Scylla and Charybdis

This is a chapter about the better-read characters, who contrast with Bloom-- who is not like them, who thinks of his family, mostly, and whose most insightful reveries concern the stockings of girls and some disparate aspects of a concept from his high school physics class.

All of Stephen’s friends are eager to display their knowledge to one another, but their thoughts and theories are never realized in conversation. They speak in fits and starts, one upping eachother, but there is no realization to their ideas, the conversation doesn’t go anywhere .

The stream of consciousness in this chapter parallels their conversation. Stephen thinks of concepts from Shakespeare’s plays, but he doesn’t come to any conclusions.

Structure of a Meditation

Recently, my little sister went on a meditation retreat in Montreal. She meditated for ten days, stopping only to eat and sleep from four in the morning until sunrise. This afternoon, she called me and told me about her experiences.

She said that after awhile she began to see images. She told me that the images she saw first were of advertisements and icons of pop culture, then the images progressed to distortions of reality, and finally became pared down, sweet, and uncomplicated.

I couldn’t help but think of this novel, and began to wonder if Joyce was influenced by the experience of an intense meditation. In this chapter, there are many images of advertisements. The narratives of the next chapters will grow more complicated-- reality will be presented in a more complex way. And the book will end with a romantic scene of early romance.

In this chapter, we really see Bloom alone for the first time in the novel, with nothing to do. Earlier he had the distractions of tasks to accomplish. Here we see him looking out at the ocean-- an image often used by film directors to connote meditation on reality. In this contemplation of reality, and his thoughts, the progression of Bloom’s thoughts seem to parallel my sister’s.

Most importantly, Odysseus returns home from a war, and this could imply a meditation, or a sort of inward journey.

Tragic Hero

“When we say cliche, stereotype, trite pseudoelegant phrase, and so on, we imply, among other things, that when used for the first time in literature the phrase was original and had a vivid meaning. In fact, it became hackneyed because its meaning was at first vivid and neat, and attractive, and so the phrase was used over and over again until it became a stereotype, a cliche... Now what Joyce does here is to cause some of that dead and rotten stuff to reveal here and there its live source, its primary freshness” (Nabokov, Lectures on Literature, page 363).”

Nabokov thought this chapter was poorly balanced, but I like it for its quirkiness. I think of Joyce reading the paper and realizing that the headlines did not capture half of what really transpired in the stories its reporters attempted to cover, reductively. (I’d think Nabokov would appreciate it; he was an opponent to the language he termed “journalese.”) And I think of Bloom, going into work and silently observing the surreal nature of the mundane, represented by the headlines.

Leopold is an interesting guy whose attempts at form come across as false, and in this way he is a tragic hero. His pathos is apparent; the reader sympathizes-- we all struggle with feelings of isolation, but most of us mask it better than he does.

All of the characters in the book probably struggle with the same sense of alienation that Bloom does. So why then is Bloom so ostracized?

He is different; he is Jewish in a Catholic society. I think that when someone has some obvious and grand difference that could be perceived as a flaw by the bourgeoisie, such as ugliness or a strong difference in beliefs-- well, they tend to feel even more isolated-- almost bizarre or freakish-- and develop a heightened awareness of it, as well as a need to compensate for their difference. A certain vigilance will also be present in their demeanor. I struggle to explain the reasons for this with logic, but know that there may be a feeling of uncertainty that accompanies a pronounced quirk. And this uneasiness contributes to the reasons for their ostracizing.

Bloom is a hero because his perception glorifies the mundane, as said before. His sensuality is sort of a retreat into a sense of perfection. As he leaves Mr. Nannetti’s office, he takes a meditative stroll down the corridor, observing the actions of his coworkers with contemplative detachment. At one point, “He stayed in his walk to watch a typesetter neatly distributing type. Reads it backwards first. Quickly he does it. Must require some practice that. mangiD. kcirtaP. Poor papa with his hagadah book, reading backwards with his finger to me. Pessach. Next year in Jerusalem” (122).

This passage presents an interesting link between mechanism and spirituality. The image of a typesetter's work is juxtaposed with a remembered image of his father reading to him as a child, and the recollection of a traditional Jewish toast in the final part of the passage. It indicates the significance and holiness Leopold perceives in commonplace images.

Defense

I have a lot of homework this weekend, and so I won't be able to write very much today. I do want to say that I've changed my opinion on Leopold-- I feel that in one of my other postings I berated him for his self-satisfaction. After reading this chapter, I can better understand him. Perhaps his emphasis on sensation and dismissal of the emotionally provoking is a mechanism of comforting himself so that he is able to confront the constant hostility he faces with grace.

On Leopold's Posting

Leopold Bloom is not offended at the subtle remarks about his wife, as Stephen is when he is teased by Buck-- We learn that he knows of her infidelity, but he is not offended at that either; he rather takes it as an indication of her intellectual inferiority, seeking an affair with a more intelligent woman. It's intriguing, because Leopold is not an intellect-- he has a minor academic background, but it may have been acquired without any passion or interest, out of the bourgeois habit of acquiring enough education to find a job that does not entail labor. Yet he considers himself more intelligent than his wife, who does not have an academic background. Did Leopold post the listing in the paper out of a sense of inadequacy-- did he seek an intelligent companion with whom he could develop intellectually? Or was it out of self-satisfaction-- did he hope to find someone who might elevate his social status, someone whom he might consider superior to Molly? Leopold seems to be a self-satisfied character; he doesn't acknowledge the disrespect of the other characters-- perhaps he is not even aware of it. Confidence and pleasure seem to distinguish him, at this point in the novel-- I might argue the latter reason.

Bloom and Milly

Bloom evaluates the attractiveness of his daughter, and is supportive and appreciative of her emerging sexuality. Some fathers stifle the sexuality of their daughters by teasing them or making hostile remarks; this creates nervousness in the daughter, a sort of fear of sexuality. I think that the same is true for sons with dominant mothers. Milly lives with no such restraints, and this allows for her sexual freedom-- I suspect that we will see the manifestation of this later in the novel.

(The novel is rife with subtext in the relationships between the characters, and I notice parallels between them and the people I know... It's really a novel of complex characterizations that provoke a lot of analysis-- It's meditative rather than stylized; I feel like a lot of thought has been given to the reasons for each character's behavior.)

"Abbas father, furious dean, what offence laid fire to their brains?"

In “Proteus,” Stephen wonders why others provoke him. Unable to think of a good reason, he continues his walk down the beach...

There are lots of small things about him, certainly: He would read the first two pages of a lot of books when he was younger, he lusts after a fubsy woman, and a girl in darned yellow stockings. He brings up the past offenses of his friend long after the fact, and makes frequent comparisons between himself and Hamlet.

Buck seems smarter than Stephen-- he’s quicker and more articulate. Throughout the first chapter he dismisses Stephen for an “agenbite of inwit,” a “jejune jesuit,” “dogsbody,” and “the bard’s noserag.” He tells him, “I’m hyperborean as much as you.” All of these belittlements seem to imply that Buck disapproves of Stephen’s amour propre, which is humorous when taken into account with his aforementioned traits-- and could warrant an offhanded jibe once in awhile.

Could the reasons for such provocations run deeper, though? Could Buck and Mr. Deasy perceive some glance of Stephen’s as dismissive, or take his daydreaming as a sign of disinterest in them, and feel demeaned? Is their teasing a form of self-assertion?

Or is the reason less understandable? Are they simply cruel, and merely provoke him because he cannot assert himself?