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Ulysses
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Chunky Read ULYSSES with reading schedule
Welcome Cynthia! I too joined in late and have yet to catch up...I keep getting distracted my other books!
All! You guys are doing great! I'm back from 3 weeks on the road, and will try to get some notes in this weekend!I agree too - this has been an incredible group i've loved the comments.
Mod
I hope ya'll want to do another book together (hopefully not as hard though)"
I agree, this is an incredible group, and I am really enjoying the discussion.
And Meg, I'm looking forward to many future Chunky read discussions led my you! :o)
You leading these discussions helps me to read and understand these big books I've always wanted to read but never been brave enough to tackle on my own.
thank you Sheila, and thank all of you for making this so much fun
I know I'm behind and all, but I'm finding chapter 12 to be as notes-dense as the wandering rocks chapter. All of these mini-parodies revolving around reworked Irish legends mixed with stories from Greek mythology and medieval romance...and then the Theosophists. Yet another chapter I wouldn't be getting through without the help of notes. For example, the reading of notices from the newspaper? Never would have known it was based on an actual paper from an actual day, and in some cases Irish were left out, some cases English, etc etc. So to any who gave up on Chapter 12, don't feel too badly!
And yes, this is what I'm doing at 2 am on a holiday weekend haha.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN SUMMARY (this is more related to Odyssey than any other chapter)n Homer's Odyssey, Circe turned Odysseus's men into swine; Odysseus, however, never succumbed to Circe's spells. In Joyce's Ulysses, Circe (the symbolic female of this chapter) is Bella Cohen, and she keeps a brothel at 82 Tyrone Street Lower, in the midst of the Dublin redlight district, the district that Joyce (but not the Dubliners of 1904) calls Nighttown in Ulysses. Unlike Homer's hero, Bloom is not spared the debasement of Odysseus's men (and, of course, in the original, Odysseus did not undergo a transformation). Bloom is debased, and, significantly, this chapter initiates the subsequent cathartic effect of that debasement.
Joyce, of course, did not need Homer's epic to supply the hallucinogenic character of the events in "Circe." There are ample precedents in literature — "objective correlatives," as T. S. Eliot called them, for "objectifying" inner states of fictional characters. In Coleridge's Ancient Mariner's tale, the protagonist's spiritual desiccation is reflected in the dryness of the atmosphere at sea; likewise, the witches in Macbeth probably emanate from Macbeth's and Banquo's desires for power; the Faustian "Walpurgisnacht" literally records the darker, frenzied side of human passion; and Venus in Furs, written by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch in 1870, certainly raised psychosexual behavior to a new and startling literary art form. Clearly, though, both Homer in his Odyssey and Joyce in "Circe" are concerned with a universal psychological theme: the fear that expression of sexuality might well turn the participants into "animals."
In addition to examining Bloom's (and to a lesser degree, Stephen's) expressionistic visions, however, it is important to define the literal narrative of the episode; thus, for the sake of convenience, if one divides this chapter into separate parts, the first part of "Circe" concludes with Stephen's sighting of Bloom in the music room of Mrs. Cohen's establishment. At this point, Stephen turns to Bloom and says, "A time, times and half a time." This same expression is used in the Bible to account for the length of time before the Day of Judgment is to arrive. For Stephen, this "Day" occurs in "Circe" when he meets his dead mother in a vision.
The Circe Episode begins at the Mabbot Street entrance to Nighttown, and Joyce at once establishes the ethereal tone of the chapter: The pygmy woman and the gnome mentioned on the first page are undoubtedly children, but they are distorted because they are seen through the mists of Joyce's spell of enchantment. Stephen and Lynch pass close to two men, Privates Compton and Carr, and the obnoxious Carr calls Stephen a parson because of his black clothing; this foreshadows the trouble that Stephen will have with this British soldier at the close of the episode, when Carr knocks Stephen down. A whore, also mistaking Stephen, believes that the two men are Trinity College medical students: "All prick and no pence." Stephen — although it can only be surmised — is probably in Nighttown to seek out Georgina Johnson, a prostitute whom he paid once with George Russell's loan of a pound (this reference occurs in "Scylla and Charybdis").
