10. The Wandering Rocks

[Thomas]

There is no "wandering rocks" adventure in the Odyssey because Circe advises Odysseus to avoid them and take the route through Scylla and Charybdis instead. Some commentators say that including this peril in Ulysses was Joyce's "practical joke," but I think it more likely that Joyce was just taking advantage of an opportunity to present his characters, and the city of Dublin, from yet another perspective.

This episode sits in the center of Ulysses and in a way it is a miniature of Ulysses itself. It is composed of 18 vignettes and an epilogue (or "coda" as Heffernan calls it.) Most of the characters in Ulysses appear in one or more of the sections as they move from one place to another in a methodical fashion.

The episode is framed by the movements of two parties, one a representative of the church and the other of the state. Both are on their way to an act of charity. Father Conmee is on his way to Artane to see about getting one of the Dignam orphans into orphanage there. The Viceroy, Earl of Dudley, is on the way to Sandymount to open a bazaar to raise funds for Mercer's Hospital. The characters in the episode all cross paths in a synchronized fashion. This episode seems to me to move cinematically, with one frame following a character in time and space, then skipping back or forward in time to show the same character in a different frame from another character's perspective. Even the Elijah "throwaway" that Bloom threw into the Liffey has a part to play.

Frank Budgen writes about how Joyce designed this chapter:

"Joyce wrote the Wandering Rocks with a map of Dublin before him on which were traced in red ink the paths of the Earl of Dudley and Father Conmee. He calculated to a minute the time necessary for his characters to cover a given distance of the city. For this is peculiarly the episode of Dublin. Not Bloom, not Stephen is here the principal personage, but Dublin itself. "

We do see Stephen and Bloom in this chapter, and they are both looking at books available in local bookstalls. In one section, Stephen is approached by his sister Dilly, who has managed to squeeze some spare change out of her father. The Dedalus children are to the point where they have to beg for food, but Dilly has still purchased a cheap used copy of a French language primer. Stephen asks after the fate of his books at home. Most have been pawned. "We had to," she says. Stephen again feels the "agenbite of inwit" but apparently forgets that he has money in his pocket that he could have given her.

Bloom has selected a book for Molly, an American erotic novel called Sweets of Sin. Phrases from his brief scanning of the book will reappear later... "For him! For Raoul!") First he examines Tales of the Ghetto, by Leopold von Sacher Masoch, but notes that he "already had it." In another section, McCoy and Lenehan spot Bloom, which spurs Lenehan to relate a story about the annual fundraising dinner where Bloom and Molly and several others were sharing a cab home late at night. The story is told at Bloom's expense, but at the end of it Lenehan admits, "You know... There's a touch of the artist about old Bloom."

Why was it so important to Joyce that the crossing and re-crossing of characters in this episode be reflected so accurately in time and space? This is fiction, after all.

Looking at a map and following the paths of the characters can be especially helpful in reading this chapter:

Walking Ulysses
http://ulysses.bc.edu

[Lily]

Thomas -- do you lead trips to Dublin? (No, I'm not a candidate for going, but I can imagine many could love taking such a tour with you!)

[Thomas]

I wish. My mother went last year and said, "I was going to invite you but you can't afford it." Gee thanks, Mom. May your shadow never grow less! But she's right. I'll make it over there one of these days.

[Lily]

Thomas wrote: "I wish. My mother went last year and said, "I was going to invite you but you can't afford it." Gee thanks, Mom. May your shadow never grow less! But she's right. I'll make it over there one of th..."

Maybe finding a travel agency that will underwrite your travel for leading a group? I went to Amsterdam to see a couple of my "missing" Vermeers a number of years ago with a woman in our community who periodically leads group tours to museums in many parts of the world. She apparently was approached to do this by one of the men in a local retirement community and he made the links to create an arrangement through a nearby travel agency. She concentrates on the art. Local tour guides are used and one additional person travels with the group (10-20) to handle people tracking et al. Prices were not out of sight. Sorry for the sidebar, but reading this intro set me off.

