Fireworks?

Part of me feels as if it is possible that James Joyce was one of the first people ever to synchronize the explosion of fireworks with male ejaculation so maybe it was a new concept. However reading this now when anyone writing or putting into a film, the explosions of fireworks to describe the climax of sex for a man would be called unimaginative, it seems sort of funny to me.

But onto something not so funny: public masturbation. What is not so funny about this is how we begin the section from a distance until we zoom into Gerty's head where we aware of Bloom, but she only slowly and without knowing him, begins to feel important in his eyes. Oddly enough I think that Gery is the granddaughter of the citizen from the cyclops episode. This sort of importance, the fact the they do not touch and barely look into each other's eyes makes this interaction, a physical one for Bloom, a completely non-physical process. It poses the question of where passion, desire, and arousal lay in the realm of human experience.

Gery is aroused by the idea of being something in this man's eyes that neither of her girlfriends are. More so she is turned on by the thought of him having been sinned against, or even having sinned, and her having the opportunity to play the virgin Mary as we see on 358 where she "just yearned to know all, to forgive all if she could make him fall in love with her, make him forget the memory the past." This right before the overheard mass asks the virgin mary "Ora Pro nobis. Well it has been said that whosoever prays to her with faith and constancy can never be lost or cast away: and fitly she is too a haven of refuge for the afflicted..." Here Gerty makes Bloom's base act into one of pray, as if in his alienation from the culture around him his way of praying to a figure that portrays themselves and is portrayed as the virgin Mary is to masturbate.

Perhaps in someway this is in a way divine conception. The roman candle scene, right before Bloom is done, we hear the imagined taking of virginity, "to feel his lips laid on her white brow the cry of a young girl's love, a little strangled cry, wrung from her, that cry that has rung through the ages. And then a rocket sprang and bang shot blind and O! then the Roman candle burst and it was like a sigh of O!" (366-367) From here it is as if Gerty is showered in the seed of the candle or Bloom.

Directly after this we see Bloom's guilt at being a brute, and yet some of his most machismo thoughts. However, it all ties back into his thoughts on the stars and then animals and we see again the split between physicality and ideals which is exemplified in the action of the section and then elucidated upon by Bloom's extended inner monolgoue.

The Christ-like hero

When first reading this section I felt like asking Joyce if he intended for this book to be readable for an audience not living and aware of early nineteenth century, Irish current events. However, as the discussion between the evening drunks gets further into themes of nationalism and as the idea of strangers and what a nation is comes to the fore, things cease being so time specific and we can see larger themes that are brought forth by Bloom.

In his attempt to widen the perspectives of the Irish men around him he states the his nation is Ireland, and that as a jew he also knows what it is like to be oppressed and persecuted as the Irish are by the English. He then states that there is no sense in violent reactions to this because it is everywhere. It is not just the Jews and the Irish. He spouts some sentimental talk of universla love.

All of this, rather than putting him on equal footing with the men around him, makes into a suspicious character whose sexuality is questionable, whose money situation is enviable, and who cannot be trusted. In this chapter Bloom goes from the "prudent member" to having tin cans thrown at him. The use of different newspaper writing styles makes us think of Bloom's job. Some of the over the top nineteenth century romantic/ sentimental exposition made me think of the novels Molly likes to read, and the use of biblical or myth/legend language connected to Homer and the Bible which bring to mind Bloom as a hero, but not just any hero, but the christ-like hero. That the citizen wants to crucify him and that at the ned of the chapter he ascends to heaven are explicit examples of how Bloom is shaping up as the hero we felt he would show himself to be in this novel. Or has it become a montage of writing genres? Journalism, parody, hyperbole, heretical? Maybe so.

The sweets of song

This section is packed. I was constantly flipping between the pages and trying to find where within the time signature, that Joyce establishes at the beginning of the chapter, we were. I know that Joyce does emply some anachronisms within the novel, yet I feel that he is obsessed with the timing of the day and the characters within this book. This is also a large focus for Stephen. Not just for the one day that we see him, but in general, Stephen feels time as an immanent force in his life. But what to say? I could go on about my admiration at Joyce's craft in this section, but that much is clearer here than it has been in other previous sections. I could also state how Joyce makes the thoughts of all of the characters in one room blend together through sound fragments and overheard conversations as well as past occurences.