Bloom arrives panting from his attempt to catch up with Stephen and Lynch, and he is almost run down by two cyclists and then is almost hit by a sandstrewer; this latter encounter, at least, cures his (Christ-like) pain in his side. Although he thinks that following Stephen is probably futile, Bloom pursues his quest since he feels that Stephen is the "best of the lot." Also, he is afraid that Stephen will lose his money, and, after all, the chase is really, according to one of Bloom's stray and unconscious thoughts, "Kismet" (fate or destiny).
Mod
Does anyone know the reason why this chapter is written like a play (like a script with acting directions)?
Hi Sheila,Each chapter is written in a totally different style. So, no reason that I know of.
Mod
In some chapters, almost every single word has a hidden meaning or nuance. Words reference other works of literature, events in history, people the author knows, blah blah blah.
But in this chapter, chapter 15, he writes the whole thing as a play...just because...for no specific reason? Oh, this James Joyce is a hoot! LOL
Yup - That's about it. His immortality is that people will be trying to figure out forever what it is all about. It is a book you could read and re-read multiple times...if you like puzzles and challenges
Help!! I'm stuck in the round and round of Chapter 8, Lestrygonians. I feel like it's not going anywhere.I. will. not. give. up. (takes a deep breath and dives back in)
Mod
I. will. not. give. up. (takes a deep breath and dives back in)"
Keep swimming Catherine, Keep swimming! :o) You are probably just caught in a Ulysses riptide. Tread water if you have to until you escape and can continue. :o)
Made it to Episode 11!!! Kept on swimming, kept on swimming! I will be glad when the whole thing is over, but the book works in waves-difficult sections followed by easier sections, followed by more difficult sections... Almost like spinning or circuit training. This is one book I will almost HAVE to reread after, but I'm not sure I'll WANT to reread after I'm done.
I am also at Episode 11 and still finding ahha moments quickly followed by a resounding What? Unfortunately, my master plan of reading while my husband drove to VA did not work out so great....I got car sick....think maybe Ulysses was the cause haha!But, i will keep on going especially now since I finished the chunkster Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life.
Marialyce wrote: "I am also at Episode 11 and still finding ahha moments quickly followed by a resounding What? Unfortunately, my master plan of reading while my husband drove to VA did not work out so great....I go..."Yes, Marialyce, that's what I've found too. I'm also trying to read a couple of other books at the same time and coming to the conclusion that I should just focus on one of these at a time, finish, then move on to the next. I'll get more out of each one, probably finish more quickly, and enjoy them more. Right now I'm getting confused moving from one to another and that doesn't help when reading an already confusing book like Ulysses.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN SUMMARY(CLIFF NOTES)In Homer's epic, Odysseus meets with the faithful and hospitable swineherd Eumaeus after Odysseus has returned to Ithaca; shortly thereafter, Odysseus joins with Telemachus and slaughters Penelope's suitors. In Joyce's novel, a coffeehouse which is said to be run by Skin-the-Goat (James) Fitzharris provides a symbolic place for Bloom and Stephen to chat before the two men return to Bloom's house in the next chapter. (Fitzharris, one should recall, drove the decoy car after the Phoenix Park Murders, discussed prominently in "Aeolus.") The Homeric parallel also reinforces two other themes in the episode: first, the motif of disguises and the imagery of the wanderer's return; no one knows whether the returned sailor "W. B. Murphy" really bears that name, or whether, like Bloom and Odysseus, he actually is going to return to a wife whom he has not seen for several years. And who knows whether Parnell, like Bloom, will ever "return" — that is, were there really only stones buried in Parnell's casket? And, more important to this narrative, will Bloom be able to return in any meaningful way to Molly?
After the excesses of Nighttown, Bloom and Stephen, at about
1:00 a.m., walk to Fitzharris's cabman's shelter to imbibe a nonalcoholic beverage. On the way, Stephen meets the dissipated Corley (a sponger from "Two Gallants!' in Dubliners); he lends the fellow some money and tells him that there will be a job available at Deasy's school (this is Stephen's own position; he will be leaving the school).
