Online reading of Thursday, 17 December 2020 (8.532)

The joint online readings of Ulysses held on Thursday, 17 December stopped at: “literary work.” (8.532)

The next reading will take place on 7 January 2021.

For more information about the online readings, please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 Oct. 2020). 

Online reading of Thursday, 10 December 2020 (8.322)

The joint online readings of Ulysses held on Thursday, 10 December stopped at: “feast for the gods.” (8.322)

For more information about the online readings, please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 Oct. 2020)

Online reading of Thursday, 3 December 2020 (8.50)

Note: The Ulysses readings have been moved to an online platform. Please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 Oct. 2020) for more information.

The joint online reading held on Thursday, 3 December stopped at: “knew all the things.” (8.50)

Online reading of Thursday, 26 November 2020 (7.1041)

Note: For the time being, the Ulysses readings have been moved to an online platform. Please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 October 2020) for further information.

The joint online reading held on Thursday, 26 November stopped at: “O'Connell street.” (7.1041)

Online reading of Thursday, 19 November 2020 (7.765)

Note: For the time being, the Ulysses readings have been moved to an online platform. Please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 October 2020) for further information.

The joint online reading held on Thursday, 19 November 2020 stopped at: “both our lives” (7.765)

 

Online reading of Thursday, 12 November 2020 (7.576)

For the time being, all readings of Ulysses have been moved to an online platform. For more details, please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 October 2020).

The joint online reading held on Thursday, 12 November 2020 stopped at: “Stephen's ear” (7.576)

Online reading of Thursday, 5 November 2020 (7.290)

The last online reading stopped at: “shook his head.” (7.290)

For the time being, all readings of Ulysses have been moved to an online platform. For more details, please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 October 2020).

All Readings Online

Since the current pandemic has been worsening again, on-site readings are being suspended. 

Instead, the Foundation is providing online readings. All current Tuesday and Thursday groups are merged into one and will start gathering online on 

Thursday, 5 November, at 4.30 p.m. 

The online group begins with episode 7, “Aeolus”. Updates about the group's progress continue to be given on this site. 

Every Thursday morning, readers will receive an email with a link to log into Zoom. 

For those who are using Zoom for the first time: You will need to download the software from zoom.us if you're using a computer, the Zoom app from the Apple store if you're using an iPhone or iPad, or the Zoom app from Google Play if your device is an Android.

If you encounter difficulties or have any questions, please get in touch with the Foundation at info@joycefoundation.ch.

Let's stay connected in the best way we can.

Thursday, 22 (8.26) & 29 (...) October 2020

The reading group has been split into two halves.

The first half gathered on Oct. 22. It finished episode 7 (“Aeolus”) and started episode 8 (“Lestrygonians”), stopping at: “the brain” (8.26).

The second half will come together on Oct. 29 and the place at which it stops will be indicated here. 

Thursday, 8 (7.840) & 15 (7.869) October 2020

The reading group, now split into two halves (cf. post Sept. 29), is progressing as follows: 

The first half gathered on Oct 8 and stopped at: “revealed to me” (7.840).

The second half came together on Oct 15 and read as far as: “outlaw” (7.869).

PLEASE NOTE

The Ulysses readings are taking place on site again. The group has been split into two halves to ensure more space for readers. The two halves alternate and convene fortnightly.

Updates about the group's progress continue to be given on this site.

Please note that the Foundation is asking participants to sign up in order to be able to adhere to the necessary safety measures. If you would like to join or re-join a group, it will be best to check beforehand if it is possible and advisable to do so.

Contact:

Email:     info@joycefoundation.ch

Phone:     044 211 83 01

For more information please visit the Foundation's website.

Thursday, 24 Sept (7.558) & 1 Oct 2020 (7.602)

The reading group has been split into two halves. 

The first half gathered on Sept 24 and stopped at: “But the Greek!” (7.558). 

The second half came together on Oct 1 and read as far as “General Bobrikoff” (7.602).

