The last reading stopped at: “smiled tinily, sweetly.” (10.127)
Summary:
Whereas the previous episode was one replete with heavy discussions, echoes and allusions, this one has movement as its main feature. It feels like a breath of fresh air after the heaviness of the vaulted cell (9.345), the room in the National Library. The episode, named aptly as Wandering Rocks, is highly cinematic. Here all kinds of people are walking around in Dublin; the paths of many, if not all, cross.
In the Odyssey of Homer, the sorceress Circe tells Odysseus of the ‘Wandering Rocks’ or ‘Roving Rocks’ that have only been successfully passed by the Argo when homeward bound. These rocks smash ships and the remaining timbers are scattered by the sea or destroyed by flames. The rocks lie on one of two potential routes to Ithaca; the alternative, which is taken by Odysseus, leads to Scylla and Charybdis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planctae).
In Joyce's Ulysses, the 'Wandering Rocks' seem quite harmless though. Apart from the very reverend John Conmee S. J. (he is the first one we meet), a bevy of 'rocks' are wandering on this day in Dublin: Corny Kelleher, constable 57C, a onelegged sailor, Ned Lambert, J. J. O'Molloy, Katey, Boody and Maggy Dedalus, Blazes Boylan, Almidano Artifoni, Stephen, Miss Dunne, a blond salesgirl, and a clergyman among others . . .
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
