Joyce's description of their action and of the dog's running around etc are very picturesque.

Tuesday, 3 December 2019 (2.41)

The last reading stopped at: “across a river” (2.41)

Note: We completed episode 1, and started with episode 2.

Summary of the last part of episode 1:

At the end of our last reading we had left Buck Mulligan, Stephen and Haines going down for a swim in the fortyfoot hole (1.600), a bathing place in the Dublin bay. Haines, who seems to be impressed by the lofty statements of Stephen, wants to know more about his opinion of Hamlet. Stephen replies that "We're always tired in the morning,  . . . And it is rather long to tell. (1.562).
Mulligan is his usual self, joking and cheerful. And he recites the poem,  I'm the queerest young fellow that ever you heard. My mother's a jew, my father's a bird. . . (1. 584). (Here Joyce has made liberal use of the poem, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_the_Cheerful_(but_slightly_Sarcastic)_Jesus, by his friend Oliver St. John Gogarty.)
Steven too is his usual self, morose and serious. On being told my Haines, "You are your own master, . . . (1.636) ", he replies, "I am a servant of two masters (1.638) . . . And a third (1.641). . . " referring to the Imperial British state, the holy Roman catholic and apostolic church, (1.643) and Ireland.
Mulligan jumps into the water. Haines does not want to go swimming so soon after breakfast. Stephen leaves for his school. Before he leaves, MulAfter handing over the key of the tower to Mulligan, Stephen has come to the school where he is a teacher. During the course of the morning, he teaches history and literature, and even devotes some time to teach Cyril Sargent, one of the pupils,  asks him to give him the key to the tower which Stephen had brought along after he had locked the door. Stephen does so. After all he had expected that Mulligan will want the key, had imagined that he will say, "It is mine. I paid the rent. (1.631)" This is one of the reasons that at the end of the episode, Stephen refers to Mulligan as the usurper.

Summary of the beginning of episode 2:

After handing over the key of the tower to Mulligan, Stephen has come to the school where he is a teacher. During the course of the morning, he teaches history. Today's lesson is about Pyrrhus. The boys do not seem to know much about this Greek general, and make fun saying, "Pyrrhus, sir? Pyrrhus, a pier" (2.26). While teaching his mind wanders depending on what he sees/hears.