Thursday, 10 & 17 September 2020 (7.271) – Aeolus

The reading group has been split into two halves. The first half gathered on Sept. 10, the second on Sept. 17. Both groups stopped at: “Our lovely land.” (7.271)

Bloomsday 2020

16 June 2020

Today is Bloomsday! Today marks 116 years of the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses!

The event is being marked by celebrations in many major cities of the world.

See for example - Dublin, New York,  Toronto ... . 

Our own Zurich James Joyce Foundation is offering an apero in the evening (Registration required). There will also be a reading.

Read more about various events here!

If you are an absolute novice regarding Ulysses, below are some links that help you to start discovering this great novel!

- Watch Sam Slote's video, "Why should you read James Joyce's Ulysses" on YouTube here!

- Listen to the complete reading of Ulysses produced by RTE Radio here!

- Get and read the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated

 (Reading James Joyce Ulysses with Fritz Senn)

More about the book here!
More about Fritz Senn here! (In German)

Enjoy reading one of the masterpieces of English literature!

IMPORTANT NOTE

Due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, all reading groups are suspended until further notice.

Thursday, 12 March 2020, Episode 7 (7.313 - 7. 603)

The reading stopped with ". . . Stephen said." (7.603)

As Bloom waits in the offices of The Telegraph to go inside the inner office of Myles Crawford to make a phone call, Simon Dedalus and Ned Lambert leave to have a drink. Professor MacHugh is still there. He is joined by Lenehan who brings Sport's tissues (racing forms by a weekly paper, Sport). He tosses them on to the table which get caught in the draught caused by the opening of the door and fall down to the floor. As Lenehan bends down to pick them up, Bloom comes out after making the phone call, bumps against Lenehan. He hurries out after apologising for hurting Lenehan's knee.

Soon Stephen comes in with Mr O'Madden Burke. Stephen has brought the letter on the foot and mouth disease that Mr Deasy had given him that morning. Both Professor MacHugh and the editor, Myles Crawford, know Mr Deasy and his wife. They start talking about Mrs Deasy's wife. Stephen's mind wanders off. He recalls what Mr Deasy had said that morning: "A woman brought sin into the world." Meanwhile Professor MacHugh discourses on the Greeks, Lenehan recites a limerick on MacHugh, and poses a riddle: What opera is like a railway line?, giving its answer himself when nobody pays any attention to it.

Their attention then turns to the loose ties worn by Stephen and Mr O'Madden Burke. 

Thursday, 5 March 2020, Episode 7 (7.1 - 7.312)

The reading stopped at "Hail fellow well met the next moment." (7.312)

Summary:

Book 10 of Homer's Odyssey describes the visit of Odysseus and his crew to the island of Aeolus, the keeper (god) of winds. In Joyce's Ulysses, Aeolus is the unofficial name given to episode 7. This episode is quite windy with words, often hollow words. Joyce has assigned the office of the newspaper Freeman's Journal, the oldest newspaper of Dublin, as its location. Its various sections/paragraphs have titles just like the headings of topics in a newspaper.

The episode starts in the heart of Dublin, before Nelson's pillar with the clanking of trams on their way. It is 12 noon. Bloom has come to the newspaper office with the intention of getting an extension for an advertisement from Alexander Keys. He talks to Red Murray, watches William Brayden the editor [passing] statelily up the staircase, goes inside, talks to Nannetti (a master-printer) about the advertisement, . . . He stands by, hearing the loud throbs of cranks, watching the silent typesetters at their cases.

Bloom then walks into the office of the Telegraph which is in the same building. Simon Dedalus, Ned Lambert and professor MacHugh are there. Bloom is noticed only by MacHugh. The other two do not pay any attention to him. They are too busy having fun, reading a passage in that day's newspaper.

(Summarized from the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated.)

Thursday, 27 February 2020, End of episode 6

We completed the episode 6.

