Important: Next Tuesday, June 16th, is Bloomsday. There will be no regular reading session on the evening of Bloomsday. Instead the Zurich James Joyce Foundation has organized a marathon reading of Cyclops, episode 12. The event starts at 17.30h, and is open to all those who are interested. There will be some food too later in the evening. Anybody who wants to contribute to the buffet table should contact the Foundation.
The next regular reading session for our group will be on Tuesday, 23 June 2015.
Today we read as far as "... white enamel baton protruding through their sliding ring." (Penguin 369.32) (Gabler 11.1117)
Two weeks ago, the pages we read were structured around the aria "When first I saw that form endearing"..." from Martha. On the pages here the Irish folksong, The Croppy Boy, plays this role. (For the lyric, click here. Listen to the song here.) Joyce poses for us another major challenge on these pages. The lines from Martha's aria were given in italics, enabling us to recognize which part of the text was from the aria. Here we are not given any such help. The lines of The Croppy Boy are distributed (without any visual hint) amongst other echoes, thoughts, fragments of conversation etc.
Bloom and Richie are in the dining room. The barmaids are filling the tankards. By Larry O'Rourke's by Larry, bold Larry O', Boylan swayed and Boylan turned. In other words, Boylan is on Dorset street, and he has just to turn the corner to arrive at Eccles street 7 for his rendezvous with Molly.
Bloom listening to the music thinks that there's music everywhere. He feels that there is music in the movement of the sea, wind, leaves, ... in the sounds made by cows, cocks, snakes... - but not in the way Ruttledge's door at the Newspaper office (episode 7) creaks, cree! He thinks of the differences between male and female voices. Bloom recognizes music from Don Giovanni, and he recalls Molly singing the lines Quis est Homo from Rossini's Stabat Mater, though he confuses the composer to be Mercadante. He thinks of Chamber music; not the name of Joyce's first published book but of the 'music' made by Molly when she uses the chamber pot in the night.
Boylan has just alighted from the jig. Tap. (Does this word echo Boylan's knocking on the door of Eccles st 7 or the tap, tap of the blind stripling's cane?) Bloom decides to leave, after paying a tip to Pat, the deaf waiter. In the salon, the friends are discussing what to sing, deciding on The Croppy Boy instead of on the aria from Mozart's Magic flute (Qui sdegno: In diesen heiligen Hallen). From here onwards, thoughts, fragments of conversations, echoes from earlier episodes are interspersed - sometimes in a single sentence - with lines from this Irish folksong. Whereas Simon Dedalus sang the aria from Martha, now it is Ben Dollard's turn to sing. Father Cowley is still at the piano.
Listening to Ben Dollard's voice, Bloom thinks of how he had once lent him a pair of trousers, how Molly had laughed saying, "With all his belongings on show", and how Ben, who was running a chandler's business, had ended up in the Iveagh home, a charity home run by one of the Guinness brothers. The sad song of the Wexford boys, last of his name and race, reminds Bloom that he is also the last of his race, his son Rudy having died in childhood.
Bronze and Gold are also moved by the singing. Bloom observes Bronze gazing sideways at the mirror. Bloom wonders whether it is her best side. He feels for these girls, who have to live on eighteen bob a week, apart from the dibs (tips) fellows shell out. Bronze-headed Lydia Douce continues to play with the beerpull suggestively.... a cool firm white enamel baton protruding through their sliding ring.
The next regular reading session for our group will be on Tuesday, 23 June 2015.
Today we read as far as "... white enamel baton protruding through their sliding ring." (Penguin 369.32) (Gabler 11.1117)
Two weeks ago, the pages we read were structured around the aria "When first I saw that form endearing"..." from Martha. On the pages here the Irish folksong, The Croppy Boy, plays this role. (For the lyric, click here. Listen to the song here.) Joyce poses for us another major challenge on these pages. The lines from Martha's aria were given in italics, enabling us to recognize which part of the text was from the aria. Here we are not given any such help. The lines of The Croppy Boy are distributed (without any visual hint) amongst other echoes, thoughts, fragments of conversation etc.
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| (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Croppy_Boy#/media/File:Charlotte_Schreiber_-_The_Croppy_Boy.jpg) |
Bloom listening to the music thinks that there's music everywhere. He feels that there is music in the movement of the sea, wind, leaves, ... in the sounds made by cows, cocks, snakes... - but not in the way Ruttledge's door at the Newspaper office (episode 7) creaks, cree! He thinks of the differences between male and female voices. Bloom recognizes music from Don Giovanni, and he recalls Molly singing the lines Quis est Homo from Rossini's Stabat Mater, though he confuses the composer to be Mercadante. He thinks of Chamber music; not the name of Joyce's first published book but of the 'music' made by Molly when she uses the chamber pot in the night.
Boylan has just alighted from the jig. Tap. (Does this word echo Boylan's knocking on the door of Eccles st 7 or the tap, tap of the blind stripling's cane?) Bloom decides to leave, after paying a tip to Pat, the deaf waiter. In the salon, the friends are discussing what to sing, deciding on The Croppy Boy instead of on the aria from Mozart's Magic flute (Qui sdegno: In diesen heiligen Hallen). From here onwards, thoughts, fragments of conversations, echoes from earlier episodes are interspersed - sometimes in a single sentence - with lines from this Irish folksong. Whereas Simon Dedalus sang the aria from Martha, now it is Ben Dollard's turn to sing. Father Cowley is still at the piano.
Listening to Ben Dollard's voice, Bloom thinks of how he had once lent him a pair of trousers, how Molly had laughed saying, "With all his belongings on show", and how Ben, who was running a chandler's business, had ended up in the Iveagh home, a charity home run by one of the Guinness brothers. The sad song of the Wexford boys, last of his name and race, reminds Bloom that he is also the last of his race, his son Rudy having died in childhood.
Bronze and Gold are also moved by the singing. Bloom observes Bronze gazing sideways at the mirror. Bloom wonders whether it is her best side. He feels for these girls, who have to live on eighteen bob a week, apart from the dibs (tips) fellows shell out. Bronze-headed Lydia Douce continues to play with the beerpull suggestively.... a cool firm white enamel baton protruding through their sliding ring.