Once inside the shelter, Bloom and Stephen discuss many subjects: Murphy's wanderings, the sensuality of Gibraltar women, nationalism, and religion, to name a few. Bloom also reads a copy of the Telegraph; it contains the mistakes caused, in part, by the misunderstandings in "Hades." After considering and weighing the consequences of bringing Stephen home, and with misgivings (Bloom is afraid that Molly will complain), Bloom does decide finally to bring Stephen home with him ("It's not far. Lean on me.").
Bloom's motives for helping Stephen are mostly altruistic. In "Hades," when Bloom saw Stephen, Stephen was alone — that is, he was without his "fidus Achates" — the "cad," Mulligan. In "Eumaeus," the recurrence of this same phrase indicates that Bloom is indeed filling an immediate need of Stephen's. Joyce makes it clear that Bloom is helping Stephen by warning him to avoid the robust but superficial Buck Mulligan. Mulligan "contributes the humorous element," it is true, but Bloom feels that Mulligan cannot be trusted. Bloom observed more than Stephen could when the medical students were drinking in "The Oxen of the Sun" chapter. Bloom believes that Mulligan may have put something into Stephen's drink. Clearly, Bloom feels compassion for Stephen; he thinks that Stephen is a bright young man, recently returned from Paris — a young man who may not "have it all together yet." In Stephen's eyes, Bloom sees the eyes of Stephen's sisters and father. He thinks that it is a pity that "a young fellow blessed with an allowance of brains . . . should waste his valuable time with profligate women. . . ." And, after all, Bloom brought home a dog with a lame paw (there is a parallel here with Stephen's injured hand); thus, why not do it again — even though Molly might become irate?
Bloom acts basically because of his innate charity (making him once again a 20th-century Christ figure), but his motives are mixed. A careful reading of "Eumaeus" dispels the trite notion that Bloom is either a simple plaster saint or a merely farcical protagonist. His assessment of Stephen's personality, for example, as well as his assessment of Stephen's talents, is shrewd, and often in "Eumaeus," Bloom imagines how Stephen can be used to his (Bloom's) advantage. As a writer, Stephen could help Bloom advertise the new opera company which he is conceiving in his imagination by "providing puffs in the local papers," since Stephen is undoubtedly a "fellow with a bit of bounce. . . ." In onesense, we should realize that Bloom is willing to take Stephen home, to spend a few pennies on him because of possible benefits that may come from Bloom's cultivating "the acquaintance of someone of no uncommon calibre who could provide food for reflection . . . ." In other words, the mercantilistic, advertising sideof Bloom will sacrifice some "food and lodging" to acquire from Stephen some "food for thought." Then, too, Bloom might find in the meeting with Stephen enough material to publish in Titbits, in the manner of the vaunted Philip Beaufoy: "My Experiences, let us say, in a Cabman's Shelter." Or perhaps since Stephen has his father's voice, Bloom might profit from Stephen's fine tenor renditions. Finally, Bloom offers one of the best summaries of Stephen's character ever penned: "His initial impression was that he was a bit standoffish or not over effusive but it grew on him someway." This "impression" of Stephen is exactly what many readers of Ulysses have throughout the novel.
Hey everyone! I was reading my GR email digest this morning and noticed a few people from this thread discussing The Language of Flowers inin the July/August thread...did you notice the language of Flowers in Ulysses? I'm on that chapter now (still absurdly behind)--during the cyclops episode, i think it was a parody of a newspaper report of a social event...
Alanna wrote: "Hey everyone! I was reading my GR email digest this morning and noticed a few people from this thread discussing The Language of Flowers inin the July/August thread...did you notice the language of..."Bloom's pen name is also Henry Flower
Keep going y'all! You're doing great!!! The next chapter is another fave of mine!!!
Hey All - I know I have totally dropped off the face of GoodReads. I've been on the road training, and preparing for a final interview for a new job tomorrow! Please send good thoughts to Colorado!Hang in - you are getting close to Bloomsday. I am reading South of Broad by Pat Conroy and howling at how "Ulysses" plays a role in it.