Summary:

Bloom moves away as the gravediggers start to fill the grave with heavy clods of clay. He notices that Hynes is writing in his notebook. Assuming that he is noting down the names of people who were at the funeral, Bloom tries to move away, as he [Hynes] knows them all. That does not turn out to be the truth as Hynes - though he does know the name of many who had come - calls back Bloom and asks him after his first name. Another proof that Bloom is an outsider in Dublin's society.

The mourners slowly move away. Hynes, Mr Power and others walk by the chief's grave (Parnell's grave). Bloom follows noticing the various ornaments put on the gates, various quotations on the grave stones. He is not much impressed by what he sees. "More sensible to spend the money on some charity for the living." The quotations remind him of Thomas Gray's poem, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Typical of Bloom, he thinks of it as Eulogy in a country churchyard . . . [by] Wordswoth or Thomas Campbell. 

He sees an obese grey rat [toddling] along the side of the crypt. This makes him muse about what happens to the buried body, and about various ways of disposing of the dead: cremation, quicklime feverpits, sea burial, Parsee tower of silence . . .

Thursday, 20 February 2020, Episode 6 (6.543 - 6.871)

The reading stopped at ". . . as you are sure there's no." (6.871)

Bloom and others have arrived at the Prospect cemetery. Among the many mourners we meet here are - apart from Dignam's elder son, brother in law - Ned Lambert, Corny Kelleher (who works for an undertaker), Father Coffey (Bloom recalls that he knew his name was like a coffin), Tom Kernan (a tea merchant), John Henry Menton (a solicitor for whom Dignam used to work), John O'Connell (superintendent of the cemetery), and a chap in the macintosh, etc.

These funeral service and burial are interspersed with Bloom's internal monologues. (One of the signature features of Ulysses is the use of internal monologue. Of Bloom, of Stephen, and most famously of Molly in the final episode.) While the other mourners are busy with small talk, Bloom is occupied with his own thoughts. Of widowhood (of Victoria and Albert), about how Dignam's wife and children would manage their life now, about the cause of the swollen belly of the priest, of the rituals of the funeral service, of the effect of reading the prayer in Latin, of none of it mattering to the person who is dead, about the superintendent's life, about the economy of using a separate coffin for every dead person, about what happens to the body that is buried and the soil in which it is buried, about the organ called the heart (A pump after all, pumping thousands of gallons of blood every day. One fine day it gets bunged up: and there you are) . . . He is also disturbed when the gravediggers [take] up their spades and [fling] heavy clods of clay in on the coffin, wondering how to make sure that the person in the coffin is really dead . . .

(Summarized from the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated.)

Thursday, 13 February 2020, Episode 6 (6.242 - 6.542)

The reading stopped at ". . . Mr Bloom agreed." (6.542)

Mr Bloom, Martin Cunningaham, Simon Dedalus and Mr Power are traveling in a creaking carriage to the funeral of Patrick Dignam. Bloom tries often to make conversation. He starts telling the awfully good one about Reuben J and the son. But everybody in the carriage already knows about that story. Anyway this leads to the topic of death, to committing suicide, ... Martin Cunningham tries to stop others expressing their opinions about suicidal death as he knows that Bloom's father had taken his own life. Bloom is grateful to Cunningham. Seeing a tiny coffin passing by, Bloom is once again reminded of his son, Rudy, who did not live long after birth.
After passing the statue of the hugecloaked Liberator (statue of Daniel O'Connell), Nelson's pillar, after coming to a temporary halt because of a herd of cattle being driven, and passing again the stonecutter's yard, the house where Samuel Childs was murdered, they finally reach the cemetery. While getting down from the carriage, Bloom manages to move the soap from his hip pocket to the inner pocket. They enter the gates of the cemetery making small talk.

(Summarized from the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated.)

