Bloomsy'es general Ulysses thread

[Bloomsy]

I've just finished the Oxen and the Sun chapter. In it Buck Mulligan seems to be saying he's going to or wants to set up somekind of farm for women to go to to get impregnated by him. Is that right or something? lol

[Bloomsy]

no takers?

[Brad Coelho]

It is a difficult, almost fantastic chapter of Joyce's wordplay (which blurrs some of the details). The gestation of the English language paralleling an actual birth (w/ all the hyperbole of her 3 day labor marathon) was brilliant, but almost painful at times. As far as Mulligan, who was getting wasted at the hospital w/ Stephen (another awkward juxtaposition), he went on a chauvanistic tirade, which included his discussion of being a 'fertilizer' on a farm of females (I think he also went into something masturbatory in his obstetric-inspired rant).

Malarkey Mulligan at his finest, and most irreverent.

[Bloomsy]

thanks

[Bloomsy]

I've always wondered why Buck Mulligan's gown is ungirdled in the opening. And does is Stately a hint that's he's sexully aroused?

[Brad Coelho]

Joyce was a big fan of the word 'stately,' and word-play in general. Stately being the first word of the book and yes being the last word (while not really a palandrome, when you spell stately backwards y-e-s is found...kinda like Finnegans wake beginning in the middle of the last sentence of the book). I don't think it is off base to think Buck Mulligan's 'stately' alludes to an erection (what does Buck rhyme w/ anyway).

In the beginning he's shaving & getting cleaned up so I didn't read too much into the gown.

[Bloomsy]

Joyce was a big fan of the word 'stately,' and word-play in general. Stately being the first word of the book and yes being the last word (while not really a palandrome, when you spell stately backwards y-e-s is found...kinda like Finnegans wake beginning in the middle of the last sentence of the book). I don't think it is off base to think Buck Mulligan's 'stately' alludes to an erection (what does Buck rhyme w/ anyway).

In the beginning he's shaving & getting cleaned up so I didn't read too much into the gown.

I find the idea of yes being spelt out in a reverse reading of Stately a bit of a lame idea for Joyce to have used.

I thought of something else about the name Buck Mulligan... a pun. Buck Mulligan=Book Mull again. Makes a bit of sense eh?

[Bloomsy]

Vis a vis Leopold Bloom's breakfast. Bit greedy isn't he? :)

[Bloomsy]

Did anyone see Lost where Ben Linus was reading Ulysses on a plane. The actor was reading it with an air of intellectual superiority and very seriously...Trying to be profound or something.
I guess he was reading the bit that describes the great flood as a 'tyrannous incontinence' :)

[WingedWolf]

I didn't get too far in Ulysses before I got intimidated. I definitely need to revisit it.

[Brad Coelho]

What's the significance of Bloom's penchant for organ meats? A pun that he lacks guts and compensates by consuming them?

[Bloomsy]

What's the significance of Bloom's penchant for organ meats? A pun that he lacks guts and compensates by consuming them?

Good idea!

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

This, like the first quarter of the book (as far as I got) has gone right over my head.

[Jeremydav]

It's a very difficult book. The intense allusions keep me working hard at it, though. And just picking apart his Homeric structure is really keeping me going.

[Bloomsy]

I wonder if Joyce calling the character in Cyclops 'the citizen' was his way of implying that Dublin/Irish society was as exclusive as ancient greek society where the citizen's were a specific, privilaged class.

[Macintosh]

Did anyone see Lost where Ben Linus was reading Ulysses on a plane. The actor was reading it with an air of intellectual superiority and very seriously...Trying to be profound or something.
I guess he was reading the bit that describes the great flood as a 'tyrannous incontinence' :)

Another clever use of the novel was in Star Trek TNG episode "Captain's Holiday" where Picard is trying to relax on this resort planet, and one of the books he takes with him is Ulysses. This is of course before he meets the hottie Jennifer Hetrick, one of the few times we actually seeing Picard getting laid.

[Macintosh]

Buck Mulligan is based on an old pal of Joyce, Oliver St. John Gogarty, whom Joyce had a falling out with and wanted to pick nits with and therefore parodied him in the novel.

In my opinion, however, Mulligan comes off eventually as a pretty fun guy and someone you'd want to hang with. I think that Joyce's past friendship with Gogarty influenced the character more positively than Joyce intended.

Regarding sexual references, hard to say. Joyce probably didn't intend to suggest homosexual attraction but possibly that crept into the narrative, Freudian style.

Or maybe that "Stately" and ungirdled was simply a cigar after all? Who knows?

[Flyonwall]

interesting

[Alakazam]

Homosexual was the intention, I think. At least to play around with a little bit. "Yes, my love?"