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 Mon Oct 06, 2008 0:03 am Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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...
1./2. I wonder whether the image here is of insects ("bookworms") feeding on the books around him in the library ("impaled" as insects are impaled in a display case – cf. Eliot's "pinned and wriggling on the wall"). Fingers for feelers is a nice interpretation.
3. I can only guess that the "deadly sin" of Sloth or Acedia (here, the dragon) is made uneasy by the ambient Diligence (its theological opposite), and thus stirs reluctantly.
4. I think it would be Christ's "dark eyes", as he utters the phrase. But it's by no means certain!
Have a good Monday,
MrP |
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MrPedantic
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| Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:20 am Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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Hello MrP, Good morning! To see your comments has become my first thing in the morning, which makes my everyday begin with a very good beginning. 
| Quote: | | Beneath were sloping figures and at the foot a crooked signature with blind loops and a blot. Cyril Sargent: his name and seal. |
1. Is it = illegible loops or not understandable loops?
Thank you!
Haihao |
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Haihao
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| Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:26 am Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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Blind loop: A loop formation that has been completely filled in with ink.
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| Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:05 am Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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I see. And the online dictionary is wonderful and helpful.
Best regards,
Haihao |
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Haihao
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| Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:23 am Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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And,
| Quote: | | Stephen touched the edges of the book. Futility. |
2. Has 'Stephen touched the edges of the book.' something to do with 'Futility.'? Or it is just S's movement showing consideration?
Thank you!
Haihao |
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Haihao
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| Tue Oct 07, 2008 0:26 am Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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Hello Haihao,
"Futility" is Stephen's ground-bass; but in this case, I think it also refers to the futility of making Cyril copy out sums he doesn't understand.
I'm not sure about the edge-touching; it might be consideration, as you say; or an unwillingness to pick up a grubby pupil's exercise book; or perhaps he begins to pick up the book, to look at the sums, but (on realising the futility of the operation) stops there.
Have a good Tuesday!
MrP |
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MrPedantic
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| Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:32 am Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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Hello MrP,
Please take a look at this one:
| Quote: | | She was no more: the trembling skeleton of a twig burnt in the fire, an odour of rosewood and wetted ashes. |
1. Is She was no more = She had no longer existed: or She was no more than...
2. Is She Stephen's mother or Sargent's or Columbanus' or everyone's?
And the whole para:
| Quote: | | Ugly and futile: lean neck and tangled hair and a stain of ink, a snail's bed. Yet someone had loved him, borne him in her arms and in her heart. But for her the race of the world would have trampled him underfoot, a squashed boneless snail. She had loved his weak watery blood drained from her own. Was that then real? The only true thing in life? His mother's prostrate body the fiery Columbanus in holy zeal bestrode. She was no more: the trembling skeleton of a twig burnt in the fire, an odour of rosewood and wetted ashes. She had saved him from being trampled underfoot and had gone, scarcely having been. A poor soul gone to heaven: and on a heath beneath winking stars a fox, red reek of rapine in his fur, with merciless bright eyes scraped in the earth, listened, scraped up the earth, listened, scraped and scraped. |
3. Based on your comments last time, I have a feeling this time that in this significant paragraph Stephen found his own person in Sargent and related or crossviewed Sargent's mother to his own. However, he, with lean neck and tangled hair and a stain of ink, a snail's bed, abandoned his mother or ignored his mother's will in her deathbed whereas the fox, with red reek of rapine in his fur, with merciless bright eyes, buried its mother (grandmother in the text but mother in the original riddle) out of a true feeling to the only true thing in life. But I am not sure if the contrast is reasonable.
| Quote: | | Sitting at his side Stephen solved out the problem. He proves by algebra that Shakespeare's ghost is Hamlet's grandfather. Sargent peered askance through his slanted glasses. Hockeysticks rattled in the lumberroom: the hollow knock of a ball and calls from the field. |
4. It seems to me this goes back to the theme of Episode I: looking for one's father. Both I & II take quite a long length for mother/father-son relationship. Does it also suggest Shakespeare himself in return found his position (as Hamlet's grandfather) in his work?
Thank you!
Haihao |
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Haihao
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| Wed Oct 08, 2008 0:34 am Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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Hello Haihao, good morning,
1. I would say "She no longer existed".
2. I take it as only Stephen's mother; but tentatively – it might well seem different on the next reading!
3. I'm still not quite sure about that fox. But there does seem to be a contrast between the softness of Stephen's thoughts on the one hand, and the bright energetic fox on the other: perhaps for Stephen, whereas "a poor soul gone to heaven" embodies a particular kind of sentimentality, the image of the red fox embodies a more pragmatic and realistic view.
