Thursday, 16 February 2017

The last reading stopped at: “alone in the carriage that day going to Howth” (18.371)

Catherine Meyer sends a painting inspired by the passage just read and adds: 

While reading through these pages, the words “he was shaking like a jelly all over” (18.315) caught my eye and the description of wobbly, pink jelly looking at Molly’s orange petticoat animated my imagination. I wanted to paint a Molly who enjoys being renowned and highly coveted. She is voluptuous, lifting her orange petticoat and aware of how her sex appeal is making Bloom shake. She is also recalling how he once wrote her “that letter with all those words in it” (18.318). We don’t know them, but we can imagine them.

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2017