But, I think that Bloom is really what is at stake in this section. He follows Boylan to the Ormond hotel. He writes off his third encounter with him as coincidence and yet chooses to see where he is headed. He also sits unnoticed in the hotel as people he was consorting with earlier do not even know he is present. He writes to Martha to arrange a meeting and before sending the letter regrets it. He thinks of first mmeeting Molly, he thinks of the community around him that he is not a part of and he hears himself and his wife being spoken about. It is beginning to break my heart.

The words exchanged between Henry Flower and Martha in writing are actually spoken by Simon Dedalus, "that was exceedingly naughty of you..."(261). This is one way that Joyce accomplishes creating a collective consciousness of what is happening between all the characters. I am left wondering though, if this is the same place where the concert of Molly is to take place and if the time siganture established by Joyce at the beginning of the chapter is supposed to fit with the piece Molly will be singing. Or if it is reflective of the pieces being sung by the other people at the hotel. Also is Bloom writing to Martha as Boylan is having sex with Molly? The onomatopoeia being used at times indicates a sort of flesh on flesh feeling, as well as some of images brought up are very sexual and involve wet caverns. Like around 284. I'm just not sure.

A Small City or Joyce Does Omniscience

This section, more than any other, allows Joyce's reader to realize that their suspicions of up-till-now-unseen characters are, for the most part, true. However we are also allowed a view into connections between seemingly dissimilar characters.

For instance, the reverend Conmee's walk through the streets feels much like Bloom's early morning walk to get his breakfast. They both focus on things like trams and exchanging salutations with some of the same people. These surface things however become rooted in more subtle similarities as we hear the reverend's thoughts on the first countess of Belvedere, "that tyrannous incontinence, needed however for men's race on earth, and of the ways of God which were not our ways." (223) Here we see the reverend thinking about procreation, just as Bloom does often, and even in this section. Later on the Conmee is confronted by "a flushed young man from the gap of a hedge and after him came a young woman..."(224). This displays the ways that The reverend, sworn to chastity ("Blessed are the undefiled" 224), is reminded of his own form of impotence, just as Bloom is constantly followed by his. In a stretch of the imagination and probably Joyce's intent, one could say that a parallele between the man of God and the Jewish protagonist makes Bloom into a christ-like figure. This gains a sort of validity in the section of this chapter where Joyce has Bloom unwittingly utilize a tool of the prophets to open a book to the part at which it describes the infidelities of a man's wife.

Another unlikely pairing of characters would be Simon Dedalus with the dead Dignam. This manifests itself through many sections including Dignam's son's narration, the parts involving his daughters selling their belongings and going hungry, and where we see Simon, unwilling to get or give money to his children, yet going out drinking for lunch. However, the inversion here lies in that Dignam's son is suffering because his father, typically figured as the bread winner, has passed away. In the Dedalus family, the strife arises out of losing the mother figure of the family. This has a way of bringing to light a lot of Stephen's psyche in his longing for women and his problems with them, as well as his maternal qualities, when we see him interact with his sister who idolizes him in wanting to learn French.

We also get to see the darker side to Buck Mulligan which has only ever existed as an undertone to his statements, usually masked with a tone of joviality. But here we hear Buck admit that he thinks Stephen will never make anything of himself, that "his tragedy" (249) lies in his religious upbringing. I'm not sure that this connects his character with another in some way, but it doesn't make me like him. Even though I think Stephen is pretentious, I still find Buck Mulligan insufferable.

The "intrusions" must be meticulously placed, and yet they are not easily identifiable as connections between the scenes they are placed in and how they enhance a theme therein. The Wandering Rocks shows itself as the shifting scenes and ultimately as the carriages' pass through the streets of Dublin and the characters we have been following.

Physicality

James Joyce is no fair. No, I don't mean that. I only would have liked a little more of a hint towards whether the scene we walk into in the library was being seen from a distance by Bloom, being described in the thrid person by a narrator, or if we are in Stephen's head. It took a long time finally realize that, much like the first chapter, we were being presented a combination of the last two narrative structures.

One reason I had a hard time figuring this out was because of the physical nature of many of description of the people surrounding Stephen. This felt unusaul for our abstract and self-absorbed protagonist. However, this idea of physicality functions throughout this section as more than just a confusing literary device. We see the idea of the physical presented in discussion on Plato. Plato felt that truth was only found in thought, in the abstract nature of things, the physical form of things being just crude representations for thought. This seems to go against Stephen's struggle with forms and his idea of himself and his art. Thinking of Aristotle often, we can assume that Stephen feels that forms are important.