4. I would look at that interpolation ("...Shakespeare's ghost...") slightly differently: it seems to me that Stephen here suddenly becomes aware of the humdrum nature of his activity (teaching a schoolboy his sums), and of the gulf between that and the aphorisms and musings for which Haines shows such exaggerated respect. This awareness manifests itself in the irony of the interpolation, which conflates the two extremes (schoolwork: his theory about Hamlet) and burlesques the latter.
But again, only a very cautious interpretation!
Best wishes,
MrP |
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MrPedantic
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| Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:52 am Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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Hello MrP, good evening,
Thank you again for the ever relishable breakfast to which what I need to add is only a cup of coffee!
Best regards,
Haihao |
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Haihao
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| Thu Oct 09, 2008 7:06 am Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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And,
| Quote: | | In long shaky strokes Sargent copied the data. Waiting always for a word of help his hand moved faithfully the unsteady symbols, a faint hue of shame flickering behind his dull skin. |
1. Is the underlined part to the effect of: he copied faithfully with a quivering hand the symbols, which, as a result, were in wavering forms? If so, is 'moved' quite Joycean?
| Quote: | | With her weak blood and wheysour milk she had fed him and hid from sight of others his swaddling bands. |
2. Is wheysour milk = sour watery milk?
3. Is swaddling bands = diapers?
| Quote: | | My childhood bends beside me. |
4. Is it = Like my childhood, Sargent bends over his copybook beside me. or It looks as if my childhood bends beside me. or both?
| Quote: | | Mine is far and his secret as our eyes. Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants, willing to be dethroned. |
5. Is it = My secret is far and his as deep/covert as our eys.?
| Quote: | | whelks and money cowries and leopard shells: and this, whorled as an emir's turban, and this, the scallop of saint James. An old pilgrim's hoard, dead treasure, hollow shells. |
6. Is it = and this whorled one (shell) was symbolized as an emir's turban?
Thank you!
Haihao |
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Haihao
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| Sat Oct 11, 2008 2:01 am Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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Hello Haihao,
1. I would say that he "moves" (copies; yes, characteristically Joycean!) the symbols (like unfamiliar objects) from S's piece of paper to his own book. They are "unsteady" both in terms of handwriting, and in terms of his uncertain grasp of the mathematics.
2. (Human) milk that was "sour as whey" (i.e. as whey from cow's milk). I should imagine that JJ spoke from experience.
3. I would take them as the characteristic long clothes in which babies are wrapped.
4. I would read it as absolute identification.
5. It could be both "my childhood is far, and his is secret as our eyes", and "my childhood is far as our eyes, and his secret as our eyes"; but probably the former. I like your "covert".
6. I think it's simply like an emir's turban.
Have a good Saturday,
MrP |
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MrPedantic
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| Sat Oct 11, 2008 13:08 pm Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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Hello MrP, good Saturday morning!
I have another one puzzling me:
| Quote: | | Dicers and thimbleriggers we hurried by after the hoofs, the vying caps and jackets and past the meatfaced woman, a butcher's dame, nuzzling thirstily her clove of orange. |
1. If my understanding of a clove of orange is correct: a section of orange, then I would suppose the clove was quite huge for a meatfaced woman to nuzzle thirstily: suck greedly. Isn't it normal in the case that the woman put the whole clove into her meatmouth instead of sucking it?
Thank you!
Haihao |
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Haihao
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| Sat Oct 11, 2008 16:07 pm Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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Hi Haihao,
The words 'clove' and 'orange' don't usually go together, this is why I suspect a sexual connotation here. Think of the shape of a clove (of garlic) tinged with orange... And if you then picture this (vile) woman nuzzling it, you can conjecture mannerism usually associated with Mediterranean men.
Take care,
Ralf
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| Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:25 am Ulysses (James Joyce) - A literary discussion |
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Hi,
Please take a look at this one:
| Quote: | | Pardoned a classical allusion. Cassandra. By a woman who was no better than she should be. To come to the point at issue. |
1. Does Deasy suggest that his prediction shouldn't be unheared like Cassandra's?
| Quote: | | He raised his forefinger and beat the air oldly before his voice spoke. |
2. Is 'oldly' = 'wise-man-likely' or 'impatiently?
| Quote: | His eyes open wide in vision stared sternly across the sunbeam in which he halted.
--A merchant, Stephen said, is one who buys cheap and sells dear, jew or gentile, is he not?
--They sinned against the light, Mr Deasy said gravely. |
3. The underlined part has been puzzling me for a long time. I would think this time that it could hardly make much sense alone unless punningly connected with the foregoing sunbeam and aftgoing light, other than Odyssean background.
Thank you!
Haihao |
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Haihao
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| What is "Four basic language skills"? | How much 'net speaking time' per lesson? |