Mod
I just skimmed and skipped over most of chapter 15...it was boring me and again I was reading and not remembering anything I was reading. So I came back here, read Meg's Summary, and am now going to try to tackle Chapter 16. We'll see how it goes! LOL
Becky Colorado, best wishes for a successful interview tomorrow. Hope you get the job!
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Mod
So I just went to Wikipedia for another synopsis of these chapters:
**
Episode 15, Circe
Episode 15 is written as a play script, complete with stage directions. The plot is frequently interrupted by 'hallucinations' experienced by Stephen and Bloom—fantastic manifestations of the fears and passions of the two characters.
Stephen and Lynch walk into Nighttown, Dublin's red-light district. Bloom pursues them and eventually finds them at Bella Cohen's brothel. When Bloom witnesses Stephen overpaying for services received, Bloom decides to hold onto the rest of Stephen's money for safekeeping. Stephen hallucinates that the rotting cadaver of his mother has risen up from the floor to confront him. Terrified, Stephen uses his walking stick to smash a chandelier and then runs out. Bloom quickly pays Bella for the damage, then runs after Stephen. Bloom finds Stephen engaged in a heated argument with an English soldier who, after a perceived insult to the King, punches Stephen. The police arrive and the crowd disperses. As Bloom is tending to Stephen, Bloom has a hallucination of Rudy, his deceased child.
Episode 16, Eumaeus
Bloom and Stephen go to the cabman's shelter to restore the latter to his senses. At the cabman's shelter, they encounter a drunken sailor, D. B. Murphy. Riding in the cab, Stephen sings a spirited song by the Baroque composer Johannes Jeep, and he and Bloom bond over its misogyny. The episode is dominated by the motif of confusion and mistaken identity, with Bloom, Stephen and Murphy's identities being repeatedly called into question. The rambling and laboured style of the narrative in this episode reflects the nervous exhaustion and confusion of the two protagonists
**
Hmm, hallucinations seem to take center stage in Chapter 15, and Chapter 16 is a rambling laboured narrative reflecting exhaustion and confusion. Gee, maybe THAT is why I am having so much trouble understanding what I am reading! LOL
Becky Colorado wrote: "Hey All - I know I have totally dropped off the face of GoodReads. I've been on the road training, and preparing for a final interview for a new job tomorrow! Please send good thoughts to Colorad..."Becky, I love every single overwrought word Pat Conroy writes. He is a fav of mine....
Have you read his Beach Music? The very best!
Lots of luck tomorrow, Hope it goes extremely well for you.
I definitely will put Beach Music on the list. For everybody else - because you made the dive into "Ulysses" you would get how odd it is that a former nun is a "Ulysses" scholar and when she decides to marry her college sweetheart calls her boys Stephen Dedalus King and Leopold Bloom King.
Thank you Sheilah, the wedding was fabulous, I am exhausted but extremely happy.Good luck Becky. Marialyce, Conroy is a favorite of mine as well.
And yes, Ulysses went way over my head as well. Just getting the gist, to me, is a feat!
Congratulations, Meg....now all the children are married right? So happy to hear it was awesome!Our daughter's wedding is in six weeks, very excited....
You should put up some pictures for us to see how gorgeous you and everyone else was.
Computer home from hospital.Well, hallucination... Could not figure out that rotting person in that section. Did not realize he was hallucinating and could not figure out what was going on.
Good luck Becky.
Glad the wedding was wonderful Meg.
Yes all the kids are married, now I have to wait for grandchildren, I keep sending the vibes but it isn't happening!Congratulations to you Marialyce, the wedding is really fun just try to ignore all the family drama so you can enjoy it. Just my tip of the day!
Did I miss the discussion on Ithaca? Or are we a week or two behind? Bloomsday is coming up I will toast a pint to all the lovely ladies who have stuck with it! and those who made true valiant efforts :) I always celebrate Bloomsday and quote my fave lines to family members just to annoy them :)
Mod
I just checked to see when Bloomsday is. It is this Saturday, June 16th.