[Laurel]

I went when the "Europe on Five Dollars a Day" books worked. I think the Ireland part turned out to be even less than that. It was my first foreign country besides Canada (ten miles away), and I was enchanted.

[Suzann]

The 19 snapshots of Dubliners in this episode seems to be an interlude in the Bloom/Stephen narrative. Why would it be necessary to show the simultaneous present of all these people in this "frozen" world? In what sense is it frozen? Does not the simultaneous present shows just how alive it is? Nothing grand or earth shattering, but daily life as folks put one foot in front of the other. Kileen in Ulysses Unbound calls the first and last sections of Father Conmee and the viceroy, William Humble, "immutable poles" between which the citizens' lives unfold. Rather than a linear, bookended episode, it seems that all the lives are interwoven, circular, entangled, and equivalent. The priest on a charitable mission doesn't help the onelegged man. He rides the tram to avoid Mud Island, presumably an undesirable neighborhood. He's as regular a guy as any on the street. The authority of the church is reduced to pleasantries and noble intentions. Likewise, the viceroy, on a charitable mission to raise funds for Mercer's Hospital, demonstrates no real compassion. He's aloof, out of touch with the Dubliners who cross his path. But again, why does Joyce include this painsakingly detailed snapshot of Dubliners in action?

[Thomas]

Joyce scholar Clive Hart reenacted the movements of all the characters in real time in Dublin to see if Joyce had accurately described the crossings of the characters. He went so far as to hobble along the path of the two old women from London bridge. When he simulated the movement of the one-legged sailor it drew the "suspicious attention" of the Dublin police. But he found that "the sequences of 'Wandering Rocks' can be arranged in no other way, that in all important respects the pattern of the chapter is fully determined."

Of course this does not answer the crucial question that Susan asks,

But again, why does Joyce include this painsakingly detailed snapshot of Dubliners in action?

[Thomas]

Just imagine how confused they are in Lake Havasu City!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_B...

[Adelle]

Bloom took a look at a book. :-)

I checked out Schoop (or something like that).

It had a good observation there on Bloom/ Boylan.
Boylan looked at the clerk's breasts and flirted.
Bloom's fantasy came through the words of a book.

Mmm. I would add, Bloom further removed himself from the physicality of the act itself-- he enjoyed the more removed French words of Sweets of Sin:

"embonpoint"
deshabille (dishabille)

[Adelle]

Patrice wrote: "An aside...London Bridge? In Dublin? And before, Nelson's column, in Dublin? I think I remember seeing one in Trafalger Square in London, but Dublin? At first I thought I was confused. I can o..."

I'm rather far from the Ireland of 1900, and from Irish history in general. So I'm pretty sure I'm overlooking much of the subtext of Ulysses regarding Irish/British relations.

Very nice point about the bridge. London Bridge. In Dublin. And Nelson's column.

No spoilers. Just thoughts, musings. (view spoiler)[

It crossed my mind that some of the language in this chapter "might" have hinted at those who were planning for Ireland:

At 225(221) "I seen that particular party last evening, the constable said with bated breath.

244(240) "A certain gombeen man of our acquaintance.




The one-legged sailor: 'Twas a song of England and Nelson he sang.

From "Allusions" The song is "The Death of Nelson." "The song depicts the death of Nelson, and says in part, 'England expects that every man this day will do his duty, This day will do his duty.' In dying, he cried, 'Now long enough I've lived! In honour's cause my life was passed, In honour's cause I fall at last, For England, home, and beauty, For England, home, and beauty."

The sailor lost his leg for England... not Ireland.

Mmm. My thoughts must have turned to the Irish/England issue in this chapter. I did wonder whether some of the actions... dropping a coin in the hat, the two bars of whistling, other actions... were simply actions of no import... or whether they might be code signals.

It occurred to me that the young woman brushing the twigs from her skirt... some of those white arms throwing coins from windows, might have been prostitutes,

"The activities of political subversives were not nearly as central to city life as was the presence of prostitutes. Typical of any city where large numbers of men lived away from home and where female poverty was rampant, prostitution was a thriving business in Dublin. Protestant and Catholic organisations frequently attempted to close down brothels in the city and ran a number of Magdalen asylums intended to ‘save’ or ‘reform’ women who worked the streets. They had only limited success.

