Thursday, 1 September 2016

The reading stopped with Stephen at, “he stops dead” (15.4154).

Catherine Meyer sends the painting she made for the last reading and a few words about it:

The Thursday afternoon is very well attended and the group is still in a jolly good mood, although Fritz Senn keeps telling us he is bewildered by this chapter. Nevertheless, he was amused by adverbs like “yellowly” and “japanesily” in, Bloom “smiles yellowly at the three whores”, and “Mrs Cunningham … in merry widow hat and kimono gown … she glides sidling and bowing, twirling japanesily” (15.3831–58).

I quoted “yellowly” and “japanesily” (the smile and the kimono) and combined the two words with what I liked most: “the morning hours run out, gold haired  slimsandalled, in girlish blue, waspwaisted, with innocent hands” and “the hours of noon follow in amber gold. Laughing, linked, high haircombs flashing, they catch the sun in mocking mirrors, lifting their arms” and “the night hours … steal to the last place”. They are masked with “daggered hair and bracelets of dull bells” (15.4054–83).

The idea that the different hours are dancing and waltzing away is terrific, I think. They do that every day. They come and go in our common life, sometimes we appreciate their appearance, sometimes we hope they will never come. So, the picture is a mixture of all of these topics provided by Mr. Maginni, who “clipclaps glove silent hands” (15.4060).

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016