Tuesday, 28 January 2014, Pages 845 - 853, Ithaca, Episode 17

Stopped at "How did these beliefs and practices now appear to him?". Gabler (17.1902), Penguin (853.29)

Bloom is still occupied with thoughts of how to acquire the vast sum of money that he would need for his dream-dwelling. Could he acquire some through industrial channels? Reclamation of waste arenary soil as he read that (nay, previous) morning in the prospectus of Agendath Netaim, recycling of not just waste paper but also sewer rodents and human excrement come to his mind as possibilities. Other alternatives are exploitation of hydraulic power, real estate development of the peninsular delta of the North Bull at Dollymount, developing a scheme to connect by tramline the Cattle Market with the quays - a thought that he had indeed already had that morning. See p. 69 -, obtaining the wealth by a gift or bequest... Naturally he conjures up - true to the nature of this chapter - various lists (all the railway lines at various terminal stations in Dublin, names of eminent financiers,...) as he dwells on these various possibilities.

The simple answer to the question as to why Bloom engages at this late hour with this incredible, tangential thought process is that it is his habit, and that such meditations before retiring to bed help him to sleep soundly! It is also said that his final thoughts, before falling asleep, were about designing an unique advertisement, reduced to its simplest and most efficient terms. Something no one can "accuse" Joyce of having tried with this chapter!

Well, time is still not ripe enough to go to bed for Bloom. He opens a drawer, obviously to store the letter by Martha Clifford that he had received that morning. This drawer already contains three more letters from her.  (More about these letters at the end of this post!) Among many other things, it is here that a drawing by Milly of her father (with 1 triangular foot!), a couple of faded photographs, a Yuletide card, a box of pennibs, a brooch that had belonged to his mother (it is one of the very few times she makes an appearance in this novel), two erotic postcards obtained from an address in Charing Cross, London, a prospectus of The Wonderworker, the world's greatest remedy for rectal complaints (addressed and sent wrongly to Mrs L. Bloom) are stored.

(Analysis of two paragraphs that follow shows the levels on which Ulysses can be interpreted, based on how one word is understood. The word in question is 'thaumaturgic'. (Quote the textual terms in which the prospectus claimed advantages for this thaumaturgic remedy. Page 850) Combining the statement in the prospectus that using it makes a new man of you, making life worth living together with the question that follows, "Were there testimonials?" this word could be interpreted as something biblical. It could also be interpreted quite trivially, simply as having miraculous or magical powers, i.e., praising it as a potent medicine.)

The second drawer contains many important documents including the birth certificate of Leopold Paula Bloom and an envelope addressed by his father To My Dear Son Leopold. 

That Bloom has a feminine middle name, Paula, is worthy of notice. As far as I am aware, the only female name that is used as the middle name of men is/was Marie (Maria).  That Bloom's middle name is Paula explains in a way his transformation into a female character in the chapter Circe. Who wouldn't with such a (middle) name!

Seeing the envelope sent to him by his father makes Bloom think of his father, an old man, a widower and Athos, his infirm dog. 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. (The dog of Odysseus 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.)

Now about the three (now four) letters by Martha Clifford which are stored in the first drawer. Why would Bloom store these letters in an apparently unlocked drawer? Would they not be seen by Molly? Does he in fact intend for Molly to discover these letters? Is it because she has seen them that she has little qualms about singing Love's Old Sweet Song with Boylan, wearing long yellow gloves? 

Tuesday, 21 January 2014, Pages 836 - 845, Ithaca, Episode 17

The last thing we read today. "... £ 1,000,000 sterling." Gabler (17.1668), Penguin (845.27)

Bloom is still engaged in the process of divestiture, takes off his shoes, after (naturally it is not a simple matter if one remains true to the style of this chapter) disnoding the lace knots, unhooking and loosening the laces. He breaks off part of the nail of his big toe on his right foot that was peeping through the hole of the sock, inhales its odour before throwing it away. This little act brings back the memories of the time when he was Master Bloom and was a pupil at Mrs Ellis's juvenile school.

Soon Bloom's thoughts are off on a tangent, perhaps triggered by the money matters which had occupied him a short while before. He starts thinking about the kind of a house he would like to live in. What follows is a three-page long flights of fancy about his dream dwelling including servant's apartments, location, layout, number of rooms, type of furniture, size and details of the grounds in which it would be situated, kinds of flowers that would grow in the gardens, playing courts that would be added along with a summerhouse and a shrubbery, rabbitry, fowlrun, 2 hammocks (lady's and gentleman's), nature of transport desired to reach the town, ... Lo and behold, he thinks not only of the kind of hobbies he would engage in (outdoor: garden and fieldwork; indoor: discussion in tepid security of unsolved historical and criminal problems, house carpentry...) but also of possible names of this eligible and erected residence as being Bloom Cottage, Saint Leopold's, or Flowerville.

