**ulysses**

This is for all non-EC or peripheral-EC topics. We all know how much we love talking about 'The Man' but sometimes we have other interests.
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Poppet
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**ulysses**

Post by Poppet »

okay, otis and i are up for this. anyone is welcome to join at any time.

Ulysses by James Joyce

discussion to start three weeks from Monday, so that date is:

Monday July 12

- now around this time, we'll be chattering about EC in NYC, so we may get stuck on the first bit for a while. AND i'm in NYC that week, but i expect to have net access.

and, i found the following site, which might be useful:
http://www.robotwisdom.com/jaj/ulysses/

THIS SITE LINKS TO THE TEXT! hey, don't bother buying it if you don't want to. read it online.

i did find a copy last night used for $4 though.

next entry - what's the first chunk to be read?
... name the stars and constellations,
count the cars and watch the seasons....
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Poppet
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FIRST section to be read

Post by Poppet »

otis suggests the first three chapters, in the Penguin edition he has these are pages 9-56.


HERE ARE LINKS DIRECTLY TO THE TEXT

http://www.robotwisdom.com/jaj/ulysses/telemachus.html
chapter one: Telemachus

http://www.robotwisdom.com/jaj/ulysses/nestor.html
chapter two: Nestor

http://www.robotwisdom.com/jaj/ulysses/proteus.html
chapter three: Proteus


have fun!
... name the stars and constellations,
count the cars and watch the seasons....
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Post by BlueChair »

I don't have the time to participate, but I would strongly advise against reading a work of literature on a computer screen, or even a printout. Buy the bloody book! Or at least borrow it from the library
This morning you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast! Delicious and piping hot in only 3 microwave minutes.
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Post by Poppet »

the computer screen isn't ideal, and i LOVE books, but it's handy if you can't find a copy, or are wicked bored at work. :)

i read wuthering heights that way one summer at a previous job. i have a copy of it (probably multiples) but i couldn't read a book at my desk. but, i could read it on the computer screen.

yeah. sometimes i do cheat. :)
... name the stars and constellations,
count the cars and watch the seasons....
selfmademug

Post by selfmademug »

I'll be on vacation at the Jersey Shore that week and may miss the beginning of the convo, but I'm going to try to do this. I've never read it and have always wanted to.
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Post by spooky girlfriend »

I might do it, but not if there's a quiz.

I have test anxiety. :roll:
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Post by maria »

STONGLY recommend to the uninitiated to read about Joyce's life before you tackle Ulysses itself! Also inclined to agree with Blue Chair about buying the book. Trying to read it on the net... you'll be cross-eyed within the first half hour. Better again, get Otis to give you prelimin class. Galvanise yourselves for very heavy sledding if you don't know about him, the alcho da, all the childhood house moves, the social plumet for the family, the classics based Jesuit education, his obsession with singing ... Better again, try Dubliners (short stories) and Portrait of an Artist As A Young Man to get onto the wavelength, if you haven't already. Only then try Ulysses. My best advice.
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Post by lapinsjolis »

I couldn't find the penguin edition but I bought this one:

<img src="http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Gro ... MG6002.jpg" width="470" height="352">
I hope it's okay. This picture will self-destruct.

Poppet-Thanks for the link I read about five lines than decided to buy it!

Maria-Yes, I see what you mean the sanctity of every action the comparison already, in the spiritual to the human and the blending of the two. Th epic journey of being. I know a little about Joyce already-let's see how I fare!
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Post by maria »

Women of action! Otis, get on stand-by with your master class! I never took this on. In case it's of any help, and you don't know the who's and wherefores, here's a very, very potted intoduction to Telemachus:

Odysseus (Greek for Latin version of same character, Ulysses), as regional Greek king, was off wandering the world after his part in the sack of Troy. He was forced to wander because he had been cursed for blinding the cyclops, Polyphemus. His wanderings were the Odyssey.

His son, Telemachus, was left at home. He felt dispossessed because there was pressure on his mother, Queen Penelope, to remarry (they didn't realise in court that Odysseus was still alive, travelling and grappling in all directions under the curse of the cyclops. So Penelope had lots of suitors and was under tremendous pressure politically to pick one of them with a view to remarriage. She didn't want to make a choice, but kept on side-stepping the issue with various tricks to avoid making a decision (weaving a garment by day for her prospective choice, unravelling it again by night. don't even ask why she didn't just tell them to shag off. Dunno is the answer. often wondered myself).

