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!