Brothels or ‘kip-houses’ as they were known locally were an established feature of life in tenement areas. The Monto district around Gloucester Street (see return for house in Purdon St., which may have been a brothel) was the best known home to prostitutes in the city, but there were also well-known brothels around the docks and in the south inner-city. Prostitutes also had regular standings in areas such as Grafton Street, Stephen’s Green, Sackville Street and Harcourt Street."

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie...


229(225): "Five tallwhitehatted sandwichmen between Monypeny's corner and the slab where Wolfe Tone's statue was NOT."

There IS a statue of the English Nelson.

There is NOT a statue of the Irish hero Wolfe Tone.

That caught my eye. "was not"

"Thoeblad Wolfe Tone (1763-98) was one of Ireland's greatest patriots and most popular heroes. He was a founder of the United Irishmen in 1791.... Tone was captured in 1798. He was tried and found guilty of treason. On being refused his request for a soldier's execution before a firing squad, he was sentenced to be hanged. He was imprisoned at Arbour Hill, Dublin. On November 11, 1798, he cut his throat with a penknife
and, on November 19, 1798, he died of the wound....in 1898 the foundation stone of a monument to Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen was laid in S. Stephen's-green facing Grafton street. The statue was never completed."

(Weldon Thornton)




231(227) When Ned Lambert was coughing... and J. J. O'Molley said "politely", "dust from those sacks"... And Ned spoke of the night before last... "there was a hell of a lot of draught..." I thought perhaps Lambert had been involved in some action that the authorities might not have approved of... esp. as this scene follows so closely on the mention of "the gunpowder plot"---an action against the crown.


I'm apparently very suspicious in this chapter.

the disks. 232(228)... "Smart idea, Nosey Flinn said... So a fellow coming in late can see what turn is on...

"I'll sound him...

"Tell him I'm Boylan with impatience."

So... is Boylan working with them... AND was that TMI (Too Much Information)... was that why M'Coy said goodnight "abruptly"... "When you two begin...":


Begin what?

"He's a hero"
"The act of a hero"

Who? And also, I thought here of SD, since Thomas posted that first Stephen was Stephen Hero. Anyway... made me to wonder.



247(243) "...their damned Irish language"

And Stephen will write something for "the movement" maybe in 10 years. (The Irish movement??)

(hide spoiler)]

[Adelle]

221(217) the General Slocum is mentioned for a second time. "dreadful catastrophe in New York."

239(235) "...that General Slocum explosion"

I had no emotional connection in reading about this ship until page 241(237) "Somewhere here Lord Edward Fitzgerald escaped..."

And although there doesn't seem to be any direct linkage regarding the name, I remembered a song from the 1970s, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald...

A sad song about a ship going down with many deaths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6...

[Adelle]

Mmm. 233(229) Molly

-- After three, he said. Who's riding her? [Refers to both the horse in the race and to Molly.}

I say this because:

--O. Madden, Lenehan said. And a game filly she is.

234(230) Lenehan is telling his tale of how Molly bounced up against him in the carriage.

--The lad stood to attention anyhow [wink, wink, nudge, nudge}, he said with a sigh. She's a gamey mare and no mistake.

[Adelle]

Mmm. Maybe... Perhaps?

Hamlet. The most well-known line: "To be or not to be. That is the question."

Isn't that the deal with SD, too? To be or not to be? And he's chosen to "be" despite the cost.

220(216) "O, lest he forget." The Bible/Kipling.

http://www.bartleby.com/101/867.html

I'm thinking that SD is thinking that he has a duty to himself... to be true to himself.

The many, many, many incidences of "list" in this chapter kept recalling Hamlet to me.

And the undercurrent--- I thought-- of that same question: To be or not to be? Who are you?

230(226) "Hello, Jack, is that yourself?"

243(239) "What are you doing here [I think, "on earth"], Stephen"

And all the many, many "gates" in this chapter.