So what exactly are we supposed to do to celebrate Bloomsday??
Okay well when it's Ithaca time I've got my high school notes again to shed some light :) Just keep swimming everyone!Everyone celebrates Bloomsday differently, but most agree that drinking should be involved, eating Irish food and Irish music. Or I had a group of friends who went to Dublin for the 100th Bloomsday (the actual date not publication) and they took a tour of the city and wandered Stephen and Bloom's wanderings.
I'd say go to http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/... pick a couple of your fave quotes and incorporate them into your language on Saturday I like an adaptation of "History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from wish I am trying to awake" or "Love loves to love love" and see if people notice. Educate others on Bloomsday and just appreciate some Joyce. Read some Joyce poems maybe http://www.poemhunter.com/james-joyce/ There's no wrong way to celebrate :)
Well I am hoping it has something to do with drinking red wine!I really am going to try to wrap up this book this weekend. It is grating on me too much. Plus it makes me feel I am stuck in a rut....
These men really need to stop with the finding daddy complex I think.
I am just thankful he wrote about a day, if he wrote about a month we wouldn't even be able to lift the book!
cHAPTER SEVENTEEN SUMMARY FROM CLIFF NOTES"Ithaca" takes place at Bloom's house at 7 Eccles St. at about 2:00 a.m. on June 17. Bloom and Stephen discuss a huge variety of topics; Bloom makes Stephen cocoa (Joyce implies that this is a "communion"), and, after Stephen leaves, Bloom assesses his day's activities and gingerly crawls into bed beside Molly in an upside-down position, kissing her rump. The sleepy Molly asks him what he has been doing all day (and night), and Bloom supplies a partial litany of the events, leaving out anything incriminating.
The contrast of Bloom's actions with those of Odysseus is crucial. Odysseus and Telemachus united at the end of the Odyssey in order to kill the suitors who had insisted on courting Penelope until she chose among them. Bloom, the passive 20thcentury anti-hero treats Molly's infidelity with the "suitor" Boylan with acceptance and generosity. Although he reserves the right to divorce Molly at a later date and although he considers using witnesses to catch her in some future act, these thoughts of his are only a small part of the emotional complexity with which he approaches his sad situation. Here, Bloom experiences envy, jealousy, abnegation, and equanimity, but Joyce makes it clear that Bloom's feelings consist mainly of "more abnegation than jealousy, less envy than equanimity." Bloom, as a modern humanist, sees Molly's affair as part of the natural pattern of the universe: what happened was due to woman's instincts and the impulsiveness of Boylan's youth. Besides, although Boylan thinks that he is unique, he is "the last term of a preceding series. . . ."This "series," however, is not to be taken literally; instead, Joyce means for us to understand it as part of a vast cosmic theme — that is, the list of lovers which Bloom supplies for us is a product of his fancy, an attempt by him to assuage the pain of his present feeling of separateness from Molly.
The style of "Ithaca," with its question-and-answer format and its "scientized" language, has caused critics some difficulty. Joyce, while admitting that the format of "Ithaca" is indeed difficult, called the chapter his own personal favorite. And the style does fulfill several functions. Its catechetical nature supplies a religious basis for the discussion between Bloom and Stephen. And, if the chapter can be said to have a true narrator, he is a vast Olympian figure who can place seemingly important but really ephemeral mortals and their actions into the perspective of a large cosmic consciousness. In fact, "Ithaca" is Joyce's preparation (his preliminary groundwork) for Finnegans Wake, with its shadowy, hulking archetypal personages. Finally, the "objectivity" of the episode permits Bloom to use the screen of logic as a kind of filter in order to bear the almost unendurable pain which he feels from Molly's assignation. He perceived Boylan's presence almost from the start of the chapter — as early as the incident of the betting tickets that Boylan tore up in anger after Sceptre lost the race. What is perhaps most regrettable about the assignation itself is that Molly and Blazes make no real attempt to disguise the adultery. Bloom, however, imagines the act; he, in a sense, uses fancy and imagination to disguise the painful blatancy of the adultery; now he is confronted with its direct evidence — that is, with the facts of its physical reality: for example, there are the chairs, rearranged so that the two lovers could sit beside each other to sing "Love's Old Sweet Song"; there are also the cigarette butts, as well as a male's impression in the Blooms' bed, and also there are the traces of Plumtree's Potted Meat (Boylan, metaphorically, "potted" Molly with his "meat").
