Online reading, Thursday, 22 July 2021 (13.753)

 The reading stopped at ". . . don't tell." (13.753)

Please note that the blog is on vacation! The next posting will be in two weeks!

Online reading, Thursday, 15 July 2021 (13.465)

 The reading stopped at ". . . or some place." (13.465)

Summary:

There is more background information about Gerty on these pages. We read about Gerty's intense yearning to find a husband (her longing after a manly man with a strong quiet face, 13.210), her current home-life (father who was a prey to the fumes of intoxication (13.299), her snuff-taking mother, who gets raging splitting headaches (13.327), and even the picture of halcyon days (13.334) that she had tacked on the wall of that place - the toilet), and about the tension amongst herself, Cissy Caffrey and Edy Boardman, who were introduced to us at the beginning of the episode as three girl friends (13.9). 

It is with the description of Jacky and Tommy playing with the ball that a gentleman in black sitting there by himself (13.349) is brought into the picture. This part establishes the  link between Joyce's Nausicaa in Ulysses and Homer's Nausicaa in the Odyssey. Gerty, who becomes aware of the gentleman, is very quick to forget all about Reggy Wylie, the boy who used to ride a bicycle in front of her window and to transfer her affections and daydreams to him.

When all this is going on, sounds of the recitation of the litany of Our Lady of Loreto (13.287) in the church nearby, where the men's temperance retreat was being conducted (13.282), are carried over to the strand.

Online reading, Thursday, 8 July 2021 (13.199)

 The reading stopped at "... was not to be." (13.199)

Summary:

“In Book 5 of The Odyssey, Odysseus leaves Calypso's island, is harassed by Poseidon and is finally beached at the mouth of a river in the land of the fabulous seafaring people, the Phaeacians. Odysseus hides in a thicket to sleep off his exhaustion and in Book 6 is eventually awakened by the activities of the Princess Nausicaa and her maids-in-waiting, who have come to the river to do the palace laundry” (Gifford, 13.1-1306).

A far cry from the Joycean style which we have gotten to know in the previous episodes, the style here is one of over-sentimentality. The very first sentence sets the tone for the entire episode. It is 8 p.m. Three girl friends - Cissy Caffrey, Edy Boardman, Gerty MacDowell - are seated on rocks on the Sandymount strand. Four year old twins, Tommy and Jacky Caffrey, have come along with the girls, who have also brought with them an eleven month old baby in a pushcart.

Most of what was read today was about Gerty MacDowell, her looks, her dress,  her dreams and her yearnings. 

Online reading, Thursday, 1 July 2021 (End of episode 12)

 This reading session marked the completion of Cyclops, episode 12.

Summary

Bloom returns from the courthouse, where he has been looking for Martin Cunningham. Cunningham, feeling the tension in the air, makes a quick exit with Bloom, Jack Power and Crofton. Their hasty exit in a jaunting car cues in another interpolation, a short report of a kind of nautical farewell, and is full of sailing technicalities.

Though Bloom quits the pub, the citizen does not keep quiet. The situation turns nasty with him rushing out and bawling at Bloom. As onlookers enjoy the scene, Bloom starts to retaliate, evoking names of famous - though here irrelevant - Jews including Mendelssohn, Karl Marx, Mercadante, Spinoza and even Jesus and his father. Enraged, the citizen storms into the pub. It is time for another interpolation, another parody of another departure.

Just as the jarvey goes round the corner, the citizen hurls the biscuitbox after Bloom. It misses the target and the old tinbox clatter[s] along the street (12.1857). The interpolation that follows is gigantic in nature, dealing as it does with an earthquake.  Bloom's escape is parodied in the very last paragraph of the episode in which Joyce at first uses biblical language describing how the prophet Elijah ascended to the heavens and ends the episode with ordinary language.

Cyclops, episode 12, bears the closest similarity in the entire novel to Homer's Odyssey.  There is similarity between the citizen and Polyphemus as well as between the biscuit box thrown by the citizen and the rock thrown by Polyphemus. Some of the other features that invoke Homer's work are (a) the numerous references to 'eye' in the singular form hinting at the single-eyed giant, (b) Joyce’s playing with names through out the episode with how Odysseus introduces himself to Polyphemus by saying his name is "Οὖτις", and (c) the gigantism of the entire episode.