In any case, Telemachus felt overwhelmed by his mother's suitors, emasculated and generally furious: this was HIS father's kingdom, due to be his in the fullness of time, and it was a general drag that all these fortune seekers and adventurers were in full-time residence, eating him out of house and home, and generally being all-round bad eggs. But he was still too young and powerless to do a thing about it.

In Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus is based on Telemachus and he is seriously miffed with in influx of wastrels, pains in the arse and geezers with bad attitudes, all generally lacking in respect in HIS home: the Martello Tower in Sandycove. HE was paying the rent and yet he had to listen to idiots like Buck Mulligan (based on the real life character of Oliver St. John Gogarty, whom Joyce saw as an upper-class, Anglo-Irish ascendency twit of a medical student). The other character there is Haines, the English man (I think...correct me if I'm wrong), who was based (I'm nearly sure: OTIS!!! Come here fast and bail me out) on the character of Somebody Chevonix-Trench, a major historian of the time.

Trinity College, Dublin, was the big Protestant university and this scene is based very much on the hail fellow, well met, jolly, jolly, jolly arrogant, talk down to you thing that was associated with it in Stephen Dedalus' head.

The Martello Tower is on the seafront still: one of several squat, circular fortifications of the city of Dublin, dating back to, when, Otis? Ages ago. Picturesque and not unusual for them to be lived in as private homes. I have no idea if there is anymore significance than that. Your guess is as good as mine...

Over to you, Otis. This was not my idea!


Now really, over to you, Otis
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Post by maria »

Checked with a friend this afternoon: turns out that Joyce actually lived in the Martello Tower under the circumstances he described in Ulysess. He moved there out of the latest in a line of flea pits his family had been reduced to as a result of his father's drinking.
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Post by maria »

At the risk of causing offense to anyone who knows all this already, I thought it might be useful to straighten out the bare bones of the story of the wanderings of Odysseus. You can work out the parallels yourselves. It'll help clear up a lot of the classical references in the Joyce Ulysses. Won't get though it all today, but here goes (some of it's pricless! seems vaguely sickly porographic too. no wonder Joyce loved it. lots of sheep and ramming things. EEEWWWE...sorry, couldn't resist).