Are they a psychological symbol of SD transitioning through... entering a different life?

[Adelle]

And just because I found it funny...

223(219) Father Conmee... thinking on adultery...

"Only God knew..." oh, "and she"... oh, and "he, her husband's brother."

[Adelle]

Patrice wrote: "! He "disliked to traverse on foot the dingy way past Mud Island" yet he admires God's plan when He "made turf to be in bogs whence men might dig it out and bring it to town and hamlet to make fires in the houses of poor people," Isn't he supposed to be one of the poor? Didn't he take a vow of poverty? Apparently not: he has on a "plump kid glove", His bookmark is made ..."

Nice details!

[Suzann]

The clergyman and the statesman do public charity events, but Bloom helps the blindman cross the street and Molly throws coins to the one-legged man. The church and state mollify their conscience, but the citizens help each other.

[Adelle]

Susan wrote: "The clergyman and the statesman do public charity events, but Bloom helps the blindman cross the street and Molly throws coins to the one-legged man. The church and state mollify their conscience, ..."

Is it Molly??? That's so cool.

[Adelle]

I thought of this today.

Off topic. No spoilers.

(view spoiler)[ About 55 seconds in.

And the head coach... wants no sissies...
So he reads to us from something called Ulyssess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jjiW...

(hide spoiler)]

[Suzann]

Adelle wrote: "Susan wrote: "The clergyman and the statesman do public charity events, but Bloom helps the blindman cross the street and Molly throws coins to the one-legged man. The church and state mollify thei..."

I assumed that the white arm throwing coins from the window on Eccles street was Molly. Maybe not!

[Adelle]

Well... I rather liked that image at least! :-)

[Adelle]

But maybe it's not The Church which garners so much of the anger as it is the representatives of The Church.

The "joke" was that the archbishop was inside.

If a part of the religious basis is to help the poor (poor in spirit, poor in worldly goods) and if there is even a vow of poverty for the church's representatives...

and one sees the church's representatives well-fed, well-dressed, and well...

[Adelle]

Patrice wrote: "...How did you remember that??!!! .."

I didn't directly.

Haven't heard that song in years... but today... it occurred to me that I wanted to hear it. So I found it on YouTube... and when I listened... there it was... Ulysses!

Aren't brains awesome!??!!

They know what you don't even know you know, you know?

[Adelle]

Patrice wrote: "Thanks for pointing out all of the double entendres. I missed them the first time around....."

You have a more virtuous mind.

:-) Anyway... I've actually rather been enjoying them. "There's one." "Ah, clever Joyce, see what he's done there."

[Adelle]

What do you suppose the importance of the numbers be?

229 (225) The librarian. "Yes, sir. Twentyseven and six. I'll tell him. Yes: one, seven, six. She scribbled three figures on an envelope."

I liked this scene because I just read The Woman in White last year.

[Adelle]

It seems a complex dynamic between the two of them.

Molly, enjoys the painting of the naked nymphs. Is there supposed to be a suggestion that Molly is a nymphomaniac? I don't know.

http://dictionary.reference.com/brows...

Molly likes the racier books. Yet... either the book she had read in Calypso was NOT racy enough, or, she wants to appear to have elevated taste. I don't know which.

64(63) She had finished the book Bloom had chosen for her. And now we know that Bloom generally has a good sense of what she likes. She likes racy.


Bloom asked her if she finished it.

She had said, "Yes.... There's nothing smutty in it. Is she in love with the first fellow all the time?"

I don't know if she is complaining that there was nothing smutty in it, or, if she enjoyed but is trying to put forward that she liked it for the love, not the smut.


Yet she adds " --Get another of Paul de Kock's. Nice name he has." yes.


236(232) But Bloom, too, seem to be aroused by the books. His short thoughts. " Yes. Take this. The end..... Warmth showered gently over him....swooning... breasts... armpit's oniony sweat" And he has to exercise self control when buying the book: "mastering his troubled breath.."

The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk... a fake tell-all type book... author had pretended to be writing of her experiences of having been a novice for 5 years and a nun for two. Untrue. Sold 200,000+ copies in American and England by 1851 (Allusion, Weldon Thornton).