What follows is a list - yet one more of this chapter - of the kind of civic functions Bloom of 7 Eccles street foresees for Bloom of Flowerville. (Details on pages 842 & 843 in the Penguin edition!) Questions regarding how much to pay for such a country residence, and how to raise the required amount occupy next our Bloom. Among other possibilities he sees for the latter are winning a horse race in a national equine handicap (because of the 28 minute long difference between the Greenwich time followed in England and Dunsink time followed in Ireland, bookies in Dublin did not close their books until 3.30 or 3.45 pm local time and a private telegram would inform Bloom of the result of the race that was over much earlier), getting his hands on a few rare stamps or finding a solution of the secular problem of the quadrature of the circle, and winning the government premium £ 1,000,000 sterling.

During the reading, I felt quite dissatisfied with Bloom's occupation with all these trivial details, with his building such enormous castles in air, with his forgetting that his livelihood was based on acquiring advertisements for a newspaper. I could not forget that before all these memories/thoughts began to run amok, Bloom had seen solid evidence of his being betrayed by his wife. I asked myself what idea Joyce had while he wrote this section. I wondered how to reconcile this characterization of Bloom with the one I had carried all along with me - of a Bloom, who is a rational and a modest man.  What, if any, parallels are there between Bloom's this home coming and that of Homer's Ulysses?

A long reflection about the behavior of Bloom through out the day did finally lead me to partial answers to my questions. Particularly his behavior whenever Blazes Boylan's name was mentioned. For example, very early in the novel, in the carriage on the way to the burial of Patrick Dignam,when Mr. Power mentions seeing Boylan airing his quiff (Penguin 115.2), Bloom forces himself to review the nails of his left hand.  In fact, he had avoided returning home that day and had forced upon himself a long nocturnal perambulation in order not to confront the thoughts of Molly with Boylan at 7 Eccles Street.

Thus it is very much in line with Joyce's characterization of Bloom that Bloom thinks about his dream house, minutes after seeing a pair of long yellow ladies' gloves, an emerald ashtray containing four consumed matches, and notes of Love's Old Sweet Song on the vertical piano (Cadby)!!

Tuesday, 14 January 2014, Pages 827 - 836, Ithaca, Episode 17

We shall continue next week with the sentence, "Did the process of divestiture continue?"  Gabler (17.1479), Penguin (836.36)

Bloom is all alone after the departure of Stephen - out of his house, out of his life, out of this novel, and consequently out of our lives. It is almost dawn. Bloom - like Stephan - has not slept that night. He has had a long and busy day. Thinking of many a people, many a thing, he does not seem to be tired at all. Still, it is wrong to assume that he is a nocturnal being as the one other time when he had witnessed the disparition of three final stars, the diffusion of daybreak, the apparition of a new solar disk was about twenty years ago! In 1887, to be precise. 

Bloom retraverses the garden, reenters the passage, recloses the door, and reapproaches the door of the front room, the hallfloor. These 're's pose a problem, indeed. If at all, Bloom had used this door when he left home that morning, and when Stephen left they had come out from the rere of the house. So, what is this about reentering the passage, reclosing the door, ...? 

Anyway, when Bloom reenters the front room, hall floor, he hits his head against the walnut sideboard, which has been rearranged along with the plume plush sofa, the blue and white checker inlaid majolica topped table, and two chairs - one a squat stuffed easychair, and the other a slender splayfoot one of glossy cane curves. (Naturally the latter signal Boylan and Molly).  There are additional signs in the room of its recent occupants: a pair of long yellow ladies' gloves on a vertical piano, an ashtray with used matches and cigarettes, and music sheets of Love's Old Sweet Song. The question arises as to why on earth would Molly wear long gloves to practice a song at home with Boylan! A. N. reminded that the color of her gloves is the same as that of the dressing gown of Buck Mulligan (see the second sentence of the novel) and that the color yellow symbolizes adultery!

Perhaps to get rid of the stale smell of the cigarettes, Bloom lights an incense stick. His eyes then travel to the objects (on the mantlepiece) he had got as matrimonial gifts: a timepiece of striated Connemara marble, stopped at 4.46 a.m. on 21 March 1896, a dwarf tree, and an embalmed owl. After that he sees in the mirror not only his own reflection but also that of several books on the two bookshelves opposite. The catalogue of the books include books like Shakespeare's Works,  The useful ready reckoner, Philosophy of the talmud, Soll and haben etc, which are described variously according to their bindings, the typesets used, names of publishers/printers, etc. No trivial detail is left out. Too much information is given making most of it redundant and insignificant.

Bloom then slowly gets rid of his collar (size 17) and waistcoat (5 buttons), scratching himself imprecisely, takes out of his left lower pocket a shilling, the sight of which makes him recall and list his expenditure of the day, excepting that in the Nighttown!

