100 Notes on Ulysses by James Joyce
By Mike Alvarado
1. The first thing to note about the book is that in order to enjoy it,
it is necessary to get on the same wavelength as Joyce. Instead
of reading it as a book per se or reading it a story, just a story, it
is necessary to read it as a musical score. Joyce creates lot of
situations where the cadence of the speech is like a song with
the voices akin to notes. For example, in the many crowded pub
scenes. The frantic in and out of Stephen Dedalus is like an
instrument crashing into and intruding on other note spewing
instruments. The fact of Dedalus crashing into conversations is a
separate matter; he does it a lot and seemingly oblivious to his
doing so. Or, at least he does not seem to care that social
convention might communicate a different approach.
2. One challenge to the book is the huge number of intersecting
elements. For example, the use of Latin, French, references to
The Odyssey, repetition of entire pages, Roman Catholic church
ritual, the play form smack in the middle of the narrative form.
But its like eddies and currents in the ocean, which is another
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way of looking at the work: it’s a musical see played out in
twenty-four hours.
3. On page one, there seems to be a reference to Telemachus when
Buck Mulligan is introduced. Telemachus is a figure in Greek
mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, and a central
character in Homer's Odyssey. The first four books of the Odyssey
focus on Telemachus' journeys in search of news about his
father, who has yet to return home from the Trojan War. The
allusion here is someone “divine” hence the Latin phrase used to
address his and him being in a space above and beyond his
companions in Ulysses. And let there be no mistaking that this
book is about an Ulysses-like character. The whole book is in
search of this character.
4. Directly following the introduction of Buck Mulligan is the first
instance of Latin: Introibo ad altare Dei, which means to enter
the altar of God. It takes a bit of effort to accept that the
characters will so causally refer to each of this way and to mix
Latin or Gaelic into their everyday speech. Kind of like how
intermixed Spanish and English and slang are intermixed in the
Southwestern United States.
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5. Note on paging convention. In my book the pagination varies
from Joyce’s. Therefore, I will use (Joyce/My Book) to designate
which is which. Hence (6,5), we have yet another mixed
language event. Thalatta! Thalatta!, which refers to "The Sea!
The Sea!"). This was the shouting of joy when the roaming 10,000
Greeks saw Euxeinos Pontos (the Black Sea) from Mount Theches
(Θήχης) in Trebizond, after participating in Cyrus the Younger's
failed march against the Persian Empire in the year 401 BC. The
mountain was only a five-day march away from the friendly
coastal city Trapezus. The story is told by Xenophon in his
Anabasis. From Wikipedia. What is meant? The sea is the home
for the Irish and it’s the great mother of them all regardless of
whatever else happens. And plenty has happened to Ireland and
the Irish. No surprise that the way to America is over the sea.
6. (6,5) Joyce introduces one of the central struggles: Dedalus
thinks he is responsible for his mother’s death. Because he would
not pray to God for her return to health. A torrent of guilt
motivates his character. Sigh. Oh and we cannot forget the
Daedulus (sounds like Dedalus) was the father of Icarus who flew
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too close to the Sun. So to will Stephen Dedalus fly to close to
something in the book.
7. Lots of nice poetic styling. On (6/5), “Pain, that was not yet the
pain of love, fretted his heart.”
8. There is a constant tension between old and new value. The use
of the word “omphalus” (6/5) refers to the positing of whether
the companions should worship a new God. The casual reference
to Buck Mulligan being a God is part of this thread.
9. (10/9) A lot of people find reasons to strongly object to Dedalus.
He Jesuitical, pedantic mode of argumentation for example.
Buck calls him “an impossible person” at one point and storms
off. Many people jibe him too, for example, Haines saying he was
going to catalog Dedalus’ sayings in a book. (17/16). Maybe as on
page (31/31), Dedalus careful tracking of everything is reason to
also object. No casual fellow would list such detail, for example,
Mulligan has borrowed nine pounds, three pairs of socks, one pair
of brogues and ties.
