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Haihao
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 26 Oct 2006
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Location: Japan
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 Tue Jun 10, 2008 9:12 am Usage of "supply" |
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"The tidings" recalls "the Gospel" (= "the good news").
But the word "tidings" isn't particulary tied to religion, is it?
As for allusion ("I wonder myself whether the sweeping of the mirror is another allusion to the celebration of the Mass (perhaps to the lifting of the paten)":
STATELY, PLUMP Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.
That mirror will be used shortly for heliography, when Mulligan will have "swept the mirror a half circle in the air to flash the tidings abroad in sunlight now radiant on the sea." This is idle signal-sending, with no clear sense of a recipient. Up close, Buck has just hurt Stephen's feelings on the subject of his mother, and is about to hurt them again. In other words, between the two men, communication is poor. The signals don't get through.
http://www.allfreeessays.net/student/Cybernetic_Plot_of_Ulysses.html
And:
Mulligan perpetually chides Stephen for aesthetic "mumming" and for his failure to use art as a vehicle of Zolaesque naturalism. He wants Kinch to recognize the bloody knife and razor perched on the mirror of art, to think in excretory images, and to regard death in terms of "beastly" medical cadavers.
Throughout "Telemachus," Mulligan is described in nonhuman imagery: his face is "equine"; his "untonsured" hair resembles "pale oak." "He swept the mirror a half circle in the air to flash the tidings abroad in sunlight now radiant on the sea. His curling shaven lips laughed and the edges of his white glittering
teeth. Laughter seized all his strong wellknit trunk" (p. 6).
http://www.ohiostatepress.org/books/Complete%20PDFs/Henke%20Joyces/03.pdf |
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Molly
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| Wed Jun 11, 2008 0:10 am Usage of "supply" |
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| Haihao wrote: | | I like trifles. |
And they're Joycean trifles; which makes a difference.
| Haihao wrote: | | Quote: | | Stephen bent forward and peered at the mirror held out to him, cleft by a crooked crack. Hair on end. As he and others see me. Who chose this face for me? This dogsbody to rid of vermin. It asks me too. |
1. I would think 'cleft by a crooked crack' a jeu de mots but I have no idea why followed by 'Hair on end'? Is that only Stephen's appearance or angry? |
I take "hair on end" as a literal description of S's appearance, first thing in the morning; but it's also appropriate, after S's "funk" about Haines and the dream of his dead mother.
"Cleft by a crooked crack" is mysterious; Joyce likes "cracks" of various kinds; the phrase suggests Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse; but there might also be an allusion to Tennyson's Lady of Shalott ("The mirror cracked from side to side"), in which the mirror shows the real world outside the Lady's window, just as this mirror shows S's face "as others see me".
The "cracked mirror" also prepares for the "cracked lookingglass" (an allusion to Wilde's "I can quite understand your objection to art being treated as a mirror. You think it would reduce genius to the position of a cracked looking glass").
| Haihao wrote: | | Quote: | | 2. What does 'dogsboy' imply? Or no implication at all? Is it reasonable to think 'vermin' refers to Haines? |
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Buck calls S. "poor dogsbody" on the previous page, and the phrase recurs later; it has a Jacobean sound (which is in accord with the allusions to Hamlet); but if it is an allusion, I don't know the original! So perhaps it means no more than "wretched drudge".
In "This dogsbody to rid of vermin", I think S. picks up Buck's phrase and applies it to himself; he is not enthusiastic about his own corporeal aspects; he reduces his own raison d'ętre to ridding himself of vermin. (Elsewhere – if I remember correctly – we discover that S. has vermin.)
