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Monday 30 December 2019

Thursday, 19 December 2019, Episode 4 (4.1 - 4.200)

We stopped the reading with "Still an idea behind it." (4.200)

Note:
This is our last meeting in 2019. Our reading continues on Thursday, 9 January, at the regular time.

Summary:

We meet Mr Bloom for the first time in this episode. It is 8 am. Bloom is in his kitchen preparing breakfast. He is also putting her breakfast things on the humpy tray (4.7).
In the very first paragraph we come to know about the kind of food he relishes. (Most of all he like[s] grilled mutton kidneys which [give] to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine; 4.3). A cat is keeping his company, mewing Mkgnao, Mrkgnao, and then Mrkrgnao, asking for milk in the cat's language! After pouring some milk in a saucer for the cat, and watching her shining whiskers as she licks, and wondering whether the whiskers are a kind of feelers, Bloom moves his attention to the breakfast tray he is preparing.
He knows that she [doesn't] like her plate full (4.11). Deciding against ham and eggs, he decides to walk to the butcher, Dlugacz, to buy pork kidney. He calls out softly by the bedroom door whether she wants anything for breakfast. He hears a 'Mn' in answer, and the jingling of the loose brass quoits of the bedstead (4.59).
He steps out after just pulling the door after him, without locking it, as he does not find the latchkey in his pocket. In the sunny morning, he walks in happy warmth, imagining some other place where it would be early morning as described in one of his books, in the track of the sun depicting a sunburst on the title page, then of the headpiece over the Freeman (a newspaper) leader of the homerule sun rising up in the northwest (4.103).
At the butcher's, he has to wait as the nextdoor girl gets served first. When it is his turn, Bloom wants to buy what he wants quickly so that he can catch up and walk behind her . . . , behind her moving hams (4.171). But outside, there is no sign of her. She is gone.
Walking back along Dorset street, he reads the flyer of Agendath Netaim, planters' company, whose offices are at Bleibtreustrasse 34, Berlin, W.15.

Tuesday 17 December 2019

Thursday, 12 December 2019, End of episode 3

Today we finished reading the third episode.

Summary:
The two people Stephen sees walking shoreward are a woman and a man (3.331). The dog is their's. As the dog suddenly runs off, the man whistles calling the dog back.  The two are cocklepickers (cocklers gather shellfish (cockles) from the sand at low tide; Oxford Reference Dictionary). They wade into the water, dip their bags in, before lifting them again and wading out.

Stephen is sitting on a stool of rock watching the cocklepickers and their dog. (Joyce's description of their actions and of the dog's (running around, sniffing the carcass, etc., are very picturesque.) His mind is busy with thoughts. Biblical episodes, words from the Bible, from Aristotle, from Oscar Wilde, from Yeats, from Ibsen, from Shakespeare and others are swirling around in his mind. Watching the two people walking on the clammy sand, with the woman following the man, Stephen fantasises about the two, about how her fancyman* [treats] two Royal Dblins in O'Loughlinis of Blackpitts**. These thoughts lead to Adam and Eve and their being banished from the Garden of Eden,  followed by the sun's flaming sword (3.391).

Amidst all these thoughts, Stephen tries to jot down a poem he has been composing. Not having any paper at hand, he tears of a piece from the letter Mr. Deasy had given him to get published in a newspaper. 

The tide comes in. The water reminds Stephen of the drowned man he had heard about that morning. He pictures to himself how the corpse [rises] saltwhite from the undertow, bobbling a pace a pace a porpoise landward (3.472). Imagining how a quiver of minnows (3.476) will be swimming around the corpse, Stephen tells himself God becomes man becomes fish becomes barnacle goose becomes featherbed mountain (3.477). In this one sentence God, Jesus, the Featherbed Mountain south of Dublin are brought together explaining the name Proteus, Joyce gave to this episode. 

Still thoughts of Mulligan are not far from Stephen's mind. He searches for the handkerchief Mulligan had taken that morning to wipe his razor blade. Not finding it, Stephen places the snot he had picked from his nostril on a rock, and gets ready to move. Because all days make their end. By the way . . . Tuesday will be the longest day*** (3.490).


* a man who lives on the income of a prostitute (Gifford, 3.377)
** apparently an unlicensed bar or public house (Gifford, 3.377)
*** The longest day in Dublin is the 21st June. This day being a Thursday - according to the Schema Joyce had put together - the date of the novel is 16th.