10.
Dublin’s Bay described as “a bowl of bitter waters.” Nice.
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11.
Lots of repetition based on a core word: server/servant for
example. Page (12/11) “A server of a servant”. Intricate
wordplay for sure.
12.
Querulous characters throughout. For example, Buck Mulligan
responds when the woman opines that it is a good day and he
says, “To whom?” (14/13).
13.
(25/24) Now comes reference to Nestor and Tarentum. Nestor
is kind of a sinister mythological character portending bad tidings
or bad fates. Reference the Odyssey. Nestor is also the root of
Nestorians a heretical schism. More tension by referring to these
personages. Deasy is the Nestor character in Ulysses. Tarentum
implies games and games are what the Companions are engaged
in continuously.
14.
On (38/37) a long disquisition on the sea begins so it is not
surprising that Proteus, “God Old Man of the Sea” would be
alluded to.
15.
Ah here we are, on (42/42) Joyce repeat word-for-word
something he wrote before. The message? “Did you hear me?
Perhaps I’ll just repeat what I said.”
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16.
Part II – preliminaries are over – now starts the
reinterpretation of the Odyssey. Ah Mr. Leopold Bloom, you are
with us now. Bloom is like Calypso. He is a trap that will keep
Dedalus from his destiny, maybe. He is odd, exotic. Eating all
manner of strange stuff (54/55). Eating all those inner organs;
like he is devouring the inside of a person. Like Calypso. Finally,
Bloom is concealing things so like Calypso, he is a deceiver or at
least someone who obscures and hides things. He is also
sorrowful like Calypso with some many things taken. Like his son
Rudy. Just as the unjust God’s strike things down for Calypso, so
an unjust God strikes Bloom.
17.
On (54/55) we get a new element: phonetic renderings.
Therefore, “Meow” is writ as “Mkgnao”. Oy vey.
18.
(70/71) Hmmm. Flower references begin. And lethargy too.
And wanting to escape – sounds like opium as in Lotus Eaters.
From Wikipedia, “The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary
food of the island and were narcotic, causing the people to sleep
in peaceful apathy.” From Ulysses, “The far east. Lovely spot it
must be: the gardens of the world, big lazy leaves to float aboiut
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on, cactuses, flowery meads (beer), snake lianas they call
them…sleep six months out of twelve.”
19.
(75/77) “Curious the life of drifting cabbies, all weather, all
places, time or setdown, no will of their own.” “Voglio e non”
which means “I want to and not”.
20.
(76/78) “Language of flowers”
21.
(79/81) Example of the frequent interjection of Christian
tribal knowledge. From Ulysses, “I.N.R.I. and I.H.S.” “Iron nails
ran in” From Wikipedia, “HIS - a monogram of the name of Jesus
Christ. These are Greek monograms, which continued to be used
in Latin during the Middle Ages.
22.
(85/87) Hades and death make an appearance. Very Christian
too. More importantly, death is intruding on the proceedings.
23.
Here comes Dedalus in all his glorious interrupting style. For
Ulysses, “Yes, Mr. Bloom said. They were both on the way to the
boat and he tried to drown…” next line “Drown Barabas! Mr.
Dedalus cried. I wish to Christ he did!” Later, on the same page,
people are ignoring Dedalus’ interjections. It’s a little
uncharacteristic on (94/96) that Dedalus does nto say anything
when the talk turns toward to suicide.
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24.
A cultural note on (97/99) is the wish to “bury them in red. A
dark red” Ergo, hide the imperfections. But dark red is also the
blood of Christ.
25.
(101/103) Neck snapping time. “Poor boy! Was he there when
the father? Both unconscious” I never saw this plot point coming.
Joyce is ruthless to his readers. Keep up or be left behind.
26.
(102/104) “Every mortal day a fresh batch.” The arbitrariness
of death is on Joyce’s mnd. “In paradisum” Amen.
27.
