Bloggery

Sunday 13th Nov 2011

Lucinda Corby

Ulysses Support Group: 9th November

Ithaca Part I

Did the group enjoy reading this section more than the last? Yes. What were the simultaneous feelings of the group on completing this section? Relief, enjoyment, interest, comprehension, light-heartedness. Is Lucinda falling into a lazy pastiche of the questioning style of the section? Admittedly – but it is difficult not to. Finally, here are all the little tiny details (How old is Bloom? How tall is he? How much does he weigh?) you might expect at the beginning of a novel as the author introduces you to character and setting. It is as though Joyce, having plunged the reader into a situation of ‘deemed knowledge’ for 500 pages – understanding every nuance and allusion in the text, is now finally giving us some bones on which to hang all that flesh! The matter of fact nominative style of the text is a good vehicle for humour. As Bloom breaks in to his own home (he cannot enter by the front door, after all, since Odysseus is also forced to sneak into his own palace in disguise), we are informed that he jumps down to the basement and having dropped several feet is reported as ‘Regaining  new stable equilibrium he rose uninjured though concussed’. And of course, it all makes sense (which we will never take for granted again when reading prose...ever!)

Interestingly, whilst the notes refer to this section having an encyclopaedic feel – precise definitions abound – they make little reference to the fact that Odysseus faces several tests of identity on his return toIthaca. Is Joyce similarly testing Bloom’s place in the novel (and his home)? Is he also again testing Bloom’s identity? We find out that Bloom supresses any idea that his father intends to commit suicide when he accidentally overdoses on medication. We are even led to doubt whether Bloom considers himself a proper Jew, given that his mother was not Jewish.

 Mathematics is used variously to describe how quickly both men drink their cocoa and their age difference. Relativity is key to both – and in fact the passage is full of ways in which Bloom is trying to measure out his life in terms of ‘Stephens’: who they might both know, what they might have turned out like if each had experienced the other’s education etc. This appears to be entirely one way, with Stephen failing to engage with Bloom as a familiar.

Stephen is still quite an inscrutable figure. We are told that he politely declines the offer of a bed for the night and our speculation as to why ranged from him feeling uncomfortable with an older man to simply wanting to get back to his own bed (although given that Bloom is 38, our discussion of how definitions of ‘old’ have changed from the beginning of the 20^th Century through to the beginning of the 21^st was highly amusing - and for some of us, desperately comforting)

Again, the point was made that the scientific and precise language is very Bloom-esque – are we seeing the whole passage from his point of view. The kitchen and the objects in it appear to be very much his domain and we are given touching and sentimental insights into many of the everyday items on the kitchen shelves. It is almost like the kitchen is a hidden kingdom which cannot be taken at face value.

Our discussion was inevitably drawn towards the ‘Penelope’ moment – and since none of us present had read Ulysses before, we have no idea what to expect. Will there be resolutions, keys and insights? We are not holding our breaths, but given that there is a general feeling now that much of what we have read so far is very much Bloom’s point of view, we are looking forward to corroboration or dispute…but first, we have to finish the question and answer session of Bloom and Stephen’s uneasy night (that’s up to p689 if you’re interested)

Next meeting Tuesday 22^nd November at 6:45pm in The Salamander.

THEN….the FINAL MEETING of the Ulysses Support Group is scheduled for Wednesday 7^th December at 7:15