We stopped at "Dear Madam." (Penguin 350.26), (Gabler (17.1823)
Bloom is still building his colossal castle in the air, thinking of what improvements he might slowly introduce to his grounds (rabbitry, fowlrun, dovecote, sundial, Japanese tinkle gatebell,...). In the guise of Bloom's ambitious musings Joyce builds up this part of the episode to chuckle - good-naturedly of course - at the English language, at the English society (e.g. at the names of societies by introducing names such as the Industrious Foreign Acclimatized Nationalized Friendly Stateaided Building Society), and at the tendency of human beings to categorize everything they know/come across. The style still follows that of catechism but the answers take off and get a life of their own often forgetting the question that was posed in the first place, the longer they become! As we read on, we also learn to chuckle along with Joyce! It is all quite comical indeed.
Back to Bloom Cottage (a blatant misnomer) or Saint Leopold's (Leopold B, a saint? Really?) or Flowerville. Bloom's thinks of what means he should have to travel to the city and back. He imagines how the Bloom of 7 Eccles street will look and do as Bloom of Flowerville. He considers what kind of intellectual pursuits (hobbies) and recreations both in summer and winter he could pursue. He visualizes the role he could play as Bloom, Leopold P., M.P., P. C., K.P., L.L.D. (Honoris cause)* among the county families and landed gentry. In particular, he would act in such a way as to uphold rectitude (moral goodness). The paragraph 'a course that lay .... connubiality' (Penguin p. 842) that highlights this sums up what is known today as Victorian Values. Examples that prove that Bloom loved rectitude from his earliest youth follow.
Bloom not only dreams of possessing such a fine mansion but also about how much he should pay for it. The list of rapid but insecure means he imagines that will make it possible to purchase the Flowerville immediately is to be read to be enjoyed. It contains, for example, making use of the difference of 25 minutes between Dunsink time and Greenwich time, Dunsink time lagging behind Greenwich time OR unexpectedly discovering a valuable postage stamp or a precious stone dropped from the air by an eagle in flight** or discovered as remnant of a fire or as flotsam or even on the sea bed due to a sunken ship, OR as a contract in which cash is obtained on delivery starting at one farthing (1/4 penny) and growing in geometrical proportion*** for subsequent deliveries.
Bloom also has a number of practical ideas - some big, some small - which could lead to his amassing wealth. Reclamation of waste, sandy land for cultivation, utilization of waste paper, processing of human excrement that incidentally has great potential owing to the large population (almost 5 million) of Ireland, generation of hydraulic power, building of casinos etc, using dogvan and goatvan to deliver early morning milk, cleaning up of Irish waterways to make them suitable for traffic are just some of the possible schemes. If support of some well known financiers - Sir Julius Blum, Rothschild, Guggenheim, ... Rockefeller - could be obtained, then such schemes could easily be realized.
Why on earth would Bloom think of such things at this early morning hour (it must be past 3 am) after a very long day? Because, he knows that meditating on such topics would help him to sleep. He had learnt that a man who would live for 70 years spends 20 of them sleeping! Normally his thoughts, consisting of how to come up with a unique advertisement that would make passers to stop in wonder, are more down to earth. He is, after all, a simple canvasser for advertisements.
While busy with thoughts of Flowerville, Bloom unlocks a drawer. Now we get to peep into the contents of the drawer. Among an assortment of things, the drawer holds a copybook which belonged to Milly who had made a drawing of her father, a Christmas card from Mr + Mrs M. Comerford, remnants of sealing wax, pennibs, mementoes of his parents, 3 letters from Martha, a pack of a dozen cream laid envelopes and feinruled notepaper (now three are missing from the original pack), two partly uncoiled rubber preservatives as well as two erotic photocards purchased by post from Box 32, P. O., Charing Cross, London, a prospectus of the Wonderworker, the world's greatest remedy for rectal complaints. The prospectus was wrongly addressed to Mrs. L. Bloom, and the enclosed note started with Dear Madam.