There is a great skein of skepticsm throughout the book. At
the bottom of page (103/105) the Companions basically
disrespect the ministrations of the priest. “Once you are dead,
you are dead.” On page (112/114) Cremation better. Priests
dead (tee hee) against it…a white man smells like a corpse.”
28.
Joyce is predecessor to George W. Bush. He has got more
nicknames than anyone I know. For example on (110/112) you
get “M’Intosh” for “Macintosh”. Unless this is phonetic.
29.
Cemeteries is positioned as a place of refuge from life
(112/114).
30.
Comes now Aeolus – the wind – on page (114/116) [ who is
Aeolus?]
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31.
Format on (114/116) just like a newspaper.
32.
“The Wearer of the Brown” Metonymy alert. Another Joyce
writing trick for the unwary. According to Wikipedia, a metonym
is a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted
for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown"
for "royalty").
33.
“Gentlemen of the Press” Chiasmus alert, which is defined as
a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel
phrases, as in “He went to the country, to the town went she.”
In this case, the same sentence is repeated as before but
different syntax. Joyce is a word magician and if you care, you
can be amazed. Or annoyed.
34.
Something about the diction of the writing – sentences are cut
off incomplete. For example, the top of (118/120).
35.
What the heck does “Sllt” mean? (119/121)
36.
“And it was the feast of the Passover” (120/122). So is that
why you have a character – the typesetter – that reads right to
left? Just as the Torah is read? Diabolic.
37.
Why no chapter headings? Example (123/125)
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38.
Still with the paper/tabloid format. Why except for effect.
Reference (125/126)
39.
Should I be reading the news headlines as a separate
paragraph? (131/134)
40.
More word play – is that why the paragraph is labeled “Clever,
very”? “Madam, I’m Adam. And Able was I ere I saw Elba.”
Palindrome.
41.
I don’t entirely get (139/142) “It was revealed to me that
those things are good which are yet corrupted which neither if
they were supremely god not unless they were good could be
corrupted. Ah, curse you! That’s saint (no caps) Augustine.”
42.
“Hello There, Central!” (146/149). In this paragraph there is a
direct parallel to page 116 which is also about transit. The theme
is movement from public modes of transport to private whereas
on page 116 there is several references to Palmerston therefore
from a un-freed Ireland to a freed Ireland.
43.
Yet another reference to The Odyssey (148/151) –
Lestrygonians, which Wikipedia defines as “a tribe of giant
cannibals from ancient Greek mythology. Odysseus, the main
character of Homer's Odyssey, visited them during his journey
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back home to Ithaca. The giants ate many of Odysseus' men and
destroyed eleven of his twelve ships by launching rocks from high
cliffs. Odysseus' ship was not destroyed as it was hidden in a cove
near shore. Everyone on Odysseus' ship survived. His soldiers,
with a dozen ships, arrive at "the rocky stronghold of Lamos:
Telepylus, the city of the Laestrygonians. Lamos is not
mentioned again, perhaps being understood as the founder of the
city or the name of the island on which the city is situated. In
this land, a man who could do without sleep could earn double
wages; once as a herdsman of cattle and another as a shepherd,
as they worked by night as they did by day. The ships entered a
harbor surrounded by steep cliffs, with a single entrance
between two headlands. The captains took their ships inside and
made them fast close to one another, where it was dead calm.
Odysseus kept his own ship outside the harbor, moored to a rock.
He climbed a high rock to reconnoiter, but could see nothing but
some smoke rising from the ground. He sent two of his company
and an attendant to investigate the inhabitants. The men
followed a road and eventually met a young woman on her way
to the Fountain of Artakia to fetch some water, who said she was
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a daughter of Antiphates, the king, and directed them to his
house. However when they got there they found a gigantic
woman, the wife of Antiphates who promptly called her husband,
who immediately left the assembly of the people and upon
arrival snatched up one of the men and killed him on the spot,
presumably then drinking his blood (as it states in the Odyssey
that he only met with the men with the intention of drinking
their blood). The other two men, Eurylochus and Polites, ran
away, but Antiphates raised an outcry, so that they were pursued
by thousands of Laestrygonians, who are either giants or very
large men and women. They threw vast rocks from the cliffs,
smashing the ships, and speared the men like fish. Odysseus
made his escape with his single ship due to the fact that it was
not trapped in the harbor; the rest of his company was lost. The
surviving crew went next to Aiaia, the island of Circe. Later
Greeks believed that the Laestrygonians, as well as the Cyclopes,
had once inhabited Sicily.