Yet, in his disucssion on Hamlet, this may not be absolutely true. Stephen describes the physical connection between child and mother, that amor matris is the only love in the world. However he shows how there really is no connection between the father and child, that there is no true physical sharing between them. In this way, Stephen gives the physical an importance, and yet he shows that it is not really necessary for life. This gets confusing, as Stephen is himself, when thinking about Stephen's feelings towards his parents. We can assume a certain amount of disdain for his father based on the Proteus episode, and we also see his guilt towards his mother. These things all combine to show a particularly torn, insecure and pretentious Stephen in this episode of the book.

Grotesque Man

It is interesting how being inside of Leopold Bloom's head can stand in such contrast to what we are shown when thrust into a room that he has just walked out of. In Bloom's head we see a practical man who looks around him and thinks about ownership (153), health care (162), public policy (157), and nationalism (164,165). These concerns make Bloom seem like the anti-Stephen; someone rooted in the reality of economics and social systems. However, being inside Bloom's head we watch these things transform so that his musings about an advertisement turn into, "How can you own water really? It's alway flowing in a stream, never the same, which in the stream of life we trace. Because life is a stream. (153)" Or Bloom combines all his other observations on the Irish people and their system of governance in a Yeatsian image of "wheels within wheels. (163)" From here he take us to one of his most insightful, if gloomy, rants; "Things go on the same; day after day... one born every second somewhere. Other dying every second. Since I fed the birds five minutes. Three hundred kicked the bucket... No one is anything. (164)"

Humanity becomes futile in Bloom's eyes and this, as the preface to witnessing the cannibalistic eating habits of Irish men in a pub, combines to give us a grotesque view of man. We see this in Nosey Flynn whose nose is running and constantly threatening to drop mucus into his glass. We see it even in the altruistic gesture made by Bloom to help a blind young man cross the street. What he notices is the stains on his clothes. It becomes overwhelmingly evident when Bloom discusses Sinn Fein (163) and how the Irish will not speak out against Parnell's brother because they don't want to seem un-Irish. In his discussion of Sinn Fien Bloom describes a system where man locks themsleves into an organization that could latter be seen as a trap, much as Bloom is accused of being a part of the Freemasons, a very tight knit organization.

All of this informs the grotesque image of man that Bloom offers and is heightened at the end of the chapter when, after giving us insights into the baseness of the Irish, we see him run and hide between the statues of Goddesses to avoid being seen by his wife's lover. This display of cowardess drives home the idea in this, the Legostrygonians episode of Ulysses, that most men follow each other, are gluttonous, and will "eat" each other for gain. In the light of this Bloom runs away, much as Odysseus does for the island where all the other ships had docked in a land locked area. While Bloom may seem connected to the hero in Odysseus, here for his clever forethought, ultimately he becomes a smaller man hidden behind Greek Goddesses. In a way, Joyce here makes a commentary on the character of Odysseus, or the nature of the hero itself.

Form, content, connections

I would like to say that I am impressed. While, at times I felt that the headlines would not function as headlines in a paper (Only Once More That Soap, ???, Short But to the Point, Sad) I felt willing to overlook this as the majority of the headlines functioned not only to give meaning to the setting of this section, but to aid in the meaning of the text. For instance, Short But To The Point, while not one of my favorite headlines as a headline, manages to draw the readers attention to something that may otherwise be overlooked. While the discussion of land and the repeated image of Bloom moving "nimbly aside" make an impact, it is the headline that really makes the reader see that a point is being made here. In some ways it is as if Joyce is giving his reader his own notes for this section.

However, I think that the form of this section functions to aid Joyce in an interesting way. In previous chapters we see the narrator switch from slightly omniscient, to close third, until finally it is in first person, and back again between all three. However, in the previous chapters we are only really concerned with one of our protagonists at a time, either Stephen or Bloom. In this section we have both of our protagonists in the same space and time and using this form allows Joyce to do things like have Stephen's entrance into the office be linked to Bloom's Exit by the presence of the wind (143) and with jumping into his inner thoughts as soon as he enters the office - "A woman brought sin into the world. For Helen, the runaway wife of Menelaus, ten years the Greeks." (132) While, in earlier sections we are firmly rooted in Bloom's thoughts - "Feathered in his nest well anyhow. Daughter engaged to that chap in the inland revenue office with the motor. Hooked that nicely." (126) By using this form of articles I think it becomes easier to digest these narratorial shifts because in a newspaper one is used to shifts in the speaker as each article is written by someone new.

I also just enjoyed this section because of how explicitly experimental it is. I think that Joyce in 1904 was more successful in stretching the boundarie of fiction than a lot of experimental fiction writers are today. I do not see why one would argue that this is not fiction.