Thus these pages serve to recapitulate the happenings of the day. From different points of view. Prioritizing different aspects of the day.

Tuesday, 7 January 2014, Pages 818 - 827, Ithaca, Episode 17

Today, we read as fas as: intimations of proximate dawn (Gabler 17.1248) (Penguin p. 827)

Bloom and Stephen walk out into Bloom's garden and, in a moment reminiscent of Virgil and Dante at the end of the Inferno, look at the "spectacle" of the stars. The men continue to converse on various topics (and we are reminded of how Stephen earlier described their constellation as spelling W for William Shakespeare and marking the poet's birth). They seem to be on different tracts, however, with Stephen veering on the side of religion, while Bloom tends towards more scientific or practical considerations. Bloom remains sceptical of the existence of a heaven beyond the earth, and- seeing no method of proceeding from the known earth to the unknown heaven - he rejects the idea of a saviour. However, he still enjoys the aesthetic beauty of the universe and the suggestions of certain astronomical theories that connect the celestial with what goes on on Earth. For example, he muses on the idea that woman's nature reflects that of the moon in many respects:

What special affinities appeared to him to exist between the moon and woman?

Her antiquity in preceding and surviving successive tellurian generations: her nocturnal predominance: her satellitic dependence: her luminary reflection: her constancy under all her phases, rising, and setting by her appointed times, waxing and waning: the forced invariability of her aspect: her indeterminate response to inaffirmative interrogation: her potency over effluent and refluent waters: her power to enamour, to mortify, to invest with beauty, to render insane, to incite to and aid delinquency: the tranquil inscrutability of her visage: the terribility of her isolated dominant implacable resplendent propinquity: her omens of tempest and of calm: the stimulation of her light, her motion and her presence: the admonition of her craters, her arid seas, her silence: her splendour, when visible: her attraction, when invisible. (17.1157) (p. 823)

 From the garden, they see the light that has gone on in Molly's window. They urinate too (they have both been drinking and need to rather badly). Bloom all the while keeps his mind on the physical aspects of the male organ (remembering also a urinating contest among boys when he was at school, where he came first as he reached highest point), while Stephen thinks about intellectual issues around Christ's circumcision. Bloom, then, unlocks the garden door, the men shake hands and, as Stephen is walking away, the bells of St George's church can be heard. They bring back to Stephen the lines "Liliata rutilantium, Turma circumdet" and thus the memory of his mother's deathbed, and to Bloom the men who attended Dignam's funeral with him that morning.

A note about how to read the various voices in this chapter (or about how we don't know how to read them): It is often not clear, how far to voice asking the questions and the one providing the answers on the one hand and that of the characters on the other intermingle. Consider for example this passage:

Where were the several members of the company which with Bloom that day at the bidding of that peal had travelled from Sandymount in the south to Glasnevin in the north?

Martin Cunningham (in bed), Jack Power (in bed), Simon Dedalus (in bed), Tom Kernan (in bed), Ned Lambert (in bed), Joe Hynes (in bed), John Henry Menton (in bed), Bernard Corrigan (in bed), Patsy Dignam (in bed), Paddy Dignam (in the grave). (17.1235) (p. 827)

It is hard to tell whether the men are indeed in bed or if this is Bloom merely thinking they are.

Tuesday, 17 December 2013, Pages 811 - 818, Ithaca, Episode 17

"... from the house of bondage to the wilderness of inhabitation effected?" {(17.1022) Gabler, p. 818 (Penguin)} is where we stopped at the last meeting of the reading group in 2013.

We are back in the world of "trivials" after the shock felt last week by the reciting of the antisemitic poem by Stephen. Bloom's thoughts wander again. Rather, he is occupied with the memories stirred up by the mention of the daughter of the Jew in the poem. Memories of Milly as a child (born on 15 June 1889) counting one, tloo, tlee, of her dolls, of her blond hair (though born of two-dark headed ones), of her adolescence, of the letter she had written on her 15th birthday (which was just a day preceding the current happenings), of his trying to teach Milly elements of biology and physics using an owl and a clock which he had got as matrimonial auguries, and of her giving him as a gift on his 27th birthday, a breakfast moustachecup of imitation Crown Derby porcelain ware.

Bloom's thoughts are intercepted by the temporary departure of his cat. This catapults Bloom's thoughts into wondering about the similarities and differences between the cat and Milly, in what becomes the pinnacle of labored writing.