Aristotle's Masterpiece. "This is the title of a semi-pornographic work, falsely attributed to Aristotle, which has been in circulation at least since the 17th century." (Allusion, Weldon Thornton).

Some kind of statement about falsity? A false wife? A false sexual relationship between the Bloom and his wife??

Tales of the Ghetto by Leopold van Sacher Mosoch. Thornton writes he couldn't find that title...but that L v Sacher Mosoch is the ... gentleman... from whom masochism gets its name.

And you know I rather think Bloom punishes himself... so I rather do think he's "something" of a masochist, although perhaps not in the strictest sexual sense.

http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/...

But--- and I liked this --- Bloom... perhaps thinking of Molly as he read --- reads again, "the beautiful woman."

[Adelle]

Just a little interesting.

1903-1904 Yeats was in America promoting the Irish language (although he wrote in English).



And also, in 1919, probably before or while Joyce was writing Ulysses, Yeats published his "The Second Coming." Made me think on that Elijah throwaway tract. Yeats... Elijah/The Second Coming... heralded... yet... floating off, a lost opportunity (as Yeats couldn't or wouldn't write in Gaelic himself---to promote something bigtime... and not follow it or attempt to follow it oneself... seems to have a whiff of falseness to it). Whereas Joyce actually tried to learn a little.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seco...

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307...


http://sarasmichaelcollinssite.com/mc...

[Wendel]

For a correct perspective: in the eyes of Joyce Father Conmee must have represented the best the Church had to offer.

Readers of A Portrait already know him as the righteous rector of Clongowes, where Stephen/Joyce studied from the tender age of 6 to 9 (if my memory serves me right). He made the world right again after Stephen/Joyce got an unjustified beating by one of the priests-teachers.
From the 'Joyce Project': Father Conmee helped Joyce and his brother Stanislaus get scholarships at Belvedere College; his kind consideration is reflected in his fictional counterpart's concern for Dignam's widow and children.

[Adelle]

Wendel wrote: "For a correct perspective: in the eyes of Joyce Father Conmee must have represented the best the Church had to offer.

Readers of A Portrait already know him as the righteous rector of Clongowes..."

Thank you, Wendel. I feel more kindly towards him for his having helped Joyce and his brother, also Joyce.

'Though he left the church, his education was through the church. And that would have made such a difference in a life. I rather think I would be somewhat conflicted.

[Suzann]

Patrice wrote: "That's the excitement of the city. So much going on at once. Heffenan compares it to a machine and that thought did come to mind but I think the city is too unpredictable, too uncertain to be considered a machine...."

Patrice's references are to a busy, alive city, possibly a machine. Why would a critic refer to Joyce's Dublin as "frozen"? Despite the movement, is there a spiritual rigidity?

[Suzann]

Adelle wrote: "Though he left the church, his education was through the church. And that would have made such a difference in a life. I rather think I would be somewhat conflicted. ..."

I did read how much he appreciated the rigorous classics education with the Jesuits. I'm guessing he would distinguish the classics curriculum from the religious teachings that might have been required as well.

[Suzann]

Wendel wrote: "For a correct perspective: in the eyes of Joyce Father Conmee must have represented the best the Church had to offer.

Readers of A Portrait already know him as the righteous rector of Clongowes..."

He might have appreciated Conmee's charity, but he seems to have rejected the church dogma.

[Thomas]

Patrice wrote: "The second word of the chapter is "superior" and that's what the priest feels he is. "

"Superior" is also his title -- Conmee was Superior of the Gardiner Street Jesuit house. I imagine Joyce is playing on both senses of the word. He is also superior in position as he is atop the presbytery steps. He is a self-satisfied man who likes "cheerful decorum," but I don't get the sense that he is arrogant exactly.

[Thomas]

Patrice wrote: "I was surprised by the joke about the archbishop in the church. Justification for burning the church down. There seems to be no guilt in the peoples' contempt for the church."