o After the Greeks sacked Troy, the Greek leaders set out for home. A great storm scattered and threw the Greek fleet into chaos as it set sail. One of these Greek leaders, Odysseus, King of Ithaca, was driven northwards towards Ismarus, a town in Northern Thrace (BULGARIA). Odysseus seized seized the town Ismarus: he picked on specifically it because the people of Ismarus had been allies of the Trojans. However he was careful not to harm their priest, Maron (he was the Priest of Apollo). In return for his respect Maron gave Odysseus 12 jars of wine so strong that each jar needed to be mixed with twenty times the quantity of water for a man to drink it without getting completely wiped. In the middle of grappling the the effects of the wine, other Thracians came moved in to attack Odysseus. So it all got a bit much for him, so he reckoned the lesser of two evils was to go back to sea. The storm was still blowing as he rounded the promontory of Malea on the south-eastern corner of Greece. He was blown to the island of Cytherea (opposite the south-east coast of Greece) and found himself in:
o The Land Of The Lotus Eaters. Whoever eats lotus fruit forgets home and loses all sense of responsibility and wants to do nothing but sit in the sun eating the lotus fruit and generally just chilling forever and ever. Odysseus sent some of his men in to explore the island, but of course it went without saying that once they tasted the lotus there was no hope of getting them back. Odysseus went to check out what had happened to them. He was horrified when he found them happily out of their boats in every sense, so he bundled them back onto the ships by force, where they dried out.
o Next they sailed north-west, to the southern tip of the three-cornered island, Trinacria or Sicily, where there were lots of peaceful sheep to be seen, grazing, which made it seem like a good lunching spot. What they didn’t know was that this was the island of The Cyclops. These were one-eyed giants who lived on the island. Their chief’s name was Polyphemus, who was the son of Neptune, God of the sea (Poseidon in Greek). Odysseus found a craggy inlet and moored his ships and they went ashore in just one ship. They brought some jars of Maron’s rocket fuel wine and set them up when they found an alluring cave. In this cave they found a stash of jars of milk, large cheeses, piles of firewood… even lambs and kids frolicking about in large pens… However, little did they realize that each Cyclops on the island had their own cave, and the chosen partying cave belonged to the Chief Cyclops, Polyphemus. That evening, Polyphemus came home with his flock from a busy day of sheep tending on the mountains. He came in, blocked the cave’s entrance with a huge rock, milked his goats and ewes and lit a large fire which revealed… Odysseus and his men, all quivering at the back of his cave. Odysseus came up with a story about how all his ships had been wrecked at sea and pleaded for mercy: they’d just been worn-out and desperate, he said. Polyphemus’ answer to that was to eat two of Odysseus’ men. Next evening, same thing happened: Polyphemus came back with his flocks, but left Odysseus and his men locked into the cave all day long. Polyphemus devoured two more of the men. This time Odysseus reckoned he’s give Polyphemus a huge goblet of Maron’s wine and see how that worked on him. Polyphemus loved the wine so much that he promised he’d eat Odysseus last. Dozy from the wine, he asked Odysseus to tell him his name. Odysseus answered, “My name is No one”. Then Polyphemus passed out. As soon as he was sure he was out for the count, Odysseus got busy, sharpening up a handy wooden stake he had spotted in the cave. He heated the point of the stake in the fire and then rammed the red-hot point of the stake into the Cyclops’ one eye (in the middle of his forehead). Unsurprisingly, Polyphemus roared and shouted in pain and called out to the other Cyclops for help. They called back, “What’s wrong with you?” and he screamed: “Noone is blinding me…!” On hearing this, all the other Cyclops laughed heartily, thought he was just being silly, murmured amongst themself “Oh, PolyPHEmus!, that old JOKER” and ignored him. Next morning, to make sure that neither Odysseus nor his men couldn’t escape from the cave, Polyphemus groped (!) each sheep as he let them out to graze. But wily Odysseus had tied the sheep in twos, and under the stomachs of each pair of sheep was concealed one of Odysseus’ men (this sort of thing works in mythology)(but don’t try this at home is my advice). Shaken, but not stirred, they all escaped back to their ships. But Odysseus couldn’t resist the urge to call back a boast at Polyphemus as he sailed away: “Polyphemus, son of Poseidon (Neptune), know that it was I, Odysseus, King of Ithaca who blinded you”. In a blind rage (arf arf), Polyphemus hurled a huge rock in the direction of Odysseus’ ships, and invoking his father, Neptune, he cursed Odysseus:
“May you come home LATE,
In an EVIL PLIGHT,
In a ship of STRANGERS,
And with TROUBLE AWAITING YOU AT
HOME”…

Will do more later. I'm having a major blast on this myself
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Post by Poppet »

moral of story:

never gloat. well, DUH.


:)
... name the stars and constellations,
count the cars and watch the seasons....
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Post by maria »

o Next Odysseus and his men sailed southwards, and on to the floating island of Aeolia, south of Siciliy. Aeolus held sway of the winds hereabouts, to release or bind them at the will of Zeus (king of the gods). Luckily Aeolus was well disposed toward Odysseus. To make sure that the fleet had an uneventful journey home, Aeolus gave a gift of all the winds to Odysseus in an oxhide bag. Onward they sailed and had just got in sight of Ithaca, the island home of Odysseus, located off the western coast of Greece, when some of Odysseus’ men couldn’t manage to resist their curiosity, and opened up the bag of winds for a peek while Odysseus was sleeping. Obviously all hell broke loose immediately. Once the winds were set free, the ships were instantly driven off course and into unknown lands. Clearly the curse of Polyphemus was already doing its worst.