Wednesday 11 December 2019

Thursday, 5 December 2019, Episode 3 (3.146 - 3.331)

Reading was stopped at "Pinned up, I bet." (3.331)

Summary:

Immersed in his own thoughts while walking on Sandymount Strand, Stephen, realises that the grainy sand had gone from under his feet (3.147). The strand there is highly polluted, smelling of sewage. When he understands that he had passed the way to his aunt's house, Stephen turns and walks towards the Pigeonhouse (a power station). The name makes him think of not only the book La Vie de Jesus by M. Leo Taxil (3.167) in which Joseph asks Mary who put her in that state, and gets the answer, "It was the pigeon, Joseph" (3.162) - after all according to the Ballad of the Joking Jesus, his father was a bird - , but also of Kevin Egan and his son, Patrice as well as of his own days in Paris. Stephen recalls his returning from Paris after getting a telegram from his father that said, Nother dying come home father (3.199). This thought inevitably leads to memories again of his mother's death.

Paris, Rodot's (a patisserie), Kevin Egan sipping his green fairy (absinthe), having food, their conversation, his words ("You're your father's son", 3.229), Irish history, his own thoughts that they have forgotten Kevin Egan, not he them (3.263) - all these pictures tumble around in Stephen's mind. Without his realising it, Stephen [has] come nearer the edge of the sea and wet sand [slaps] his boots, (3.265). He turns back, climbs over sedge and sits on a stool of rock (3.284). He sees a dog's carcass, a real dog running across the sweep of sand (3.294), then two people walking towards the shore. (Just as Joyce was, Stephen is also scared of dogs but he decides to sit tight.) This sight triggers in his mind pictures of the Norwegian invaders (Lochlanns), of Dubliners running to the strand to hack the green blubbery whalemeat (3.305) in what would have been a time of famine in Ireland . . . Similarly the dog's bark running towards him (3.310) makes him aware of his fear of dogs, when he (Mulligan) saved men from drowning (3.317) and then the thought of the drowned man takes his mind back to his mother's death (I could not save her; 3.329).

Wednesday 4 December 2019

Thursday, 28 November 2019, Episode 3 (3.10 - 3.145)

We read as far as "... at one with one who once." (3.145)

Summary:

Thinking of Aristotle's theory of vision, of bodies and their forms, colours, Stephen closes his eyes and walks a few steps on the Sandymount Strand. He is aware that he is keeping steps one after the other (Nacheinander, 3.13). He is also aware that he is wearing borrowed pants and shoes, giveaways from Mulligan. (My two feet in his boots are at the ends of his legs, 3. 16). He opens his eyes and sees that everything around him is still there, his thoughts echoing Gloria Patri (There all the time without you: and ever shall be. world without end, 3.27).
Stephen sees two women coming down the steps of Leahy's terrace. He imagines that there is a navelcord in the midwife's bag, one of them is carrying. Stephen thinks of navelcords going back to the first of its kind. Could he use it to connect to Edenville (the place of Adam and Eve) by giving the operator the number as aleph, alpha, nought, nought, one (3.39)? There is much of Biblical thinking in this thought, and the ones that follow.
Soon he is close to his aunt Sara's place. Should he go visit her? What would be the reaction of his father if he hears of the visit? Aunt Sara is not rich. Uncle Richie is a clerk. He drafts bills of costs for Goff and Tandy (3.80). It is a far cry from Stephen's boasting that one of his uncles was a judge and an uncle a general in the army (3.106). Houses of decay, mine, his and all (3.105). This awareness of poverty make Stephan recall his dreams when he was young: Books you were going to write with letters for titles (3.139) . . .  Someone was to read them there after a few thousand years, a mahamanvantara (3. 143). 

Tuesday 26 November 2019

Thursday, 21 November 2019, Episode 3 (3.1 - 3.9)

We completed reading episode 2, and started with episode 3 (Proteus), stopping at
"Shut your eyes and see." (3.9)


Summary of the last part of episode 2:

After handing over Stephen his salary, and advising him to get a savingsbox and to save (his earnings),  Mr Deasy tries to impress on Stephen the value of money. He asks him, "Do you know what is the proudest word you will ever hear from an Englishman's mouth?(2.243)" Mr Deasy himself provides the answer: "I paid my way (2.253)." A short discussion of the political leanings of Mr Deasy follows, at the end of which he asks Stephen for a favour. He has written a letter for the press (2.290) on the foot and mouth disease (2.321), and wants that Stephen helps him to get it printed and read before the next outbreak. He mentions that his cousin, Blackwood Price*, who has written to him that this disease is regularly treated and cured in Austria (2.340). While Mr Deasy finishes the letter on his typewriter, Stephen sits down and looks at the images of race horses hanging on the walls of the office and mulling over many things. At that time the English had imposed an embargo on Irish cattle. Perhaps trying to find a scapegoat for the embargo, Mr Deasy declares, "England is in the hands of the jews (2.346). . . . And they are the signs of a nation's decay (2.347)." He expresses more antisemitic views, harbinger of the coming times.