But again, I'm not sure whether Joyce has hidden an allusion here.
| Haihao wrote: | | Quote: | | I pinched it out of the skivvy's room, Buck Mulligan said. It does her all right. The aunt always keeps plainlooking servants for Malachi. Lead him not into temptation. And her name is Ursula. |
So far, Buck kept using 'the aunt'. Does it suggest both of them knew who 'the aunt' was very well and who was Buck's aunt? |
Yes, I think that's right: "the aunt" is a familiar, nonchalant phrase. (In a Shakespearean context, an "aunt" is a prostitute; but I'm not sure that's relevant here.)
| Haihao wrote: | | Quote: | | You crossed her last wish in death and yet you sulk with me because I don't whinge like some hired mute from Lalouette's. Absurd! I suppose I did say it. I didn't mean to offend the memory of your mother. |
A Philistine like me would use 'last wish in life' but it's Joycean relish to use 'in death' to depict the state of dying. It also reminds of 'in deathbed'. Or is it just a normal usage? |
I think it's a variant on "dying wish", which is the usual phrase. But perhaps the latter has too sentimental a sound, for Buck: "last wish in death" is plain and un-euphemistic.
All the best,
MrP |
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MrPedantic
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Joined: 13 Oct 2006
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Location: Southern England
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| Wed Jun 11, 2008 0:20 am Usage of "supply" |
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| Quote: | | "Cleft by a crooked crack" is mysterious; Joyce likes "cracks" of various kinds; the phrase suggests Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse; but there might also be an allusion to Tennyson's Lady of Shalott ("The mirror cracked from side to side"), in which the mirror shows the real world outside the Lady's window, just as this mirror shows S's face "as others see me". |
Same again:
| Quote: | | Mulligan perpetually chides Stephen for aesthetic "mumming" and for his failure to use art as a vehicle of Zolaesque naturalism. |
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Molly
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 4017
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| Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:46 am Usage of "supply" |
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| MrPedantic wrote: | | I take "hair on end" as a literal description of S's appearance, first thing in the morning; but it's also appropriate, after S's "funk" about Haines and the dream of his dead mother. |
Convincing and bellclear to me!
| MrPedantic wrote: | "Cleft by a crooked crack" is mysterious; Joyce likes "cracks" of various kinds; the phrase suggests Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse; but there might also be an allusion to Tennyson's Lady of Shalott ("The mirror cracked from side to side"), in which the mirror shows the real world outside the Lady's window, just as this mirror shows S's face "as others see me".
The "cracked mirror" also prepares for the "cracked lookingglass" (an allusion to Wilde's "I can quite understand your objection to art being treated as a mirror. You think it would reduce genius to the position of a cracked looking glass"). |
Profound, detailed and informative to me. Again, enlarging the Ulysses world for me.
| MrPedantic wrote: | Buck calls S. "poor dogsbody" on the previous page, and the phrase recurs later; it has a Jacobean sound (which is in accord with the allusions to Hamlet); but if it is an allusion, I don't know the original! So perhaps it means no more than "wretched drudge".
In "This dogsbody to rid of vermin", I think S. picks up Buck's phrase and applies it to himself; he is not enthusiastic about his own corporeal aspects; he reduces his own raison d'ętre to ridding himself of vermin. (Elsewhere – if I remember correctly – we discover that S. has vermin.)
But again, I'm not sure whether Joyce has hidden an allusion here. |
Cogent to me.
| MrPedantic wrote: | | I think it's a variant on "dying wish", which is the usual phrase. But perhaps the latter has too sentimental a sound, for Buck: "last wish in death" is plain and un-euphemistic. |
As you said, Joycean trifle makes a difference as well as makes me keep thinking and learning.
Thank you very much indeed!
Haihao |
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Haihao
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 1389
Location: Japan
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| Wed Jun 11, 2008 10:59 am Usage of "supply" |
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I am a little still concerned about 'dogsbody'. Would you think it makes sense to respell the word as:
dogsbody -> dog's body -> dog's boy (close meaning) -> yob's god (conversed) -> yobsgod : dogsbody? |
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Haihao
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 1389
Location: Japan
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| Wed Jun 11, 2008 11:02 am Usage of "supply" |
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| Haihao wrote: | I am a little still concerned about 'dogsbody'. Would you think it makes sense to respell the word as:
dogsbody -> dog's body -> dog's boy -> yob's god (conversed) -> yobsgod : dogsbody ??? |
How about:
busybody
antibody
blackbody
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Molly
I'm a Communicator ;-)
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| Wed Jun 11, 2008 23:50 pm Usage of "supply" |
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Hello Haihao,
| Haihao wrote: | | I am a little still concerned about 'dogsbody'. |
Yes, it puzzles me too; especially as the first recorded instances of "dogsbody" with the meaning "drudge" date from the 1920s, according to the OED (though no doubt it was in use before that).