o Northwards they hurtled to north-west Italy and to the land of the Laestrygonians, a fearful race of of cannibalistic giants. These giants sank all the ships of Odysseus bar one. As the petrified men swam ashore to what they hoped was safety, the cannibals snatched as many of them as they could grab. However Odysseus, our hero, and what was left of his army escaped on the boats in a mad dash to arrive at another island, Aeaea, off the north-west coast of Italy. This was the island of Circe, the enchantress. One of Odysseus men, Eurylochus, along with 22 of his companions set off to explore the island. Circe took exception to the rude arrival, uninvited, onto her island of this uncouth bunch of fighting men. She did the only thing she could think of and turned all of them, except Eurylochus, into pigs. Eurylochus returned, despondent, to Odysseus, not knowing what to do about this latest fine mess. Luckily, Hermes (Mercury), Messenger of the Gods, was keeping a weather eye on their difficulties and came up with a herbal antidote for the men called Moly. Instantly the 22 men turned back into human form again. But part of the Moly deal was that they should spend one full year on Circe’s island of Aeaea, helping out and generally behaving.

o The year spent on the island served to mend fences with Circe. The time passed there calmly and in fact by the end they even became quite matey with her. As a result she gave them helpful advice about what their next move to get back home should be. She was adamant that the only thing for them to do was to take advice from the blind seer, Tiresias, who lived near the entrance to Elysium, The Kingdom of the Dead, located west of the island of Sicily. Considering her a friend at this point, they followed this advice. It turned out that this was a good strategy. Teresias proved very cooperative and arranged for them to meet up and talk all manner of wisdom with many of the heroes who had died at Troy.

o Odysseus sailed onward towards Italy. Their next stop brought them just off the west coast to the island of the Sirens. These sirens specialized in bewitching men with their sweet song, but only to lure them to an inevitable death. Circe had warned Odysseus about these bad women and given him helpful pointers on how to withstand their evil wiles and snares. Consequently Odysseus ordered his men to lash him to the ship’s mast. Then he made his men plug up their ears with wax, and so our heroes escaped the Sirens entirely unscathed.

o Next they sailed to the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the Straits of Messina, located between Italy and Sicily. Here lay the double danger of The Whirlpool of Charybdis on one side and the sea dragon, Scylla, on the other. Scylla was a deadly monster with six heads on six long creepy necks. She lurked high up in her cave, poised to snatch a victim from any passing ship. If that wasn’t bad enough, lower down on the other side lurked Charybdis at the base of her whirlpool of death. Daily, three times, she voraciously sucked down the waters and then spewed them forth again savagely, projectile mode. Once more, Circe’s wise counsel in their chats together prevailed with Odysseus: following her advice, he steered with precision through the waters and successfully away from Charybdis and her vile vortex. On tenterhooks, he navigated onward and just when they felt they had safely broken through this latest double peril… one of the Scylla’s long dreadful necks abruptly reached down and snatched six men away from the ship, bearing them off to their watery doom. The shattered survivors of this ordeal sailed on to:

o Trinacria (Sicily), the island of Helios (The Sun God). Here a sudden storm drove them ashore. Teresias had warned them that, whatever they did here, they shouldn’t on any account touch the cattle of Helios. But when the storm died down, they found themselves stranded on the island and hunger began to bite. In their folly, casting caution to the, um, winds, they slaughtered some of the Sun God’s cattle and feasted greedily on them for six days. On the seventh day, the wind rose again and allowed them to set sail. Helios was outraged when he discovered what they had done to his cattle and complained bitterly about their vandalism to Zeus. Zeus empathized with Helios, and immediately dispatched a precision-aimed thunderbolt at their ship, obviously splitting it to smithereens. All were drowned except Odysseus, who valiantly clung to the ship’s mast. Cling on desperately was all he could do, no chance whatsoever of steering anywhere, when to his horror, he realized that he was being wafted back again in the direction of the double horrors of the Scylla and Charybdis. The vortex instantly got stuck in on sucking down the ship’s mast, but at the very last moment athletic Odysseus managed to grab onto a usefully- located fig tree which happened to be growing on a cliff just above him. (Whew. What a man. Forget the cowboys. Where have all the Odysseus’s gone?) As if that wasn’t enough, Odysseus kept his eye keenly on the vortex and again timed yet another wild and brave jump to catch the mast as it was spewed back forth (on the upchuck, you understand). Happily this maneuver proved another winner for him. Because he then successfully landed himself and the mast on the island of:

o Ogygia. Here lived Calypso, daughter of Atlas. At this point, either he was too burned out with all the recent excitement to press onward, or else Calypso and himself hit it off very well. Because without much incident, Odysseus stayed with her on the island for seven years. However, Athene, Goddess of Wisdom, came to decide that he wasn’t sticking to the job in hand: ie, that of getting himself back home to his wife, family and kingdom. So she went to Zeus and lobbied that Odysseus be granted a safe homecoming with all due dispatch on the grounds that he had now been wandering for 10 whole years since the sack of Troy. Zeus sent Hermes across to see Calypso and instructed him to give Odysseus tools at once to build himself a raft, give him some food for the journey and generally cheer him homeward. She did.

o Next stop, Odysseus reached Phaeacia, off the west coast of Greece. Neptune (Poseidon), father of Polyphemus, not realising that Zeus (remember he was the King of the Gods) was now well disposed towards Odysseus, took it upon himself to exact revenge on Odysseus. He would have still held a grudge at Odysseus for blinding his Cyclops son way back in the last posting. So he stirred up yet another storm (and how right you were about it being a bad idea to gloat, Poppet). This storm blew Odysseus and his raft in to land...again. This time he was found by Princess Nausicaa. She also took pity on Odysseus and asked her father, King Alcinous of Phaeacia to help him out in some way. King Alcinous did and so finally he was successfully sent home to Ithaca, where he found Penelope making garments and unpicking them and generally being inundated by suitors in the belief that he, her husband, was long dead. Etc.
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Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Well done, Maria! You certainly don't need me for a masterclass! Actually, I was never too up on the whole Homeric background, I just picked up what was necessary for the story and the symbolism, and never read it complete. Useful to have the above.

The Martello towers were built at the time of Napoleon. What's odd is that the same name and concept is used for the ones on my home island of Jersey, but the design is distinct. I never did know who Martello was. I just grew up with that word. I've only got as far as the outside of the one Joyce lived in, it was closed as it was evening. he only stayed there a few nights, in fact. I think it was the Haines character (probably Chevenix-Trench, haven't checked) who thought he'd seen a panther there in the night and tried to shoot it. It was all too much for Joyce's nervous disposition, so he buggered off.

I don't think you need to read Dubliners and Portrait first, unless you want to do a full Joyce course! I think you can go straight in on Ulysses. And biographical details are also an optional extra. In many ways it's more fun to read it as it is, fascinating though the biographical aspects are.

If July 12 ain't good (it probably isn't for me either), maybe take off a week? Still allows two weeks from tomorrow. Long enough for 50-odd pages.
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Post by lapinsjolis »

Maria-I've already taken notes and completed the section! !! Drat!

I'm ready when ever you guys are with my humble and uneducated feelings on the subject.
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Post by maria »

Well you're positively leap-frogging ahead of me so, LJ. As my last pre-project, I'm pooling info with a friend and at the same time picking his brains so I can do correlation between Homeric references and character's in Ulysses. I'm a great believer in short cuts: anything to avoid the reference books and experts, I promise you, Otis! I ain't no Joycean scholar. Will post results when they're done. Don't have too much time today.

Your valour in taking on this project has inspired a positive ferment of Joycean & Homeric activity hereabouts (have taken to addressing all comers in heroic terms: Sort Of High Capital Letters At All Times: Hear Ye, Fellow Friends & Travellers Of This House, Fall To Beans & Fries, etc). I've taken my own advice and gone back to Portrait of the Artist, which I hadn't even dusted off at the bottom of a decrepid pile for at least 20 years. When I've finished (and Otis, you're right; it's not obligatory for Ulyssess, but it's still great too. Evocative of a time and style of manhood and standards and pride that's achingingly familiar to me... through memories of my own dead relations). Then I want to read Ulyssess again. Can you wait, LJ?! I can do general chat and referencing, but it's been a while since I read the entirety, start to finish.

