Online reading, Thursday, 21 April 2022 (17.1082)

Note: As Fritz Senn is abroad, there will be no on-line reading of Ulysses on Thursday, 28 April 2022.

The reading will continue at usual time on Thursday, 5 May 2022.

The last reading stopped at " . . .  its powers." (17.1082)

Online reading, Thursday, 14 April 2022 (17.794)

The reading stopped at " . . . exponent of Shakespeare." (17.794)

Summary:

Bloom and Stephen continue to discuss about factors that separate them. Though neither of them openly talk about their racial differences, a question that arises here is whether Bloom is indeed a Jew. Though the Dubliners in this novel regard him as one, he may not be so theoretically at least as his mother was Ellen Higgins, her name suggesting that she was not a Jew. Furthermore, Bloom has been baptised, not once but thrice! 

Exploring further their 'differences', they recite fragments of verses to each other: Stephen reciting lines from an Irish ballad, and Bloom from the Song of Solomon 4.3. They write down alphabets, with Stephen writing down Irish characters and Bloom Hebrew ones. Their summing up of each other has biblical overtones. It is also possible that Bloom, the eternal father, is searching for the eternal son, and has reached the end of his search in Stephen.

Online reading, Thursday 7 April 2022 (17.539)

The reading stopped at " ... (born Grier)." (17.539)

Summary:

The salient part of the pages read in this session has to do with the minute examination of the four forces - name, age, race and creed - that separate Bloom from Stephen. It takes more than four pages of examination to reach the end of the discourse on the consequences of the difference in their age. And neither of them openly allude to their racial differences. All that we know is that he thought that he thought that he was a jew whereas he knew that he knew that he knew that he was not.

Online reading, Thursday, 31 March 2022 (17.253)

 The reading stopped at ". . . abandonment and recuperation." (17.253)

Summary: 

Ithaca, the penultimate episode of Ulysses, describes actual homecoming. It is 2 a.m. Concerned about where Stephen will find a place to sleep that night, Bloom is taking him home to No. 7, Eccles Street.

Ithaca, could not have differed more in style from Eumaeus, the previous episode. In fact, with each episode, Joyce opens up new vistas of style. Here it resembles the style of catechism, a series of fixed questions, answers or precepts used for instruction. Just look at two examples: the first with which the episode starts: What parallel courses did Bloom and Stephen follow returning?, and again one that appears later: What in water did Bloom, Waterlover, drawer of water, watercarrzer, returning to the range, admire? Throughout the episode, longish explanations are given as answers to the questions raised. Everything that is talked about, seen and felt is categorized, listed, everything is treated in an ordered manner. These categories/lists are (this order is) presented in such a way as to render that all the topics look as if they are of equal importance. It feels as if the episode is trying to get back control of what has been missing, and to make up for the looseness and laxness of the previous one. But, again, though the effort seems to defeat its purpose, though conciseness and precision seem to get sacrificed, this style adds to the richness of the experience of reading Ulysses.