This comes from a story about Gerald Fitzgerald, a powerful Anglo-Irish lord in the 15th century. For some reason he was involved in a feud with the Archbishop and tried to kill him by setting the cathedral on fire. Later Fitzgerald was called back to London to answer an accusation (he had thrown his support to a pretender to the throne) but the King needed him to control Ireland, so sent him back as his deputy.

[Adelle]

Susan wrote: "I did read how much he appreciated the rigorous classics education with the Jesuits. I'm guessing he would distinguish the classics curriculum from the religious teachings that might have been required as well."

Yes. That seems solid to me. At some point he stopped valuing the religious teachings.

I was thinking the conflict would be in A. valuing the education (Joyce would have been a different man without education -'and he strikes me as enjoying, nay, reveling in his knowledge ), B. rejecting the religion and the religious beliefs, C. while knowing that he owed almost everything (a and b) to the very establishment and belief system he rejected.

If the Father hadn't gotten him (and his brother) the scholarships ... his life would have been so different.

Anyway, I would be conflicted if aspects I most valued about myself were due to the institution I most rejected.

[Suzann]

Patrice wrote: "LOL! I didn't realize that was his title!

plump hand ..."

He's well-fed in contrast to the parishioners whose shillings fund his mission.

[Wendel]

Apparently Joyce never read W&P: http://jamesjoyce.ie/tag/leo-tolstoy/

[Wendel]

It may be instructive to reflect on Tolstoy vs Joyce because they were so very different. Opposites in many ways. Both were verbal magicians and political naives, but otherwise they seemed to have little in common (or it must be more than average sexual insecurity, but that is just a hunch).

I just read a short article by Anna Tavis on the reception of both authors in Russia. Here is, in a long quote, her conclusion:

The infrequency and informality with which Joyce referred to Tolstoy's creative work may suggest that he was more willing to comment on Tolstoy's politics than to praise his literary virtues. For example, Joyce described Tolstoy's moralistic fable "How much Land Does a Man Need" as the greatest short story ever written. He might have even had a hand in translating the story from German into English, Joyce's biographers suspect. Anna Karenina, in Joyce's only reference to the novel, was remarkable because it exposed the Russian government's hypocrisy in thrusting the ignorant populace into the Russo-Turkish War. Tolstoy's last novel Resurrection earned Joyce's praise for the author's eloquent condemnation of the Orthodox Church. Joyce's positive evaluation of Tolstoy's artistic genius is prefaced with a crescendo of understatements; "He is never dull, never stupid, never tired, never pedantic, never theatrical. He is head and shoulders over the others." We can always speculate to what degree filial anxiety over
a strong precursor played a role in Joyce's reticence concerning Tolstoy's literary merits. One thing is obvious in this connection: even though Joyce shared Tolstoy's view that literature should usher in the spiritual liberation of people, he emphatically opposed Tolstoy's subjugation of art to propagandistic purposes. To take an active role in politics, Joyce insisted, would compromise the artist and would limit the effectiveness of his artistic message.
In the final analysis, both writers aimed at the individual's transformation through art. Joyce was primarily concerned with the fragility of the individual, hence his preference for subtle innuendos over browbeating. By contrast, Tolstoy always envisioned a congregation at his feet, hence the tone of urgency in his sermons. http://sites.utoronto.ca/tolstoy/vol5...

PS: for those who read Tavis' article and wonder about Tolstoy's Reading Circle - see: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul

[Zippy]

I was pleased to see the dance instructor of excellent comportment make a showing in this section, even if his name in this case was Maginni and not Turveydrop. Turns out his studio now houses a James Joyce Cultural Center.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ireland/d...

[Wendel]

Turveydrop, yes. Another problematic father figure. And didn’t we see the shadow of birdlike Miss Flite once or twice in this episode?

An elderly female, no more young, left the building of the courts of chancery ...

P.S.: a case of spontaneous combustion is also mentioned.

[Zippy]

Seems so obvious now that you point it out, but I missed it. Thanks!

[Wendel]

A card 'Unfurnished Apartments' slipped from the sash and fell.

