Online Reading, Thursday, 10 February 2022 (16.538)

The reading stopped at ". . . Brown, Robinson and Co." (16.538)

Summary:

The main happening on these pages is Bloom's entering with Stephen the cabman's shelter, where their presence soon attracts a sailor, who introduces himself as D. B. Murphy, of Carrigaloe. He spins many stories, chief among them being his meeting Simon Dedalus, who toured the wide world with Hengler's Royal Circus. He also says that he docked just that morning after seven years at sea, and that his little woman is waiting for him at home. Like Bloom, our own Odysseus, the sailor too is on his way home though neither of them is in a hurry to get there!

Online reading, Thursday, 3 February 2022 (16.259)

 The reading stopped at "Why?" (16.259)

Summary:

Episode 15, Eumaeus, is the first episode of the last book consisting of 3 episodes in Joyce's Ulysses. It is the first of the three homecoming episodes. It is also one of the wittiest episodes of the novel. The style of writing Joyce uses here - with lots of cliches, many idioms and proverbs, long-winded sentences -  takes us on a literary ride in which he demonstrates how to write something that in a way is pompous and rambles quite a bit. The result is that one is hardly ever sure, if what one is reading in a sentence is quite as it sounds.

It is 1 am. After having rescued Stephen from the soldiers and the police, Bloom is taking him home as he thinks that Stephen has no place to sleep that night after having been deserted by Mulligan and Haines at the Westland Row station. Both are tired after a very long day. Stephen, quite drunk, is slowly sobering up. Bloom is not drunk but is obviously utterly exhausted.

Stephen wants to drink something. As there is no water pump in the vicinity, Bloom suggests that they go by the cabman's shelter, where they might get something to drink in the shape of a milk and soda or a mineral. As they are both tired, Bloom thinks of getting a vehicle, provided one is available. But as they cannot find one, they continue on foot.

The events on the way underscore the difference in the characters of the two men. As  Stephen thinks of Ibsen (an echo of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), Bloom is busy enjoying the smell of freshly baked goods at James Rourke's city bakery. Bloom talks and talks, trying to make Stephen aware of the dangers of nighttown, the consequences of drinking, and of being friends with those who desert him. Bloom does admit that he himself relishes a glass of choice old wine in season. . . still never beyond a certain point. Bloom talks,  Stephen is silent . . .