*Henry Blackwood Price was a friend of Joyce, and had corresponded with him about this topic. At that time the disease was spread in Ireland and England had imposed an embargo on Irish cattle. (Source: James Joyce by Richard Ellmann, p. 325.)

Summary of the beginning of episode 3:

After leaving the school, Stephen is walking along the Sandymount Strand. His mind is full of philosophical thoughts, of ideas (for example, on the form and colour of substances) he has read from philosophers such as Jakob Böhme, Aristotle, Dante Alighieri, . . . He recalls Dante's referring to Aristotle in his Divine Comedy as maestro di color che sanno (3.6) that means master of those who know. 

Tuesday 19 November 2019

Thursday, 14 November 2019, Episode 2 (2.1 - 2.276)

We started with episode 2, Nestor, and read as far as "Croppies lie down." (2.276)

Summary:

After handing over the key of the tower to Mulligan, Stephen has come to the school where he is a teacher. During the course of the morning, he teaches history and literature, and even devotes some time to teach Cyril Sargent, one of the pupils, some algebra. (After all, according to Mulligan, Stephen can prove by algebra that Shakespeare's ghost is Hamlet's grandfather. (2.151)) Even as he poses questions on history to the class, part of his mind is busy with his own thoughts, among others, of William Blake, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Church, Bible, his mother's deathbed, etc. When the students disappear to play hockey and after Stephen shows Cyril Sargent how to solve an algebraic sum, he walks to Mr Deasy's office. It is the pay day. Mr Deasy, the headmaster, pays Stephen his salary of £3, s12. Stephen puts it all in a pocket of his trousers (2.224). On Mr Deasy's advice that he buy a savingsbox to store the money, Stephen answers, "Mine would be often empty. (2.232)." Mr Deasy says, "Money is power (2.237)", and extols the virtue of paying for one's way, for not owing anybody anything. This results in Stephen recalling in his mind the money he owes to various people. Mr Deasy continues his arguments, Stephen continues mulling over his thoughts. There is much reference to Irish history here.

Sunday 10 November 2019

Thursday, 7 November 2019, Episode 1 (1.523 - 1.744)

We have reached the end of Telemachus, episode 1, with the word 'Usurper'.

Summary:
At the end of our last reading we had left Buck Mulligan, Stephen and Haines going down for a swim in the fortyfoot hole (1.600), a bathing place in the Dublin bay. Mulligan is his usual self, joking and cheerful. Haines, who seems to be impressed by the lofty statements of Stephen, asks for his opinion of Hamlet, to be informed by Mulligan that he (Stephen) proves by algebra that Hamlet's grandson is Shakespeare's grandfather and that he himself is the ghost of his own father (1.555). And he recites the poem,  I'm the queerest young fellow that ever you heard. My mother's a jew, my father's a bird. . . (1. 584). (Here Joyce has made liberal use of the poem, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_the_Cheerful_(but_slightly_Sarcastic)_Jesus, by his friend Oliver St. John Gogarty.)
Steven too is his usual self, morose and serious. On being told my Haines, "You are your own master, . . . (1.636) ", he replies, "I am a servant of two masters (1.638) . . . And a third (1.641). . . " referring to the Imperial British state, the holy Roman catholic and apostolic church, (1.643) and Ireland.
Mulligan jumps into the water. Haines does not want to go swimming so soon after breakfast. Stephen leaves for his school. Before he leaves, Mulligan asks him to give him the key to the tower which Stephen had brought along after he had locked the door. Stephen does so. After all he had expected that Mulligan will want the key, had imagined that he will say, "It is mine. I paid the rent. (1.631)" This is one of the reasons that at the end of the episode, Stephen refers to Mulligan as the usurper.

Saturday 2 November 2019

Thursday, 31 October 2019, Episode 1 (1.177 - 1.522)

We read as far as "Are you coming, you fellows?" (1.522)