* M.P. Member of Parliament / P. C. Privy Councillor / K. P. Knight of the Order of St. Patrick /
L. L. D. (Honoris cause) Doctor of Law 'for the sake of honor'
** This idea must be taken from the story of the second voyage of Sindbad, the Sailor in what is popularly known as The Arabian Nights
*** This idea is borrowed from the classical example of geometrical proportions, rather exponential growth
Bloom is still building his colossal castle in the air, thinking of what improvements he might slowly introduce to his grounds (rabbitry, fowlrun, dovecote, sundial, Japanese tinkle gatebell,...). In the guise of Bloom's ambitious musings Joyce builds up this part of the episode to chuckle - good-naturedly of course - at the English language, at the English society (e.g. at the names of societies by introducing names such as the Industrious Foreign Acclimatized Nationalized Friendly Stateaided Building Society), and at the tendency of human beings to categorize everything they know/come across. The style still follows that of catechism but the answers take off and get a life of their own often forgetting the question that was posed in the first place, the longer they become! As we read on, we also learn to chuckle along with Joyce! It is all quite comical indeed.
Back to Bloom Cottage (a blatant misnomer) or Saint Leopold's (Leopold B, a saint? Really?) or Flowerville. Bloom's thinks of what means he should have to travel to the city and back. He imagines how the Bloom of 7 Eccles street will look and do as Bloom of Flowerville. He considers what kind of intellectual pursuits (hobbies) and recreations both in summer and winter he could pursue. He visualizes the role he could play as Bloom, Leopold P., M.P., P. C., K.P., L.L.D. (Honoris cause)* among the county families and landed gentry. In particular, he would act in such a way as to uphold rectitude (moral goodness). The paragraph 'a course that lay .... connubiality' (Penguin p. 842) that highlights this sums up what is known today as Victorian Values. Examples that prove that Bloom loved rectitude from his earliest youth follow.
Bloom not only dreams of possessing such a fine mansion but also about how much he should pay for it. The list of rapid but insecure means he imagines that will make it possible to purchase the Flowerville immediately is to be read to be enjoyed. It contains, for example, making use of the difference of 25 minutes between Dunsink time and Greenwich time, Dunsink time lagging behind Greenwich time OR unexpectedly discovering a valuable postage stamp or a precious stone dropped from the air by an eagle in flight** or discovered as remnant of a fire or as flotsam or even on the sea bed due to a sunken ship, OR as a contract in which cash is obtained on delivery starting at one farthing (1/4 penny) and growing in geometrical proportion*** for subsequent deliveries.
Bloom also has a number of practical ideas - some big, some small - which could lead to his amassing wealth. Reclamation of waste, sandy land for cultivation, utilization of waste paper, processing of human excrement that incidentally has great potential owing to the large population (almost 5 million) of Ireland, generation of hydraulic power, building of casinos etc, using dogvan and goatvan to deliver early morning milk, cleaning up of Irish waterways to make them suitable for traffic are just some of the possible schemes. If support of some well known financiers - Sir Julius Blum, Rothschild, Guggenheim, ... Rockefeller - could be obtained, then such schemes could easily be realized.
Why on earth would Bloom think of such things at this early morning hour (it must be past 3 am) after a very long day? Because, he knows that meditating on such topics would help him to sleep. He had learnt that a man who would live for 70 years spends 20 of them sleeping! Normally his thoughts, consisting of how to come up with a unique advertisement that would make passers to stop in wonder, are more down to earth. He is, after all, a simple canvasser for advertisements.
 |
| (Milly's drawing of Bloom) |
* M.P. Member of Parliament / P. C. Privy Councillor / K. P. Knight of the Order of St. Patrick /
L. L. D. (Honoris cause) Doctor of Law 'for the sake of honor'
** This idea must be taken from the story of the second voyage of Sindbad, the Sailor in what is popularly known as The Arabian Nights
*** This idea is borrowed from the classical example of geometrical proportions, rather exponential growth