The concept of marital infidelity bothered Joyce himself greatly throughout his relationship with his wife, Nora. Joyce's play, Exiles, hinges upon Richard Rowan's fear that Bertha has been unfaithful, and here, in Ulysses, in the "Scylla and Charybdis" chapter, Shakespeare is seen to have suffered throughout his life from the thought of a loved one who had betrayed him. "Ithaca" must have been extremely difficult for Joyce to write; for this reason, it is reasonable to conclude that he handled his wound of doubt by putting an aesthetic distance between Bloom-Joyce and the corrupted Molly. Significantly, in "Penelope," Joyce has Molly think of Bloom at the very end of her soliloquy and respond with a resounding "Yes."
Meg wrote: "I am just thankful he wrote about a day, if he wrote about a month we wouldn't even be able to lift the book!"So true, Meg....haha!
Marialyce, if you're upset about all the father-son stuff then Ithaca will not be a chapter you enoy- it's fully of father-son stuff. When I first read the chapter I always found it to be the easiest. I'll type up my notes on it once more have read it. But it's such a great chapter I love how such mundane tasks such as boiling water get such detail and attention. It's just great!
Mod
Too funny, Meg! :-)
LOL, Meg, Good thing Kindle had not been invented or he might have felt free of the constraint of volume.
Irene wrote: "LOL, Meg, Good thing Kindle had not been invented or he might have felt free of the constraint of volume."Now, now, Irene--careful not to give him any ideas! ;)
Mod
I was just reading this NYTimes blog post about today being Bloomsday,
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2...
and found several interesting things:
they say James Joyce never made a penny from this book, and,
"There is additional cause for celebration on this year’s Bloomsday. Seventy years after the author’s death, the copyright on his works has expired and they have entered the public domain.
Here is another news story from the UK about the copyright on this book expiring..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/...
Mod
And I just looked ahead to Chapter 18...and it looks like there is ABSOLUTELY NO PUNCTUATION in the ENTIRE CHAPTER and that instead this ENTIRE CHAPTER is going to be ONE GIANT RUN-ON SENTENCE??? Is this correct?? I don't know if I can read an entire chapter as a run-on sentence with no punctuation! LOL
Sheila I feel your pain........
Mod
Thank you, Meg! LOL
I just checked Wikipedia, and I was wrong, it is not one run-on sentence, it is instead a whole EIGHT run on sentences, but it is again told in the STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS technique! ACK!!! GROAN!!! (holding my head in pain!)
(from Wikipedia)
The final episode, which also uses the stream of consciousness technique seen in Episode 3, consists of Molly Bloom's Soliloquy: eight great run-on sentences (without punctuation) describe the thoughts of Molly, Bloom's wife, as she lies in bed next to her husband.
The New York TimesJune 17, 2012, 3:10 PM
A ‘Ulysses’ For Those Unable to Make ‘Bloomsday on Broadway’
By MIKE HALE
Fans of James Joyce who were unable to attend the annual “Bloomsday on Broadway” readings at Symphony Space on Saturday – along with anyone who appreciates the sound of famous literature read aloud by trained actors – will want to sample the BBC Radio 4 production “James Joyce’s Ulysses,” currently accessible to American listeners on the BBC Web site. Broadcast on Saturday – June 16 being the day when the action of “Ulysses” takes place – this new radio adaptation consisted of segments scattered across the day’s schedule, at times roughly corresponding to the movements of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus across Dublin in the novel.
