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Readalonga Rosie - Ulysses: Day 19
Dec. 7th, 2007 03:57 pm9. Scylla and Charybdis
Scylla and Charybdis: two sea-monsters guarding a narrow channel, often thought to be the Straits of Messina. The sailor avoiding either comes dangerously close to the other.
"-- The wandering jew, Buck Mulligan whispered with clown's awe. Did you see his eye? He looked upon you to lust after you. I fear thee, ancient mariner. O, Kinch, thou art in peril. Get thee a breechpad."
Stephen Dedalus is in the National Library, expounding to an audience of scholars including Buck Mulligan on his theory that Shakepeare's writing are rooted in experiences from his own life; in particular that Hamlet was based on the infidelity of his wife Ann Hathaway with his brother Richard. Ann Hathaway, abandoned in Stratford by Shakespeare, is compared to the faithful Penelope in the Odyssey. As the discussion progresses, Leopold Bloom arrives to consult the files of the Kilkenny People and is led silently into the archive. Only Mulligan notices, and attempts to draw Stephen's attention to the 'sheeny' (Jew) who knows his old man. The scholars want to press on with the Shakespeare discussion. As they leave the library, they encounter Bloom again. The anti-semitic attempts to ward Stephen that Bllom has sexual designs on him.
No, I haven't forgotten, and I haven't given up. I just took a week off, that's all, and now I'm back! For some reason I thought this episode might be tough going; as it turned out I found it slipped down very nicely. The verbal play between Stephen, Buck Mulligan and the scholars John Eglinton, Richard Best and Lyster the Quaker Librarian is entertaining, spilling over to a riot of playful punning on names in the non-dialogue text. Also, I found Stephen's biographical theories about Shakespeare rather fascinating.
This episode may possibly be the first appearance in literature of the words pogue mahone ("kiss my arse") - so perhaps we can thanlk for one of the finest bands there ever was!
Scylla and Charybdis: two sea-monsters guarding a narrow channel, often thought to be the Straits of Messina. The sailor avoiding either comes dangerously close to the other.
"-- The wandering jew, Buck Mulligan whispered with clown's awe. Did you see his eye? He looked upon you to lust after you. I fear thee, ancient mariner. O, Kinch, thou art in peril. Get thee a breechpad."
Stephen Dedalus is in the National Library, expounding to an audience of scholars including Buck Mulligan on his theory that Shakepeare's writing are rooted in experiences from his own life; in particular that Hamlet was based on the infidelity of his wife Ann Hathaway with his brother Richard. Ann Hathaway, abandoned in Stratford by Shakespeare, is compared to the faithful Penelope in the Odyssey. As the discussion progresses, Leopold Bloom arrives to consult the files of the Kilkenny People and is led silently into the archive. Only Mulligan notices, and attempts to draw Stephen's attention to the 'sheeny' (Jew) who knows his old man. The scholars want to press on with the Shakespeare discussion. As they leave the library, they encounter Bloom again. The anti-semitic attempts to ward Stephen that Bllom has sexual designs on him.
No, I haven't forgotten, and I haven't given up. I just took a week off, that's all, and now I'm back! For some reason I thought this episode might be tough going; as it turned out I found it slipped down very nicely. The verbal play between Stephen, Buck Mulligan and the scholars John Eglinton, Richard Best and Lyster the Quaker Librarian is entertaining, spilling over to a riot of playful punning on names in the non-dialogue text. Also, I found Stephen's biographical theories about Shakespeare rather fascinating.
This episode may possibly be the first appearance in literature of the words pogue mahone ("kiss my arse") - so perhaps we can thanlk for one of the finest bands there ever was!