44.
OMG, Joyce is really on the verge of annoying his readers.
(151/154). At the top of the page, there are two concurrent
perspectives on the same image. This is probably the best
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commentary on the book itself. Its like when Dedalus and Bloom
are side-by-side: two different reads on the same situation.
Joyce has no and every point of view in nearly every page.
Masterful or annoying as heck. Got to find the wavelength.
Parallax and Par. Two parallel stories in the same book, in the
same paragraph. Two of many parallel universes happening at
the same time.
45.
OMG what is he doing; (152/155). He writes “apostrophe S” in
a manner that implies the possessive form of apostrophe. Could
he do it the conventional, grammatical way? No way.
46.
It is a brutal world. (161/164) “One born every second
somewhere. Other dying every second.” But I do not detect
fatalism. The anti-clerical strains show me that.
47.
OMG, I just remembered something hilarious: Napoléon a
national hero of the Irish. All those strings on names, places, etc.
(291/297)
48.
“Cherchez la femme” well let’s drop in a foreign phrase
(164/167)
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49.
Joyce injects little bit of character quite off-handedly.
(166/169) “Am I like that? See ourselves as others see us.” A selfconscious person apparently.
50.
Let’s just make it up, the whole language. “His eyes beating”
(180/183) Do eyes beat? “Blushing his mask said” Do masks blush
(190/193)
51.
“Safe” (180/183) Echoes of page 151 when Joyce interjected
Elijah. Gone home to a safe place – heaven. Does anyone believe
in this kind of thinking actually?
52.
(181/184) Back to the Odyssey – Here comes the Scylla and
Charybdis. “The beautiful ineffectual dreamer who comes to
grief against hard facts.” Both traps undoubtedly. According to
Wikipedia, “Being between Scylla and Charybdis is an idiom
deriving from Greek mythology, meaning "having to choose
between two evils". Several other idioms, such as "on the horns
of a dilemma", "between the devil and the deep blue sea", and
"between a rock and a hard place" express the same meaning.
Scylla and Charybdis were mythical sea monsters noted by
Homer; later Greek tradition sited them on opposite sides of the
Strait of Messina between Sicily and the Italian mainland. Scylla
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was rationalized as a rock shoal (described as a six-headed sea
monster) on the Italian side of the strait and Charybdis was a
whirlpool off the coast of Sicily. They were regarded as a sea
hazard located close enough to each other that they posed an
inescapable threat to passing sailors; avoiding Charybdis meant
passing too close to Scylla and vice versa. According to Homer,
Odysseus was forced to choose which monster to confront while
passing through the strait; he opted to pass by Scylla and lose
only a few sailors, rather than risk the loss of his entire ship in
the whirlpool. Because of such stories, having to navigate
between the two hazards eventually entered idiomatic use.
There is also another equivalent English seafaring phrase,
"Between a rock and a hard place". The Latin line incidit in
scyllam cupiens vitare charybdim (he runs on Scylla, wishing to
avoid Charybdis) had earlier become proverbial, with a meaning
much the same as jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
Erasmus recorded it as an ancient proverb in his Adagia, although
the earliest known instance is in the Alexandreis, a 12th-century
Latin epic poem by Walter of Châtillon.”
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53.
(183/186) Poetry or rather the poetry of protest. Beautiful.
“The movements which work revolutions in the world are born
out of the dreams and visions in a peasant’s heart on the hillside.
For them the earth is not an exploitable ground but the living
mother.”
