Online reading, Thursday, 19 May 2022 (17.1895)

The reading stopped at "... beliefs and practices." (17.1895)

Summary:

Bloom not only dreams of possessing a fine mansion but also about how much he should pay for it and how to collect the sum of money needed to pay for it. The list of rapid but insecure means he imagines, which will make it possible to purchase the Flowerville immediately is to be read to be enjoyed. He thinks too of a number of practical ideas - some big, some small - which could lead to his amassing wealth. Reclamation of dunams of waste arenary soil, utilization of waste paper, are just two of the ideas. Why on earth would Bloom think of such things at this early morning hour after a very long day? Because, he knows that meditating on such topics would help him to sleep. He had learnt that a man who would live for 70 years spends 20 of them sleeping! 

While busy with thoughts, Bloom unlocks a drawer. The drawer holds an assortment of things: a copybook, a Christmas card, mementoes of his parents, letters from Martha, envelopes and notepaper two partly uncoiled rubber preservatives as well as 2 erotic photocards purchased by post from Box 32, P. O., Charing Cross, London, W. C., 1 prospectus of The Wonderworker, the world's greatest remedy for rectal complaints. The prospectus was addressed to Mrs. L. Bloom, the enclosed note starting with Dear Madam.

The second drawer contains many important documents including the birth certificate of Leopold Paula Bloom and an envelope addressed: To My Dear Son Leopold. Seeing the envelope sent to him by his father makes Bloom think of his father, an old man, widower, unkempt of hair, in bed, with head covered, sighing: an infirm dog, Athos. (The name of Odysseus’s dog was Argos. It was so infirm by the time Odysseus finally reached home that all it could do as it saw the master was to wag its tail before dropping dead.) He also feels a bit of remorse because in his young days he (Bloom) had viewed certain beliefs and practices (of his father) with disrespect. 

Online reading, Thursday, 12 May 2022 (17.1614)

The reading stopped at " . . . Kingstown for England." (17.1614) 

Summary:

The style of the episode still follows that of catechism with the answers taking off and getting a life of their own, often forgetting the question that was posed in the first place! 

As we read on, we come to know the gifts Bloom and Molly received at their wedding and the various books* Bloom has collected. Observing these various objects displayed in the living room, Bloom feels quite happy. At the same time, he feels constrained by all the layers of clothes he has been wearing since the morning, and takes them off one by one. As he undresses, he feels the scar of a bee sting below the diaphragm. (We had heard of it earlier in Oxen of the Sun, episode 14). Odysseus also had a scar, above his knees, caused by a wild boar. That is how his old nurse, Eurycleia, could recognize him when he returned home after 20 years.

Bloom empties his pockets and takes out, and puts back, a silver coin he has had with him since the funeral of Mrs Emily Sinico**. At this point we are presented with Bloom's budget, albeit incomplete, for the previous day. We are not sure whether this list is actually written down, whether Bloom just thinks about the items. 

What follows is the description of Bloom's ambitions. Two full pages follow detailing the kind of house (to be named Bloom Cottage or Saint Leopold's or Flowerville)  he would have, the books that would rest on his bookshelf, the flowers that would grow in his garden, the names of shops from where he would buy the seeds necessary for his garden, the various implements he would keep, and so on. He continues to dream of the improvements he will introduce to his grounds, how he will commute to the city, the  intellectual pursuits and recreations both in summer and winter he could engage in. . . 

*The library at the Zurich James Joyce Foundation has copies of most of these books except for The Hidden Life of Christ. Note that a different book but with the same title was published in 2011.

** Mrs Sinico is familiar to the readers of Dubliners, Joyce's collection of short stories.

(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)

Online reading, Thursday, 5 May 2022 (17.1332)

The reading stopped at ". . .  oriental incense." (17.1332)

Summary:

After Bloom suggests that Stephen should sleep that night in his house, and after the offer is politely refused, both of them go out of the house and into the garden. In the garden they witness the spectacle of starry night (heaventree). Here Joyce makes full use of his intention of making this episode, Ithaca, a mathematico-astronomico-physico-mechanico- geometrico-chemico sublimation of Bloom and Stephen. Under the heavenly stars, Bloom is in his elements. He talks of stars, of planets and their features, of constellations, of evolution, of the geographical history of the earth, and so on. He has problems with believing in a redeemer, with the idea of redemption. According to him the minor was proved by the major. In other words, redemption is doubtful. The major premise of Bloom's answer: humanoid existence on other planets is possible, but if it exists, it will be human and therefore vain. The minor premise: since vain, redemption would be doubtful (Gifford, 17.1102).

Bloom does not believe in any heaven. For him it is rather like the Utopia, the imaginary island of Thomas More. He does not also believe in the influence of these heavenly bodies on the disasters that happen here on earth. But he is quite aware of the aesthetic beauty of what he and Stephen are observing.

By then the dim light of a paraffin lamp in the second story of the house attracts their attention. This visible splendid sign hints at an invisible attractive person. There are two allusions here: the first to the meeting between Cato and Dante and Virgil as they approach the Mount of Purgatory; the second to the Ceremony of Sacrament as the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual Grace. Molly as Beatrice. Molly as Mary.

At Stephen's suggestion both of them urinate. We are told about the trajectories they reach now and reached as kids. . . . Finally Bloom opens the garden door, shakes Stephen's hands, who then leaves. Right at that moment, the bells of the nearby Church of Saint George chime. The sound makes Stephen think of the prayer recited at his mother's deathbed whereas Bloom hears in the chime, Heigho, heigho, just as he had heard them that morning as he came out of the outdoor toilet.

Stephen leaves. Bloom, all alone, feels the cold of the interstellar space. He thinks of many of his comrades who are no more. He crosses the garden, reenters the passage, goes up the stairs. As he goes into the front room, he hits his head against the walnut sideboard, which, in his absence, has been rearranged along with other furniture. He experiences different kinds of emotions as he observes the current state of the furniture in the room.

Bloom then takes out an incense cone igniting it, fumigates the room in which Boylan has been, just like Odysseus fumigates his palace after the suitors have been killed.

(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)