Polyphemus
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polyphemus.png

(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)

Online reading, Thursday, 24 June 2021 (12.1620)

The reading stopped at "Tis a merry rogue."(12.1620) but we shall continue the next session with the parody that starts with "Our travellers reached ..." (12.1593)

Summary:

In Barney Kiernan's pub, the citizen’s behaviour becomes increasingly aggressive towards Bloom, whom he ridicules and insults. The situation reaches the first climax of the episode when the citizen asks Bloom, “What is your nation if I may ask (12.1430),” spitting and wiping his mouth with a handkerchief when Bloom replies, "Ireland, . . . I was born here. Ireland (12.1431).” The handkerchief is a cue to start another parody celebrating Irish handicraft. There are more exaggerations and parodies in the remaining part of the episode: for example, of foreign customs, of the Bible, and of different types of fiction.

Bloom continues his rather serious talk that seems more forceful and infused with more emotion than usual, getting increasingly cornered when he expresses his opinion. He finally chooses to find an excuse to leave the pub. 

The men continue with more talk of England's cruelty to Ireland, until Lenehan takes the floor and starts talking about Bloom and his actual reason for leaving. He claims that Bloom has gone to collect his wins from the horse race of the day. As proof he tells the story of his meeting Bantom Lyons, who had said that he had borrowed a newspaper from Bloom earlier in the day (See episode 5, Lotus Eaters). We finally understand, retrospectively, what had not made any sense before in that episode.

Cyclops, an episode of misunderstandings, presents facts that are not straight forward, and connects thus to the episode in Odyssey where Odysseus saves himself through a play on words, calling himself "Οὖτις", which means 'nobody'. This works ironically precisely because Bloom cannot play on words.

At this point, the narrator takes off to the gents' room. He urinates, thinking or talking to himself. His thoughts come out in spurts, which seems somewhat appropriate to his relieving himself.

(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)

Online reading, Thursday, 17 June 2021 (12.1359)

(In case you missed last week participating in the virtual events celebrating Bloomsday, below are two links that could be of interesting: 

Bloomsday Readings and Songs from the James Joyce Center, Dublin

I Said Yes: A Celebration of Bloomsday at The Rosenbach from The Rosenbach Museum, Philadelphia)

The reading stopped at ". . . be paid." (12.1359)

Summary:

The citizen's next remarks about strangers coming over here to Ireland filling the country with bugs (12.1141) aimed obviously at Bloom, a foreigner amidst the Dubliners, are ignored by Bloom. He looks to be awfully deeply interested in nothing, a spider's web in the corner (12.1160), . . . the citizen scowling after him, and the old dog at his feet looking up to know who to bite and when (12.1161). It is a very picturesque sentence. One can almost breathe the anti-semitic, anti-foreigner air in the room.

As the citizen's next remark about a dishonoured wife (12.1163) induces Alf Bergan to produce, gigglingly, a copy of the Police Gazette, a forerunner of today's tabloids,  John Wyse Nolan and Lenehan enter, having come from a meeting in the city hall. It is time for another interpolation with a reference to the most obedient city (12.1185). 

There is more nationalistic talk amongst the pub-goers, who praise the Irish language contrasting it with English, triggering another interpolation, written about an ancient Irish hero in the old Irish past. Bloom mingles in the talk a little awkwardly and uncharacteristically aggressively. The talk eventually moves on to how England exploited Ireland and left it virtually without trees. (The issue of deforestation was indeed a genuine concern at the time.) The ensuing interpolation, true to type, brings up the idea of breeding trees in a parody of a tree wedding.

The aggressive talk continues to how the English starved the Irish, how they were cruel in discipline and training . . ., then to the French and the Germans.  The talk about the British heralds another hilarious parody of the Catholic Credo!

(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)

Bloomsday! 16 June 2021

 Today is Bloomsday!

Below are a couple of links on how the day is being celebrated at different places. Many of these events take place online.

1. Detailed information on Bloomsday Programme in Dublin is available here.

2. Information on the special programme offered by The Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia which owns the manuscript of James Joyce's Ulysses is available here.

3. Over 30 of Ireland's Embassies and Consulates are marking the day with a variety of events including a Global Joycean Book Giveaway. Details are here.

4. Zurich James Joyce Foundation has arranged an open air event. The event is already sold out.