This style of writing continues. Said in plain English, Bloom offers Stephen a bed, which is declined by Stephen. On the imminent departure of the much-cared-for-guest, Bloom is made to think of Mrs. Emily Sinico, mirroring the scene of a similar declining of an offer in the story, A Painful Case, from Joyce's Dubliners. Bloom does not give up on enticing Stephen. He would so love to continue the contact which would mean for him (Bloom) rejuvenation of intelligence and vicarious satisfaction. Among other things, he proposes that Stephen teach Molly Italian, that Milly coach Stephen in singing, that they both  (Bloom and Stephen) meet in a suitable place and engage in a series of static semistatic and peripatetic intellectual dialogues. Bloom, who would have gone through a number of disappointments to date, would really be depressed if his offers were rejected. Because he realizes that the society/human existence has reached a critical turningpoint which can only be saved by amending many social conditions, the product of inequality and avarice and international animosity.

Bloom, at this point, is - once again - his kind and lovable self. He is the Bloom we know!

All that remains now is to wish you all, co-readers of Bloom's saga, happy holidays and a great beginning to 2014!

Tuesday, 10 December 2013, Pages 804 - 811, Ithaca, Episode 17

Today we stopped at: "hypnotic suggestion and somnambulism", 17.849  (Gabler), p.  811 (Penguin)

After we were occupied in this chapter for a long time with apparently trivial questions
(e.g: what lay under exposure on the lower, middle and upper shelves of the kitchen dresser, opened by Bloom? (p. 788, Penguin), Who drank more quickly? (p. 791, Penguin), What is home without Plumtree's Potted Meat? (p. 800, Penguin)) and not so trivial ones (e.g. What to do with out wives. (p.802, Penguin)), we are catapulted into the world of antisemitism that was to engulf Europe within years after the publication of Ulysses. Joyce builds this up quite slowly, and talks at first of three seekers of pure truth, Moses of Egypt, Moses Maimonides, and Moses Mendensohn (p.805, Penguin). Then some Hebrew statements appear, only to be followed by names of books that are sacred in Judaism along with those that narrate Irish legend. 

As the conversation (?) moves on to the development of languages, from the Egyptian epigraphic hieroglyphs to Celtic writing, we are confronted with Stephen's auditive sensation and Bloom's visual sensation. (This chapter mentions very often such complementary elements, here e.g. auditive vs visual.) It is then that Joyce attributes (albeit in Bloom's perception) the appearance of Stephen to the 'known' appearance of Christ, leaving us with the question whether Stephen is the Christ of Ulysses.

In what looks like a very sudden step (a catastrophe, a turning point), Stephen starts to recite a legendary poem, which is seeped in antisemitism, though it is composed of such innocent looking words:

Little Harry Hughes and his schoolfellows all
Went out for to play ball.
And the very first ball little Harry Hughes played
He drove it o'er the Jew's garden wall.
And the very second ball little Harry Hughes played
He broke the Jew's windows all.
...

This recitation of Stephen leaves us with many questions:
1. How can Stephen, who has been so cared for by Bloom, recite such a poem in his host's place?
2. Why does he do it?
3. What does Joyce really mean with the words, "secret infidel" when he poses the question: "Why was the host (secret infidel) silent?" after asking, "Why was he host (reluctant, unresisting) still?"

Tuesday, 3 December 2013, Pages 794 - 804, Ithaca, Episode 17

We stopped at, " ... (a mendacious person mentioned in sacred scripture.), 17.687 (Gabler), p. 804 (Penguin)

Last week we had read about the first of the four separating forces between Bloom and his temporary guest, namely, name. Started today reading about the relation that existed between their ages. Joyce takes about half-a-page to tell us (not directly, of course) that Stephen was born in 1882, and that 16 years before in 1888 when Bloom was of Stephen's present age, Stephen was 16. This is followed by a long list of calculations of "what, when.." Soon, the thoughts (or is it the conversation between the two) turn to Dante of The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Not only with the introduction of Dante but also with many other hints, Joyce has created a kaleidoscope - arranging and rearranging the events of the day - in his creation of Ulysses.

Other things - apart from name and age - that are considered here in great detail are their educational careers, their temperaments (Bloom's is said to be scientific where as Stephen's is artistic), their parentage, art of advertisements, The Queen's Hoel in Ennis (where Bloom's father had committed suicide), and the big question of what to do with wives on long evenings! After considering many options including parlour games, Bloom favors courses of evening instruction specially designed to render liberal instruction, as she (his wife) usually interprets polysyllables of foreign origin phonetically: e.g. metempsychosis as met him pike hoses (page 77, Penguin)

While talking about parents, there is a hint about why Bloom asserts on page 745 (Penguin) that he in reality is not a jew: "... told him his God, I mean Christ, was a jew too, and all his family, like me, though in reality I'm not."

The problem I faced today was not really knowing whether what we are reading are mere thoughts in Bloom's and Stephen's minds or whether they are having a conversation. The thing that contradicts the former is the fact that there is an apparent connection, a kind of response, between these "thoughts". This would not have been possible if these were merely thoughts. On the other hand, what speaks against it being a regular conversation is the fact that Stephen has so far been an uninterested, reticent, guest. Let us hope that we will be able to find the answer to this question by the end of the chapter!