54.
Oh something else that is classic Joyce humor: Ann Hathaway
and latter he writes Ann-hath-a-way(out) of her difficulty. “If
others have their will Ann hath a way.” (188/191)
55.
Lots of neat, tight logic (190/193) “Where there is a
sundering, Stephen said, there must have been first a
sundering.” Or, this is just tight in contrast to the roving style
and the all over the place writing.
56.
Oh jeez “youngly” (191/194)
57.
More or mere philosophy “Was du verlacht, wirst du noch
dienen.” What you laughed at you will serve. (194/197) “The son
unborn mars beauty; born, he brings pain, divides attention,
increases care. He is a male.: his growth is his father’s decline,
his youth his father’s envy, his friend his father’s enemy”
(204/207)
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58.
Echoes of Shakespeare now? “She lies laid out in stark
stiffness in that second best bed” Sounds like Hamlet. This is a
long set of passages with references to Shakespeare’s work.
(203/206)
59.
“What the hell are you driving at?” (204/207) I bet a lot of
readers must have or are saying this.
60.
“Rutlandbaconsouthhamptonshakepeare” (204/208) Oh geez
geez geez. This isn’t German you know.
61.
(205/208) So now we move into play form complete with stage
directions. Now this actually makes sense form another
dimension – it mirrors how we think. Our mind forms into
multiple shapes and forms true?
62.
More Biblical allusions (207/210) Pillar of fire.
63.
“Lapwing he” What language are throwing in now? Or is it just
at random letters? Or, notes, the notes of the text? The old
composer is up to something. (207/210) Oh, okay, it’s a kind of
clumsy bird.
64.
“He laughed to free his mind from mind’s bondage.” Bravo
(209/212) Ditto “sorrow for the dead is the only husband from
whom they refuse to be divorced.” (209/213)
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65.
“That lies in space which I in time must come to, ineluctably”
(213/217) high art to me.
66.
(215/219) Come the Wandering Rocks and more Greek
mythology although beyond just referring The Odyssey. In mean
that there are more difficult waters to be dealt with. According
to Wikipedia, “In Greek mythology, the Planctae or Wandering
Rocks were a group of rocks, between which the sea was
mercilessly violent. The Argo (led by Jason) was the only ship to
navigate them successfully (with divine help from Hera, Thetis,
and the Nereids). Jason chose to brave the Planctae instead of
braving Scylla and Charybdis. In the Odyssey of Homer, the
sorceress Circe tells Odysseus of the "Wandering Rocks" or
"Roving Rocks" that have only been successfully passed by the
Argo when homeward bound. These rocks smash ships and the
remaining timbers are scattered by the sea or destroyed by
flames. The rocks lie on one of two potential routes to Ithaca;
the alternative, which is taken by Odysseus, leads to Scylla and
Charybdis. Furthermore, in the Odyssey of Homer, it was Hera,
for her love of Jason, who sped the Argo through the
Symplegades safely. The rocks also appear on the journey in the
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Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes, who also locates them near
Scylla and Charybdis, but beyond them rather than as an
alternative route. Apollonius distinguishes between two sets of
dangerous rocks. Namely, the Symplegades and the Planctae.
The Symplegades were encountered on the way to the Golden
Fleece and the Planctae were encountered on the return voyage.