Meanwhile, if you want to unburden any thoughts, do share, please. would love to hear.
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Post by lapinsjolis »

I understood it all in a certain light but I fear it's wrong! Is anyone else finished? When should we begin?
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Post by Poppet »

otis and i had agreed on a start date of July 12 - this seems a ways off, but we wanted people to have time to get the book if they wanted to.

we could start earlier - anybody care?
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Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Like I said, a week earlier good to my mind. I'll be travelling back from Dublin on the 12th, I hope. Not from a Joyce pilgrimage (though maybe this time I will visit Sandymount), but one to another hero, David Bowie.
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Post by maria »

Lapinsjolies and all other comers for that matter, I find it hard to express this without falling into cliches...so I won't even try. Ulyssess has proved extremely universal. Your interpretation is as good as anyone else's here or anywhere so please don't be shy about sharing thoughts. I've heard so much from an irish "exper" perspective that I'm wildly interested to hear it from a different angle. When anyone is ready to break out and share, I'll join in happily and with no baggage, I promise... Stephen's emotional brouhaha on the death of his mother is something which affects me in the early section
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Post by ice nine »

I was reading Maria's excellent commentary on Ulysses and was surprised to find the characters Scylla and Charybdes. I was sure that I heard these names referred to in a song and I quickly located them in 'Wrapped Around Your Finger'. I then continued reading and ran across Calypso from Suzanne Vega's song.
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Start Date: July 5

Post by Poppet »

new start date:

July 5


:)
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count the cars and watch the seasons....
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Post by lapinsjolis »

Keen Poppet-my two cents are a copy and paste away.
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Post by maria »

Nice Ice Nine! Thanks for the compliment, but it's Homer & the ancient greeks who should really be accepting. Those myths are incredible - everything inevitably seems to lead back to them at some point or other. Even the romans nabbed them and made their own of them when they were setting up shop as a major power. There are lots of regional variations because they were developed as people entertained themselves, sitting round, chewing the fat at night, and also as a means of explaining away issues surrounding Life Death & The Universe stuff & natural phenomena in general. (check out their explanations for volcanoes and Mount Etna sometime). Which, when it comes down to it, isn't much different to how Joyce used it as a framework to hang his own Life, Death & Universe epic on.

I won't have lots of time over the next while, so I'm going to jump the gun, folks, and give you slightly incoherent results of my picking of other friends' brains. Perhaps they'll be of use. If it's all unclear now, it may make more sense as you go along (this is, if you're chosing to bother about trying to trace the classical allusions. I've never seriously tried to reason it out this way before so it's a newie for me too, and I "get" some of what I've picked up from memory, but not all).


Nestor (Mr. Deasy, Headmaster)
Telemachus seeks news of his father Odysseus (aka Ulysses) from Nestor;

Bloom – Ulysses – Wanderer after Battle of Troy; also Wandering Jew;

Daedalus – Stephen – Telemachus;

Hades = Funeral ; Bridges over river Liffey =
rivers of The Underworld/Hades: Acheron (sorrow);
Lethe (forgetfulness);
Styx (darkness or hate);
Phlegethon (fire);
Cocytus (lamentation).

Calypso - She holds Odysseus in amorous captivity for 7 years
(Bloom/Molly);
Lotos Eaters – drugged surrender to the impression of the moment
as Bloom walks through the town;
Laestrogonians: Cannibalistic - greedy excess in eating;

Wandering Rocks: a small scale labyrinth within which most
of the characters in Ulysses appear, wandering
Dublin between the hours of 3 & 4 am.
Joyce wrote this section with a map of Dublin before him;

Sirens: Ulysses and his men tied to the ship mast. Much
son and attempt to imitate musical form in words
mimmicking interplay of strings, brass &
woodwind;

Cyclops: one eyed Polyphemus, son of Neptune (Poseidon),
whom Ulysses blinded. Parallel with the Citizen who can see
no point of view except his own. This is in direct
juxtaposition with gentle, peaceful Bloom who can see both
sides.


Aeolus – Homer –
Unfavourable winds are tied up in leather bag, which the
men of Ulysses open up while he was sleeping. All are
consequently blown off course. Bloom (Custodian Of The
Winds) appeals to Aeolus but is dismissed. Does a deal
with Crawford, newspaper editor, but Crawford changes
his mind. Frustration experienced just when
goal is in sight:
nationally, in destinies of Jewish and Irish nations;
personally in the frustration of the day’s business (Bloom
with Crawford.
Successes are always on a grand scale:
disappointments or successes of epic heroes or nations.
Human experience at commonplace level is given a
weight & universality which only great literature can bestow.