Summary:
Buck Mulligan who has noticed Stephen is brooding (1.235) over something wants to know the reason. He asks, "Why don't you trust me more? What have you up your nose against me?" (1.161) Stephen replies that when he had visited Mulligan the first time after his (Stephen's) mother had passed away, Mulligan had told his mother, who had asked who had come, "O, it's only Dedalus whose mother is beastly dead." (1.198) This saying of Mulligan had deeply hurt Stephen as he had found it deeply offensive to himself. When Mulligan realises this, he gives up trying to cheer Stephen up, starts going down the stairs to prepare breakfast, after he tells Stephen, "Look at the sea. What does it care about offences?" (1.231)
Eventually Stephen follows Mulligan down to the kitchen carrying the bowl of lather that Mulligan had forgotten on the parapet of the tower. He remembers carrying a boat of incense at Clongowes (Stephen was a student there in The Portrait. Joyce too was a student of Clongowes Wood College.)
Breakfast is bread, butter, honey, fry and black tea. Black because the milk woman has not yet come. An old woman does appear soon bringing rich white milk (1.397). She reminds Stephen of the allegoric names given to Ireland: Silk of the kine [the most beautiful cattle] and poor old woman (1.403). Haines, the Englishman, starts to talk to her in Irish which she does not recognise. (I'm ashamed I don't speak the language myself. I'm told it's a grand language by them that knows. 1.433) Haines brings up the subject of paying her. Mulligan after much searching his pockets produces a florin (a two-shilling coin). 
Meanwhile, Mulligan has praised Stephen in front of Haines, who is impressed by Stephen's sayings such as all Ireland is washed by the gulfstream (1.476), and wants to collect them if allowed. Mulligan has found out that it was pay day for Stephen. 
Breakfast is over, and the three young men decide to go for a swim in the sea.

One of the special features on these pages are the songs that Joyce has included. They are, (1) W. B. Yeats's Who goes with Fergus? (1.239), (2) A song from Turko the Terrible (1.260), (3) a coronation day song (1.300), and (4) For old Mary Ann, an anonymous Irish song (1.282).

Sunday 27 October 2019

Thursday, 24 October 2019, Episode 1 (1.1 - 1.176)

In the first reading session, we started with Telemachus, episode 1, and read as far as
"To ourselves ... new paganism ... omphalos." (1.176)

(Welcome to all those who have joined the new reading group that started on Thursday, 24th November. Information will be posted here each week on where the reading stopped that week and a short summary of what was covered at least occassionally.

The references given are from the version of Ulysses edited by Hans Walter Gabler, published by Vintage Books in 1986.

Key:
If the reference given says, for example, 1.20, it means that the content referred to is in episode 1, line 20 of the Gabler edition.)

Summary:
James Joyce's Ulysses starts with the Stately, plump Buck Mulligan coming up the stair case carrying a bowl of lather, a mirror and a razor. We soon understand that he is a very exuberant person who more often than not jokes about things. He jokes even about the Catholic religion, about the holy mass. He is soon joined by Stephen, who is quite opposite to Mulligan in character. Stephen's dress shows his poverty. Though he is displeased and sleepy (1.13), he comes up and sits down on the edge of the gunrest (1.37).
Mulligan shaves, and pulls out of Stephen's pocket a handkerchief (the bard's noserag, 1.73) to wipe his razor. Perhaps Stephen is displeased because of Haines, a visiting Englishman, who is staying with Mulligan, and who, the previous night in his sleep, was raving and moaning to himself about shooting a black panther (1.61).

The special features we come across on these pages: reference to other writers (Mulligan quotes from Algernon Charles Swinburne, Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde) and  passages of interior monologue, a technique for which this work is famous for.

Thursday 19 September 2019

New round of Ulysses starting in October


A new round of reading Ulysses with Fritz Senn is starting on



Thursday, 24 October 2019
4.30 - 6.00 p.m.

at the Zurich James Joyce Foundation, Augustinergasse 9, 8001 Zurich (2nd floor)

Please join us, everyone is welcome. You need no preparation, no special skills, just a basic knowledge of English and enough curiosity to want to give the novel a try. If you can, please bring your own copy of the book.

To give us a sense of how many participants to expect, please get in touch if you'd like to join the group, whether permanently or just tentatively.

Email: info@joycefoundation.ch
Phone: 044 211 83 01

Note that the Foundation has a second (independent) Ulysses reading group on Tuesday 5.30 - 7.00 p.m., which is also starting a new round of the book on 19 November 2019.

For more information about the Zurich James Joyce Foundation please visit its website.

Friday 26 July 2019

Thursday, 25 July 2019 (end of book)


The last reading reached the end of the novel.


Please note: A new round will begin in autumn 2019 (probably in September), when the book will be picked up again from its beginning. We will post an announcement here as early as possible.

If you wish to engage in an alternative group-reading activity while you're waiting for Ulysses to restart, why not graduate temporarily or permanently to one of the Foundation's Finnegans Wake groups, either on Mondays (3 – 4.30 p.m.) or on Thursdays (7 – 8.30 p.m.)?

The groups' “online bookmarks” can be found by clicking on Monday FW blog and on Thursday FW blog.


You can also check the Zurich James Joyce Foundation website for further information.