Which god or goddess helped the Argonauts safely sail through
the Clashing Rocks is unclear in the text. Athena helped in the
former task, while Thetis and the Nereids helped in the latter
one. However, the plans to help Jason pass these obstacles were
ultimately orchestrated by Hera according to Apollonius, thus
agreeing with Homer. The similarities and differences between
the Wandering Rocks and the Symplegades has been much
debated by scholars, as have potential locations for them. (See
also Geography of the Odyssey.) As Scylla and Charybdis have
often been located in the Straits of Messina, this has led some
(like E. V. Rieu) to suggest the Wandering Rocks were located
around Sicily, with their flames and smoke coming from Mount
Etna. An alternative theory of the geography of the Odyssey
places Circe, the Sirens, Scylla & Charybdis and the Wandering
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Rocks, all mentioned in the stories of both Jason and Odysseus,
in northwest Greece. Tim Severin noted that the island of Sesola
off the coast of Levkas looked very similar to the rocks from the
Argo story, and also that the area is near a geological fault; he
hypothesises that, due to both its similarity with the legends of
the Symplegades and the stories of the Argo sailing home via the
Adriatic and Ionian Seas, the original legend was copied to the
area. Severin also supports his theory with locations for Scylla
and Charybdis being located on the other side of Levkas, noting
that the name "Cape Skilla" is still used for a nearby headland on
the mainland.
67.
(217/221) Clash of religion. “In America those things were
continually happening. Unfortunate people to die like that,
unprepared. Still, an act of perfect contrition.”
68.
“Five tallwhitehatted sandwishmen” nyuk nyuk nyuk
(225/229)
69.
“We. Agenbite of inwit. Inwit’s agenbite” I am lost (239/243)
70.
“Cashel Boyle O’Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell with
stickumbrelladustcoat” These names and more German. Sheesh
(245/249)
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71.
Sirens – they finally appear (251/256). They are to be
expected eh? Attractive distractions strewn all over the page.
“sweets are sweets” (255/260)
72.
“Greetings from the famous son of a famous father” always
taunting Dedalus (257/262)
73.
“Bloom, unconquered hero” Dedalus and Bloom – bookend in
conflict. (259/264)
74.
“Bloom lopped, unlooped, noded, disnoded.” Sort of playful
and made up but my neck is getting sore. (269/274)
75.
“Siopold!” Simon plus Leopold? I dunno (270/276)
76.
Fake math alert but it looks pretty. (273/278) “Numbers it is.”
77.
More cruel humor “Bald pat who is bothered mitred the
napkins” (275/280) what is so funny anyway?
78.
“All gone. All fallen.” Lots of references to Ross, etc.
(279/285). The intrusion of death into life again. But is there
more?
79.
And there we go – the Cyclops (286/292) “drove his gear into
my eye (not eyes)” Also, references to escaping cattle in a fair
land although not sheep but is there a difference?
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80.
Word play big time (301/307) “the Grandjoker Vladinmire
Pokethankertscheff” “Archjoker” puh-lease.
81.
Bloom always has to say his two cents (310/316) “Look at
Bloom. Do you see that straw? That’s a straw.”
82.
Multiple threads always. But isn’t this how we think? (top of
311/318)
83.
Always the outsider. (319/326) “with Bloom sticking in an
odd” word.” The name is not quite Irish?
84.
“The unfortunate yahoos believe it.” Big time commentary.
Now he brings in Gulliver’s Travels and he is skewering like
Jonathan Swift in the Travels, the mores of people. Their
willingness to be tied down. Their smallness.
85.
“perfectly true, says Bloom. But my point is…” (323/330)
That’s my boy Bloom. Always on some side track because his
mind and animal instincts are elsewhere.
86.
“Ananias Praisegod Barebones” “Massa Walkup” (327/334) He
is putting us on…again.
87.
“The about! Cried the traveller” Echoes of Chaucer and the
Canterbury Tales now. (330/337)
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88.
Bloom smacked behind his back on (331/338). Not held in high
regards really. Why? A foreigner?
89.
“ben Bloom Elijah” (338/345) Bloom a Jew? and tied to a
prophet? Why? Seems to me that Joyce is touching on the theme
of death and resurrection!
90.
Nausicaa now comes. Joyce writes and you read words flying
lazily off a lazy Susan it seems. Yet more dangers presented by
pretty young things. According to Wikipedia, “Nausicaa is a
character in Homer's Odyssey. She is the daughter of King
Alcinous and Queen Arete of Phaeacia. Her name, in Greek,
means "burner of ships". In Book Six of the Odyssey, Odysseus is
shipwrecked on the coast of the island of Scheria. Nausicaä and
her handmaidens go to the sea-shore to wash clothes. Awoken by
their games, Odysseus emerges from the forest completely
naked, scaring the servants away, and begs Nausicaä for aid.