Statue of Daniel O'Connell

Thursday, 6 February 2020, Episode 6 (6.1 - 6.241)

The reading stopped at ". . . throstle that expresses that." (6.241)

Summary:

It is finally time to leave for Patrick Dignam's funeral. Bloom enters the creaking carriage that was to take him, Martin Cunningham, Mr Power and Mr Dedalus after he is told, "Come along, Bloom. (6.08)" There are many hints in this episode to underline the fact that Bloom is an outsider in the Dublin society.
They all attempt to make conversation during the ride to the Prospect cemetery. But whatever Bloom says does not seem to interest the others. There is also little seriousness in the carriage. For instance, Mr Dedalus gets quite angry just by being told that his son and heir (6.43) was passing by because he imagines his son, Stephen, in the company of Buck Mulligan, whom he refers to as a contaminated bloody double dyed ruffian by all accounts (6.64). Bloom, who witnesses this outburst, feels that he understands the feeling of the father as he himself had a son Rudy, who unfortunately lived only for a few days. The thought of his death makes Bloom think of the moment of conception of his son. Must have been that morning in Raymond terrace she was at the window watching the two dogs at it by the wall of the cease to do evil (6.77).
Just when Bloom thinks, he's coming in the afternoon (6.190), the others see and greet Blazes Boylan whom they pass. This leads to Mr Power enquiring Bloom about the concert tour. They talk about the singers (Louis Werner, J. C. Doyle, John MacCormack) who are to participate in the tour. (Interestingly, on 27 August 1904, James Joyce had sung with John MacCormack, J. C. Doyle and others in Dublin.)
The carriage moves on.

Thursday, 30 January 2020, End of Episode 5

We completed episode 5.

Summary:

Feeling that it is a pity that right then no music was being sung in the church, Bloom thinks of some of the old sacred music (5.403) and musicians/composers such as Mercadante (1795-1870), Mozart (1756-91), Palestrina (1525-94) . . . He watches the rituals that are being carried out. He too stands up when the priest kisses the altar and turning blesses the people, who crossing themselves stand up, and sits down when they kneel again. He muses upon the power of the church, of religion. Wonderful organisation certainly, goes like clockwork (5.424). When the mass is finished, Bloom decides to leave before a person comes around with the collection plate.

Outside, noticing that there is still enough time before Dignam's funeral starts, Bloom decides to go to the pharmacy, Sweny's in Lincoln place (5.463) to get a lotion Molly wants. He has forgotten the recipe of the lotion (along with his key) in his other trousers, but he knows that the pharmacist can look it up in the prescriptions book (5.471). In the pharmacy, Bloom places his orders, watches the pharmacist, looks around, inhaling slowly the keen reek of drugs (5.487). As he had not bought a bottle with him, Bloom tells the pharmacist to make up the recipe and that he will collect it later in the day. After agreeing to pay for the lotion and the soap (sweet lemony smelling one) which he also takes when he returns, Bloom goes out of the pharmacy.

As he comes out, he hears the voice of Bantam Lyons hailing him. Obviously Bloom is not much impressed by Bantam Lyons, who has yellow blackmailed fingers (5.523) and dandruff on his shoulders (5.525). Lyons wants to have a look at the newspaper Bloom is carrying. Looking through it he murmurs, "Ascot. Gold cup" (5.532). When Bloom tells him to keep the newspaper as he was going to throw it away that moment (5.537), Bantam Lyons leers, thrusts the newspaper back at Bloom and rushes off. Bloom does not understand his behaviour. Neither do we at this moment. But it will help not to forget this incidence.

Bloom walks with his soap to the baths around the corner from Lincoln Place. He wants to enjoy a bath now: clean trough of water, cool enamel, the gentle tepid stream (5.565).