Originally, it was naval slang for a kind of pudding. (Pease pudding; which seems very Joycean.)
"Dogsbody" turns up in a couple of later passages; it's almost as if the word only makes sense retrospectively, in the context of those passages.
Your "backspelling" idea is interesting. I wouldn't rule out any explanation!
All the best,
MrP |
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MrPedantic
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 1303
Location: Southern England
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| Thu Jun 12, 2008 3:04 am Usage of "supply" |
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Hello MrP,
I love to read your comment very much. it enriches my eyes and broadens my view. Thank you!
| Quote: | | Woodshadows floated silently by through the morning peace from the stairhead seaward where he gazed. Inshore and farther out the mirror of water whitened, spurned by lightshod hurrying feet. White breast of the dim sea. The twining stresses, two by two. A hand plucking the harpstrings, merging their twining chords. Wavewhite wedded words shimmering on the dim tide. |
O I love it here very much too! But I am not sure about my thoughts as follows and would like to have your assessment.
1. Does 'Woodshadows floated ... seaward...' suggest sunshine's movement?
2. If 1 is true, could 'lightshod' be also interpreted as 'sunlightshod' other than 'not heavily shod'? Sunlight is somehow involved here to me.
3. Do 'two by two' and 'wedded' echo each other?
4. Could I think the whole para is beautifully rhymed? I would suppose:
| Quote: | | Woodshadows floated silently by through the morning peace from the stairhead seaward where he gazed. Inshore and farther out the mirror of water whitened, spurned by lightshod hurrying feet. White breast of the dim sea. The twining stresses, two by two. A hand plucking the harpstring s, merging their twining chords. Wavewhite wedded words shimmering on the dim tide. |
and 'ea', 'ee' in 'peace', 'feet', 'sea', 'seaward' as well as two 'dim', and others.
And,
| Quote: | | -- Dedalus, come down, like a good mosey. Breakfast is ready. Haines is apologising for waking us last night. It's all right. |
I think 'mosey' is the later-coming 'ready' but I have no idea about its origin. I think 'mosey' could only be used as a verb.
Sorry for my "asktive" manner. 
| Quote: | | In the gloomy domed livingroom of the tower Buck Mulligan's gowned form moved briskly about the hearth to and fro, hiding and revealing its yellow glow. Two shafts of soft daylight fell across the flagged floor from the high barbicans: and at the meeting of their rays a cloud of coalsmoke and fumes of fried grease floated, turning. |
Could I suggest this para related with church, cross, altar, etc.?
Best regards,
Haihao |
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Haihao
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 1389
Location: Japan
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| Thu Jun 12, 2008 18:43 pm Usage of "supply" |
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Hello Haihao,
| Quote: | Woodshadows floated silently by through the morning peace from the stairhead seaward where he gazed. Inshore and farther out the mirror of water whitened, spurned by lightshod hurrying feet. White breast of the dim sea. The twining stresses, two by two. A hand plucking the harpstrings, merging their twining chords. Wavewhite wedded words shimmering on the dim tide.
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That was a good choice! It is a fine tissue of allusions. First, there is the poem by Yeats, a few lines of which precede the passage:
| Quote: | Who will go drive with Fergus now,
And pierce the deep wood's woven shade,
And dance upon the level shore?
Young man, lift up your russet brow,
And lift your tender eyelids, maid,
And brood on hopes and fear no more.
And no more turn aside and brood
Upon love's bitter mystery;
For Fergus rules the brazen cars,
And rules the shadows of the wood,
And the white breast of the dim sea
And all dishevelled wandering stars.