Nausicaä gives Odysseus some of the laundry to wear, and takes
him to the edge of the town. Realizing that rumors might arise if
Odysseus is seen with her, she and the servants go ahead into
town. But first she advises Odysseus to go directly to Alcinous'
house and make his case to Nausicaä's mother, Arete. Arete is
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known as wiser even than Alcinous, and Alcinous trusts her
judgments. Odysseus approaches Arete, wins her approval, and is
received as a guest by Alcinous. During his stay, Odysseus
recounts his adventures to Alcinous and his court. This
recounting forms a substantial portion of the Odyssey. Alcinous
then generously provides Odysseus with the ships that finally
bring him home to Ithaca. Nausicaä is young and very pretty;
Odysseus says that she resembled a goddess, particularly
Artemis. Nausicaä is known to have several brothers. According
to Aristotle and Dictys of Crete, Nausicaä later married
Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, and had a son named
Perseptolis or Ptoliporthus. Homer gives a literary account of
love never expressed (possibly one of the earliest examples of
unrequited love in literature). While she is presented as a
potential love interest to Odysseus – she says to her friend that
she would like her husband to be like him, and her father tells
Odysseus he would let him marry her – nothing would result
between the pair. Nausicaä is also a mother figure for Odysseus;
she ensures Odysseus' return home, and thus says "Never forget
me, for I gave you life," indicating her status as a "new mother"
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in Odysseus' rebirth. Interestingly, Odysseus never tells Penelope
about his encounter with Nausicaä, out of all the women he met
on his long journey home. Some suggest this indicates a deeper
level of feeling for the girl.
91.
(344/351) attacking the status quo with poetry like this, “A
gnawing sorrow is there all the time….etc.”
92.
“without distinction of social class” (346/354) hypocrisy.
93.
“teat of the suckingbottle and the young heathen was quicky
appeased” (350/357). So beign a heathen is the natural state?
94.
“he eyeing her as a snake eyes its prey. Her woman’s instinct
told her that she had raised the devil in him” (353/360) A
continuing theme of conflict. Even more (355/362) “light hearted
deceiver and fickle like all his sex he would never understand
what he meant to her…”
95.
Yet human passions lurk throughout the book (357/364) “Love
laugh at locksmiths”.
96.
Oy vey the charcters in this book are their own worst enemies.
On page 362, “he would never understand” but now “She would
try to understand him because men were so different.”
(357/364)
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97.
More passion talk (359/366) starting at “And Jacky Caffrey
shouted….and then the rocket sprang and bang shot blind and O!
then the Roman candle (oh jeez) burst….and everyone cried O! in
raptures” etc etc….And then there is the tease Leopold Bloom
watching all this (359/367) who is thinking “Hot little devil all
the same. Wouldn’t mind” and “Felt for the curves inside he
dishabille. Excites them also when they’re (what Bloom?)”
(361/368) Excites Bloom too because as he says, “Mr. Bloom with
a careful ahnd recomposed his wet shirt. O Lord, that little
limping devil, Begins to feel cold and clammy. Aftereffect not
pleasant. Still you have to get rid of it someway. They don’t
care. Complimented perhaps” Oh what pish posh (362/370) “This
wet is very unpleasant. Stuck. Well the foreskin is not back.
Better detah. Ow!” just desserts.
98.
“Typist going up Roger Greene’ stairs two at a time to show
her understandings. …Best place to catch a women’s eye on a
mirror” Always multiple threads in the mind Mr. Bloom eh? And
one thread always seems to be about business. Hmmm. So still a
worshipful lad. (364/372)
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99.
“I remember looking in Pill Lane” Yes Bloom is always looking.
We know that (366/374)
100. Okay I am tired now. End of note-taking. Just content to read.
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