Good morning, have you used Pears' soap? (5.524)
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pears_(soap)#/media/File:Pears'_Soap_advertisement_1886.jpg)

Thursday, 23 January 2020, Episode 5 (5.138 - 5.402)

The reading stopped at "Quis est homo." (5.402)

Summary:

M'Coy finally moves away after telling Bloom, "My missus has just got an engagement. At least it's not settled yet" (5.148) and asking him to put down his name at Patty Dignam's funeral if he is not there because the drowning case at Sandycove may turn up (5.171). We had heard of the drowning case in episode 1.
Bloom is finally left in peace. He strolls towards Brunswick street. His eyes wander over the multicoloured hoardings (5.192) at the corner of Westland Row and Great Brunswick street. One of them is the playbill of the play Leah with Mrs Bandmann Palmer. (Mrs Bandmann Palmer (1845-1926) was a famous English actress.) Bloom recollects that she had played Hamlet the previous night. That a woman had played Hamlet, makes him wonder at first whether Hamlet was a woman. (Perhaps he was a woman. (5.196)) This thought leads to the next whether that was the reason that Ophelia committed suicide. Thinking of 'suicide' naturally makes Bloom remember his father, who had committed suicide.
Walking on, Bloom comes to a secluded spot near the Westland Row railway station, where he opens the letter he had collected earlier at the post office. The letter addressed to Henry Flower by Martha has a flower pinned to it. Now it is clear that Bloom is carrying on an affair under the assumed name of Henry Flower with Martha, whom he is yet to meet! Could meet one Sunday after the rosary (5.270). The pin which Martha has used brings back to his memory a song he had once heard, O, Mairy lost the pin of her drawers. . . (5.281)
This song resurfaces again in Bloom's thoughts - suppose he [the priest] lost the pin of his. He wouldn't know what to do to. (5.372) - once he comes near the open backdoor of All Hallows (5.318) and enters the church. (All Hallows aka St. Andrew's is a Roman Catholic church on Westland Row.) The paragraphs that follow describing Bloom's observing the rituals which are being conducted involving members of a sodality, and his reactions to what he sees are some of the most hilarious paragraphs in Ulysses.

Thursday, 16 January 2020, Episode 5 (5.1 - 5.137)

We completed episode 4, and started episode 5, stopping at "One of the best, M'Coy said." (5.137)

Summary of the beginning of episode 5:

After completing his business asquat on the cuckstool (4.500), while he read the story, Matcham's Masterstroke (4.502), by Mr Philip Beaufoy published in an old number of Titbits (4.467), and while he thought that he himself might manage (such) a sketch (4.518), Bloom [tears] away half the prize story sharply and [wipes] himself with it (4.537), pulls up his pants and [comes] forth from the gloom into the air (4.539) as the bells of George's church (4.544) toll Heigho! Heigho! (4.506) . . .

Mr Bloom leaves his house, and goes out. He is to attend Patty Dignam's funeral at quarter to (4.549) that morning which means that he has enough time to do other things before going to the funeral. He is no hurry. Sauntering along, he passes John Rogerson's quay, Windmill Lane, Lime street, Westland row etc. His mind is occupied by the things he sees, the shops such as the Belfast and Oriental Tea Company (5.19) he passes by, the people - for example, the boy and the girl near Brady's cottages (5.5) - he sees/meets on the way. He goes into a post office and produces a card on which his name is given as Henry Flower (5.62) - Bloom/Flower -, and gets a letter waiting for him. Obviously he is carrying on some kind of an affair with somebody. Before he could open the letter outside the post office, M'Coy hails him. Bloom has no interest in stopping and exchanging small talk with M'Coy but cannot get rid of him. As M'Coy stays on to chat, Bloom's attention is distracted by two people waiting near an outsider (a two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage) drawn up before the door of the Grosvenor (5.98) hotel. While Bloom is busy observing and admiring the rich silk stockings (5.122) of the woman and wondering from which side she will get into the carriage, M'Coy continues to talk explaining how he heard of Dignam's passing away. If she would in fact get into the carriage from the side he can see, Bloom would get to see her ankles as she would have to lift her skirt up to get into the carriage! But that does not happen as a heavy tramcar (5.131) goes by blocking his view just as she gets into the carriage! 

Thursday, 9 January 2020, Episode 4 (4.201 - 4.446)

The reading stopped at " . . . braiding." (4.446)

Apologies for not being able to post any summary of this week's reading.