Background throbs with noise, haste, bustle; Printing
presses sllt, sllt, shouting newsboys, screaming headlines
all give feeling of restlessness, lungs pumping air in and
out, a rush of words, rumous, news, let loose daily from
newspaper office and pumped into the life of Dublin as
newsboys are exhaled onto the street;

Nausicaa: daughter of King Alcinous, King of Phaeacia,
comes to the beach,laughing and shrieking with her maids
– wakes up Ulysses on raft provided by Calypso, blown
there by Poseidon’s storm, Poseidon still unaware that now
Zeus now well disposed towards Ulysses.
With her father, King Alcinous’ help, Nausicaa cleans,
feeds and clothes Ulysses and sends him home.
Parallel: Gerty MacDowell (Nausicaa), Cissy Caffrey, Edy
Boardman, are all sitting on the rocks at Sandymount
where Stephen walked. They are looking after Cissy’s twin
brothers (4 years) and Baby Boardman. In background is
the Hill of Howth (for Bloom & Molly the place of youthful
love realized). Nearby is Sandymount Star of the Sea
Parish Church –
Parallel between Gerty and the Virgin Mary:
The children play. Gerty sits, lost in thought. She is slight
in build, graceful, with pale complexion, blue underwear,
Virgin Mary’s colour. Gertie dreams on.
In background there is music from the Men’s Temperence
Retreat in the church. Gerty senses Bloom’s eyes on her….
More benediction noises – refuge of sinners, Virgin Mary,
Comfortress of the Afflicted; Bloom remembers Howth Hill;
Boylan now enjoys what he once had. Boylan gets plums;
He, Bloom, gets plum stones. He writes in the sand.

Oxen of the Sun: Odysseus warns his men not to kill
them, but they do. Then they are struck by thunderbolt.
All lives lost except Ulysses'.
Holles Street Maternity Hospital: House of Home, Dr.
Andrew Home, Master of Holles Street. Bloom goes to
hospital to be admitted by Nurse Callan.
Dining table discussion on childbirth, abortion; baby v
mother’s life. Foetus – soul end of 2nd month: reference to
Rudy Bloom, 11 day old child who died.
Dressed in lambs wool vest – sacrificial lamb;
Toast of wine called for, leaving bread to them that live by
bread alone. First Eve sold us all for an apple. 2nd Eve,
Mary, gave us our redeemer. Nurse restrains drinkers for
fear of Sir Andrew Home’s arrival.

Circe: Enchantress, turns all into swine.
Ulysses helped by Hermes with magic drug, Moly.
He draws "sword" and defeats her.
Men are restored. A feast follows.
Ulysses taken to Circe’s bed.
Compare this with witches in Macbeth personifying spirit
of evil forces at work: brew concocted by them – newts,
toads, frogs, strangled babe
Imagery expressive of discord and disintegration;
Joyce uses same device. This is Dublin’s brothel area,
Mabbot St. For murky, furtive, illicit encounters; a deaf,
mute idiot is teased bya group of children. Sounds of
crude, sordid, scum life/slum life.

Eumaeus – Back to Ithaca.
Odysseus in guise of beggar is in the hut of the swineherd,
Eumaeus. Father and son are reunited.
Odysseus & Telemachus.
Shelter near Butt Bridge = Hut of Eumaeus
Eumaeus = Goat.
Stephen and Bloom = Intellectual 1st and sensual man
Bloom. Yet there is no exact person to person, event for
event correspondence between this episode and Homer.
But self revelation between Bloom & Stephen echoes
reunion between Odysseus & Telemachus.
oh I just dunno where to begin
Goody2Shoes
Posts: 1301
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 12:24 pm
Location: bouncing over a white cloud

Post by Goody2Shoes »

Jaysus, I'm intimidated already! Youse guys got big brains!

I surely will not have anything useful to contribute, but I'm enjoying the discussion already.
It's a radiation vibe I'm groovin' on
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