Important note: There will be no online reading of Ulysses on Thursday, 10 March 2022.
The reading stopped at ". . . a cottonball one." (16.1357)
Summary:
Bloom continues to try to make conversation with Stephen by talking of Jews and their contribution to the British society, Turks, Islam, patriotism. . . . Stephen is not interested in any of it. Over his unstable apology for a cup of coffee, listening to this synopsis of things in general, Stephen stare[s] at nothing in particular. Having been discouraged by Stephen's lack of interest, Bloom falls silent. As his mind gets busy with a variety of thoughts he notices the pink edition extra sporting of the Telegraph lying there. His eyes run over many captions till he arrives at a note on Patrick Dignam's funeral. The note that must have been written by Hynes talks about what a genial personality Dignam was, and goes on to list the names of people who attended the funeral that morning. The list contains many errors. Not only has Bloom become L. Boom, it also mentions that Stephen Dedalus B. A. was at the funeral, when actually he was not there. Stephen is interested in finding out whether the letter, which he brought that morning to the newspaper has been printed. It has been. While Stephen reads the letter printed on page two, Bloom reads on page three about the horse race in which Throwaway was the winner and on page four about the Slocum Disaster. Then at this late hour in the cabman's shelter moves to the Irish Nationalist politician Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891). Skin-the-Goat's comment that the husband of Katherine O'Shea (who had a long affair with Parnell & married him later), was a cottonball one, makes Bloom think of that scandal, of the court case, and how finally it brought Parnell down.