The high-profile cast includes Stephen Rea as narrator, Andrew Scott (Moriarty in the BBC “Sherlock”) as Dedalus and Henry Goodman (“The Damned United,” “Notting Hill”) as Bloom. The nine segments totaling five and a half hours, available free on the BBC iPlayer site for two weeks, include the dramatization (with songs and sound effects) as well as radio chit-chat and live commentary by the journalist and writer Mark Lawson, introduced by the BBC host J.P. Devlin in Joycean terms as “the stately, plump Mark Lawson.”
And another New York Times June 16, 2011, 12:00 PM
On Bloomsday, Joyce Fans Say Yes, Yes to Twitter
By JULIE BLOOM
“—Warily walking went Bloom, unconquered hero. Jingle a tinkle jaunted. Not yet. At four. What is he doing at the Ormond? Let’s hear the time.” The words may not be exactly Joycean, but they’re pretty close for 140 characters. At approximately 10:45 a.m. Eastern time this entry was the latest added to @11ysses twitter account. It’s part of the marathon project, known as “Ulysses Meets Twitter 2011,” conceived by “Stephen from Baltimore,” which invited readers of “Ulysses” to retell the great, lengthy work through tweets from start to finish within the 24-hour period that the novel’s odyssey through Dublin (on June 16, 1904) takes place.
Steve is spending today making sure the story of Stephen Dedalus develops on time. In an e-mail he wrote: “My job as ringleader was to get the Cast on stage on time, and that is happening nicely so far (as long as my home wireless doesn’t give out). I still have many more hours of cut & pasting ahead of me. So my Bloomsday will be spent largely chained to this laptop.”
We’ll check back in with him Friday to see how he thought his experiment panned out, but in the meantime, take a look at @11ysses and tell us what you think of the project.
Hmmm, never earned a penny..interesting that it seems many felt this work was "worthless" I finished Chapter 17 and if Stephen and Bloom have not resolved their "feelings" towards one another, I wonder if in Penelope's chapter, we will see some sort of resolution. I doubt it though as not much if anything has been resolved so far.Have to say I will be ever so grateful to finish this up. It has not been a fun experience at all! I just could not finish it up this past weekend. I practically have to tie myself to a chair to not find a million things to do instead like watching the grass grow in the backyard!
LOL, MarialyceI am glad these are fictional characters. I would not want to meet any of them.
So sad so many of you didn't like Ithaca! One of my faves- I like the question/answer style. I also love his descriptions of such mundane things! I looove the following quote when Bloom is wondering what action to take because of Molly's affair-"What retribution, if any?
Assassination, never, as two wrongs did not make one right. Duel by combat, no. Divorce, not now. Exposure by mechanical artifice (automatic bed) or individual testimony (concealed ocular witnesses), not yet. Suit for damages by legal influence or simulation of assault with evidence of injuries sustained (selfinflicted), not impossibly. Hushmoney by moral influence possibly. If any, positively, connivance, introduction of emulation (material, a prosperous rival agency of publicity: moral, a successful rival agent of intimacy), depreciation, alienation, humiliation, separation protecting the one separated from the other, protecting the separator from both."
I love it- and I think the question answer fits so perfectly for this- throughout the chapter there are so many moments like this that I think people really do think through so fully in their heads- earlier in the chapter when he's trying to figure out how to get into bed without disturbing Molly, even just how to get out of the chair- he goes into such detail.
Chapter 18 is another great one though. There are very few punctuations because it's a woman's head. I don't know about you- but I rarely use punctuation in my thoughts- especially when I'm really really thinking cause I'm switching form one though to another, usually without transitions. I think it's great. Yes.
But I know Joyce isn't everyone cup of tea. Those who are having such strong feelings against it I wonder if y'all have read any other Joyce before this? Dubliners or Portrait? If this is your first I would highly suggest going back and reading Portrait or Dubliners cause they're so different... just keep swimming
Chicks On Lit
Books mentioned in this topic
South of Broad (other topics)Middlemarch (other topics)
Fifty Shades of Grey (other topics)
Moby-Dick or, The Whale (other topics)
Ulysses (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Pat Conroy (other topics)Frank Delaney (other topics)
Cynthia, please join in. I had to join in late, too, and I'm still catching up. I just got my MAT and had no time during my internship to read much of anything. This book is really giving me a workout.