A card 'Unfurnished Apartments' reappeared on the windowsash of number 7 Eccles street.

What does it mean? The Blooms are in the rental business? Or planning to move? Or looking for a subtenant? Why unfurnished?
Or just a coded sign, for Blaze? Why did it slip?

[Wendel]

In this episode we can make sense of most sentences. But can we make sense of the whole?

We are in a place where Odysseus never was, out of context. And it cannot be traversed, so we should not expect to make progress. Instead we are meandering, circulating. Like blood, the 'organ' of this chapter. Daily life, leading nowhere. But behind the scenes the tension is mounting - something is bound to happen.

The city is rather an organism than a machine, pulsating. Tom Rochester’s counting device, that's a machine. Just the thing we could use to keep count of the imperceptibly changing sections.

Some touching scenes. Bloom's search after titillating lecture for his faithless wife, Dilly dreaming of Paris. And if we were moralists we would compare Stephen’s 'denial' of his dying mother with that of his hungry siblings.

[Linda]

Thomas wrote: "Joyce wrote the Wandering Rocks with a map of Dublin before him on which were traced in red ink the paths of the Earl of Dudley and Father Conmee. He calculated to a minute the time necessary for his characters to cover a given distance of the city."

That is cool!

I liked this episode, and especially after we had already witnessed a certain character in one scene, only to have him/her reappear from another perspective.

[Linda]

Thomas wrote: "Just imagine how confused they are in Lake Havasu City!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_B..."

I've been there!! I was confused at the time as well, wondering if what my grandpa told me at the time could possibly true. And it was. :)

[Linda]

Adelle wrote:
"And the head coach... wants no sissies...
So he reads to us from something called Ulyssess."

Ha! Thanks Adelle.

[Linda]

Adelle wrote: "I liked this scene because I just read The Woman in White last year."

I liked it because the book is on my TBR pile, and so it's one reference I did not have to look up to figure out what it was!

[Linda]

Adelle wrote: "What do you suppose the importance of the numbers be?

229 (225) The librarian. "Yes, sir. Twentyseven and six. I'll tell him. Yes: one, seven, six. She scribbled three figures on an envelope."

I'm curious about this myself. And did she write down the wrong numbers? 17 and 6 instead of 27 and 6?

[Linda]

Wendel wrote: "Turveydrop, yes. Another problematic father figure. And didn’t we see the shadow of birdlike Miss Flite once or twice in this episode?

An elderly female, no more young, left the building of the co..."

Thanks for pointing those references out (Zippy and Wendel)! I did chuckle when "deportment" was mentioned, and also noticed the spontaneous combustion. But didn't notice the "elderly female" exiting the chancery courts.

[Kyle]

This is a favorite episode of mine. As the characters physically move around the city, the perspective starts to wander as well. In the absence of Stephen and Bloom, the third person narrator takes a larger role. Within each vignette, he gives us a few lines that come from another vignette, which creates in interesting panoramic/kaleidoscope view of the city. The city itself becomes a character of sorts, and in some ways also the storyteller. As others mentioned, it also shows us more of how our 'heroes' are seen by others. As we get into the second half of the episodes, it is interesting to keep an eye on how Joyce continues to play with perspective.

Also, Stephen still pines for the fair sex in this episode... I wonder how I missed this theme in previous readings:

@238, as he is looking at books: How to soften chapped hands. Recipe for white wines vinegar. How to win a woman's love. For me this..." Then he guiltily closes the book when Dilly approaches, who is in turn embarrassed by the book she carries. Interesting parallel there - both seeking solace in books they can't afford. Adds an extra level to the contrast between Stephen's sympathy and his lack of thought to actually giving her any money.

[Adelle]

Linda wrote: "Adelle wrote: "What do you suppose the importance of the numbers be?

229 (225) The librarian. "Yes, sir. Twentyseven and six. I'll tell him. Yes: one, seven, six. She scribbled three figures on an...  And did she write down the wrong numbers? 17 and 6 instead of 27 and 6? 

Oooo. Nice catch. And if so, what might the ramifications of that be, eh?