Looking forward to another reading adventure with all of you.

Saturday 20 July 2019

Thursday, 18 July 2019 (18.1438)


The last reading stopped at:

          “losing it on horses”

                    (Penelope U18.1438)


Monday 15 July 2019

Thursday, 11 July 2019 (18.1231)

The last reading stopped at:

          “I saw on him”


                    (Penelope U18.1231)

Friday 21 June 2019

Thursday, 20 June 2019 (18.1037)


Please note: There will be no reading over the coming two weeks. The next reading will be held on Thursday, 11 July 2019.

The last reading stopped at:

          “looks well on you then”

                    (Penelope U18.1037)




Friday 14 June 2019

Thursday, 13 June 2019 (18.840)


The last reading stopped at:

          “more money”

                    (Penelope U18.840)



Thursday 6 June 2019

Thursday, 6 June 2019 (18.623)


The last reading stopped at:

          “x x x x x”

                    (Penelope U18.623)



Friday 24 May 2019

Thursday, 23 May 2019 (18.411)


Please note: There will be no Ulysses reading next Thursday, 30 May (Ascension Day).

The last reading stopped at:

          “fat lot I care”

                    (Penelope U18.411)

Monday 20 May 2019

Thursday, 16 May 2019 (18.225)


The last reading saw the end of episode 17 (“Ithaca”) and started episode 18 (“Penelope”), stopping at:

          “everyone goes mad”

                    (Penelope U18.225)



Thursday 2 May 2019

Thursday, 2 May 2019 (17.2125)


The last reading stopped at:

          “which he removed.”

                    (Ithaca U17.2125)



Note: If you have the time, do stay on after the reading next week. Our resident scholar, Akram Pedramnia, is giving a presentation about her ongoing research on Thursday, 9 May at 7 p.m. Below are more details:





Friday 26 April 2019

Thursday, 25 April 2019 (17.1886)


The last reading stopped at:

          “... Gott ... dein ...

                    (Ithaca U17.1886)



Friday 19 April 2019

Thursday, 18 April 2019 (17.1633)


The last reading stopped at:

          “connubiality.”

                    (Ithaca U17.1633)



Thursday 11 April 2019

Thursday, 11 April 2019 (17.1260)


Note: The reading group will be held as usual this coming Thursday, 18 April.



The last reading stopped at:

          “bookshelves opposite.”

                    (Ithaca U17.1260)



Thursday 4 April 2019

Thursday, 4 April 2019 (17.1150)


The last reading stopped at:

          “their planet.”

                    (Ithaca U17.1150)


Friday 29 March 2019

Thursday, 28 March 2019 (17.894)


The last reading stopped at:

          “Unexpectedness.”

                  (Ithaca U17.894)



Friday 22 March 2019

Thursday, 21 March 2019 (U17.656)


The last reading stopped at:

          “sunset 8.29 p.m.”

                    (Ithaca U17.656)


Friday 15 March 2019

Thursday, 14 March 2019 (U17.416)


The last session stopped with Bloom's acrostic poem, written on 14 February 1888, the last line reading:

          “The world is mine.

                    (Ithaca U17.416)



Friday 8 March 2019

Thursday, 7 March 2019 (U17.182)


The last reading stopped at:

          “solvent, sound.”

                    (Ithaca U17.182)


Friday 1 March 2019

Thursday, 28 February 2019 (U16.1865)


The last reading stopped at:

          “him at all.”

                    (Eumaeus U16.1865)


Friday 22 February 2019

Thursday, 21 February 2019 (U16.1602)


The last reading stopped at:

          “in a word.”

                    (Eumaeus U16.1602)

Friday 15 February 2019

Thursday, 14 February 2019 (U16.1357)


The last reading stopped at:

          “a cottonball one.”

                    (Eumaeus U16.1357)


Thursday 7 February 2019

Thursday, 7 February 2019 (U16.1179)


The last reading stopped at:

          “Let us change the subject.”

                    (Eumaeus U16.1179)


Friday 1 February 2019

Thursday, 31 January 2019 (U16.888)


The last reading stopped at:

          “Tommaso Mastino”

                    (Eumaeus U16.888)


Thursday 24 January 2019

Thursday, 24 January 2019 (U16.703)


The last reading stopped at:

          “my ownio.

                    (Eumaeus U16.703)



Friday 18 January 2019

Thursday, 17 January 2019 (U16.414)


The last reading stopped at:

          “unobtrusively”

                    (Eumaeus U16.414)

Saturday 12 January 2019

Thursday, 10 January 2019 (U16.97)


The last reading stopped at:

          “all the circs.”

                    (Eumaeus U16.97)