Online reading of Thursday, 26 November 2020 (7.1041)

Note: For the time being, the Ulysses readings have been moved to an online platform. Please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 October 2020) for further information.

The joint online reading held on Thursday, 26 November stopped at: “O'Connell street.” (7.1041)

Summary (by Chandra Holm):

We have almost reached the end of the current episode, referred to commonly as Aeolus. In Homer's Odyssey, Ulysses (Odysseus) reaches the island of Aeolus after he and his crew escape from the land of the Lotus-Eaters. The story is told by Odysseus to Penelope in Book XXIII. Accordingly when Odysseus reaches the island of Aeolus, he is welcomed and feted for a month at the end of which Aeolus gives him a leather bag, made from the flayed hide of a nine-year old ox, and imprisoned all the winds there (1) and sets him on his course to Ithaca after warning him not to open the bag at any cost. Odysseus and the crew sail homeward for 9 days and on the 10th day when their land is in sight and when Odysseus closes his eyes for a short while, his crew, thinking that Odysseus has been given a bag full of riches by Aeolus, opens the bag. A tempest rises and the men in the ship are carried seaward again. Odysseus returns again to the island of Aeolus, who this time closes the doors of his palace against Odysseus, telling him, “Leave our island, now, lowest of living men. It would be against religion for me to set a man on his course when the blessed gods revile him. Go, for you come as one the immortals hate.”(2)

As we have seen, the 7th episode of Ulysses by James Joyce is set in the offices of the Newspapers, Freeman's Journal and Telegraph. It is composed of short sections, each with headlines similar to that in a newspaper. Many of these headlines herald - often directly, sometimes in a really stretched manner - the content that follows. Talks heard/read by well known orators are commented upon/recited, lots of lofty words (many of them hollow and windy) are used, the exception being when Stephen tells a story to Professor MacHugh on the way to Mooney's. In the section with the headline VIRGILIAN, SAYS PEDAGOGGUE. SOPHOMORE PLUMPS FOR OLD MAN MOSES., Professor MacHugh suggests a line from a poem by Virgil as the title of the story but it is rejected by Stephen who prefers a title that echoes the Bible. 

There are two kinds of returning/coming back in this episode, just as Odysseus returns/comes back to the island of Aeolus. The first is when Bloom comes back to the newspaper office after discussing the terms of the advertisement he procures from Alexander Keyes. The second one is when we reach the Nelson's pillar at the end of the episode, the location with which we started the episode. 

Online reading of Thursday, 19 November 2020 (7.765)

Note: For the time being, the Ulysses readings have been moved to an online platform. Please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 October 2020) for further information.

The joint online reading held on Thursday, 19 November 2020 stopped at: “both our lives” (7.765)

Summary (by Chandra Holm):

Bloom is still inside Myles Crawford’s office making the phone call to Alexander Keyes. Outside the office, conversation goes on. Any such conversation at that time led to Irish history, to Irish culture, to Irish rebels, to the daring episode of the Invincibles (7.632 - 7.642), . . . There is really no dearth of topics among the people assembled in the Newspaper office. After all this is a Omnium Gatherum, a gathering of all kinds of talents representing, for instance, the law, the classics, the turf, literature (7.605 - 7.608), ... Even the gentle art of advertisement (7.608) would have been represented there if only Bloom were there. Even amidst the discussions on various topics, even amidst the riddles posed  and limericks recited (7.578) by Lenehan, Stephen's mind is busy with its own thoughts (7.583). One of the challenges here is to separate the inner musings (internal monologues) from what is loudly spoken. 

Online reading of Thursday, 12 November 2020 (7.576)

For the time being, all readings of Ulysses have been moved to an online platform. For more details, please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 October 2020). 

The joint online reading held on Thursday, 12 November 2020 stopped at: “Stephen's ear” (7.576)

Bloom goes into the office of the Evening Telegraph to make a phone call to finalise the ad of Alexander Keyes. In one of the offices, Professor MacHugh, Ned Lambert and Simon Dedalus are gathered. Bloom's entrance is marked only by MacHugh. The other two are busy having delightful fun, reading a passage by Dan Dawson in that day's newspaper. Soon thinking that life is too short (7.330) - to spend reading such articles - Simon Dedalus whisks Ned Lambert away to have a drink. Myles Crawford, the editor, who has come out of his inner office, is not ready to join them just then. As Bloom goes into Crawford's office to use the phone, more people walk in. First Lenehan comes out of the inner office and then Mr O'Madden Burke and Stephen Dedalus enter. Stephen has brought Mr Deasy's letter to show to the editor for possible publication in the newspaper. Professor MacHugh comments - foot and mouth?(7. 527)- referring the letter he peers over, reminds Stephen the comment Buck Mulligan had made that morning (Bullockbefriending bard; 7.528). Stephen muses about his own thoughts as those gathered there continue to converse.

(Summarized from the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated, by Chandra Holm)

Online reading of Thursday, 5 November 2020 (7.290)

Note: For the time being, all readings of Ulysses have been moved to an online platform. For more details, please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 October 2020).

The online reading session on Thursday, 5.11.2020 stopped at: “shook his head.” (7.290) 

Summary (by Chandra Holm):

Aeolus, episode 7, has a different feel, a different look, compared to Hades, the previous episode. It is made up of relatively short sections, with each section having a title, just like a newspaper with headings and sub-headings: IN THE HEART OF THE HIBERNIAN METROPOLIS, THE CROZIER AND THE PEN, AND IT WAS THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER, THE GRANDEUR THAT WAS ROME . . . These headlines hint at the content of the section that follow*. For example, the headline "IN THE HEART OF THE HIBERNIAN METROPOLIS" deals with the happenings at that time (12 noon) at the heart of Dublin. (Remember that Patrick Dignam's funeral is over and the mourners have dispersed and are now engaged with their regular occupations. Our Bloom in trying to sell an advertisement for Alexander Keyes has come to the offices of the newspaper, Freeman's Journal.) The section with the headline "THE CROZIER AND THE PEN" talks about the bishop telephoning that morning William Brayden, the owner of the newspaper. It also introduces Nannetti, a real Dubliner who was a master printer and politician, and who in 1906 became the Lord Mayor of Dublin. And so on . . .

And really it is all about urban life. As we get further into the episode, it becomes quite windy with words, often hollow words. Just like some newspapers!

(Summarized from the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated.)

* To be clear, this is not always the case. The headlines in the initial sections of the episode are  indeed related to the content that follows as shown in the examples above. But they are often mysterious, sometimes even misleading. As we read further into the episode, the headlines and the content that follows start diverging even!