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(Hence the "woodshadows", "white breast", "dim sea".)
Also there are references to:
a) Telemachus’ sea-journey to the court of Menelaus, in the Odyssey;
b) the Nereids (sea nymphs who attend upon Poseidon); their footsteps (lightshod hurrying feet) are the foam of the sea; combined with:
c) Anglo-Saxon seafarers (the “feet” of their ships that “spurn” the waves are their oars; Anglo-Saxon poetry is full of metaphors of that kind);
d) Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse, which consists of lines with two metrical units, each of two beats and linked by alliteration (twining stresses, two by two);
e) the singer (harpist) who would keep time for the rowers in an Anglo-Saxon warship.
So in answer to your questions:
1. Does 'Woodshadows floated ... seaward...' suggest sunshine's movement?
— Implicitly, I think so. I would also envisage them as the faint ghost of the poem in S's mind, overlaying the scene in front of him.
2. If 1 is true, could 'lightshod' be also interpreted as 'sunlightshod' other than 'not heavily shod'? Sunlight is somehow involved here to me.
— I think so too; "lightshod" meaning "shod with light" and "lightly shod"; and the foam too is white with light.
3. Do 'two by two' and 'wedded' echo each other?
— I would say so, yes: the words in each half of the Anglo-Saxon line are "in twos", and are "wedded" by alliteration.
4. Could I think the whole para is beautifully rhymed?
— I would agree with you; I don't think many writers could manage the patterning of Ws, the assonances, the play of vowels, the rhythms, etc. quite so well.
(I'll post later on the other passages!)
Best wishes,
MrP |
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MrPedantic
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Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 1303
Location: Southern England
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| Thu Jun 12, 2008 23:51 pm Usage of "supply" |
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Part 2:
| Haihao wrote: | | Quote: | | -- Dedalus, come down, like a good mosey. Breakfast is ready. Haines is apologising for waking us last night. It's all right. |
I think 'mosey' is the later-coming 'ready' but I have no idea about its origin. I think 'mosey' could only be used as a verb. |
That puzzles me too. I have a note in my margin: "?simpleton"; but no source. So I think it was a guess.
| Haihao wrote: | | Quote: | | In the gloomy domed livingroom of the tower Buck Mulligan's gowned form moved briskly about the hearth to and fro, hiding and revealing its yellow glow. Two shafts of soft daylight fell across the flagged floor from the high barbicans: and at the meeting of their rays a cloud of coalsmoke and fumes of fried grease floated, turning. |
Could I suggest this para related with church, cross, altar, etc.? |
I would say so, yes. The "gowned form" suggests a priest; the "shafts of soft daylight", light through church windows; and the "coalsmoke and fumes of fried grease" are Mulligan's incense.
Best wishes,
MrP |
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MrPedantic
I'm a Communicator ;-)
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Location: Southern England
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| Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:46 am Usage of "supply" |
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Thank you so very much indeed again for your time, goodness and everything. The poem by Yeats and other references are really very helpful and known by me for the first time.
Haihao |
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Haihao
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 1389
Location: Japan
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| Fri Jun 13, 2008 21:58 pm Usage of "supply" |
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Hello MrP,
Another trifle but what is 'hising' here in:
| Quote: | For old Mary Ann
She doesn't care a damn
But, hising up her petticoats... |
I would suppose 'hising up' mean 'hold up' but couldn't find out the word. Is it a kind of onomatopoeia (hissing up)?
Haihao |
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Haihao
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 1389
Location: Japan
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| Sat Jun 14, 2008 1:47 am Usage of "supply" |
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Hello Haihao,
I think it must mean "hitching", as in "lifting". I imagine she's about to engage in a bodily function of some kind. (People in Ulysses usually are.)
Have a pleasant evening,
MrP |
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MrPedantic
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 1303
Location: Southern England
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| What is "Four basic language skills"? | How much 'net speaking time' per lesson? |
But I like trifles.