The reading stopped at " ... after his death..." (15.3836)
Summary*
By this time, we, the readers, have more or less got used to the 'craziness' - rather, the incredible creativity of Joyce - we experience in this episode. If we want to thoroughly appreciate Joyce's creativity, we need to remember almost every word we have so far read in the book. We need to be prepared for inanimate objects (yews, waterfalls) and animals (staggering bob, nanny goat, black liz), for deceased persons (Shakespeare, Virag), mythical persons (nymph) and persons who are really are not part of the gathering (Boylan, Councillor Nannetti, Father Dolan, John Conmee, Marion aka Molly, Mina Kennedy, Lydia Douce, The boots) to spring into the conversation. We also need to recognise the clues that lead to the 'appearance' (and quick disappearance) of objects and persons amongst the people gathered in Bella Cohen's brothel. (For instance, Shakespeare makes an appearance when Lynch says, "The mirror up to nature" that is a saying in Hamlet; Father Dolan appears when Lynch mentions pandybat, which in itself a reference to Joyce's earlier work The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.) We need to discern how in this episode fantasy (the conversation between the nymph and Bloom) intermingles with reality (Bloom asking Zoe to give him back the potato that was a relic of his mamma) and to learn to distinguish between the two.
*Please note that the posting of summaries which had to be discontinued in September 2021 will resume from this week.
